Page images
PDF
EPUB

Births and Burials in London why difproportional.

ticularly required their care) depofited
in their libraries, will eafily discover.
Judge then, Sir, whether juitly, or not,
Mr S. calls them the univerfal jugglers
of mankind. I am as far from defend-
ing the characters of the monks, or the
religion they profefs, as any man in the
three kingdoms; therefore fhall fay no-
thing to the trite ftory of Galileo, or
council of Gappe; bus as most of the
outrages they committed, proceeded
from a mistaken zeal for their religion,
I think it would be lefs unchristian in
Mr S. to pity, than abuse them!
Yours, &c.

T. B.

An important Remark upon a Mistake of the Abbe DE ST PIERRE, with regard to the Salubrity of the Air at Paris beyond that of London. By a Gentleman of Amfterdam.

SOME

OME time ago looking into Tome xii. of the Moral and politicalWorks of the Abbe St Pierre, I fell upon Article xxv. where that judicious author obferves a remarkable difference in the of London and wholejomnefs of the air

*

B

C

D

that of Paris. In confulting the regifters of births and burials from 1701 to 1736, he found the number of dead amount to more than one third, above the births in London, whereas in Paris the burials were lefs than the births, in proportion of 42 to 43. Suppofing this to be matter of fact, he concludes, very naturally, that the air of London E muit be very unwholefome. He might at the fame time have concluded that in lefs than half a century Great Britain muft become almost a defert, from the numbers of people which flock from all parts of the country to fupply that capital. But ought not anfequence, fo obvious as this, have railed in M. St F Pierre a fufpicion that there was fome error in his calculation? For in all other places providence maintains a jufter proportion between deaths and births, and even in the worst of air there never happens, in the natural course, so prodigious a difference as that of more than one third. Befides, the air of London, which feems unhealthy to ftrangers, because of the fmoak of the coal, which is very thick in winter, muft of itself be at least as pure as that of any great city in the world, fince it is built on a 'continued eminence, on a gravelly foil, full of wide streets, adorn'd with abundance of fquares, plentifully fupply'd with excellent water, and seated along the bank of a very large and fine * See a like mistake. Vol, xvi. p. 626

G

63

river. Moreover it is inconceivable, or rather impoffible, that a city, where refidence is fo mortal as it is repretented, fhould encrease at that rate as it does every day, fo as in less than 130 years to become above fix times as big as it was under Queen Elizabeth. In fhort, those who have read the political arithmetick of Sir Wm Petty will find that, according to that gentleman, London doubles its inhabitants every 40 years; which would be absolutely impoffible, on the Abbe's fuppofition.

These reflections, I cannot deny, must needs still more and more embarrafs thofe calculators, who imagine the printed extracts of the registers of deaths and chriftenings to be a fufficient authority; and I have often obferved, from questions propofed to me by intelligent perfons on this fubject, that the thing was regarded as a mystery, and must be ftill fo to those who never were in England, or have not had opportunity to investigate the truth.

I fhall, therefore, take occafion, as I have obtained the neceffary lights, to folve the difficulty, and unriddle the whole affair, that has furnish'd M. de Pierre with matter for groundless and whimsical reflexions on the kings and parliament of Great Britain, in which he expreffes his aftonishment that they fhould not rather have their refidence at Oxford, or fome other place near London, than in fo unhealthy a city.

1. The city of London contains a vast number of inhabitants of different nations, as well as different religions. Be fides thofe of the epifcopal perfuafion, who are poffets'd of all the parith churches,there is a prodigious multitude of Prefbyterians, Quakers, and other Diffenters, who have their feparate meetings, befides French Refugees, of whom there are 20 churches, Germans, both Lutherans and Reformed, Swedes and Walloons, who have churches well frequented, Roman Catholics, who fill all the chapels of ambaffadors of their perfuafion, and Jews, of whom there are two fynagogues tolerably large. All thefe put together make little lets than half the inhabitants of London.

