SHIPS. Wilfully destroying a ship, with intent to prejudice the insurers; plun. dering a ship in distress; stealing goods of the value of 40s. from on ship board; burning or destroying any of his Majesty's shipping or stores; are, by a variety of statutes, made felony, without benefit of clergy.

SHIP money, an imposition charged on the ports, towns, cities, boroughs, and counties of this realm, in the time of Charles I, by writs, commonly called ship writs, under the great seal of Eng. land, in 1635 and 1636, for providing and furnishing certain ships for the King's service, &c. which was declared to be contrary to the laws and statutes of this realm, the petition of right, and liberty of the subject.

SHIRE, in geography, signifies the same as county; being originally derived from the Saxon seiran, to divide.

SHIVERS, or SHEEVERS, in the sealanguage, names given to the little rollers or round wheels of pulleys.

SHOAD, among miners, denotes a train of metalline stones, serving to direct them in the discovery of mines.

SHOAL, in the sea-language, denotes a place where the water is shallow.

SHOE for an anchor, in a ship, the place for the anchor to rest, and fitted to receive the stock, &c. so as to prevent the sheets, tacks, and other running-rigging, from galling or being entangled with the Alukes.

SHOOTING. See GUNNERY and PRO

JECTILES.

SHOOTING. See SPORTING.

SHOOTING, maliciously, at persons in any dwelling house, or other place, though death should not ensue, is felony without clergy, by 9 George I. c. 22, commonly called the Black Act.

SHOPLIFTERS, those who steal goods privately out of shops. If the goods are of the value of 57. though no person be in the shop, it is felony without benefit of clergy. 10 and 11 William III. c. 23.

SHORE, a place washed by the sea, or by some large river. Count Marsigli divides the sea-shore into three portions; the first of which is that tract of land which the sea just reaches in storms and high tides, but which it never covers; the second part of the shore is that which is covered in high tides and storms, but is dry at other times; and the third is the descent from this, which is always covered with water. The first part is only a continuation of the Continent, and suffers no alteration from the neighbourhood of

the sea, except that it is rendered fit for the growth of some plants, and wholly unfit for that of others, by the saline steams and impregnations; and it is scarcely to be conceived by any, but those who have observed it, how far on land the effects of the sea reach, so as to make the earth proper for plants which will not grow without this influence; there being several plants frequently found on high hills, and dry places, at three, four, and more miles from the sea, which yet would not grow, unless in the neighbourhood of it, nor will ever be found elsewhere. The second part or portion of the shore is much more affected by the sea than the former, being frequently washed and beaten by it. Its productions are rendered salt by the water, and it is covered with sand, or with the fragments of shells in form of sand, and in some places with a tartarous matter, deposited from the water: the colour of this whole extent of ground is usually dusky and dull, especially where there are rocks and stones, and these covered with a slimy matter. The third part of the shore is more affected by the sea than either of the others, and is covered with an uniform crust of the true nature of the bottom of the sea, except that plants and animals have their residence in it; and the decayed parts of these alter it a little.

SHORL, in mineralogy, occurs commonly in granite, gneiss, and other similar rocks; often in mass, but very frequently crystallized. The primitive form of its crystals is an obtuse rhomboid, the solid angle at the summit of which is 139°, having rhomboid faces, with angles of 114° 12′ and 65° 48′: but it usually occurs in three, six, eight, nine, or twelve sided prisms, terminated by four or fivesided summits, variously truncated.

SHORL, black. Colour black. Found in mass, disseminated and crystallized. Crystals three-sided prisms, having their lateral edges truncated. Sometimes terminating in a pyramid. It becomes electric by heat. When heated to redness, its colour becomes brownish red; and at 127° Wedgewood, it is converted into a brownish compact enamel. According to Wiegleb, it is composed of Alumina Silica Iron Manganese

41.25 34.16

20.00

5.41

100.82

SHORL, electric. This stone was first made known in Europe by specimens brought from Ceylon; but is now found frequently forming a part of the composition of mountains. It is sometimes in amorphous pieces, but much more frequently crystallized in three or nine-sided prisms, with four-sided summits. Colour usually green; sometimes brown, red, blue. Found in mass, in grains, and crystallized. Crystals three, six or nine-sided prisms, variously truncated. Its texture is foliated. Specific gravity 3. Colour brown, sometimes with a tint of green, blue, red, or yellow. When heated to 200° Fahrenheit, it becomes electric, one of the summits negatively, and the other positively. It reddens when heated, and is fusible per se, with white intumescence, into a white or grey enamel. According to Vauquelin, it is composed of

Buxtorf has written a learned history of Hebrew abbreviations, as a key to understand the Rabbinical authors. Some of them are the incipient letters of several words, joined together as one, and marked at the top with points; others are the final letters of words; and others, again, are contracted words, wherein two or three letters are made to denote an entire word. The Jews were particularly partial to these methods of abbreviation, to which they added a few arbitrary characters, to express certain proper names, such as God, Jehovah, &c.

