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rubbing the soil in their fingers, or applying it to their mouth: verily such ideas give to dirt a double degree of dirtiness. Ye chemists! ye men of observation! who consider how proper it is, when in the pursuits of knowledge, to proceed cautiously, and to use every degree of circumspection, lest ye should not discover the various causes that alter or deteriorate; blush to think how ill you have passed your time in these cautious endeavours! Feb. 10. VARRO.

For the Monthly Magazine. HABITATS and BOTANIC MEMORANDA; by MR. WINCH, of NEWCASTLE. RYNGIUM campestre. A plant which

EINGIUM introduced into

this

part of the kingdom with ballast from Holland, continues to grow at St. Peter's Quay on the north shore of Tyne, as mentioned in Wilson's Synopsis, and in the salt meadows near Friars-Goose; on the south shore, as noticed by Lawson in Ray's Works. I have also seen it on the ballast hills of Wear. N. J. W.

BUPLEURUM rotundifolium. Box hill, and between Dorking and Ranmore Common, Surrey; Mr. J. Woods.-Rodersham, near Sittingburn, Kent; Rev. J. Fenwick. Ripon, Yorkshire; Mr. Brunton.

BUPLEURUM_tenuissimum. Banks of Itchen, near Southampton; Mr. J. Woods..-On Seaton Moor, Durham; Mr. J. Backhouse.

CAUCALIS infesta. Fields about Darking, N. J. W.-Ripon, Yorkshire; Mr. Brunton.

CAUCALIS nidosa. King's park, Edinburgh, and Holy Island, Northumberland. N. J. W.-Below St. Vincent's Rocks, Bristol; Mr. Thompson.

DAUCUS maritimus. Withering. DAUCUS carota y. Fl. Brit. On the coast of Cornwall; Mr. E. Forster.The plant mentioned in Winch's Guide, p. 26, as growing on the Durham coast, is not this remarkable variety, or more probably species. See Withering's edition, where a good figure is given of it. N. J. W.

SELINUM palustre. In a ditch by the right hand side of the road, in a field between Withersluck and Pendle, York shire; Mr. Windsor.

ERITHMUM maritimum, Wallis mentions this plant as growing on rocks near Alemouth, Northumberland, which I am almost confident is a mistake.--Lightfoot observes that it is a native of the Galloway coast, but I never heard of its being

found on the north-eastern shores of Britain. N. J. W.

MEUM athamanticum. On a hill near Throckington, Northumberland; Wallis. -A likely habitat for this rare plant. N. J W.

LIGUSTICUM Scoticum. Among rocks and loose pebbles on the sea beach, a little to the north of Dunstanborough Castle, Northumberland. The only English habitar, July 18, 1804. N. J. W.

ENANTHE peucedanifolia. By the road side between Barrington and Bar moor, Northumberland; Mr. Thompson. SIUM latifolium. Ditches by the Thames, above Maidenhead, Berks; Mr. J. Woods.

SIUM nediflorum. Near Bath and Bristol; Mr. Thompson. SIUM repens. Tothill Fields; Mr. E. Forster.-Finchley Common; Mr. J. Woods. On the shores of

SIUM "erticellatum. Gare Loch, Scotland. N. J. W. SISON Amomum. Near Rochester, Kent, and Dorking, Surrey. N. J. W.Bristol; Mr. Thompson.

SISON Segetum. Near Winchelsea, on the road to Rye, Sussex; Mr. J. Woods. -Between Yarmouth and Norwich, Norfolk; Mr. D. Turner.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine,

`SIR,

FROM

ROM the time of my first introducon to the great metropolis, I have. felt much pleasure on contemplating, in my walks in and about the town, those numerous charitable and other institutions of a public nature, for the foundation and establishment of which the inhabitants are so much indebted to the piety and munificence of their ancestors. Among "those famouser acts, which for public and pious uses have been bestowed by many worshipful citizens and benefac tors," (to use the words of honest John Stow,) I have ever considered the public spirit evinced by that renowned merchant Sir Thomas Gresham, in the building of the Burse in Cornhill, subsequently called the Royal Exchange, and the endowment of a college for the advancement of science, with its revenues, as one of those emanations of a patriotic mind despising the paitry idea of family aggrandizement, which ought ever to be held up as an example to the wealthy ci tizen, as it will be contemplated with respect and veneration by every generous mind to the latest posterity.