2. Every one who dies is punctually regiller'd in the parish books, in purfuance of feveral ordinances ecclefiatic or political, the particulars of which, are not to our purpote, but the price pal of them enjoins that all who e of whatever country or religion they fhall be interred no where, but eit in the common burying-place belongi

to the parish, or in fome other place allotted by the parifh for that ufe. This is matter of fact, of which I fhall give an inftance from Stow's defcription of London on account of its fingularity. In 1626 there dyed at London, a merchant, who was a Perfian both by birth and religion, and belonged to the retinue of the ambafiador, being his fecretary. His name was Maghomet Shaugfware, and he was bury'd without the churchyard of St Botolph's Bishops-gate, but in a place clofe adjoining to it. His fon erected a tomb for him, which is still to be feen,* on which was cut, in the Perfian tongue, the name of the deceased with the following words, "This

A

tomb was erected for Coya Shaughf66 ware, the chief of the fervants of the "King of Perfia, during 20 years, who 66 came here on the bufinefs of the "King of Perfia, and died in his fer- C "vice. If any Perfian travelling from "his own country comes to this place, "let him read this, and offer up a 66 prayer for the deceased. The Lord "receive his foul! Here lies Magh"omet Shaughfware, who was born in

the city of Novoy in Perfia." The funeral folemnities were perform'd in D public Auguft 10. Between the hours of 8 and 9 in the morning, the ambaífador, followed by the fon of the deceafed, and feveral other perfons, accompany'd the corps to the place where it was interred. The fon feating himfelf to the North of the fepulchre, with E his legs acrofs, read and chaunted certain things alternately, intermixing with his reading and chaunting abundance of fighs and tears. This, with other ceremonies performed over the grave, lasted near half an hour, after which the friends of the deceafed, to the number of fix, did not fail of coming to the F tomb every morning for a month together to offer up fome devotions and prayers, and would have done fo perhaps much longer if the populace, who began to infult them, had not prevented it.

3. But though they are very exact in regiftring deaths in the city of London, G they are far from being fo with relpect to births, none of which are enter'd in the parish register, but fuch as are cary'd to the common office, and confequently appear in the publick lifts. Now none are ever tranfmitted to this office, but the infants of Epifcopalians,

In 1720, when that edition of Stew was published. Upon the rebuilding of St Botolph church, the tomb ftone was removed.

because none else receive baptifm from the minister of the parish, whofe office it is to administer the fame. Hence we never fee in the common regifter of births the children of Prefbyterians, Quakers, French Refugees, Wallons, Germans, Swedes, Roman Catholics, nor Jews. And as thofe together make up almoft one half of the children that are born in London, it follows very naturally, that in the extracts from the public regifters, the number of burials muft very confiderably exceed that of births, which, you fee, would not happen, if they were both register'd with equal exactness,

An Extract of a Letter to Dr HALES, from the Rt Reg. the Lord Bishop of CLOYNE, dated Jan. 17, 1746-7, which, containing a Prejcription for the Cure of the Distemper which rages among the Horned Cattle, the Bishop defires may be communicated to the Public, he being of opinion, from the Succefs in the few Inftances in which it has been tried, that it would be a means to prejerve the Lives of Multitudes of Cattle, if timely applied, viz.

fix gallons of cold water, itir and work them frongly together, with a large flat flick for the pace of one full hour: let the whole ftand fix or eight hours, that the tar may ublide; then fcum it, and pour off the water, whercof three gallons warm are to be given the first day, two the fecond, and one the third day, at equal intervals, the dote not being lefs than a pint, nor more than a quart; and the beat being all that time, and for two or three days after, kept warm, and nourished, if it will not eat hay, with mash or gruel.

"I believe this courfe will rarely fail of fuccefs, having often obferved fevers in human kind to have been cured by a fimilar method. But, as in fevers, it often throws out puftules or ulcers on the furface of the body, fo in beats it may be prefumed to do the like; which ulcers, being anointed with a little tar, will, I doubt not, in a fhort time dry up and disappear.

