1816.1-Mr. Sharp on Experiments with Bottles sunk in the Ocean. tres, and the whole with planetary or der revolve round the general centre of the national interest and the government. In this place you hear of none of those numerous meetings daily called together in England, for the purpose of the speculative advantage of the individuals so convened, in the first instance, but ultimately for the benefit of the nation, much less of meetings of such individuals who are linked together by some political sentiment, by attachment to some public character, or even by the endearing recollection of early connexions formed at some public institution for the education of youth. Public spirit is the blood that should pervade the arteries and veins of a free constitution; it is of slow creation; it was so in England, and if it cannot be ultimately furnished by the French nation, they must return to their former absolute monarchy. Among the governments more or less absolute upon the continent, the best treat their subjects as children who are not supposed either to have a right or a capacity to meddle with matters of government. These subjects are early taught this lesson, and are made to contemplate with distant awe and surprise the wonderful operations of their government, who without ceremony take the money of the subjects out of their pockets, without deigning to give them any account of its application. Such blind submission tends to repress if not to extinguish the noblest of human feelings, -self-respect, the only shield against the temptation to baser crimes, where secresy promises impunity. These governments, by drawing so narrow a circle round the few individuals who share in it, to the exclusion of the talents and knowledge of a great part of the nation, not only deprive themselves of the aid of these auxiliaries, but render themselves incapable of acquiring a true knowledge of those whom they govern, and of mankind in general, as may be easily perceived by any man of observation on entering a circle of continental diplomatists belonging to such governments. Under the French government before the Revolution nothing seemed to be respected but nobility, titled courtiers, and priests, or soldiers. How, in such a state, could the most useful classes of society rise in the estimation of others and of themselves? The Revolution overturned this system; but being begun in violence and ignorance of the true nature of government upon principles of liberty, the 389 revolutionists ran into the other extreme. Stulti dum vitia vitant, in contraria currunt. The scum of society was now to have, an essential participation in the govern ment. This is also gone by, and if it has left a visible effect on the manners of the inferior classes of the people here, among whom there are many who would have rudeness pass for liberty, the Revolution cannot be said, on the other hand, not to have introduced any good change whatever. It cannot but be consoling to every friend of the human species to observe the dawn of a better state of things in France. The trial by jury may be considered as the first school where the young Frenchman is called upon by his country to exercise a most important function, on which the property, may, the life of his fellow creature depends. I have witnessed this noble funcion exer, cised here at Paris to my greatest satisfaction; it was on occasion of the trial of a woman charged with having drowned her own sister. The ability of the judge in summing up the evidence, pointing out the interest which the prisoner could have in committing the crime, the bearing, the defect, and strength of the evidence brought for and against the pri soner, the talents of the attorney-general in opening the prosecution, and of the counsel for the prisoner, together with the decorum observed by a multitude of spectators during the trial, left nothing to be wished for. When the jury withdrew to consider of the verdict, the awful suspense in which the prisoner was placed impressed on my mind a serious feeling; but a group of French ladies, admitted into the inner court like myself, tell immediately into a lively chat, as between the acts of a play. Another institution, to which the Revolution has given rise, is the assembly of the grand national councils, whose discussions of the most important measures will afford to the young Frenchman an opportunity to exercise and improve his judgment, and will recal him from the pursuits of egotism and frivolity to employ his talents, stimulated by an honorable emulation for the benefit of his country. (To be continued.) MR. EDITOR, IN your Magazine for this month, I see a letter from -W. M. RETEAS, requesting to be informed if any of your scientific correspondents can give any, or what, satisfactory conclusions respecting the experiments of the Rev. Dr. 390 Experiments with Corked Bottles sunk in the Ocean. [June 1, Campbell in sinking a bottle in the ocean. I have frequently tried it on board of nen-of-war many years ago, and found that, at fifty fathoms deep by the lead dine, the cork, though well secured, was driven into the hottle, which was full of water when brought up by the line. I have tried it with twine tied across the bottom of the cork and round the neck of the bottle, at the same dep’h: it came up full of water, with the cork cut in two by the force of the water upon the twine, and the twine cut also. I tried it another time afterwards, at nearly the same depth, with a piece of a leather glove over the cork, and secured with twine round the neck of the bottle, and the neck only, with the cork and twine, came up with the line. I have no idea of the possibility of the salt water penetrating the pores of glass; but conceive that the weight of the water at that depth, if it does not force the cork in, and fill the bottle, will force in the sides with its pressure. My experiments were made in the Atlantic, near the banks of Newfoundland, in the month of June, 