This kind of writing was, by degrees, introduced, and successfully practised among the Greeks. Nicolai gives it as his opinion that Xenophon first taught the Greeks to write by certain notes, in the nature of characters. Laertius confirms this opinion, and particularly mentions two methods of short writing, viz. one by contractions of words, and the other by arbitrary marks. This art was practised among the Romans at an early period. Indeed the first invention of a system of short-hand, by which the writer was enabled to follow the most rapid speaker, has been ascribed by some to the poet Ennius, and it is said that it was afterwards improved by Tyro, Cicero's freed man; and still more so by Seneca. Ennius began the practice with one thousand one hundred marks of his own contrivance. As an elucidation of this subject, and to show in what estimation this art was held among the Romans, we may briefly notice two of the Roman Emperors, of very opposite characters; Caligula, and Titus Vespasian. It was deemed a great defect in one of them, to be ignorant of short-hand; and a perfection in the other, to be acquainted with this highly useful and ingenious art. Caligula was a man guilty of so many vices, that it might be imagined his ignorance of short-hand would not have fallen under the notice of an historian. And yet Suetonius mentions it as something remarkable, that he who was so expert in other matters, and wanted not capacity and parts, was totally ignorant of shorthand. Titus Vespasian, on the contrary, was remarkable for writing short-hand exceedingly swift. He was indeed a true lover of the art, and made it not only his business, but his diversion. It afforded him great pleasure to get his amanuenses together, and entertain himself with trying which of them could write fastest; so that by common practice, he acquired such a command of hand, and such a facility in imitation, that

he was wont to joke upon himself and say, what a special counterfeit he should have made.

The different schemes of short-hand formerly used, were probably much of the same nature, exceedingly arbitrary, and, for the most part unintelligible to any but those who practised them; and, for that reason, were soon forgotten and destroyed. We may guess at the fate they generally experienced, by two books of short-hand mentioned by Trithemius. The first was a dictionary of short-hand, which he bought of an abbot, who was a doctor of law, for a few pence, to the great satisfaction of the community to which he belonged, who had ordered the short-hand marks to be erased, for the sake of the parchment on which they were written. The other was a shorthand copy of the book of Psalms, which he met with in another monastery, where the learned monks had inscribed upon it, by way of title, "A Psalter of the Armenia Language!" Several copies of a dictionary and psalter, in the Roman shorthand, are mentioned as extant in different libraries; but they are, in general, the same method, as may be judged by the accounts of those who mention them, and also from the appearance of the handwriting of an old short-hand psalter, in the library of St. Germain's at Paris, a few pages from which were transcribed for the use of the writer of these observations.

Plutarch, in his life of Cato, informs us, that the celebrated speech of that patriot, relating to the Catalinian conspiracy, was taken and preserved in short-hand. There are numerous epigrams of Ausonius, Martial, and Manilius, descriptive and commendatory of short-hand. Probably the most ancient method of short-writing at present extant, is a Latin MS. entitled "Ars Scribendi Characteris;" or, "The Art of Writing in Characters." The author of this tract is unknown; but we believe, it was printed about the year 1412.

The ancient Irish alphabets, particularly the first, which was purely stenographic, named Bobeloth, have a strong resemblance to many of our modern shorthands, but they are now little known. A specimen of this writing may be seen in Ledwich's Antiquities, p. 98.

M. Lambinet, in his Researches upon Printing, observes, that modern stenography, which, like the telegraph, dates in France from the foundation of the republic, has neither the inconvenience, For the obscurity, nor the danger, of the VOL. XI.

ancient. The old characters varied under the hand of the copiers, and the sense changed according to the genius of the interpreters; so that their contractions are become so many enigmas, because we can refer to no other copies to ascer tain the true reading, and because the authors are no longer in existence. "But," continues Lambinet, "by the present system of stenography, the writers follow the words of the public orators, take down their speeches, the motions, the debates of the tribune, or the lectures of the professors at the Lyceum, and produce a literal translation at last, in the usual characters, and in print." What the improved short-hand is, to which this French writer alludes, we are not informed.

