duced to a dark coloured femitransparent glafs, adhering pretty clofely to the tube. I was able, however, to feparate them;

and I am confident that the calx did not weigh more than the metal had done, whereas, computing from the proportion of 85 parts of oxygen to 15 of hydrogen (into which it is faid that water is refolvable) it will be found that it ought to have gained about 100 grains. Since then this great proportion of oxygen is not found, either in the calx, or in the water (for this alfo I examined) where will the antiphlogistians fay that we are to look for it? For fince the water, they fay, is decompofed to furnish the inflammable air, it must be fomewhere.

3. I have alfo repeated the experiment of the revival of red precipitate in inflamma. ble air over mercury; obferving particularly that there was neither fixed air, nor any fenfible quantity of water produced, though much inflaminable air difappeared. This air, therefore, muft have entered into the mercury that was revived, and did not unite with any thing that was expelled from the precipitate.

4. It is faid by the antiphlogistians, that spirit of nitre never becomes coloured by imbibing any thing, but always in confequence of giving out oxygen. I think, however, that the contrary is proved by its decompofing nitrous air. But the fame effect is produced, though not in fo remarkable a manner, by means of inflammable air. I put a quantity of dephlogisticated fpirit of nitre into a phial with a ground glais ftopper with inflammable air on its furface; and in another fimilar phial atmospherical air was confined with it. Both of thefe phials I covered with water in inverted glass jars, to prevent their having any communication with the atmosphere. After long expofure in thefe circumftances, that which had the common air on its furface never acquired any colour, or only a very little, from the effect of light tranfmitted through two glasses with water between them; but that on the furface of which the inflammable air was incumbent, acquired colour very foon. I also found, on repeating the experiment, that a part of the inflammable air had been imbibed by the acid. To make this experiment, a phial filled with the acid must be introduced into a jar of inflammable air, and part of it being poured out, the ftopper must be put into it in that fituation. Other precautions must be used which a little experience will teach.

both fixed air and phlogisticated air, from the fame elements, viz. dephlogisticated and inflammable air, or phlogiston; whereas the antiphlogiftians fay that fixed air can only be produced by the union of carbone, or charcoal, with pure air; and that phlogifticated air is a fimple fubftance, called by them azote. I thall, however, mention a few more obfervations which I think fupport what I have advanced on this fubject.

Having made much ufe of a mixture of iron filings and fulphur, for the purpose. of phlogisticating air, I have always had a large quantity which had been long expofed to the atmosphere, from which it is allowed that it attracts nothing befides dephlogifticated air. Of this mixture, then quite dry and brown, 31⁄2 ounces expofed to heat in an earthen tube gave 120 ounce measures of air, of which about one tenth was fixed air, and the rest almost wholly phlogifticated. Both these kinds of air, therefere, muft confift of dephlogifticated air from the atmosphere, and fomething contained in the iron or fulphur, both of which are maintained to be fimple fubftances. There remained a black powder ftrongly attracted by the magnet.

6. In general, iron filings and fulphur immerfed in mercury or water, or placed in a vacuum, yield inflammable air; but in fome cafes (though I do not know the reafon of the difference) this mixture has yielded phlogifticated air. Having placed a pot containing this mixture in a vacuum, I found, after fome days, that it had yielded

ounce measures of air; and examining it I found it to be completely phlogisti cated. I then put the fame mixture under water, and placing it near the fire, it gave an ounce meature more, all phlogi.ticated.

At another time, two ounce measures of air was yielded by a mixture of this kind, and being examined long after it was formed, it was found to be wholly phlogifticated. It might, however, have been inflammable air which had undergone that change.

7. From a quantity of calx of lead, part grey and part yellow, in a glass tube, I got about its bulk of almoft pure fixed air; and the refiduum extinguished a candle. Where could be the carbone in this cafe?

8. A folution of copper in volatile alkali, gave phlogifticated air with the marine acid; and it will not be easy to fay where this azote existed before the process.

9. It is generally thought that the fixed air contained in fallen lime has been attracted from the atmosphere, in which

is

the place. Not the prefent owner, nor many generations after him, will fee the value of eftates leffen in this neighbourhood, fince the furrounding hills are compofed of little elle but coal and ore; and, before any fuch depreciation can take place, muft literally be removed.

The whole district, where these minerals abound, extends about eight miles in length, and four in breadth. Two ranges of hills bound this space, having a valley betwixt them; in which ftands the town of Myrther.

The first person who difcovered mines in these parts, and determined to work them, was a Mr. BACON. A leafe of the furrounding country, fo far as the mines extended, was granted to him for the term of 99 years, at the yearly rent of two hundred pounds. Having the command of an extenfive capital, he immediately built forges, and began the manufacture of iron. But it happened in this, as it has in many great undertakings, that the first promoter reaped very little benefit from his new fpeculations. Mr. BACON, whether from mifmanagement, or fome other unavoidable caufe, fucceeded fo ill, that the works were for fome time entirely ftopped. It is likely the want of water-carriage from Myrther to the diftant fea ports, enhanced fo much the price of the goods, that they could not be brought cheap enough to market to enfure any great demand. The advantage, however, of pur. fuing the undertaking appeared fo manifeft, that it was not long before the heirs of Mr. BACON, who foon after his failure died, let one part of the diftrict to a Mr. CRAWSHAY, of London, for the yearly rent of five thousand pounds. This gentleman had a commanding capital of feventy thousand pounds to begin with; but faw clearly, that the most could not be made of the natural advantages of the place without the benefit of water conveyance for his goods. To form, however, a canal in a mountainous country was no eafy taik; yet, this difficulty was overcome by the perfevering genius of Mr. CRAWSHAY. In one inftance, fortune feemed to favour the fcheme, by a difcontinuity at the top of a lofty hill; without which advantage the canal would never have been undertaken.