"By this means the lives of infected cattle may be preferved at the expence of a gallon of tar for each. A thing which I repeat and inculcate, not only for the fake of the cattle, and their ownHers, but alfo for the benefit of mankind in general, with regard to a fever: Which terrible fubduer and destroyer of

our

EXPERIMENTS on

our fpecies, I have conftantly found to
be itself eafily fubdued by tar-water.
Nevertheless, tho' in most other cates I
find that the use of this medicine hath
generally obtained, yet in this molt dan-
gerous and frequent cafe, where its aid A
is molt wanted, and at the fame time
moft fure, I do not find that the use
thereof has equally obtained abroad in
the world.

It grieves me to think that fo many thousands of our fpecies fhould daily perifh, by a dilemper which may be eafily cured by a remedy fo ready at hand, fo easy to take, and fo cheap to purchase as tar-water, which I never knew to fail, when copioufly drank, in any fort of fever. And this I fay, after more than an hundred tryals, in my own family and neighbourhood.

B

C

GLASS TUBES,

made with glass tubes before a fire.

65

I placed a tube, of 54 inches long, and three tenths of an inch thick, at an angle of 49° with the horizon; the lower end was fupported with a pivot, and placed in a china bafon; the upper end was fupported with a glass tube, about 4 inches from the fire. The fupported tube almost immediately began to move round upon its axis, with its upper fide towards the fire, with a motion of about three times round in one minute, I tried it at feveral angles with the horizon, and found the fame effect, but when it was placed perpendicular, it ftood ftill.. -I then placed two other tubes at right angles to the face of the fire, and nearly horizontal, except a little rifing towards the fire, and upon thefe I placed a tube, of about 50 inches long, and fix tenths of an inch diameter; and prelently this fupported tube began to move towards the nre, and roll about its axis, until it came at the bars, and then kept turning round: the fupporters were about 40 inches from each other; but when I moved the supporters to 24, 25 or 26 inches from each other, the supported tube stood still; and when I placed the fupporters nearer together, the supported tube rolled from the fire, and continued to do fo to the diftance of 18 or 20 inches; and the nearer the fupporters are to each other, the fafter is the motion from the fire, aud the more remote from each other, the fatter is the motion to the fire. The motion is commonly regular (nearly) and progreflive; the larger the fire, the fwifter the motion. One of 54 inches long, and three tenths diameter, with the fupporters near each end, will turn Fround times in a minute; whereas a thick one, of seven tenths diameter, will not move more than twice round in a minute. I am, Sir, &c,

"But whatever backwardness people may have to try experiments on themfelves or their friends, yet it is hoped they may venture to try them on their cattle, and that the fuccefs of fuch tryals in fevers of brutes (for a fever it plainly is) may difpofe them to probable hopes of the fame fuccefs in their D own !pecies.

"Experiments, I grant, ought to be made with caution, and yet they may be made, and actually are made every day on probable reafons and analogy. Thus, for inftance, because I knew that tar-water was cordial and diaphoretic, and yet no inflamer, I ventured to give it in every ftage of the fmall-pox, tho' I had never heard before of its being given otherwife than as a preservative againit that diltemper; and the fuccefs antwered my expectation.

[ocr errors]

"If I can but introduce the general ufe of tar-water for this murrain, which is in truth a fever, I flatter myself this may pave the way for its general use in ail fevers whatsoever.

E

"A murrain among cattle hath been fometimes oblerved to be the forerunner of the plague among men. If that fhould prove the prefent cafe (which G God forbid) I would earneftly recommend the copious drinking of warm tar-water, from the very firit appearance of the fymptoms of fuch plague. I do alfo recommend it to be try'd in like manner againit the bite of a mad dog, when other approved medicines are not at hand.

I

* See Vol. IX. p. 36.

MY URBAN, Mansfield, Feb. 14. Cannot omit communicating to you fome furprizing experiments lately

THO. SPARROW.

An Obfervation of the Moon's Eclipfe, on
Feb. 14, 1746-7.

