tached, not bigoted; but they are fuch only, as he hopes by time and prudent counsel to remove; or fuch as, being neceffary conceffrons to the imperfections of mankind, cannot fafely be removed till Human Nature is corrected. He is fenfible of the value of that knowledge which is the refult of expe will do it without promifing, and without parade; if he means it not, or thinks it cannot be performed, he will be filent. Nor is Le at any time a boatter; for, knowing the deceptions of Self-love, he fears left Chey fhould lead him into falfehood. When moft he has deferved commendation, he can with patience bear to lofe it; even envy and un-rience--and, in fo important a point as the just reproach he can defpife; the conicionfuets of having done his best fupports him; but praise unmerited is flame and torture to him. His Generofity and Compaflion are infeparable. A tale of forrow never fails to melt him, and pity flows from him in fhowers of gold. Where gold cannot relieve, he tries fuch other means a feem more fuited to the cate; but his first movement is, to give. The humanity of conquerors that fave their enemies is more congenial to his foul than the, defire of victory uelf: andye for victory, no one has done more, or more fuccefsfully. The efforts, cf an Eliot amazed the continental nations; but Curtis, taving the lives of the enemy at the imminent hazard of his own, was idolized in his native country. Without this trophy, the triumph would have lost its brig teft eruamert to @ritous. The Religion of the True Briton is rational and firm-equally remote from the folly of Superftition, and the ir pudence of Infidelity. He was among the firit to fee and to reject the grofs corruptions of the Chriftian Faith; he will be the laft to countenance a worfe corruption, on pretence of farther reformation. He will never leave Religion for the emptineis et falfe and infidel Philofophy. His ftrength of reafon teaches him in what points human refon muit he wek; and Le will never boat his knowledge, where he feels his ignorance. His intelectual qualities, like all the reft, are more for ute thon oftentation. Sagacity and Wiftom are allowed him by all firrounding nations; ner can a name te mentioned to which all faiences have higher obgance, than to that of the Tive Briton. Odpreis may excel him in invention; in Profundry and Accuncy of Roach, he is unrivale. Yet is het deficient in true Ge It is his pride, that in the line of Peetry is county Rand's the firft of modern nat ous, by not infrequently has rivalled the beat models of antiquity. The tricks of falfe talle on orbition ornament, in fpite of temporary tuhion, he defpites. The writing that o'tal is his pride muit fatisty the judgment, and test the heart. By the fame tule he value c'equence, and every other effort of the intellect' faculty. At de prefent day, one frking feature, not to be omitted in the charater of the True Bop, is veneration for the CONSTIHe views it TUTION OF HIS COUNTRY. 2 the work of wildem, tried and meliorated b, c, en ce. i hat there are impe Rushions in it, he may perhaps one; for he is at Conftitution of his country, he is leaft difpofed to yield to the Theories of Speculative men. To this fyftem he adhieres, from trong conviction of its excellence. Innovation, proceeding from levity, he contemns; attended with injustice, cruelty, or public danger, he abhors. He loves his king with fome restrictions, and his country without any nor will he lightly rife against the one, or throw the other into difcord and confufon. To Politics he is addicted, and not, perhaps, fufficiently averfe from parties. But, when the publick is in danger, he forgets all fubdivifions, and knows no party but his country. This is the True Briton, of which defcription a large majority exifts in every clafs of focial life throughout the nation. More or lefs perfect, indeed; bat enough fo, to fix this as the public character, and thereby to deferve the refped and feneration of the world. Mr. URBAN, Dec. 14. Give your Magazine, to prefent my IVE me leave, through the channel refpe&ful compliments to Mr. Blakey, p. 1004, and to Sylvicola, p. 1002, and return them my fincereft thanks for their favourable opinions on the way of my amufements, in which I have been af fiduously employed from my youth, and almoft from my cradle. The publication of Mr. B's correlpondence with the Society he mentions, in which Mr. Jac, quec's improvement of the pendulum is to occupy a part, will undoubtedly af ford me a particular pleature. I found be much pleated with knowing when I may realonably expect to enjoy it, and request he will be to kind as to give me the earlicft information of its appearance in public; though i