1775. April 26, 1816. MR. EDITOR, W. SHARP. I BEG leave to add a few facts to the extracts made by your correspondent W. M. RETLAS (in your publication for April, p. 212) from the Rev. Mr. Campbell's Journey through South Africa, whereby it will appear that water enters into bottles sunk to certain depths in the ocean, by the mouth only, and not otherwise. The time since the experiments were made is such as to efface from my memory the cause that gave rise to them: no doubt many such have been made at different times and by different persons, but none have met my eye till those in your publication for this month. The facts which come within my knowledge are as follow: On a voyage from Jamaica, in November, 1787, in his Majesty's packet the Duke of Cumberland, of which one St. Aubyn was commander for that voyage, being becalmed off the west end of St. Domingo, I corked a common empty quart bottle in a secure manner, and sunk it with the common sea-lead to the depth of fifty fathoms. On drawing it up, there was no alteration observable. I sunk it again with the deep sea-lead to 100 or 120 fathoms, and, to my great surprise, the bottle came up full, and corked as firmly as when put into the water. I emptied the bottle, corked it again as tight as possible, and tied over the cork a piece of leather; I also cut a notch in the cork, and sunk it as before to the same depth. The bottle came up full: in the leather covering of the cork was a hole, as if made with the point of a knife or some sharp instrument, and the cork had been turned, so that the small end was uppermost, and the notch was inside the bottle: by which it was evidently demonstrated, that the pres sure of the water had not only forced in the cork in both instances, Lut in the latter had burst a hole in the leather also; and the expansion of the water had operated so as firmly to cork the bottle in its ascent to the surface in both instances. The bottle being again emptied, I corked it, and cut the cork off smooth, and bound a halfpenny over it with leather; I then sunk it to the same depth (100 or 120 fathoms) and it came up empty, nothing seeming to be displaced or operated upon by the pressure. I was preparing to try the experiment with a line equal to 200 fathoms in length, when a breeze of wind sprung up, and prevented that or any further experiment; and though I have since three times crossed the Atlantic Ocean, I have never had an opportunity of repeating them. Merchant vessels seldom like to lose time in such inquiries, and it is only in a calm that passengers have the opportunity of amusing themselves: but vessels sent out for the purpose of discoveries, might devote a day to experiments of this kind, the result of which would be interesting. It is diff cult to make the experiments, except in a calm, and even then in such deep water the swell of the sea is great, and there is considerable difficulty in getting a bottle down so deep as one hundred and twenty fathoms before the ship bas considerably shifted her place. The candid reader will admit that the water can enter only by the mouth of the bottle, and that by forcing in the obstruction. How far a much greater depth might crush in the sides of the bottle, or force in a piece of metal at the mouth, must be left to future experiments. Those here described being made by a youth in search of amusement, much accuracy cannot be expected, but though inade thirty years ago, and the circumstances not noted at the time, the general outline is as firmly fixed in my mind as if the experiment had been made but, as many days. WL. Hackney, April 17, 1816. 1816.] MR. EDITOR, Case of the High Bailiff of Westminster. FROM your local situation in the city of Westminster, you will probably feel disposed to give that pubacity, which your widely-diffused miscellany affords, to the following statement of the claims of a meritorious officer of that city to be reimbursed by Parliament for losses sustained in the service of the public. There is every expectation that the appeal will be successful; for, with all our just rage for economy, we are abundantly rich to be just, though far too poor to be gene rous. T. A Statement of the Facts on which the High Bailiff of Westminster founds his Claim on the Justice and Liberality of Parliament. In the year 1806 Mr. Morris purchased the situation of high bailiff, up to which time the expenses of elections having been invariably defrayed by the candidates, the price given was of course without reference to an unexpected, and at that time unadmitted, liability to those expenses on the part of the returning officer. In November 1806 and May 1807 two severely-contested elections took place, each of them lasting the full period of fifteen days, and under circumstances of peculiar warmth of competition, requiring the utmost diligence and circumspection on the part of the returning officer. On each of these occasions the claim of the high bailiff to be repaid his expenses was resisted by one of the candidates; the high bailiff, therefore, pursued his legal remedy, when the point of law was, after repeated arguments, decided against him. This determination occasioned a loss to the high bailiff of 1,569/. 10s. 2d., including the costs of the proceedings at law. With a view to the future protection of the high bailiff, and on substantiating the preceding facts before a committee of the House of Commons, an act was passed in 1811, assimilating elections for Westminster to those for counties, by making the candidates liable to the expenses. 391 action. Thus a further expense of 5251. was incurred. The preceding allegations were also substantiated before another committee of the House, who, by their report dated 30th June, 1813, having distinctly noticed the two separate grounds on which the two distinct claims of the high bailiff stood, namely, the 1,5697. 