with which they are regularly provided. Thofe in folitary confinement are kept upon bread and water; but thofe who labour are allowed broth, porridge, puddings, and the like: meat is difpenfed only in fmall quantities, twice in the week. Their drink is water; on no pretence is any other beverage fuffered to be brought into the priThis diet is found, by experience, to afford the prifoners itrength fufficient to perform the labour that is impofed upon them; whereas a more generous one would only ferve to render their minds lefs humble and fubmiffive. Those who labour are employed in the particular trade to which they have been accustomed, provided it can be carried on in the prifon; if not acquainted with any, fomething is foon found that they can do. One room is fet apart for fhoemakers, another for tailors, a third for carpenters, and fo on; and in the yards are ftone-cutters, fmiths, nailers, &c. &c. "Excepting the cells, which are at a remote part of the building, the prifon has the appearance of a large manufactory. Good order and decency prevail throughout, and the eye of a spectator is never affailed by the fight of fuch ghaftly and fqualid figures as are continually to be met with in our prifons; fo far, alfo, is a vifitor from being infulted, that he is fcarcely noticed as he paffes through the different wards. The prifoners are forbidden to speak to each other without there is neceflity; they are alfo forbidden to laugh, or to fing, or to make the smallcit disturbance. An overfeer attends continually to fee that every one performs his work diligently; and in cafe of the fmalleft refiftance to any of the regulations, the offender is immediately caft into a folitary cell, to fubfift on bread and water till he returns to a proper fenfe of his behaviour; but the dread all thofe have of this treatment, who have once experienced it, is fuch, that it is feldom found neceflary to repeat it. The women are kept totally apart from the men, and are employed in a manner fuitable to their fex. The labourers all eat together in one large apartment; and regularly, every Sunday, there is divine fervice, at which all attend. It is the duty of the chaplain to converfe at times with the prifoners, and endeavour to reform their minds and principles. The infpectors, when they visit the prison, alfo do the fame; fo that when a prisoner is liberated, he goes out, as it were, a new man; he has been ha bituated to employment, and has received good inftructions. The greatest care is alfo taken to find him employment the moment he quits the place of his confinement. According to the regulations, no perfon is allowed to vifit the prifon without permiffion of the infpectors. The greatest care is alfo taken to preferve the health of the prifoners, and for thofe who are fick there are proper apartments and good advice provided. The longeft period of confinement is for a rape, which is not to be lefs than ten years, but not to exceed twentyone. For high treason, the length of confinement is not to be lefs than fix nor more than twelve years. There are prifons in every county throughout Pennfylvania, but none as yet are established on the fame plan as that which has been defcribed. Criminals are frequently fent from other parts of the ftate to receive punishment in the prifon of Philadelphia. "So "So well is this gaol conducted, that, instead of being an pence, it now annually produces a confiderable revenue to the state." Pp. 9-11. We did not expect to find any improvements in the mechanic arts in this volume, but as neceflity is the mother of invention, and manual labour is exceflively dear in America, the natives have applied the powers of the fcrew and lever to great advantage, by a novel contrivance, to a cornmill. We infert an account of this for the benefit of our countrymen; and though the licentioufnefs of an English mob has perfecuted an Arkwright, and expelled the inventor of the fly-fhuttle from his native country, and the dread of its fury prevents the re-erection of the Albion Mills, or the general establishment of faw-mills in Great Britain, their fovereignty, perhaps, will not be rouzed by fuch an easy and fimple contrivance. "About half a mile before you come to Wilmington is Brandywine River, remarkable for its mills, no lefs than thirteen being built almost close to each other upon it. The water, just above the bridge which is thrown over it, comes tumbling down with great violence over a bed of rocks; and feats, at a very trifling expence, could be made for three times the number of mills already built. Veffels carrying 1,000 bushels of wheat can come close up to them, and by means of machinery their cargoes are received from, or delivered to, them in a very expeditious manner. "Among the mills, fome