feel much regret, In his putting at tuch an uncertain difance the poffeffion of my anxious withes to under and the principles, and compute the effects of its construction, as I have not yet met with any which fairly promited to abide this tett, when rightly made, nor antwer in practice, when properly compared with the tranfits and equal altitudes of the fun and itars. Arfici letting out I was very partial to the grid-on pendulum, and the computa bon of its effects pleated me much. I executed two or three, but then accuracy racy in practice fell very short of my expectation, and convinced, me, I had omitted fome requifite data in calculating its effects. Few others are very little better than the common fimple fteel or well-dried mahogany rod, with a ball of confiderable weight, nor has any one I have yet met with come up to my fatisfaction. I am perfuaded, that the mode of fufpending the pendulam, and the evils arifing from the application of the crutch to the rod, contribute much to the irregular going of the clock. A different and better efcapement than any yet invented must be applied. Mr. Graham's dead beat, given in vol. XXIV. p. 397, with ruby faces to the pallets, as now at Greenwich, cannot be perfe&t: for, different powers,communicated through the whole train of the clock to the pallets, will alter the rate of its going, and a difference in the weight, when the barometer is at 31 and 28 inches, will affe&t it in the fame way. Mr. Cumming's double pallets pleafe me beft, though they have not yet been applied in the best form, and with the greatest ad vantage. or ང prefented by the hypothenufe of the triangle; then the fquare of the other leg multiplied into 1,646341, nearly, will be the feconds log in 24 hours, by vibrating in the longer arch: and therefore, the fmaller the arches, the lefs will be the error in the longer arch*. This provides, in the best manner, against the irregularities arising from the different densities of the medium in which the pendulum vibrates; and this change of its denfiry and tenacity appears to be influenced by two caules, combined together, one from the operations of the terreftrial elements fimply among themfelves; and the other that produced by the Moon, as I have reafon to believe, in the fame manner it effes the more denf medium of water in the production of the tides. What elfe can account for the variable lengths of the arches vibrated at Greenwich, recorded in Dr. Make yne's obfervations? And I have oblerve! much greater in low latitudes, not far from the equator. However, I am perfuaded that no clock can be made to keep time accurately, upon any construction I have yet feen, either executed or theoretically defcribed, though fo mach has been done and faid on the fubject by M. F. Berthould, in four quarto volumes; by Mr. A. Camming, Ludlam, and other artifts, in detached pieces, published in feveral mifcellaneous and period.cal works. I prefume the following imple ments are abfolutely requifite, and in eafily be introduced, viz. the pallets and crutch united into one, without any friction, or arbor, to either of them, and the efcapement made quite clofe, without being affe&ted by any impediment, in any part of the train, lefs than will quite flop the motion of the wheels, nor require any oil in the parts mcaiu. ring time: the motive force must be applied precifely to the very center of ofcillation of the pendulum, and its croffing out, after the efcapement is made, as finali as poflible, all contributing to its defcribing very small arches, which is a great advantage for diminishing the error in long vibrations, becaufe a pendulum vibrating feconds for 24 hours, in an arch reckoned in degrees, from the lowest point, and reprefented by the leg of a right angied triangle; and the degrees vibrated in any greater arch re Befdes, in this mode of fufpending the pendulum, the motive force acting as the center of the ofcillation, and this being sifo the centre of the precution, it fuperfedes that great improvement, fo much prized a few years ago, of fufpending the pendulum from a great magnitude of denic matter, as a flab of marble, fione, &c. and its effects are computed by the Rev. Mr. Hellens, in the Vilth and lat of his Mathema. tical Ellays." Again: both the quantity of matter and motion in the ball, and in the rod or rods of the pendulam, are fo very different, that their combined effects of expanfion and contraction, arising from heat and cold, can never be compenfated for together, in all coils and at all times, by the application of any other method whatever. They mult, therefore, be corrected fingly; one muft either be corrected, or made to vanith independent of the other, before any