The ingenious attempt of the late learned Bishop Wilkins, towards a real character and philosophical language, has much the appearance of some short-hands now in use. How far this attemp' might have been successful we know not, had the contrivance been carried to that degree of perfection of which the Bishop thought it capable. The reader may find a specimen of this philosophic character in Stower's Printer's Grammar.

The shortest and most curious mode of writing, not professedly stenographic, which we have hitherto seen, is the specimen of ancient Welsh, by the ingenious Mr. W. Owen. This also may be seen in Mr. Stower's Grammar, p. 294

The art of short-writing was first attempted to be published in this country in the year 1588, in a treatise entitled "Characterie, or the Art of Short, Swift, and Secret Writing, by Character, by Timothy Bright, M D." Two years after the appearance of Dr. Bright's treatise, Mr. Peter Bale published his " Writing Schoolmaster," which he divided into three parts: the first of which he entitled "Brachygraphy," containing rules to write as fast as a man can speak, with propriety and distinction. In 1618, appeared Willis's "Stenography, or Shorthand Writing, by spelling Characterics." This system consisted of ten alphabets, denominated words of sort; seven of which were composed of the initial letters of words; the rest principally by the omission of unnecessary letters, and by symbolical figures. This system was attempted to be improved upon by Henry Dix's "Brachygraphy" Omitting the mention of numerous other methods of short-hand writing that soon followed these several schemes, we must proceed R

to lay before the reader such a system of stenography, as, if generally known, would supersede the necessity of every other system; having been the result of great labour and ingenuity, as well as recommended, and its practical utility suffi ciently demonstrated, by the practice of some of the first literary characters of our age, and the best judges of the art. This system is that invented by the late ingenious and worthy Mr. John Byrom, M. A. F. R. S. commonly known by the appellation of Doctor; availing ourselves, at the same time, of the very judicious improvements introduced by Mr. Molineaux, of Macclesfield, whose introduction to Byrom's short-hand is certainly the most beautiful and complete work on the subject ever yet produced to the public. It is published for the author, by Longman and Co. London.

The short-hand alphabet, as exhibited in the annexed plate, consists of the shortest and simplest marks in nature; and on the proper formation and combination of these characters depend the beauty and accuracy of the writing. We will endeayour to lay down such directions as appear necessary to acquire a general knowledge of the art; referring our readers to Mr. Molineaux's Treatise, for more ample instructions on the subject.

The great end of short-writing being to convey the sounds of words by the fewest, as well as the most simple characters, all those letters, which are not distinctly sounded in pronunciation, are to be omited, except in a few cases, where either the word would be rendered ambiguous, or present an unsightly appearance, with out certain of its quiescent letters: for instance, it is evident that the letters wa ked, properly joined together, might be allowed to represent walked, provided the reader could always remember to sound the a broad as in wall; but as the word, so contracted, might easily be mistaken for the word waked, it is always best to spell it with the letter ; thus, walkd. This example will suffice for other words of the like nature. The omission of vowels, especially in the middle of words, has been a fault too common with writers on the present subject: yet it must generally be observed, that in short-writing it is proper to insert those vowels only, which are absolutely necessary in the pronunciation, which is a great saving of time, as well as conducive to the beauty of the writing. It is sometimes convenient, for the sake of facility in joining, to substitute one letter for another: ask for q, kɛ, x, &c.

yet this should never be resorted to, bưt for some obvious advantage of beauty or brevity.

The short-hand alphabet, as some suppose concerning the Hebrew, consists of consonants only, the vowels being supplied by dots differently placed. These consonants running neatly into each other, will form the marks for words, never lifting the pen in writing a word, except in a very few instances, and for the sake of preserving the beauty of the writing, which will always be attended with a correspondent degree of brevity and legibility; a circumstance, perhaps, peculiar to the method of Mr. Byrom, where beauty, brevity, and legibility, are happily combined.

The twenty-one consonants which compose the short-hand alphabet are formed out of simple lines, to some of which are attached small loops or twirls. These lines derive their respective powers and properties by their difference of position, and by some of them being made curvilineal.

The horizontal characters are always to be written from left to right; the perpendicular ones are invariably written downwards; and with respect to the oblique characters, it is to be observed, that those which lean to the left are generally written upwards, while those having their inclination to the right hand are always written downwards. Not any of the twirled letters (the duplicate characters denoting h, j, w, and sh, which are never joined to any other letters, but simply stand for the words had, just, would, and should, excepted) ought never to be written so as to end with the loop. This observation must not be forgotten by the learner, and he will never be at a loss about the manner of joining the looped characters to other letters.