THE beginning was 15 minutes paft

three in the morning, apparent time, at Mansfield; then clouds interpofed. The time was found by a true meridian line, and the obfervation made with a good telescope, Mr C. C. in H a certain Diary, has given no less than feven calculations of this eclipfe; four, he tells us, are from Leadbetter's Tables, and three from new tables, founded on Sir Ifaac Newton's theory. He makes the duration 3h 36' 9" by the firft ta

bles #

66

Credulity of Women abus'd by Fortune-tellers.

bles; but the times of beginning and ending come much short of it.

[blocks in formation]

SEnd 5h 50' 29" Begin. 3 13 Durat. 2 (End Begin. 3 Durat. 2 37 58 Which duration in the 3 40 18

By the 2d Tab.

proper column is

2 ΙΟ

How this indefatigable calculator will account for thefe obvious blunders, I muft own is beyond my comprehenfion. B

The INFATUATION of fome Christian
Women.

[blocks in formation]

of rebellion against a lawful government which in this law has very wifely confulted the public virtue.- -But if the cafe was fuppofeable, that any perfon could be endow'd with fuch knowledge in futurities, that could ferve any valuA able purpofe in fociety, or to individuals, the ftatute would then be unreafonable.

houfe not far from the receptacle for mad-folk, and is doubtlefs often a prelude to it, where Females, of va- C rious appearances, daily refort to have their fortunes told them, by a woman who pretends to be able to enter into the future events of providence, by the ufe of coffee-grounds; and who ⚫ has no other visible way of fupporting herfelf, nor occafion for any, her tice in this fort of employment being very confiderable.'

prac

You will be apt to fay, the thing being notorious, and cognizable by the civil magiftrate, why did I not give information in another place?

. In answer to this, you must know, I am a man, and for that reafon excluded from these mysteries. The forceress is too much upon her guard to admit any but females. Befides, I chofe this method, that I might offer a few things to expofe the evil, in order to convince the fair fex, if poffible, by reafon and argument; an end which a judicial procefs will not fo directly answer.

Indeed the ftatutes againit witchcraft are repealed; but nevertheless, I find in the gth of Geo. II. ch. 5. "That if any one undertakes to tell fortunes, or from their fkill in any crafty science, to difcover where goods ftolen or loft may be found; upon conviction, they fhall be imprifoned a year, and stand in the pillory once every quarter, in fome market town, and may be or⚫dered to give fecurity for their good behaviour.'

[ocr errors]

Thus the fenfe of our legislature lies fully against the practice, and condemns it, as deferving public infamy. There is therefore an infufferable degree of impudence in any perfon, who dare act in violation of this ftatute. It is an aft

E

F

[ocr errors]

Н

That this cannot be the cafe, is evident, because the maker of man has referved to himself that prerogative. Such fecret things belong only to him And whenever he has infpired any with a Spirit of prophecy, it has been to answer fome great end of his government. He has never once done it, to furnish any man with the means of getting a livelyhood. The lucrative ule of the pretended knowledge determines perfons to be of the fame fpirit with Simon the forcerer; they are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity, their hearts are not right with God, and their money hall perish with them."

Would the fair fex but confider that however fond they may be of indulging a warm imagination, there are no wretches of this infamous tribe of deceivers, that can know an hundredth part of what they might know of themfelves. What they collect, in order to make their gueffes, is either by an observation of their own weakneffes, paffions, vanities, that their air and action difcover, and by fome informations they artfully obtain by the queftions put to them: and fometimes they have jetters, who find out their habitations, andlearn their condition and character.

Thus, when one of these fortune-tellers has raifed and imprefled the imagi nation of a young lady with the perfonal dejcription of the man who is to be her hufband, it is common to give proper inftructions to fome fellow fhe has been fo defcribing, who fails not to take his advantage accordingly.In fhort, fortune-telling is no other than a wicked fcheme to get money, by a confpiracy against the peace and virtue of the young, giddy and unthinking of the female fex. I am, SIR, a Well-wisher to the Happiness of the Sex. Mooor-fields, Aug. The SPECTATOR. 18, 1746.