correc tion can be applied with the neceffary advantage to the other. I have thence been led to confider, and investigate, that particular point within the ball, by which it may be fufpended, without foffering any change in its centre of of cation, from any degwes of expan * Gent. Mag. Vol. VII. p. 3r. Simpfon's Flux. Vol. II. Prob. XXVIII. Cor. IV. p. 54. Philof Tranf. Vol. LXI. p. 3cS. LXV. p. 287. LXVII. p. 216230. Emerion's Mechanics, p. 81, 8vo; or P. 58, 4to. fion and contraction whatever; whence only a fimple correction in the rod or rods alone will be wanted; which may be fatisfactorily effected, and made exactly correfpondent to the expanfion and contraction of the rod or rods, in all cafes, and at all times, by a corrector having the very fame dimenfions, kind of matter, figure, and motion, with the rod itself. But the great defideratum, fo much fought after, for determining the longitude of places, ftill remains with the portable time-keepers; wherein compounded effects, producing irregularities, have hitherto been corrected by fimple applications, and fimple cafes by a compound of effects. How fangely diffimilar! Experience impreffes me with astonishment, at the going of Mr. Harrison's time-piece, during the two voyages it was carried. Nor do I entertain the most favourable opinion of Mr. Mudge's time-keepers, now the fubject of debate between his fon and Dr. Maf kelyne, if they stopped, or fuffered in their rate of going, by carrying them, almost in any manner, from one room to another, as both thefe gentlemen feem to grant; yet they are, as I have heard, to appear before parliament this feffion, on a claim to the reward for difcovering the longitude. It is much to be lamented there fhould have happened any cause of complaint on unfair trials at the Royal Obfervatory, as well as on the unlimited power of the honourable Board of Commiflion, to send a time-piece, on trial, alternately, one year to Greenwich, and another on a voyage, as repeatedly as they pleafe; thereby keeping every artist from his reward, any number of years, at their option, even though his time-keeper perfectly answers every wish. The numerous equations for computing the Moon's place, and the annual patch-work of new ones, to heal the fores of the old, and keep them in a good humour, are a convincing proof to me, that the theory of her motions is not well founded; and I veri y beJieve, that the moves with much greater fimplicity than is now afcribed to her. Yet any correction in the lunar theory can only be rewarded by going on the fame old principles of gravitation; nor is the time of the reward limited to lefs than 37 years, by the act of parliament not specifying the particular revolution of her nodes, from which to begin the computations. How great are thade ob ftacles, instead of encouragements, to artists and aftronomers! The ingenious naturalift Sylvicola, who incurs the fame charge he has brought against me, may be affured, that I am not afhamed to countenance any rational and useful amufements with my name; and fince the excellent mechanic Mr. B. thus expoftulates with marked emphafis, "I cannot think what little impropriety there could be in an ingenious gentleman letting the world know his name," I am led to conclude, they have very little apprehenfions of the many unpleafant circumstances and reflections which attend the obfcure fituation of a country clergyman of my fingular turn among the lower rank of people, and even frequently among thofe who ought to know better, and where I have not a fingle foul to light up one fpark of emulation, but enough to depreciate; thefe readily catch at every thing which their uninformed minds may deem reflection, and interpret all they fee and hear quite conge nial to their own withes for flander: their mifreprefentations are fometimes furprizing, and afford now and then a vein of mirth; at other times, they are, to a degree, as low and defpicable. I have often experienced more civility among the wild and uncivilized part of mankind, where they never before had feen an European, than I fometimes meet with in my prefent fituation. Many who rank in a better sphere of life have moft ungenerously reflected on me, in the fenfe delivered by Dr. Young, in Night V. "Your learning, like the lunar beam, affords "Light, but not heat; it leaves you undevout, "Frozen at heart, while fpeculation shines.” But from this charge I ftand fufficiently exculpated in Vol, XXXIX. p. 284-6. wherein is given ample teftimony how much I wish to make all natural and fcientific knowledge fubfervient to divinity, and to answer the beneficent ends of GOD, in his works of creation, by making thefe the means of conveying his grace to the