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1814.]

Destruction of Gresham College.

Being much in the habit of making researches into our civic history and antiquities, a subject which, in the circle of my acquaintance, is sometimes the topic of conversation, it has often falten to my lot to feel the blush of indiguation rise in full warmth, when the following question has been put to me in company, both by Englishmen and foreigners, relative to the above ancient institution: "What has become of GRESHAM COLLEGE, a philosophical establishment of which we read in Stow, in Maitland, in Entick, and all the city historians, and which was founded by Sir Thomas Gresham more than two hundred years ago, for promoting the stu dy of Divinity, Geometry, Astronomy, Music, Law, Physic, and Rhetoric ?" Some of these querists, having understood, while on the Continent, that this was an institution endowed with ample revenues, and of equal stability with our two universities, have expressed the greatest surprise on my informing them that the col. lege had been pulled down nearly half a century, and the scie covered by an Excise Office!that the professors being thus turned out of their apartments, are, as an equivalent, allowed each to take to him a wife, (an article prohibited by the will of the founder, as perhaps being considered inimical to philosophical pursuits,) and are further compensated by an aug. mentation of fifty pounds towards house keeping, in addition to the like sum allowed them each annually as a stipend for delivering their lectures.

It will be observed, Mr. Editor, that I cannot possibly intend, by these remarks, to throw any reflection on the present corporation of the city, or the Company of Mercers, the successors of the trustees appointed by Sir Thomas Gresham to foster and superintend his munificent, and, what I must term, great national institution; seeing that the members of those bodies, who took upon themselves the responsibility of making such a formidable incroachment in the founder's will, have, it is most likely, been long since consign ed to the tomb of "all the Capulets;" you will therefore, I trust, indulge me in making the following observations, for which I have no doubt the reader will consider the importance of the subject a full and sufficient apology.

The dwelling house of Sir Thos. Gresham was a spacious and handsome quadrangular structure, situate between Bishopsgate street and Broad-street, in the city of London, having in the centre an open court, nearly 144 feet square,

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planted with trees, * and containing a large hall, repository, library, and a great number of rooms distributed throughout its several parts. Moreover, it appeared from its situation in the heart of the metropolis, its magnitude, and the great variety of its apartments, its covered walks, stables, gardens, &c. that the worthy and illustrious knight harboured the intention of converting the same into a college at the time the building was first planned and erected. This is I think sufficiently supported by the circumstance of his devising the same "to the mayor, commonaltie, and citizens of London," and "to the wardens and commonaltie of the mys terie of the mercers;" in trust for the use of the several professors of the beforementioned seven liberal sciences, for them "there to inhabit, study, and daily to read their lectures."+

There can, as I conceive, he no doubt that it was the mind and intention of the illustrious Gresham, that this " College," as it has always been called, should have an existence beyond the mere name, and that it should be firmly established, sapported and continued in perpetuity, as an honour and an ornament to his native city. It was certainly his earnest hope, that, instead of throwing cold water on his design, the citizens of London, on whom he had conferred such signal marks of his favour, would use their utmost endeavours to augment the revenues, and increase the establishment of his infant foundation, that it might in the progress of years assume the character of a school of learning, worthy of the first city in the world; and ultimately, by their exertions, and the bounty of public spirited individuals, arise to a consequence perhaps little inferior to the two famous Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which have attained their present exalted rank, by the exercise of similar means. This opinion is confirmed by the biogra pher of Sir Thomas, who states that, "having determined to bestow a part of his wealth in founding a college for the sciences in his native city, the principal people of the University of Cambridge endeavoured to dissuade him from thus establishing a rival institution, but his determination was fixed."

* See a view of the college, in Ward's Lives of the Greshani Professors, also in London and its Environs, 8vo. vol. iii.

p. 76.

in

Vide Will of Sir Thomas Gresham, Curia Prærog. Cantuar. + See article Gresham, Rees'sCyclopedia.

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In what manner these praise-worthy and patriotic views have been carried into effect, is notorious to all the world, and discreditable to the city of Lon. don; and painful it is to the lover of science, to read in almost every book treating of civic affairs, that an institution thus endowed, and founded with these laudable intentions, has been suffered, by the ignorance or carelessness of trustees, to fall into contempt and oblivion;" that the college is "totally destroyed;" that as for the professors, "their places have become mere sine cures;" that "the world has long forgot to enquire after them, and they seem willing to enjoy their salaries in peaceful obscurity" and, in short, that "the public derive little or no advantage from Sir Thomas's munificence;" "the original design of the institution having nearly dwindled to nothing."

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The apartment now assigned to the Gresham professors for delivering their lectures, when an audience can be found, is situated in a dark dirty nook, at the top of a long flight of stairs, in the Royal Exchange, where nobody would expect to find any such an appropriation of part of a building devoted to mercantile concerns; and the only means used to give publicity to these exhibitions, is through the medium of an occasional advertisement in some of the newspapers, and an obscure painted board covered with smoke and dust, which is sometimes to be seen hung upon the Exchange gate. I am not disposed to call in question the authority of an Act of Parliament, which a great lawyer once affirmed to be of sufficient power to do any thing but turn a woman into a man;" but I must take the liberty to remark, that if this compromising, this ac commodating disposition is encouraged, we may not unreasonably expect to see the effects it produces in regard to other institutions of a similar kind. Christ's

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Hospital, and St. Bartholomew's, may be razed to the ground, or transformed into barracks or military depots, for the use of government; and the Blue-coat, boys and the sick patients sent home to their friends, with "a sufficient allowance" for their accommodation elsewhere, as an equivalent for their being turned out of these buildings, which may,

*Brayley's Account of London, p. 495. -Ralph's Critical Review of the Public Buildings, p. 30-A Complete Guide to the British Capital; by John Wallis, p. 477, &c. &c. &c. &c.

forsooth, be found to be necessary for the public service.

I have been induced to offer these remarks, on contemplating the fine opportunity that now presents itself to the Corporation of London, and the Mercers' Company. A plan for covering Moorfields, and the site of Bethlem Hospital, with buildings on a large scale, has received the sanction of the corporation. Would it not therefore be much to the honour of the city of London, for that body to determine on the erection of a handsome and appropriate structure in this place, so near to the original spot, to be designated by its ancient name of Gresham College? It would.not per haps be thought necessary, or found convenient for the professors to have lodg ings in the college as formerly; but, certainly, the renovation of this excelleut institution, by the erection of a spacious and commodious lecture-room, externally characterized as a public building and furnished with a library, and all the mechanical apparatus, necessary for the elucidation of the sciences, is a desideratum, anxiously looked for by every man of taste and true lover of learning.

A society has been established in the city, under the name of the London Institution," for promoting the diffusion of science, literature, and the arts," and which received the royal charter in the year 1807. The members of this institution have been, from that time, endeavouring to procure a suitable edifice as a depository for their valuable library, (already consisting of several thousand volumes,) for the delivery of lectures, and other general purposes of the establish ment; but hitherto, as I am informed, without the desired success. Now would it not be a most eligible thing, for the cause of letters, and beneficial to the public at large, could an association be formed between these two bodies, (by virtue of an Act of Parliament or other.

wise,) for the establishment of a publie institution, in which the energies of both might be united in forwarding and promoting the great objects contemplated by the illustrious Gresham ?

These hints are thrown out merely as matter for consideration among those persons in the city who may feel interthe means of doing something towards ested in the cause, and he possessed of placing this long-neglected institution on a more respectable footing; and I am not without a hope, that some publicspirited member of the corporation, or Jivery, (for the trust is vested in "the Commonalty

1814.]

Making Coffee.-Light and Colours.

commonalty and citizens,") will speedily bring the matter forward in the proper place; and that effectual measures will be taken to remove the disgrace attached to the city of Loudon, in the dishonour which has been suffered so long to overcloud the munificent design of one of the most illustrious of her benefactors. Islington, Nov. 11, 1813.

J. N.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

IN

SIR,

N answer to a question, asked by one of your correspondents, relative to the mode of making coffee on the continent, allow the to say, that the great difference between the English and the continental mode is this: foreigners always burn the berry immediately before they make it into coffee, while in England the berry is frequently bought ready-burnt; subsequent to which process it soon loses its flavour. The following is the best mode of making coffee..

After grinding the berry to a fine powder, mix with it the shell and white of an egg, then put it into a coffee-pot, fill this vessel with boiling water, and then boil your coffee till it becomes fine, which will be in less than ten minutes.

If you cannot procure the shell and white of an egg, fine your coffee thus: af ter it has boiled ten minutes pour out one cup-full, then put it again into the pot, and boil it five minutes. The Italians seldom take milk in any shape, but the Germans always add boiling cream to their coffee.

CUOCO ITALIANO & TEDESCO.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

I

SIR,

OBSERVE in the last number of your Magazine a letter from Dr. Reade, stating some experiments, tending to prove the existence of only three primary colours. It is not with any view of invalidating those experiments, which indeed deserve many thanks from the lovers of science, but inerely for the purpose of stating some of the observations made by St. Pierre on this subject. It has been asserted by naturalists that there are seven primitive colours, and this they demonstrated by the prism, which by breaking a solar ray decompounds it into seven coloured rays, which are displayed in the following order, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. These, it is contended, are the seven primary colours. Now it is evident that four of these are compounded, for range is composed of yellow and red;

315

green of yellow and blue; violet of blue and red; and indigo is nothing more than a tint of blue surcharged with black. Thus we reduce the solar colours to three primordial, viz. yellow, red, and blue; to which if we add white, which is the colour of light, and black, which is the privation of it, we shall have five simple colours, with which may be compounded all' imaginable shades of colour.

It must here be observed that our philosophical machinery deceives us with its affectation of superior intelligence, not only because it ascribes false elements to nature, as when the prism displays compound for primitive colours, but by depriving her of such as are true; for how many white and black bodies must be reckoned colourless, considering that this same prism, does not exhibit these tints in the attempted decomposition of a solar ray!

This instrument leads us still further into error respecting the natural order of these very colours, by making the red ray the first in the series, and the violet ray the last. I am very much disposed to believe, that it were possible to cut a crystal with such a number of angles as would give to the refractions of the solar ray an order entirely different, and would multiply the pretended primitive colours far beyond the number of seven. authority of such a polyedron would become altogether as respectable as that of the prism, if the algebraists were to apply to it a few calculations somewhat obscure, with a seasoning of the ratiocination of the corpuscular philosophy, as they have done with regard to the effects of the triangular instrument.

The

The natural order of colours is very clearly displayed by the decomposition of the solar ray in the heavens. In a fine summer's night, when the sky is serene, and only loaded with some light vapours, sufficient to stop and refract the rays of the sun, as they traverse the extremities of the atmosphere, you will observe the moment when the sun is going to exhibit his disk that the dazzling white is visible in the horizon, the pure yellow at an elevation of forty-five degrees, the fire colour in the zenith, the pure blue forty-five degrees under it, towards the west; and in the very west, the dark veil of night still lingering in the horizon. Between the tropics this progression is far more distinct than in our climates, as there they have scarcely any horizontal refrac tion to make the light prematurely encroach on the darkness. C. C. C. Westminster, March 14, 1814,

For

For the Monthly Magazine.

[We have been favoured by the Author with the following extracts from a manuscript work, entitled, "The True Principles of Political Science, deduced from His torical Documents," preparing for the press by the REV. T. D. FOSBROOKE, M.A. F.A. S. Author of British Monachism, &c. &c.] THE

HE expedition to Portugal.-The French having committed a great error in neglecting to occupy this country in force, directly after the retreat of Sir John Moore, (Capt. Eliot's Defence of Portugal,) Marquis Wellington, then Sir Arthur Wellesley, is said to have proposed the second occupation of Portugal. The idea has proved happy. "Where there is a great superiority at sea, and plenty of soldiers to transport, an offensive war should be carried into the centre of the enemy's dominions." (Gibbon ii. 258) As the latter direction was not practicable, the other plan came nearest to it. The policy is founded upon clear principles. The Emperor Proteus invaded the country of the Barbarians, upon the idea, that nothing could reconcile then to peace but experience of the calamities of war in their own country.

Battle of Talavera. It is never eligi ble to fight with inferior numbers, because the loss is sure to be very heavy. This battle probably prevented many others, by acquainting the enemy with the very high character of the British troops, thus admirably characterized by Goldsmith: "Wat Tyler (he says) was one of those hardy spirits, so frequently found among the common English, ready to face every danger, and support every calamity."

Lines of Torres Vedras. "Francis," says Robertson, (Ch. V. A.D. 1536,) "fixed upon the only proper and effectual plan for defeating the invasion of a pow erful enemy. He determined to remain altogether upon the defensive; never to hazard a battle, or even a great skirmish, without certainty of success; to fortify his camps in a regular manner; to throw garrisons only into towns of great strength; to deprive the enemy of subsistence by laying waste the country before them, and to save the whole kingdom by sacrificing one of the provinces.'

Battle of Almeida. It will be recollected that Lord W. through want of cavalry, made the brunt of the battle to rest upon the occupation of a village, from which the French were expelled, and, in the end, worn out. It was the custom in the wars of Italy to fight one squadron

1

against another, and in lieu of that which was weary and began to retire to supply the battle with a fresh detachment, so that very few perished, and the event proved indecisive. Guicciardini, L. ii.

After this followed a suspension of ace tive operations. A famous general, says the last writer, (L. ii.) thought it a great want of discretion to expose himself to the will of fortune without any necessity; and this reason his lordship assigned for de clining battle at Fuentes Guinaldo. It is a military rule never to act offensively without superior numbers; by withdrawing a large portion of the French to observe him, he exposed the rest to a harassing warfare from the Spaniards, and confirmed them in their opinion of his army's invincibility, by the quiet in which it remained.

Battle of Salamanca. "It may prove dangerous," says Gibbon, (v. 81.) to extend the line of defence against a skilful antagonist, who is free to press or to suspend, to contract or to multiply, his various methods of attack." Marmont drew out his line to a thread, and his plan was only proper in situations where the opposing general was not free to chuse his plan of attack. The idea of Marmont was imperfect and misapplied.

Retreat from Burgos. It was conducted upon the principle of the Romans, who covered the rear with cavalry, dis rected to resist in close action the advancing enemy, but not to pursue fugitives. Tacit. Annal. xiii. 40.

Passage of the Douro, and consequent evacuation of Toro, Zamora, Burgos, &c. As Byzantium was one of the greatest passes from Europe into Asia, it had been provided with a strong garrison, and a fleet of 500 vessels was anchored in the harbour. The impetuosity of Severus disappointed this prudent scheme of defence. He left to his generals the siege of Byzantium, forced the less guarded passage of the Hellespont, and, impatient of a meaner enemy, passed forward to encounter his rival. (Gibbon, c. 5.) This policy was adopted by Lord W. before the battle of Vittoria."

The subsequent actions of this great. officer are so evidently founded upon the highest military knowledge, as to render elucidation superfluous.

Long experience in the art of war is said to produce that caution which is the best weapon, according to high authority, to cope with French impetuosity. (Roberts. Ch. V. A.D. 1521.) Generals, says Tacitus have more often succeeded by foresight, delay, and consultation, than

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