10s. 2d incurred previous to the passing the act, and the 525/. incurred subsequent thereto, were pleased to recommend both of them to the favourable consideration of Parliament. In 1814 an election took place under very peculiar circumstances of absence of the person proposed, and leaving the high bailiff absolutely without redress as to the expenses incurred. This occa sioned an additional expense of 3001. The reports of the committees before alluded to satisfactorily establish the necessity imposed upon the high bailiff of erecting hustings and employing pollclerks; and his efforts for conducting the elections at the least possible expense, considering the peculiar circumstanees in which Westminster is placed, involv ing no precedent for other boroughs, and containing no building capable of receiving the votes of upwards of 14,000 electors, he humbly hopes the above plain recapitulation of a few facts will supersede the necessity of any laboured appeal on his part to be remunerated for the heavy expense he has incurred in the service of the public, and which his official emoluments, as well as his private fortune, are wholly unequal to bear. Abstract of Loss. Previous to passing the act of 51 Geo. III. . Subsequent thereto, and included in report. Subsequent to report MR. EDITOR, .L.1569 10 525 0 300 0 L.2394 10 AS you appear to me most readily fo give place in your excellent miscellany to every communication which can in any way tend to the public benefit, I On the general election in October venture to trouble you with a few lines 1812, the two members returned resisted on a subject which, if thus, as it were, the high bailiff's claim to be repaid the forced upon the attention of parents, expenses of that election; when, upon may have the effect of preserving many bringing his actions under the act for the infant lives-I allude to the most banerecovery of those expenses, he obtained ful and pernicious practice, in which a verdict as to one moiery against one most monthly nurses, and many servants member, but the other having satisfac who have die care of infants, indulge, torily establisited that he was not a can- of secretly administering of lates for the didate within the meaning of the act, the purpose of composing the infant to sleep, high bailiff was notsuited in this latter in other words, of saving them 392 On the Danger of administering Opiates to Infants. [June }, selves as much trouble and disturbance as possible. This evil, which cannot be too strongly reprobated, is much more prevalent than is commonly imagined, and is very frequently attended with fatal effects. The opiate most easily exhibited is syrup of poppies; but Godfrey's cordia!, and several others well known to most monthly nurses, are frequently employed. I have been led to address you on this subject, in consequence of having witnessed the effects of a secret dose of syrup of poppies in my own family, which, but for the fortunate circumstance of having been administered in an aperient mixture, would have inevitably been attended with a fatal termination. I have since this circumstance conversed with several medical men, who all concur in opinion, that this practice is the cause of the death of more infants than all others put together, more particularly when the death is sudden. The symptoms in an infant are, great languor, stupor, leaden sleep frequently disturbed, convulsion, and death. The remedy is, upon the first appearance of the languor and stupor, to administer the most efficient means of clearing the bowels without violence, for which purpose a clyster should, among other applications, never be omitted: medical advice, however, should always be instantly resorted to, as a few hours may be productive of fatal effects.-I can scarcely imagine that those who have been addicted to the practice of which I am now complaining, could be aware of the baneful consequences likely to ensue; but it is impossible to censure with too much vehemence the temerity, which could lead a nurse of her own authority to employ any drug in the food or medicine of an infant, decidedly deleterious in its nature, and which, in a quantity exceeding a few drops, would occasion death. I trust that the wide circulation which your insertion of this letter will give to this subject, will, on the one hand, tend to render parents more watchful over their infants; and on the other, may deter those who have hitherto, from any motive, committed this abominable and inexcusable outrage, from persevering in a practice so fraught with mischief. April 7, 1816. MR. EDITOR, D. P. I OBSERVE that, in page 8 of your Magazine for February, mention is made of Mr. Kidd's Remains of Professor Por son. It is a matter of regret to me that your correspondent, who signs himself A PROVINCIAL SCHOOLMASTER, should have written in such an unusual and unnecessary style of severity. Had he confined his sarcasmns to Mr. Kidd, I should probably not have thought it ne cessary to notice them; but as he has ventured to extend them to the illustrious Porson, I should deem silence culpable. Accustomed as I have always been to venerate the name of this great man, I could not but feel astonished to see with what precipitate confidence the PROVINCIAL SCHOOLMASTER assails him. From certain parts of his letter I am led to suspect that his acquaintance with the writings of Porson is very limited. This should operate as a caution to those who mistake assertion for proof. Really when we call to mind the light which Porson has thrown upon the various paths of criticism-the many passages which he has incontrovertibly corrected, which former critics had either relinquished in despair, or still more corrupted-the unassailable canons which he has laid down in his incomparable preface to the Hecuba-surely every reader will acknowledge that he has done enough to hand down his name as a critic to the latest posterity? "I need not," says Dr. Butler, in his letter to the Rev. Charles James Blomfield, "I am sure, bear my most sincere testimony to the transcendant merits of that Colossus of critical