"When the Laird (i. e. Lord of the Manor) builds a mill, he obliges all his tenants to have their corn ground at his mill only; and fometimes to pay nearly double what the corn might be ground for at another mills. The farms are then said to be thirled, or under thirlage to the mill the ftipulated quantity of meal given as payment to the miller for grinding the corn, is called multure; and all corn grown on farms thirled to a mill, is obliged to pay multure, whether the corn be ground at that mill or elsewhere. Sometimes the tenants of one eftate are thirled to the mill of another; which, when the dues are high, is a great bar to improvement. Statiftical Account of Scotland, vol. i, PP 29, 30, 432.

"In Virginia, to this day, or at least it was fo before the Independence of America, when an eftate is advertised for fale, it is always mentioned, if the fact be fo, as a ftriking recommendation, that the premises are near to church and mill.

"In many parts of England, the tenants of a manor are still bound to grind at the lord's mill. In ancient records, mills are often noticed, as property of great value; and landlords, in letting the rest of their eftate, generally referved to themfelves the mill-house, which was no uncommon appendage to a great mansion. Cullum's Hawited, 201. Barnabe Googe, in his Foure Bookes of Husbandry, printed in 1578, gives the following account of an houfe-mill, when, as in a great houfe, there is greate neede of corne mylles, and the common mylles being farre off, the way foule, and I at my owne libertie to grinde at home, or where I lyfte, thinkynge to make a myll here at home, when neither place nor authoritie will ferve mee to build either a water-mill, or winde-mill, and a quern or a hand-mille doth but little good. and to build a horfe mill were more troublesome. When I fawe the wheeles that they use to drawe water with, turned with affes or men, I thought in the like forte the wheele of a mile might be turned: and after this fort devifed I this engine, whiche a couple of afles, guided by a boy, doo easily turne, and make very fyne meale, fuffy cient for myne owne houfe, and moft tymes for my neighbours, whom I fuffer to grinde tolle-free.' F. 10.

"In the times of feudal tyranny, the tenants of a manor were not only obliged to pay for grinding at the lord's mill, for which they paid multure, but to bake their bread at his oven, for which they paid a toll called furnage. See Kenner, Parochial Antiquities, 396. Cuftomary ovens were very common in corporate towns. In the year 1290, the Corporation of Newcastle complained to Parliament, that the Prior of Tinmouth baked bread at North Shields, which ought to have been baked at the Corporation Oven at Newcastle. See the fecond volume, P. 562. • Hotelers in thorough fare towns,' that were not cities, were fometimes allowed to bake their horfe Acad at home. Kitchin on Courts, Tit. Court Leete, 31.

"As an inftance not only of the difficulty there is to wean men from old habits, but alfo of the rigour of the proprietors of mills in cancient times, I tranfcribe the following curious law from the Statutes of the Gild ar Berwick, faid to have been enacted in 1284: Na inan fall prefume to grind quheit, maifcloch, or rye, with hand-mylnes, except he be compelled be ftorme and tempeft of wether, or be in laik of mylnes quhilk fould grind the fam ine. And in this cafe, gif any

man

man grindes at hand-mylnes, he fall give the threttein measure as multer (i. e. toll). And gif any man contraveins this our prohibition, he fall tine (i. e. lofe) his hande-mylnes perpetuallie; and fall grind his cornes at mylnes pay and the twenty-foure meafure.' Regiam Magiftatem, Statutes of the Gild, c. 19; fee also c. 42.” Vol. 1, p. 20,

The following extract is recommended to the attention of thofe closet calculators and reformers, who are too apt to afcribe every hardship experienced by the poor, to the oppressions or harth treatment of the rich; and also to those more numerous members of the community, who, from their situation as employers, may find frequent opportunities of rendering to the indigent, by kind and wholefome advice, fervices of more value than any pecuniary affistance.

