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256 Exceeding Minuteness of the Particles of Gold demonftrated.

this, that the improvement of wafte Jands has co-operated, in proportion to its extent, to furnish the fame means. Pity it is, that this real improvement does not keep pace with the counterfeit fpecies of which we have been speaking.

The employment the labourer obtains in the noble works that are now almoft every where carrying on, is only a tranfient bufinefs, to which a fhort fucceffion of years will put a period; and then must follow that last expedient, a migration to the colonies, where all are welcome, and where that encouragement to industry which is denied at home, being given, prevails on multitudes to leave their native land, regardless of the country that gave them being, but withheld the means of fupporting it; and thus infenfibly, as it were, debilitating the mother to increase the power and arrogance of her undutiful offspring, who, already wanting but little of her affiftance, only wait for an opportunity to caft off all dependance upon her.

Upon fumming up thefe confiderations, we find that, whilft we are inveighing againft emigration, we are nevertheless encouraging it by the only fure means,-that of depriving our people at home of employment; and whilft we are complaining for want of bread, we are taking methods to leffen the production of corn.

If it is faid, that it is only an inconfiderable proportion of thefe common fields which, when inciofed, are converted into pafturage,-let the objector take a view of this of Heckington, and he will find the plough bereft of nearly one half.

This digreffion is, I own, a long one, yet not too long, perhaps, for the importance of the fubject. It took its rife from an honeft indignation, which arofe upon feeing this fashionable folly repeated at the aforefaid village. [To be continued.]

Mr. URBAN,

UPON cafting my eye over fome old

volumes of Philofophical Transactions, the following demonftration of the exceeding minuteness of the atoms or constituent particles of gold, which was read before the Royal Society by the late Dr. Edmund Halley, very much furprized me; and as I think it a very great curiofity, and that it may be new to the generality of your readers, the republication of it in your

ufful Magazine, I dare fay, will not
be difagreeable to thofe who have al-
ready read it in the original.
I am, &c.

J. J.

BEING defirous to examine the no

tion of the magnitude of atoms of gold, I bethought myself of the extreme ductility of that metal which is feen in the beating of it into leaf, and, above all, in the drawing fine gilt wire, by means whereof I believed I might moft exactly obtain the true thickness of the coat of gold, that appears, even with the microfcope, fo well to reprefent gold itfelf, that not the leaft point of liver appears through it. In order to this, I informed myfelf, among the wire-drawers, what gold they used to their filver; and they told me, that the very beft double-gilt wire was made out of cylindric ingots, 4 inches in circumference, and 28 inches long, which weigh 16 pounds Troy; on theie they beftow 4 ounces of gold, that is, to every 48 ounces of filver one of gold; and that two yards of the superfine wire weighs a grain. Hence, at first fight, it appeared, that the length of 98 yards is in weight 49 grains, and that a fingle grain of gold covers the faid 98 yards, and that the 10,000th part of a grain is above one third of an inch long; which yet may be actually divided into 10, and fo the 100,000th part of a grain of gold be visible without a microscope. But, being defirous to compute the thickness of the skin of gold by means of the specific gravities of the metals, viz. filver 10, and gold 183, I found the diameter of fuch wire the part of an inch, and its circumference the part; but the gold in thickness not to exceed the 733356 part of an inch; whence it may be concluded, that the cube of the hundredth part of an inch would contain above 2433000000 (or the cube of 1345) of fuch atoms. And it may likewise be marvelled at, that gold being stretched to fo great a degree as is here demonstrated, fhould yet fhew itfelf of fo even and united a texture, as not to let the white colour of the filver under it appear through any the least pores; which argues, that, even in this exceeding thinnefs very many of thofe atoms may ftill lie one over the other: which is a confideration may merit the thoughts of this honourable society, as tending to examine that renowned atomical doctrine which has of late much obtained among the learned.

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Anfiver to a Geometrical Queflion.

Defcription of BOLTON - CASTLE,

Yorkshire. (See the PLATE.) IN this view, which gives the north

east aspect, the depredations of time or avarice on this ancient structure are

difplayed; the chaẩm feen in the building being occafioned by the fall of one of the towers which once decorated and defended the pile, with no other circumftance of damage than alarming the contiguous inhabitants by the noise, and blockading the doors of two cottages, (a happy efcape!) whofe thref. holds only the fcattered fragments precifely reached. This event happened in the night of the 19th day of No.vember, 1761, the laped tower being on that angle on which the castle had been attacked in the civil wars of the Jaft century. Hence, probably, the injuries it then fuftained, co-operating with old age, and the incautious manner of tenants purloining materials for fences and erections, might fap the foundation, and bring the fuperftructure thus low, after having flood the war of elements and of man near four hundred years.

By this accident, however, the pic-turelque appearance of the whole object, from the village of Bolton, is much improved; but this is a circumftance, which, perhaps, the owner may not think a fufficient compenfation for the mischief done to the building.

This caffle is one of thofe, which, from the fcite and prefervation of its emaining parts, is greatly pleafing to the eye of the traveller, and highly ornamental to the country; nor is it lefs an object of grandeur and beauty, feen from the avenues of the woods near Bolton-houfe, the more modern manfion of the noble owner of both, where, in feveral views, the cafle makes a distant termination, fingularly fine and grotesque.

In the center of this caftle is a fquare area, or an open and uncovered fpace, calculated to give light and air to the internal offices and apartments. Externally, near to the right of the Spectator, is one of the cottages of the village of Bolton. Here likewife is fewn the little, though ancient church of Bolton, remarkable only for its fmallnefs and rufticity, having neither any engraved braffes, burial-ground, painted windows, or funereal memorandums, by which perfons, eminent only for their riches, endeavour, for a while, to preserve themselves from oblivion;

GENT. MAG. June, 1774.

257

or by which vanity pretends to affume the rehearsal of a life, maugre however unworthy to be remembered. Anfwer to the Queftion propofed in our laft, p. 200.

HAVING a large field, in the form of a right-angled triangle, whofe three fides meafure 97, 72, and 65 chains, and wanting to divide it into three equal parts, by cutting a ditch from each angle, it is required to know at what distance from each angle the point of interfection must be?" SOLUTION.

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258

Addrefs to the People of England in Favour of Liberty.

To the PEOPLE of ENGLAND. FOR the prefervation of the bilance

of power in Europe, what lives have been lot! what fums expended! But the preserva ion of public liberty feems a matter of perfect indifference to you.

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Kings, when their power was in danger, made you believe that your intereft was concerned. You know the confe quences, and your posterity will feelingly remember them. Bu Kings fee the demolition of public liberty with indifference, indifference! nay, with fatisfaction; witnefs our Gazettes, where the ftrides of defpotifm are exhibited with triumph.

Corfica, emancipated from the tyranny of one ftate-a little tyrant, and eafly controuled-was ieized by a great one, and fubjected to abfolute monarchy irre rievably.

Sweden is no longer free; liberty is abforbed by monarchy; and the many must be fubject to one.

Poland enjoyed a kind of public liberty; if all were not free, fome were. The King was chofen for the good of all; and he, as the first fubject, had a just preeminence. All this is at an end. Poland is divided among three abfolute monarchs, whole fovereign will is to give law to a vast multitude of freemen. All this, my countrymen, you have feen within thefe dozen years almost :—a greater annihilation of public freedom in Europe, than was feen in a century before.

And what remains are there yet? The Swifs Cantons and the Dutch.

And if the Emperor, the Kings of France and Pruffia, agree to divide thefe Cantons among themselves, and treat the Swifs as they have done the Poles, what can prevent them? Not the Swifs themfelves. The moment this partition is agreed upon, that moment it is effected. For who will, or who can interfere? No abfolute monarch will interfere, because it is their intereft that no free ftate fhould exist. If Holland fhould take the alarm, a partition of their own country will inevitably follow for the Swifs and themselves can never be able to oppofe the united power of Pruflia, Austria, and. France, the immediate gainers, together with Rufin, Sweden, Denmark, confederates for the fame purpole of enflaving mankind.

But I hear you fay, my countrymen, that England will never fuffer this. I am not of this opinion: if

England, or those who guide it, loved public liberty, they never would have permitted France to enslave Corfica; never would have permitted a Swedish King to become abfolute; never would have allowed the partition of Poland. But the balance of power, and the public liberty of mankind, are viewed by fovereigns in a very different point

of view.

Thave been led into these reflections by a confideration of what is at prefent agitating in our councils, and which fhews the unfavourable aspect of those who are at the helm of your affairs to Jiberty.To break through all the `charters granted to America, and reduce the whole to abfolute defpotifm, is rather at prefent too hardy an undertaking, pliant and fubmiffive as we are. To gain a firm foundation for it, feems no difficult matter. ---The establishment of abfolute monarchy at Quebec, instead of moulding it into a free Britith government, will ferve as a model for future attempts; and to lay the foundations as wide as poffible, let the limits of all the prefent governments be abridged, in order to enlarge the boundary of de potic power.

Do you need any other proofs, my countrymen, of the complexion of the times? Are you tame enough to bear these encroachments on the general li berties of mankind? Do you think your fuperiors will permit you efficacăonfly to aid the Hollanders or the Swifs, when their liberties are at stake, whilst they are making encroachments on the freedom of their own country? introducing a fyftem of laws, inconfiftent with freedom, with the genius of English government, and with the manifeft view of trying your temper. ...Another election is approaching; I hope not the lait.---Look to your men; on your choice depends, under a fuperintending Providence, the fate of your potterity, perhaps your own fate.

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