heart. An upright confcience bears me up against all unmerited afperfions and ca lumny; I regard them, as prudence and peace dictate, with no other notice than impreffing upon me a difpofition to keep myself to myfelf as much as poffible. I am confined to my present fituation by unfortunately entrusting my little pittance in bad hands, after my return home. Yet, by cutting my gate ment ment according to my cloth, and a little clofe economy, I have fufficient to live tolerably comfortable, without incurring a fingle debt. After a few youthful flights iu the mathematical departments of two or three publications, 1 have had no great ambition for authorship; I have therefore ufed varoius feigned fignatures; and thefe reafons ftill induce me to request leave to fign myfelf again, Yours, &c. . P. S. I received a fincere pleasure in feeing, upon p. 1039, the name of my worthy friend, and your old correfpondent, J. Mills, from Cowbit. Having, many years ago, enjoyed the days in habits of pureft friendship with him, I now exceedingly lament our great diftance from each other; and condole very cordially with, and moft feelingly too, for him, in the great lofs fuftained by the death of his good friend Dr. Buckworth, Sunt lacrymæ rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt. He will undoubtedly recollect his old friend, on asking, what is become of the learned Pike, that could teach Hebrew, and which he purchased for that purpose, at the price of five fhillings? I Mr. URBAN, July 17. Have juft read a book of travels into Norway, Denmark, and Ruffia, lately publifhed by A. Swinton, Eq. and beg leave to communicate to you fome extracts therefrom; not fo much with a *view of making my own remarks there. on as to folicit information, where I have not been able to agree with, or perhaps comprehend, the writer. P. 55. But the hiftory of Iceland is not lefs diftinguithed by another circumftance of very great curiofity and importance. Of ancient nations we know not the beginning, of the modern we know not the eod." It is in vain that I have endeavoured to comprehend this paflage. there is not the leaft allufion? I am fure, Mr. Urban, a folution of this queftion will be very interesting to feveral of your readers, who had the pleafure of knowing Dr. Thorkelin whilst in England. P. 73. It is much to be lamented, that an author, who has made fo brilliant and fuccefsful a difplay of his humour, at the expence of Meff. Wraxall and Coxe, fhould fo far forfeit his credit with the reader, by defcending to the character of a miferable punfter, in the page here referred to. He promifes a Sheridan, and terminates an O'Keeffe. P. 90. "The watery clouds intercepted the Sun's rays, and rolled fwiftly along the firmament; apparently rifing from the ocean on one fide of the horizon, and plunging again into it at the oppofite point on the other" How fublime! It is to be hoped, Mr. Urban, that none of your readers will ever be without a transcript of this paffage in their pockets, in cafe they fhould hap pen to be at fea. P. 109. "I embarked on-board a fmall cart, I have not yet forgot my featerms, for the metropolis of Livonia." It is to be hoped, the author's regard for his high literary reputation will induce him to forget seaterms in his next edition. P. 122. "An army trembling with contempt at the Ruffian Emperor's attack." This expreflion reminds me of the story of a Spanish rhodomontader, who, being asked why he fhook fo at the profpect of being immediately led on to battle, replied, that he trembled at the idea of how much blood his valour fhould occafion the shedding on that day. P. 125 Amiral Greig is elegantly filed a "fon in war." It is to be hoped Mr. Croft will not omit to do juftice to this fine expreffion, by introducing it into his new edition of Dr. Johaton's P. 63. The author mentions in a note, dictionary. In the fame page, the authat he is indebted to Dr. Thorkelin thor remarking that the world had confor the lift of words, which are of the figned the memory of Peter the Great fame import in the Icelandic, as in the to pity or derifion, fays, "either of which language fpoken now in the Lowlands of must be equally gailing to his mighty Scotland, and Northern counties of Eng-hade." I beg to be informed, wheland; and proceeds to fay, "a manufcript copy of these laws has been left b. Dr.T. with a literary friend, in Londou; who, it is faid, has fome thoughts of tranflating and publishing them, with notes hiftorical and philofophical, in Eogh." Q. what are the laws here mentioned, to which, in the context, GENT. MAG. January, 1793. ther this page is ferious or fatyricht, being quite as a lot to form my opinion. P. 272, letter XXVII. The anthor has juttiy condemned Mr. Coxe for introducing into a bok of travels extraneous matter; but has here forgotten his reproof; for what has a long account of Tartary to do, in the hands of a travel jer ler who appears never to have seen any part of the country. But thefe compiJations do moft marvellously affift the fabrication of our modern books of travels; befides, when a reader is tired with one country he may travel to another without the trouble of moving off his feat. Another very interefting, and no lefs convenient, digreffion, concerning fumptuary laws, may be found in p. 325. P. 318. "I cannot, with any temper, behold Handel taking fnuff, fcrewing his pins, or rofining his fiddle-ftick." Many readers of this right pithy and profitable book will call this wit, but every body knows it is not truth. P. 322. "He (Peter the Great) eftablished an academy of Sciences with thefe towels, by feizing the library at Mittau. We wish we had not to add, that, unlike a father, he corrected his children with them." It is proper to inform the reader, who may wonder what is meant by establishing an academy, and correcting children, with towels, that they were the axe and the fword, as appears from p. 321. P. 363. "I would, before this time, have given you fome account of the battles between Ruffia and Sweden, in the courfe of lafi fummer; but, as there have been none, I found it difficult to draw up a hillory of them." I had fufpected, from two or three circumftances occurring in the course of this delectable book, that the author, who has taken care to inform us that he was related to the Admiral Greig, was a Scotchman; but the above paffage affords very complete evidence that he is an Irishman. P. 403"The infide walls are wainscotted with agate, jafper, and lapis lazuli." Another proof, Mr. Urban, that the remark concerning the author's place of nativity is not an idle conjecture. Yours, &c. Q VOLTA Mr. URBAN, Jan. 17. VOLTAIRE'S " flimfy witticilin," LXII.608, is net original."Senantes é oit fort en généalogie, comme font tous Les fots que ont de la memoire." Hamilton's Memoirs du Comp:e de Grammot, ch. iv. p. 64. In the account of the cuftoms of Shrewsbury, p. 690, " viginti quatuor caballos vicecomes Lenteurde," is tranfJated "the fheriff Lenteurde fent 24 Dorfemen." I think it thould be the fherit of Lenteurde. Lanterdine, as it is now called, was at that time in Shrop fhiee, but it now makes part of Here ford thire; and perhaps the district round it might have had a diftinct sheriff. II. one Randal Holmes, a painter, was P. 716. "In the 20th year of Charles profecuted by "Norroy king of arms at Stafford affiles, for marshalling the fuand obtained [we should read lof] a verneral of Sir Ralph Ashton [qu. Afton?]; diet, and 20 l. damages" Bigland's chial Regitters," 1764, p. 91. The pers "Obfervations on Marriages and Parofon, of whom Mr. B's efprit du corps has led him to fpeak in fo contemptuous a manner, was a perfon of great merit in his line, and of fome confequence; for, it appears from an handfome marble monument to his wife, in St. Mary's, Chefter, that he was "fworn fervant, and gentleman-fewer extraordinary of his majesty's chamber, to king Charles II. and deputy to the king at arms." He married “ Šarah, eldest daughter of Henry Soley, minifter of the golpel at Ferton, in the county of Salop," who died April 5, 1665, aged 36. On her monument he is called "Randie Holme," and bears, quarterly, 1 and 4. barry of fix, Or and Az. on a canton Ermine a red rofe; 2 and 3, Arg. a cross engrailed G. furmounted by a bend, Az, On an efcutcheon of pretence, Vert, a chevron between three foles naiant, Or. P. 980. The duke of Bridgewater did not get the lordships of Ellefmere and Knochin by defcent from ord Strange. His ancestor, the lord-keeper Egerton, bouring lordship of Middle, from the purchased them, together with the neighfeoffees of William earl of Derby, whose ancestor, George Stanley, married Joan, daughter and heir of John lord Strange, of Knochin, in the time of Edw. IV. Strange of Blackmere, and Strange of Knochin, were defcended from two brothers, who came from Bretagne with Henry II. In addition to your correfpondent's information in p. 979, concerning the great earl of Shrewsbury's tomb, I fubjoin an extract from his will, relating to it; which is preferved in Sampfon Lennard's collections, Harl. MSS, 1178; and a Letter of that great warrior, extracted from an ancient minute-book of the chapter of Lichfield, begion ng in April 1433, and ending in January 1455; which I have lately had an opportuu.ty of examining. John earle of Shrewsbury, Waisford, and Waterford, 1. Talbot, Furnival and Straunge, made his will at Porte:muth the |