"Inftead of the ill-grounded complaints, which have been fo often reiterated by writers on the poor, that the wages of induftry are in general too inadequate to provide the labourer with these comforts and Conveniences which are befitting his ftation in the community, they would better ferve the cause of the industrious peasant and manufacturer, by pointing out to them the best means of reducing their expences, without diminishing their comforts; by fuggefting and explaining the mode of preparing cheap and agreeable fubftitutes for thofe articles of diet, which, in times of fcarcity and diftrefs, exhauft fo much of the daily earnings of a working man, as to leave him little or nothing for many highly requifite conveniencies; by noticing fuch mechanical contrivances, as may, with little expence, be applied towards rendering the cottager's habitation more comfortable; and fuch improvements in the ufeful arts, as will enable him to leffen his expenditure in the article of drefs, and, in fhort, by communicating to the inhabitants of thofe parts of the kingdom, which have made the leaft progrefs in focial improvements, the fuperior skill and ingenuity of other diftricts, or of other countries, in the various branches of knowledge, which, even in the humbleft occupations, are wanted for the purposes of domeftic economy.

"It is not probable, that the arguments of philanthropists ever will have much weight in perfuading the great mafs of employers to increase the wages of the employed; for it is by imperious circumftances alone which neither master nor workman can controul, that the demands of the one, and the conceffions of the other, are regulated: but if the labourer can be perfuaded to adopt thofe economical fyftems of his neighbours, which, whilft they are cheaper, are demonftrably no lefs productive of comfort, than his own unimproved routine of ancient predilettions and prejudices, he will cultivate a field from which he is certain of being repaid for his exertions. To convince his employer that his wages ought to be raifed, may require more eloquence than he is poffefled of: but to make the wages he receives more productive, depends on a few little frugal arrangements at home. If his earnings are really infufficient to afford him the neceffaries and comforts of life, he must be miferably dependant on the good will of another; but if, on the contrary, by judicious contri

vances (fuggefted to him by neceffity, or recommended to him by the experience of others) he can be fo induced to alter his courfe of life, as to effect a confiderable faving in any one article of expence, but more efpecially in that of diet, he will thereby fecure himself a fund for future independence, and increafing gratifications. In fuch an attempt he will have the heft encouragement to proceed, because the fuccefs will depend upon himself; and, indeed, I believe it is in general the cafe, both in the elevated, and in the humble, fpheres of life, that the comforts which we so anxiously thirst after, depend more on a due attention to domeftic concerns, than on thofe extraneous (though apparently more important) circumftances, which refult from the purfuits of the profeffion we are engaged in, or the nature of the government we live under.

"There seems to be just reafon to conclude, that the miseries of the labouring poor arife lefs from the fcantinefs of their income (however much the philanthropist might with it to be increased) than from their own improvidence and unthriftiness; fince it is the fact, and I trust will be demonftrated in a fubfequent part of this work, that, in many parts of the kingdom, where the earnings of industry are moderate, the condition of the labourer is more comfortable, than in other districts, where wages are exorbitant." Vol. i, p. 492.

As there is more matter in these extenfive volumes than can even be curforily pointed out in a single article, we shall referve the remainder of our remarks upon it to another month.

(To be concluded in our next.)

ART. XI. A Compendious Syftem of Aftronomy, in a Courfe of familiar Lectures; in which the Principles of that Science are clearly elucidated, fo as to be intelligible to thofe who have not ftudied the Mathematics. Alfo Trigonometrical and Celestial Problems, with a Key to the Ephemeris, and a Vocabulary of the Terms of Science ufed in the Lectures; which latter are explained agreeably to their Application in them. By Margaret Bryan. 4to. 311 pp. il. 7s. 6d. Leigh and Sotheby. 1797.

AF

FTER an affectionate addrefs to her pupils, Mrs. Bryant proceeds to her Preface, in which the modeftly defires the indulgence of the public to her work, and profeffes

"Not to have prefumptuously offered opinions without having previously digefted thofe of the beft writers on the fubject, or to have attempted to elucidate without due observation of the principles of the feience."

She

She therefore expects fonie countenance from thofe,"

"Whofe extenfive learning and liberality lead them to judge im partially, for they, rifing fuperior to the falfe and vulgar prejudices of many, who fuppofe thefe fubjects too fublime for female introfpection, (afcribing to mental powers the feeblenefs which characterises the conftitution) invalidate the idea by affording all laudable exertions their avowed patronage, acknowledging truth, although enfeebled by fe male attire."

To the preface is added, the teftimonial of Dr. Hutton in favour of the work; and a numerous lift of fubfcribers completes the preliminaries of the volume.

As a favourable fpecimen of Mrs. Bryant's ftyle and manner of defcription, we shall prefent our readers with a part of her fecond chapter, which treats of the origin of aftronomy.