are for flour, fome for fawing of wood, and others for ftone. The improvements which have been made in the machinery of the flour mills in America are very great.. The chief of thefe confift in a new application of the fcrew, and the introduction of what are called elevators, the idea of which was evi. dently borrowed from the chain pump. The fcrew is made by sticking fmall thin pieces of board, about three inches long and two wide, into a cylinder, fo as to form the fpiral line. This fcrew is placed in a horizontal pofition, and by turning on its axis it forces wheat or flour from one end of a trough to the other. For inftance, in the trough which receives the meal immediately coming from the ftones, a fcrew of this kind is placed, by which the meal is forced on, to the dittance of fix or eight feet, perhaps, into a refervoir; from thence, without any manual labour, it is conveyed to the very top of the mill by the elevators, which confift of a number of fmall buckets of the fize of tea-cups, attached to a long band that goes round a wheel As the band reat the top, and another at the bottom of the mill. volves round the wheels, thefe buckets dip into the refervoir of wheat or flour below, and take their loads up to the top, where they empty themselves as they turn round the upper wheel. The elevators are inclofed in fquare wooden tubes, to prevent them from catching in any thing, and alfo to prevent duft. By means of these two fimple contrivances no manual labour is required from the moment the wheat is taken to the mill till it is converted into flour, and ready to be packed, during the various proceffes of fereening, grinding, fifting, &c." Pp. 20, 21. In the whole of this publication the reader will meet with much interefting information, and an agreeable recital of events. Mr. Weld is an accurate obferver, and his style, though not highly polished, is clear, plain, and fimple. This volume is embellifhed with 16 plates, well defigned and elegantly engraved; and thefe travels through North America will gratify every mind defirous of hiftorical knowledge. ART. III. Milner's Hiftory of Winchefter. WE (Concluded from p. 128 ) E could produce a thousand inftances, not only of omiffions and perverfions in Hume's Hiftory, where christianity and religion are concerned, but of defect of information in the writer, on fubjects of great national importance, especially under the Saxon and Norman monarchs, but that is irrelevant to our fubject. Whenever architecture is the fubject, Mr. Milner's abilities are fupereminently confpicuous, and he appears perfectly converfant with the Saxon, Norman, and Gothic architecture, which laft title he adopts from conviction of the propriety of the term, after ably difcuffing Sir Chriftopher Wren's Saracenic architecture. As a curious fpecimen, we extract his account of Bishop Walchelin's tower. It “We have abundant fpecimens remaining of the work of the above-mentioned Norman prelate. The moft confpicuous of thefe is the fquare maffive tower, 140 feet high, and 50 feet broad, which is feen, at the prefent day, in as perfect and firm a ftate, to all appearance, as when it was first built 700 years ago, and which was celebrated in ancient times for being the firmeit in all England.* bears intrinfic evidence of the age in which it was built, in the general fimplicity and maffiveness of its architecture, in its circular windows, adorned with the chevron and billeted mouldings, and in the capitals and ornaments of its pillars. It is frequently afked, why at tower of fuch great ftrength is deftitute of a fteeple? The fact is, it was built before fteeples were invented, thefe being the natural growth *Illa turris adhuc extat, fecundum latomos firmiffima inter omnes hujufmodi tarres in regno Anglia." Rudb. Hist. Maj. 1. v. C. II. of of the pointed arch, as we fhall elsewhere fhew. The purposes which it was intended to anfwer, were, in point of ufe, to ferve as a lanthom to the choir, which actually ftands in need of fuch a contrivance, and, in point of effect, to give an idea of height when viewed from the infile, a proportion which, no lefs than length, the Normans affected to carry as far as poffible in their facred edifices. In proof of this we have to obferve, that the infide of the tower, in both its ftories above the prefent ceiling, and up to the very covering of it, is finished with the utmost care, and adorned with various ornaments, chiefly thofe above-mentioned, and that at least the lower story of it was actually open until the reign of Charles I. The two transepts were also the work of Walkelin, and though they have been the most neglected of any part of the fabric, yet are they in a far more firm and fecure ftate than any portion of the building that is of a later