Another part of the district is let to Mr. HOMFRAY, for two thoufand a year; a third part was taken by Meffrs. LEWIS and TATE; and the fourth, and laft, by Mr. HILL. Each of thefe gentlenen employs feveral forges, which, in their ftructure, look like the gloomy caftles of for

nis

Stricturæ calybum et fornacibus ignis anhelat; Vulcani domus et Vulcania nomine tellus.

To Mr. CRAWSHAY are the public indebted for thus reviving, in a degree, the commercial confequence of this country, by a fuccefsful developement of its hidden treasures. The workmen belonging to him alone amount to between two and three thoufand men. An equal number is fuppofed to be employed by the other iron-malters. The whole population of the town is eftimated at 10,000 perfons.

Numberlefs are the benefits accruing to the furrounding parts from the re-eftablifhment of this manufacture: the old roads are improved and new ones formed; extenfive markets are opened for every kind of produce; and cultivation is extended to the tops of the highest hills.

It is now in agitation to make a dramroad from Myrther to Cardiff; a distance of about twenty miles. This kind of road is an improvement on rail-roads, which are pretty generally known. Its excellence chiefly confifts in having a wide groove for the wheels to run in, by which means the lateral friction is confiderably diminished, and the weight drawn eafier along. Its coft is estimated at thirty thousand pounds. A canal for the fame diftance has already coft one hundred thoufand; and this the new projected road is meant to fupercede. If upon trial it fhould be found to answer, might not fuch roads be established all over the kingdom?

and

and would not then the mail-coaches, and every other, travel much more fafely and expeditiously? Future times may probably fee this improvement.

Mr. CRAWSHAY is, perhaps, the greateft commercial adventurer, and at the fame time the moft fuccefsful, of any in the kingdom. He prides himself in having begun life without a fixpence; yet, by addrefs and induftry, raifing a princely fortune, and becoming the first iron-mafter in the world.

It is rather remarkable, that the famous WILKINSON fhould have fet off at firft under fimilar circumstances-in a fimilar line-and meet, at last, with nearly fimilar fuccefs. The plebeian metal feems aufpicious to plebeians.

Every thing that Mr. CRAWSHAY undertakes is carried on with a peculiar degree of fpirit. An overfhot-wheel has lately been conftructed by him, beyond compare, the largest in the world: it is above fifty feet in diameter; made entirely of caft iron, and coft four thoufand pounds. The water that turns it is brought from a ftream in the hills about five miles off, on a platform of wood, fupported chiefly by ftone pillars: in one part, however, where it croffes a bridge, it has fupporters of wood; here, for the fpace of three hundred yards, it is elevated eighty feet above the bed of the river. This forms a very fingular and fublime appearance. It is hardly worth mentioning, but as a trait of a remarkable character, that Mr. CRAWSHAY lately attempted to eftablish a porpoife fishery in the river Severn; but his ufual fuccels did not attend this undertaking. The fish were found too large to be taken. in a net, and too fmall to be harpooned; in a fhort time, therefore, and after fome trifling expence, this fcheme was abandoned.

I am, Sir, &c. A. B.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR,

OU know very well, that the preju

Y dice amongst the lower claffes of people against the inclofure of commons is very powerful and is almoft univerfal. It is idle to talk to fuch perfons about the general advantages to fociety which muft neceffarily refult from converting an uncultivated heath into an arable farm; they tell you that their portion of thofe advantages will be imperceptibly fmall, that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bu; that they relinquish a certain and immediate good for one that is diftant and

precarious. If you retort, that they deceive themselves refpecting the benefits which they derive from a common, and tell them that the hours which their wife and children wafte in wandering about for a few fticks or a bunch of furze, might be more profitably employed at home; or if you tell them, (as has been afferted in one of the county reports for the board of agriculture) that if one man turns a cow upon a common in the fpring of the year for nothing, and his neighbour gives eighteen pence a week to fome farmer for keeping in his inclofure another cow of equal value; that when both are driven to market at Michaelmas, the difference of price will more than reimburse the latter for his expence, befides the additional quantity of milk which his cow will yield, in confequence of her better food, they will laugh at your reafoning, deny the truth of your statement, and, like many wifer people, as they fancy themselves, prefer living in their error to running the risk of being undeceived to their cost.

For my own part, I have always thought it rather unfeeling to make arguments for other people, and afterwards act upon them whether they admit their validity or not: what folly it is to tell thofe poor creatures that the benefits they derive from a common are merely ideal, and therefore not worth attending to! and what cruelty it is on this account to make them relinquish their imaginary benefits, and force our own on them in exchange who is prepared to ftate the precife difference between a real and imaginary benefit? In fhort, what imaginary benefit is not real to him who enjoys it? See the blind beggar dance, the cripple fing, The fot a hero, lunatic a king. The ftarving chemift in his golden views Supremely bleft, the poet in his muse.

From what fountain flows the ftream of happiness more copioufly than imagination? But I am wandering I know not whither. What I mean to obferve is, that we ought to give the poor cottagers fomething more fubftantial in exchange for the benefits, whether they be called

real or imaginary, which they derive from their common, than the hope of participating with the mafs of fociety in the general advantage which will result from the inclofure. That I am not fingular in this opinion, is evident from the claufes which have been inferted in various private inclofure bills for the extra provifion of finall proprietors: thefe are of different natures, according to circumflances and fituations. Being myself at prefent concerned in the inclosure of a

common,