"The defcendants of Noah, by their numerous progeny, being obliged to extend themselves for the purpose of supplying their fa milies with neceffary food, formed a numerous nation in the wildernefs of Shinar: where the cultivation of the land becoming their principal object, it was natural for them to endeavour to ascertain the return of particular feafons, in order to provide for the exigencies of each.

"The human mind has always been found capable of providing for the emergencies of our prefent ftate, when called into action, although by the feeble efforts obfervable in fome minds, one would be led to confider it as a poor refource; however, this imbecility must not be accounted the natural, but rather the infirm and accidental state of the mind, produced by inactivity.

"No doubt, when the importance of the obfervation firft caufed the Chaldeans to reflect on the motions of the heavenly bodies, they were furprized that curiofity had not previously led them to obferve, what neceffity then compelled them to investigate,

"The Chaldeans faw, that at fome periods the fun afforded them more of his influence than at others; and perceived, that according to these circumftances their corn in ripening was either benefitted or otherwife, fo as to produce full ears or icanty and imperfect grain. But how were they to enjoy the benefit of the former effect, or to avoid the difadvantage of the latter, unless they could foresee the returns of thefe periods. To obtain the defirable purpose of knowing when particular feafons would return, the Chaldeans found the courfes of the moon particularly well calculated: perceiving her to rise and set to their horizon, to change her places of rifing and fetting each time, and to vary her form, they took notice of the time in which the performed all her changes; and they obferved that after one courte was accomplished, all the fame circumftances were renewed and rep-atéd as before. By remarking how often the moon performed her changes from one ftare of the fun, in respect to that part of the globe, to an other, they furnished themselves with regular periods, and were thus enabled to avail themselves of the advantages offered them by each feafon,

" De

Deriving fuch great advantages from the moon, it would not have been furprizing if they had paid that adoration to her which is afcribed to them by fome hiftorians, although apparently without juft grounds for fuch an affertion. Why should their feftivals, at the time of the new moon, be addreffed to her as their object of adoration? It is more rational to fuppofe it as the period fixed upon to offer their public thanks to the Deity for fo great a gift; and the new moons, which renewed the seasons, being kept the most folemn of all, ferves to ftrengthen this latter opinion, as it proves that the benefit derived from the moon, by the information it conveyed, was what excited their praise and thankfulness.

"As they had not at this period claffed the ftars in conftellations, they could not note the progrefs of the moon by their aid, but only by her different appearances and fituation in refpect to the horizon, to obferve which they aflembled on high places or in deferts.

"Their periodical facrifices always ended in a repaft, at which, what had been facrificed was eaten with gratitude by the whole company. Thefe devotional and convivial meetings tended, no doubt, to harmonize their minds, and conciliate their mutual good-will.

The festival of the new moon continued for a confiderable time, and was obferved in many nations; we read of its being a custom among the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Perfians, the Turks, the Greeks, and the Romans, down to the time of the Gauls.

"After the reftitution of the obfervation of times and seasons by the moon, the next thing which appears to have excited the attention of aftronomers, was the dividing time into years; for which purpose they began to group the ftars, that they obferved the fun to pafs by in his apparent revolution, into conftellations, under fome familiar figure emblematical of the refpective seasons in which the fun was in thofe figns.

"This improvement is afcribed by fome authors to the Egyptians, by others to the Chaldeans, which latter I have ventured to adopt, as the arguments in favour of that decifion I think incontrovertible; which are, that admitting the character afcribed to each conftellation in the Zodiac to be fymbolical of the feafons, as no doubt they were, they, having no other types of their ideas but what were expreffed in this hieroglyphical manner, the application of them to the feafons in which the fun paffed through thofe figns anfwered exactly to their Shinar, but by no means to Egypt, which at the feafon repesented by Virgo, or the Gleaner, is inundated by the overflowing of the Nile. The waters not withdrawing till the latter end of October, the time of harveft in Egypt is not till March and April, as the grain cannot be fown till November.

This circumftance, doubtlefs, entirely invalidates the idea of the Egyptians being the dividers of the Zodiac; and to fuppofe that names were given to thofe conftellations, and that they should include fuch a certain portion of that circle in the heavens without its being previously divided, is an incongruous idea, and not to be admitted: therefore we may allow, with many others, the divifion of the Zodiac to be more ancient than the Egyptian colony. Have we not good reafon then to afcribe it to the Chaldeans?. They being the first people

after