conftruction. It is neceffary, however, in viewing this and other ancient fabrics, carefully to diftinguish the original work from the alterations that have fince been introduced into them. Of the former fort, are the walls, up to the very fummit of them, with their thin perpendicular buttreffes, and their narrow fimple mouldings, as alfo the interlaced arch work on the upper part of the fouth tranfept above the clock, forming, perhaps, the first rudiment of the pointed arch extant in England. Of the fame date and workmanship are the whole of feveral windows in both tranfepts, being large and well proportioned, with circular heads, ornamented with the billetted mouldings, and fupported, on each fide, by a plain Saxon pillar, with a rude kind of fquare frieze and cornice, refembling thofe which are feen between the lights in the tower. The alterations that have been introduced into the tranfepts, fince the time of Walkelin, are chiefly found in the windows. A great proportion of thefe have been changed at different. periods, and in various ftyles and fashions. In many of them the circular arch and billetted moulding is [are] left to remain, and a pointed window, with Gothic mullions, is inferted under them. In others these have been quite taken away, and a pointed arch has been made to receive the Gothic window. In like manner, the St. Catharine's wheel, on the north front of the faid tranfept, is evidently of later date than the Norman founder. "The next of our Bishops who fignalized himfelf in repairing his cathedral was that eminent prelate, Godfrey de Lucy. In the courfe of a century after the death of Walkelin, we may fuppofe that the Saxon works, which the latter had left remaining to the east of the high altar, with the small tower over it, were become out of repair; he accordingly rebuilt them in the architecture of the times, beginning with the tower, which was begun and finished in the year 1200." VOL. II. Pp. 12-14. With the Chroniclers and Monkifh Hiftorians, Mr. Milner is better acquainted than any author whofe works we have ever yet reviewed. But he gives too implicit confidence, occafionally, to their marvellous narrations, and continues the age of of miracles to a later æra than Proteftant divines admit. Few members of the Church of England would credit this account of St. Birinus. "Proceeding from Genoa, through France, our apoftle came to the fea port on the channel, from which he was to embark for our island. Here, having performed the facred mysteries, he left behind him what is called a corporal,* containing the bleffed facrament, which he did not recollect until the veffel, in which he failed, was fome way out at fea. It was in vain to argue the cafe with the Pagan failors who fteered the ship, and it was impoffible for him to leave his treasure behind him. In this extremity, fupported by a strong faith, he ftept out of the fhip upon the waters, which became firm under his feet; in fhort, he walked in this manner, to land, and, having fecured what he was anxious about, returned on board the veffel, in the fame man. ner, which, in the mean time, had remained stationary in the place where he left it. The fhip's crew were of the nation to which he was fent, who, being ftruck with the miracle which they had witneffed, lent a docile ear to his inftructions. Thus our apoftle began the converfion of the Weft Saxons, before he landed upon their territory. This prodigy is fo well attefted by the moft judicious hiftorians, that those who have had the greateft intereft to deny it, have not dared openly to do fo." (VOL. 1. Pp. 89, 90.) The fudden death of Elfrid, when renewing an oath at St. Peter's, Rome, (P. 146,) the wonderful walk of Emma, over nine plough-fhares, without the least injury, (P. 682,) and the choaking of Earl Godwin by a morfel of bread, (P. 184,) would not be confidered, by every writer, as "evident proofs of divine juftice." On fuch fubjects we cannot concur with him, nor do we confider the authority of his "honest John Stowe" of much confequence, when even his Editor Strype, calls him, "the City's feed Chronicler;" or, Truffel's MS. fo often quoted by Mr. M. as indifputable evidence. If this author, who has certainly detected many errors of Warton, Lowth, Rapin, Hume, and even Carte, had confulted the Book of Domefday, Madox's Hiftory of the Exchequer, Alfred's Will, published at Oxford, the Saxon Laws, Hicks's Thefaurus, Rymer's Foedera, &c. &c. he would have difcovered the ignorance of many of the Monkifh writers, and avoided many of their blunders. For inftance, he would never have "Corporalia, ut ita dicuntur. Pontif. 1. 11.” Will. Malm. De Geft. Ed. Twyf." Gul. Malm. Floren. Wigorn. Ranulph. Higden. John Brompton, Capgrave, &c." NO. IX. VOL. II. I i flated |