DECREE of the King of PRUSSIA, in Favour of bis Popijh Subjects. WE Frederich, by the grace of God,

king of

man catholicks inhabiting our provinces

and

MILTON cleared of imitating the Moderns.

[ocr errors]

B

and ftates, particularly thofe that dwell within the city of our refidence of Berlin, having moft humbly represented to us, that their number is fo much increafed, that it is no longer poffible for them to meet in the place hitherto appointed for their affemblies; and having befeeched us to grant them permillion, at their own proper cost, to build a church in the faid city: For thefe causes we make it known by the preient decree, for ourselves and our Succeffors, that for important reafons, we have granted their defire; and by these prefents permit the Roman catholicks to build a church, as large as they can or will, for the celebration of divine fervice, without any hindrance, and to erect one or more steeples with little and great bells, without oppofition or re-. Itriction. And as a teltimony of our c royal grace and good-will, we fhall give and grant for that purpose a convenient place, which fhall be affigned by our commiffary to thofe deputed for that end; and that they may be able to collect wherewith to build the faid church, we will and ordain, that father Mecenati, of the order of the Carmelites at D Mantua, preacher to thofe of the French and Italian nations in our service, have full power to collect the liberalities and alms which are to be applied to the said ufe, as well among the Roman Catholicks in our states and dominions, as thofe in other places, as they fhall judge moft expedient for that purpose. We likewife give them full leave to substitute one or more perfons, duly authorifed, to remit the money fo collected into fecure hands, or to one of the principal banks in Berlin. We farther promife, for ourselves and for our fucceffors, that neither we nor they fhall, in any time to come, ever permit the faid edifice or church to be converted to any other ufe than that for which it is deftined, viz. of the Roman Catholicks.

Given at Potzdam, Nov. 22, 1746.

Mr URBAN,

E

G

67

thought we did not in the leaft derogate from, by allowing him to pick up a fimile, or borrow a defcription from the antients, while we fee the noble improvements and exact application he makes of them to his own fubject; but if he is to be reduced to the pitiful state. of a bare tranflator, where the manner, and, in fome refpect, the very words in which he is to treat the fubject, are ready laid to his hand, in what confifts the glory and merit of the poet, or what high praife is he intitled ta for his beautiful structure? where not only the materials are borrowed, but a great part of the edifice is raifed, and his part feems only to be, to give a few finishing touches, and to dedicate the building, which, if with a good affurance and tolerable addrefs he will affume the whole to himself, may perhaps make a good fhow, and dazzle the unthinking many, but with the more intelligent and difcerning will gain him little real praise.

But what does this gentleman mean by imitation? I have been used to think that imitation had only a reference to the manner of treating, and not to the fubject itself; for when the fame fubject and perions which are treated of by one author, are copied by another, and in the fame manner and phrafe which, if I miitake not, is pretty near W. L.'s affertion of Milton this I fhould call tranfcribing, or, if in a different language, tranflating, but hardly imitating. Thus we fay Virgil imitated Homer, when taking the hint from his Voyages of Ulfes he wrote thole of Aneas; but if Mr Pope had taken greater liberties with Homer, and given us a much loofer verfion of that poet than he has done, and prefuming on thefe variations, had pretended to impofe the performance upon us, as a new poem of his own, in imitation of the Iliad, we fhould hardly, for all that, have allowed him the reputation he might aim at of being an original, but very readily would rank him in the number of tranflators.

But allowing this author to use his

Iyo Man MILTON, imitation of words in his own way, let us fee what N your Magazine for January I read

the moderns, fubfcribed W. L. I agree with you, that this Efay may occafion fome fpeculation among the curious, provided the author bring any tolerable reafons for what he advances; but till he does that, he must not be furprifed if an English reader proves fomewhat refty in giving up his opinion of MILTON'S genius and fancy; which we

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »