1814.] Contributions to English Synonymy. belonging to the poor, of the whole county of Norfolk, in order that others might be stimulated to see that the poor of their respective parishes might not be defrauded.* This collection forms an Octavo volume; from it I take the following, among many instances of defalcation. "In 1715 William Burney, curate of Bramerton, in the hundred of Henstead, left 100l. to purchase land for the support of a charity school, in that parish, for the benefit of the poorest children therein; but in case no master could be found, then the interest or produce was to go to the poor." The Norwich Terriers inform us, that the interest of this 100l. was paid for a few years, but that it was afterwards discontinued. "In the parish of Coltishall, in South Erpingham hundred, forty pounds were left by will of John Wells; the interest of which to be expended in purchasing bread for the poor." But the returns to the House of Commons, state this charity to have been discontinued for twenty seven years. In 1675 Nathaniel Knivett, esq. bequeathed the sum of 20l. to remain as a stock for the use of the poor of the parish of Denven, for ever; which legacy was paid to the churchwardens and overseers, and a few years afterwards was, by their successors, employed for the repairing and ornamenting the parish church, contrary to the meaning and intent of the testator. This misapplication being ascertained upon an inqui sition held at Downham in 1695, commissioners directed the churchwardens to repay the said 20l. to the overseers, to be secured upon land, or placed out at interest, and the proceeds thereof to be applied according to the will of the said Nathaniel Knivett, which order is not yet complied with. The original legacy, with the interest for nearly 130 years, is therefore due from the church estate to the parish officers, for the benefit of the poor." "9 It appears also by the returns from the parish of Oxburgh, in South Greenhoe hundred, that there are in that parish 113 acres of land, with buildings, bequeathed for the use of the poor, with the • These accounts of charities are mostly taken from the returns of all charities be longing to the poor, commanded to be made to the House of Commons in 1784, upon the passing of Mr. Gilbert's Act for that purpose; and from the Terriers, or Records of Land, in the office of the bishop of Norwich. MONTHLY MAG. No. 252. 117 For the Monthly Magazine. CONTRIBUTIONS to ENGLISH SYNONYMY. To regard-To concern-To touch. the two first are rarely applied in the proper, often in the metaphoric.sense. He regards me, who looks at me from a distance (regarder to look at); he con. cerns me, at whom I also look (con and cernere); he touches me, who is placed HESE words rise above each other much nearer than a looker-on. The conduct of a sovereign seldom regards the people so much as it concerns them. Relations should cultivate a re gard for each other; because the conduct becomes a duty, when what regards us is of each touches the family. Concern likely to touch us. Though we have the least part inaginable in a thing, it may be said to regard us; to concern us we must have a greater; but when we are sensibly affected by it, it may be said to touch us. Trusler. Some people make themselves uneasy about that which does not regard them; meddle with what ought not to concern them; and at the same time are culpably indifferent to things which touch them nearly. Trusler. Vivacity-Promptness. with the two adjectives, alive and ready. These two substantives correspond Vivacity is a native tendency, promptness an acquired habit. Vivacity is a form of sensation, promptness of action. Stimulated expression characterizes viva❤ city; instantaneous expression characterizes promptness. Vivacity is the basis promptness; and promptness is an indication of vivacity. Vivacity is opposed to indolence, and promptness to sloth. Mercenary-Venal, of Mercenary is that which is to let; venal that which is to sell. At Rome the prætorian guards were venal, and the is venal, said Brissot, that it may not be Barbarian soldiers mercenary. My pen mercenary: meaning thereby, I sell my Writings in order not to have to sell my opinions. Le caractere de la venalité est de transmettre sa proprieté; celui du mercenaire n'est que de la louer à temps. Roubaud. R Advice Advice-Counsel. Advice is the information of individual attention, and counsel the result of concerted deliberation. Advice is a solitary, and counsel a social, present. One physician advises; two physicians consult. A barrister is supposed to confer with the client's attorney, and hence his advice is called counsel. Advice, being given tête à tête, is not always so guarded as Counsel. The translators of the Bible use the word counsellor impurely, instead of ad viser. His mother was his counsellor to do Wickedly.-2 Chron. xxii. 3. Lovely-Amiable. Lovely is Saxon, and amiable is Latin, for the same idea; but as our Latin words are of later importation, they mostly be long to the written or oratoric style, and are applied only in metaphor. Physical good we can call lovely; moral qualities we call amiable. You may hear a hungry farmer at the ordinary term a roasted fllet of veal lovely; you will not hear him term it amiable. Fat beauty also is emphatically called lovely by those who have acquired a Turkish taste in female form. Something of vulgarity attaches to the epithet occasionally. The A lovely figure. An amiable disposition. The loveliest of her sex. most amiable of brothers. Around their lovely breast and head, derness, where the command was is sued, the nuisance experienced from ser pents was intolerable. The Egyptians, in like manner, commanded the people, not to destroy, or eat, the ibis, and other animals, which passed for the ene mies of their enemies. This might be wise policy, while more of the earth be. longed to animals, than to man: but in a civilized and populous country, the way to secure the multiplication of any given race of animals, is to consider its flesh as a dainty. If in our times, Moses had wanted to promote the breed and multiplication of swine, he would have ordered hams to be placed on the tables of his clergy, at the passover, and the feast of tabernacles. Hence, in order to act up to the spirit of the original command, it is plain, that swine's flesh ought to be eaten, in all countries infested by serpents. But, as in Ireland there are none, or at least no venomous serpents, an Irish Jew is not released from the conscientious obligation to this rite. Y. For the Monthly Magazine. OBSERVATIONS on the STATE of SOCIETY among the ASIATIC SUBJECTS of GREAT BRITAIN, particularly with respect to MORALS, LAWS, and RELIGION. Causes which have produced the present Situation and Character of the Hindoos. HE climate of India, particularly of Fresh dowers a mingled odor shed. Prior. T the south east provinces, must be And told her while she kept it Twould make her amiable, subdue my fa ther Friendly Amical-Amicable. Friendly is Saxon, and amical is Latin, for the same idea. Native sincerity em ploys the word friendly, oratoric parade employs the word amical. He has done me many friendly services. Nations, grown amical as the flocks and herds, shall depute their elected kings to meet at a festival of the world for commemorating the jubilee of a fifty years peace. Amicable, though not uncommon, appears to have been originally either an impure word for amical, or a misprint for amiable. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, WINE, says a zoologist, are the ap propriate enemies of serpents. Does not this fact account for the command given by Moses to the Jews, not to deroy, and eat, their swine? In the wil. allowed to be less favourable to the human constitution than the more tempe rate regions of Europe. The bodily frame is less strong and hardy, the facul ties have less energy, their exercise is less expanded and delightful, ardour is checked, the oppressed spirits yield more easily to indolence and indulgence, and the fertility of the soil easily supplying the few natural wants of the natives, aids its propensity. Nevertheless, in deve loping the causes of the Hindoo character, too much seems sometimes to have been imputed to the climate; effects greater, and of more necessary result than fair examination will confirm. The inhabitants of foreign descent, whe continue the use of animal food, especi ally the Armenians, a sober people, are more robust than the Hindoos; and, to speak of the Hindoos themselves, their miliary disciplinas discovered, under foreign discipline, a considerable share of active vigour. The Banians, and all the trading part of the community, are capable of long sedentary application. Porters 1814.] among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain. Porters, boatmen, runners, and others of the labouring class, can endure severe fatigue. Multitudes of devotees manifest a resolution and perseverance in painful sufferings altogether astonishing. And with regard to the faculties of the mind, the Brahmins, who have cultivated learning, have certainly evinced them selves an acute, subtle, and penetrating order of men. These circumstances show, that the people in general are equal at least to decent application in different lines, susceptible even of a strong impulse, though not perhaps of great continued energy. And it is reasonable to believe, that were those evils corrected which do not arise from the climate, they would in time hold a much higher place among the human species, than they are now capable of main taining. The despotic mode of government which generally is prevalent in the East, and appears at all times to have sub sisted among the Hindoos, has undoubtedly had a very considerable influence in the formation of their character. When a man finds himself dependent on the will and caprice of another, he thinks and acts as a degraded being; his regard for all that is valuable in life is reduced to the degree of personal interest which he has in it; his care for whatever extends to the rest of his race, and to future time, is sunk in the precariousness of the present hour. Fear necessarily becomes his grand principle of action; thence springs distrust; and, as arbitrary power does not excite in those over whom it tyrannizes the expectation of finding truth and justice its associates, it is not pro. ductive of integrity and veracity. The arts of deception, suppleness, and servility, are resorted to; and thus a system of falsehood and narrow selfishness is generated. Violence in the ruler quick ens the process. The first idea raised is that of self-defence against him; then follow plans of concealed and avowed hostility against his deputies and agents, from whom injury is apprehended. The despotic principle actuates all the subordinate offices, and posts of authority, and its effects become general; every man is a slave to those above him, and a despot to those below him; the more he is oppressed, the more he oppresses; and thus is diffused a temper of universal enmity, acting secretly or openly according to opportunities. Despotism is not only the principle of the government of Hindostan, but an original, fundamental, and irreversible 119 principle in the very frame of society. The law, not contenting itself with enjoining passive obedience to the magi strate or sovereign, and with having a due regard to the inequalities in condition, and subordinations in rank, which arise from the constitution of the world, and are plainly agreeable to the will of the great Creator, rests entirely on the following fundamental position :—that certain classes or races of the society are in their elementary principles, in the matter from which they were formed, ab solutely of a higher nature, of a superior order in the scale of being, to certain other classes. It is, in the opinion of the Hindoos, an awful and momentous truth, a truth maintained in full vigour to this day, a truth placed in the front of their code, that the Brahmins were formed from the mouth of Brimha, the Kheterees from his arm, the Vyse (or Bice) from his thigh, and the Sooders from his foot. Hence it is a necessary consequence, that this primeval and es sential distinction is no more mutable or defeasible, than it is possible for one of the brute creation to advance itself to the rank of man. And such is the division of the Hindoos into four great tribes or castes-the priests, the soldiers, the husbandmen or traders, and the ser◄ vile class, whose sole assigned duty is to serve the other three. Now the evils that flow from such an arrangement are infinite. Other modes of despotism lead in their very excess and abuse to a remedy, but here the chain of servitude is indissoluble and eternal, Though the highest orders be guilty of the most flagitious wickedness, pervert the use of power, become weak, arrogant, and oppressive, the frame of society can suffer no change; that order must still continue in the enjoyment and exercise of all its vast privileges and prerogatives. The lowest rank, on the contrary, is doomed to perpetual abasement and unlimited subjection. It has no relief against the most oppressive and insulting ty ranny, no hope of ever escaping from its sufferings. Though permitted indeed to employ its industry, the greatest success can never in the slightest degree rescue it from inherent dishonour; and if the genius of a Newton should arise in that class, it could have no room to expand, nor if it had, could all its excellence de liver its possessor from the obligation of administering to the most ignorant and vicious of the Brahmins. As some persons appear disposed to think the institution of castes, and their R 2 separation separation by impassable barriers, the effect of profound political wisdom, it may be well for them to consider whether it be possible to reconcile with the idea of true wisdom, that which derives both its origin and support from fraud and imposture; whether fraud and imposture can finally produce the fruits of truth and justice; and how far the supposed object of such policy, namely the good of society, is in fact fairly and solidly obtained by it. The subjection of one part to another is indeed secured; but is it good for the part so subjected (infinitely the larger part of the whole,) and its numerous posterity, through all the successions of time, to be placed in bondage to the other? It seems difficult to maintain such an assertion by arguments, which will not also recommend, both in a personal and social view, the ancient system of slavery. That such a mechanical construction of society is not favourable to the external interests of a body politic, may be easily discerned: for what public principle can exist in a state, where the greatest part of the people are totally and for ever excluded, under the highest penalties, from taking any concern in public affairs? Some, who have considered this subject philosophically, seem to rest the defence of such an ar bitrary arrangement, upon a sentiment supposed to pervade the different classes, of the inviolability of each other's rights. Had a sentiment of that nature influenced them, the rights remained very unequal; but the truth is, that the same cousequences follow which must ever be expected from unlimited power,-pride and tyranny on one side, abject servility and suffering on the other. And were it certain, as the translator of the code has intimated, "that long usage has persnaded the people of the equity of their distinctions," this would be an additional proof of their minds and judgments being debased. Nothing is better known, than that the Brahminical tribe are pre-eminent in those atrocities which disturb the peace of society: and this is but one branch of the mischiefs generated by such a system. The subdivisions of the four original castes, arising from difference of professions, and a variety of separating distinctions, are now so many, the ways of contamination (and therefore of purification) so multiplied; stains or expulsions, on the one side, so terrible, and to those, on the other, who thereby succeed to property, so advantageous, that the subject of caste is a prodigious source of wrangling, animosity, litigation, loss of time, of property, and of peace, among the people, and of influence and emolument to the Brahmins, who are the arbiters in all these matters. When these consequences are considered, together with that which must inevitably have been expected from the beginning, namely, the irregular commerce of the tribes, the political sagacity of the legislators of the Hindoos, seems not entitled to great praise, since to every public benefit which they could propose from their system, the preservation of its simplicity appears to have been essential. And although a celebrated name regards the institution of castes as a mark of considerably advanced society, there seems more probability in referring it to one of the earlier stages, in which there would indeed be priests, soldiers, and husbandmen, labouring and domestic servants, but the community would be small; and in such a community, an ordinance, apparently simple, fixing the several members and their families in the professions which they already exercised, might more easily be adopted and enforced. Had an ordinance of that nature been promulgated after the society was become numerous, and intermarriages (not before prohibited) between persons of different professions, and between their descendants, had taken place; and when occupations had been multiplied, and various gradations already established, the difficulty of carrying it permanently into execution would apparently have been insuperable. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. chances for drawing a black ball from a receptacle containing 12 black, and 36 white balls; and how many drawings should be allowed to make the chance equal. As the chances in this case are, manifestly, the same as if there were only one black ball, and three white ones, I shall, for brevity's sake, assume those numbers. The chances, therefore, for the first drawing, in favour of the black ball, are as one to three, that is, to, or expressed decimally, .25. The chance of drawing a black ball the second time is, of course, the same; but, as no second drawing would take place unless the first should fail, the fraction must be multiplied by the fraction representing the probability Observations on the intense Frost. 1814.] probability of failing the first time, or 2. The fraction, multiplied by 2, will produce, or expressed decimally .1875, which added to 4 or .25, will give 4+, or .4375, for the chances in favour of drawing a black ball in two times. The chance for the black ball the third time of drawing, will of course be the same, or; but as also no third drawing would take place, unless both the first and second drawings should have failed, the fraction must be multiplied by the probability of that failure, which is X, (equal to) by this we shall obtain for the chance of succeeding the third time, after failing the two first times, or expressed decimally .140625. Hence the sum of the chances for the first, second, and third drawings, namely: or .25 for the first drawing; or .1875 for the second, after failing the first time; 4 or .140625 for the third, after fail. ing the first and second times; TH HE following observations on the intense frost, and other phenomena of the weather of last month, may not perhaps be uninteresting to those of your readers who have made, or are acquainted with correspondent observations in other parts of the United Kingdom. Ou the morning of the new year, the thermometer was 20; in the afternoon it rose to 34°, and continued nearly stationary at that temperature the day following, when we had a heavy drizzling fog. Early in the morning of the 3d, about two inches depth of snow fell, and the most intense frost commenced that probably ever occured in this climate: it will only be necessary to give the temperature of the most remarkable days, and a general average of the whole month; the times of registering, eight 121 o'clock in the morning; one at noon; and ten at night. On the 4th, 100, 210, 11°. Eighth, 100, 180, 90. Thirteenth, 15°, 21o, 5o. Fourteenth, 80, 210, 210. Seventeenth, 20 below zero, 14°, go. Twentieth, 15°, 25°, 10°. The snow which fell here at intervals, during this frost, drifted so much, it was difficult to ascer tain its average depth, but it did not amount to more than six inches. On the 25th, the thermometer was 33°, when in the night we had some drizzling fall; the weather afterwards was gloomy and humid at mid-day, but the nights were generally frosty. The snow, when liquidated, amounted to 44 parts of an inch in depth. The general average of the temperature of the whole month is, morning 210,87; noon 28°,6; night 229,93; average of the whole, 24°,47. On the morning of the 17th, when the thermometer was 2 degrees below zero, it continued stationary at that temperature upwards of half an hour. It may be proper to observe, that the thermometer was always in its usual place of registering during this period, where it is sheltered from the falling vapour; if it had been placed on the snow during the greatest extremes of cold, when a quantity of icy vapour was falling, it very probably would have fallen 6 or 8 degrees lower. The thermometer used, was made by Jones, of Holborn, and properly graduated for the purpose of registering: its accuracy has been verified by other instruments made by dif ferent superior artists. W. PITT Carlisle, Feb. 5, 1814. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, aphoristic proposition" of your senPERFECTLY agree with the " 18th sible correspondent Mr. Capel Lofft, as it relates to astronomy, inserted in your miscellany for December, page 292; that "an universal law of nature can be referred to no intermediate cause, but must be derived immediately from the infinite and eternal energy of the Divine Mind." And, I must beg leave to add, that if this axiom be true, with regard to the motion of the heavenly bodies, it is no less so with respect to vitality of every description, whether animal or vegetable; and is more particularly observable in the natural instinct of all the various classes of animals. To what other cause can we possibly ascribe the process of a bird, (hatched but |