learning now no more. None of the elder or younger members of his college, none of his most zealous advocates, of his most ardent admirers, or most attached disciples, can more deeply feel, or more willingly acknowledge their respect for his profound learning, his keen discrimination, his unfailing accuracy, and his sagacious judgnent.' Let the SCHOOLMASTER NOW hear what is the opinion of Mr. J. H. Monk, the successor of Porson, respecting the merits of his predecessor. "It hac arte critica exercenda ducem et auspicem sumsi Porsonum, qui cum ingenio, doctrina, ac judicio ultra cæteros mortales floruerit, tum quacunque ad Græcæ linguæ orthographiam, structuram, et universain indolem spectarent, unus omnium qui post literas renatas vixerunt, videtur optime percepisse." (See the preface to Mr. Monk's HippoLytns.) The PROVINCIAL SCHOOLMASTER seems to be one of those men who measure the merit of an author by the bulk of his works. Hence it is no wonder that he should censure Porson, of whom it 1816.] Professor Porson and Mr. Kidd vindicated. has been truly said: "pauca quidem ingenii sui pignora reliquit, sed egregia, sed admiranda." The following is one of his remarks: "The mode of the pub lication, (Mr. Kidd's) the conceit of the editor, the confusion of the extracts, the obscure brevity of the notes, and the musty quaintress of the subjects in controversy, were not, in my estimate of the mingled merits and demerits of the volume, redeemed by the insulated gleams of genius and of wit; though I see enough to lament that such prodigality of talent should have been so muddled away in pedantry, clouded by a moroseness habitually cherished and encouraged, and, worse than all, stupefied into drunkenness, as it too frequently was, in the stye of sensuality." The beginning of this sentence will be noticed hereafter; my business at present is with the latter part of it. To accuse Porson, then, of moroseness, is to contradict whatever is known by those who were furnished with opportunity of observing him by close inspection. From them we have learned, that in society Porson's good temper was notorious, his urbanity engaging, and his conversation without reserve. Add to this, that the many communications on points of criticism, which he gave to his friends with the utmost readiness and good humour, bear ample contradiction to any charge of moroseness. In proof of this assertion, see Mr. Blomfield's edition of Æschylus, Mr. Monk's Hippolytus, Dr. Maltby's Thesaurus, and other publications which have made their appearance since the lamented decease of the professor. "He possessed a heart," says Mr. Kidd in his preface, p. 16, "filled with sensibility; he was at all times willing to assist his fellow-labourers; and no scholar ever consulted him who did not leave him instructed and delighted." -It would be useless to deny that these brighter parts of his character were shaded by some infirmities; and that he was addicted to immoderate drinking, however deeply to be regretted, cannot be denied. Willing to make this concession to the fullest extent to the SCHOOLMASTER, I beg leave to ask him why, as he has brought into view the known failings of Porson, he makes no mention of his virtues? Does he not know that the professor was an inflexible lover of truth, and had an utter contempt for money, "Truth," as Mr. Kidd very justly remarks, "was considered by Richard Porson as the basis of excellence; it was the object of all his inquiNEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 29. 393 ries: he felt pleasure in the search, and satisfaction in the vindication, of this rare article. If detected in the slightest error, he would thank the individual who pointed it out, immediately amend it, and publicly confess it." Is this any proof of his moroseness? "It is not our intention," as is well observed in that noble review of the Correspondence of Wakefield and Fox, Museum Criticum, vol. i., p. 397," to compose a panegyric on Mr. Porson; but as the effect of the present publication has been to draw the attention of the world to his failings, common justice requires that some mention should also be made of his virtues. We shall observe, then, that he possessed two qualities, which, though they are not the sole, are yet very essential requisites in the formation of a great character-an utter contempt for money and a religious attachment to truth. It is from this latter quality that his writings derive their peculiar excellence. He is one of those few authors on whom the reader may rely with implicit deference, who think it no less culpable to advance what they do not know to be true, than what they know to be false. So determined is he to be accurate, that he never relaxes his vigilance for a moment; he withholds no arguments because they, are at variance with his own opinions; he deduces no conclusions which the facts themselves will not strictly warrant; he makes no assertions which he has not duly weighed, and of the correctness of which he is not fully convinced." Such is the illustrious character which the SCHOOLMASTER handles so splenetically! Let us now briefly consider his usage of Mr. Kidd. We have already seen that he talks of the "conceit of the editor, the confusion of his extracts, the obscure brevity of his notes." Upon the general merit of the work I must confess that my opinion differs widely from his own; and I am sure that every admirer of Porson will be happy to see the scattered rays of genius thus brought together. The SCHOOLMASTER, however, has some reason to complain of the "confusion of the extracts," but the notes seem to me to be sufficiently long. The great merit of the disciples of the Porsonian school lies in expressing their ideas with conciseness. Mr. Kidd certainly exposes himself to a charge of conceit; but his accuser ought to have brought forward some proofs of the miruculous silliness of mind, of which I know no instances. I am very glad to find that he is VOL. V. 3 E |