It will be observed that some of the letters are denoted by two, and the letter even by three different characters; but as these characters are formed in the same manner, having only a simple change of position, and as they will be found to be of singular advantage in the joining of them to some letters, no ambiguity can possibly arise by their occasional use. The little mark, denoting the abbreviation for the two Latin words et cetera, is formed out of the letters t and s, and is well calculated for the purpose to which it is applied. It is the only character (if we except the little mark for the very common termination o ing) which has the apparance of an arbitrary mark in the whole system ; ·

and even this is formed not strictly upon an arbitrary but an alphabetical principle. We have already observed that the vowels are expressed in short-hand by means of dots, distinguished by their relative situations with respect to the consonants to which they are supposed to be joined. Although it is proper, in the spelling of words, to use no more vowels than are strictly necessary to convey the sound: yet as all writing must be rendered extremely illegible by their total omission in the middle of words, we will here lay down proper directions for their use and application. Whenever a vowel constitutes a perfect syllable in any word, whether that syllable be incipient, radical, or terminative, it must always be inserted, unless in the case of following a very rapid speaker; and the vowels which are then unavoidably omitted should be inserted as soon as convenient afterwards, while the subject is fresh in the writer's memory; by which means the legibility of the writing will be effectually secured and preserved. The manner of placing the vowels in this system is, of all others, the most natural, and the freest from ambiguity. A simple stroke, however placed, will naturally suggest the idea of supplying five different places for the five vowel points: viz. the top, the middle, the bottom; and the centres of the halves, when so divided. Care, however, must be taken not to place the dot for the vowel a, over the perpendicular or oblique characters; nor the same vowel point before the horizontal ones. By a very slight attention it will be observed, that in this plan of short writing the same general method is to be observed as in common writing; i. e. not to write perpendicular letters from the bottom upwards, nor any letters from the right to the left; consequently all the vowel points belonging to upright consonants are to be placed immediately before or after the consonant, as the case may require; those connected with the horizontal characters exactly over, when they precede, and under, when they follow the consonant.

The vowels are always reckoned from the beginning of the consonant. When, therefore, any inclined consonant is begun at the bottom of the short-hand line, and written upwards, the vowels are always counted from the bottom, on each side of the character, upwards. A due attention to the manner of placing the vowel points, in the cases of curved or semicircular letters, as it is exhibited in the annexed plate, will explain the matter, beyond the possibility of misconception or embarrass

ment With respect to the long and short sounds of vowels, it is convenient, when time will allow of it, to express the broad sound of a vowel by making its represen tative dot a little larger than in the usual method of expressing the vowels. When two, or more, different vowels occur, without any intervening consonant, they may be distinguished by making the first a little thicker and stronger, diminishing their respective strengths until the last vowel is expressed, by being made of the usual thickness. Two e 8, or two o s, may be expressed by two dots of the same size. In swift writing, we know, these minutiæ cannot always be strictly attended to. It is, nevertheless, convenient to have a method so simple and useful to resort to, when time will allow; and it is one of the many excellencies peculiar to this system, that it will admit of these orthographical attentions.

The letter y, at the beginning of words, is a consonant; but at the end of words, or when it follows a consonant, it is a vowel, and, as such, is represented, in short-hand, by a dot in the i's place, as in the word buti, beauty.

As the horizontal characters may be written at the top, or middle, or bottom, of the line, the vowels may be sometimes indicated by their situation between the parallels, as same, at the top: sin, in the middle; and sun, at the bottom of the line.

There are few monosyllables, beginning with a vowel, that are immediately followed with either h or w; for which reason the following rule, peculiar to these two letters, will seldom cccasion any ambiguity, and affords a convenient method of expressing a great variety of very common words. The letters h and w, having a vowel point before them, are to be considered as denoting, by one mark, the two letters, ht, wt, respectively, with the prefixed vowel between them; as in the words, hat, hit, hot, hut; wat, wet, wit, wot, &c.

Having said thus much concerning the nature and use of the vowel points, we will proceed to give some further directions relative to the form and proportion of the short-hand characters; the various ways of joining the curvilineal ones with the greatest ease and elegance; together with some rules, designed to obviate a few apparent difficulties which may be supposed to occur, more or less, to every learner of short-hand.

1. All the perpendicular and inclined letters are made to touch, as it were, two