22 829.99 50 55 70h 229.98 51.5 55.5683 23 829.90 16.554 631 250.0549 54.5632 2429.84 55 55 735 229.79 55.5 56.5 715 25 829.74 53. 55 685 229.45 52 56.5 634 26 829.7752 55 665 229.79 52.5 56 632 27 829.7948 155 65h 229.5152 56 695 28 829.1948 54.5 68 h F229.31 46.5 55 16613 29 829.75 45 50 681 229.6448 51.5 655 30 829.5052.556 70h 229.46 54.5 57 1683 little foggy, thick upward SSE 1 little rain SSE 1: not cloudy shazy: bright sw 1. hazy wsw hazy. thick upward at eve. much gentle rain sw 2. fine eve. little rain and more wind s 3. little rain at times and more wind sw 5. little rain. fine eve and gentle wind w: little rain s 2 little rain : fine sw 1. thick upward at eve but moon visible s 1 little rain at times s2little rain. fine night : cloudy, rain E much rain: wind N. fine w 2hazy. fhower. fine www . cloudy. much rain s2rain at times ssw chiefly rain: fine wsw 2. chiefly cloudy and fhowers: fair 31 829.6048 56 65h WNW 1. thicker upward. rain 229.6849 56.565h www little rain. fair : little rain 97 Greatest, leaft, and mean State of the Barometer, Thermometer, and Hygrometer, and the Quantity of Rain, in the Year 1803. REMARKS ON THE WEATHER IN 1803. JANUARY. Wet and cold; toward the end fleet and fnow. February: very little warmer than last month, but lefs rain and fnow. March: in the former part rain, fnow, and hail, but not quite half an inch in all the month; the latter part mild and fine. April: the former part pleasant; the thermometer at 70 on the 16th; windy and rainy after, with fome thunder; and toward the end cold, with little rain and fnow. May: in general cold and wet; thunder fhowers at the end. June: very much rain, with fome thunder, and the barometer higher than in any of the preceding months; fine toward the end. July: The barometer always above 30 inches, and but little raiu, except on the 2d and 20th, accompanied with thunder; on both these days the thermometer was at 80 previous to the ftorm, and afterward funk 8 degrees on the former and 16 on the latter day. Auguft: fine, and but little rain, except on the 30th, yet not fo hot as the preceding month. Great crops of corn, well gathered, in all the furrounding counties. September: fine in general, and no rain till the 17th. October: Pleafant, and very little though frequent rain, but foggy toward the end; and on the 29th at night the fog remarkably thick. November: Mild and rainy, with a thunder form on the 22d; the barometer for three fucceflive days below 29 inches. On the 13th, at half paft eight at night, a large fiery meteor passed from E to w, at about 30 degrees s from the zenith, in the fpace of 5 or 6 feconds; it emitted a blueish light, had a train of a filvery colour, and illuminated the whole atmofphere. December: the former half cold, with fnow, fleet, and rain; the latter halfvery rainy and mild, the thermometer being never below 45, and its mean state nearly 50. On the 25th a boisterous wind, which did confiderable damage. This year offers nothing remarkable, except the meteor feen in November, and the uncommon mildness of the latter half of December. The coldeft day was the 26th of January, and the hottest the 31ft of July; but the coldeft morning was the 9th of December. The general bill of mortality, from December 14 1802 to December 13 1803, makes the burials 19582, which is 203 more than laft year. To the Editor of the NEW SERIES of the UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE. MR. EDITOR, I HAVE perufed with infinite fatisfaction your PROSPECTUS of the intended New Series of the Univerfal Magazine: among thofe fubjects which you. propofe as objects of your Publication, I find ORIGINAL CRITICISM to be one; and being myfelf a great admirer of the Chinese Language and Literature, I willingly offer you my fervices in that department, fhould you deem them worthy of being accepted. I have peruted with great attention DR. HAGER'S "Elementary Characters of the Chinefe," as well as his new elegant volume, printed at Paris, entitled, "Monument of Yu:" and, if it be confiftent with your plan, I will give you minutely my opinion on both thofe works, in a Series of Letters, commencing with the firit of them. It is my intention alfo to include in my obfervations a flight retro pect of Dr. Montucci's attack against that volume, and of the Reviewers opinions on the fame fubject. This, however, I mean to do impartially. If I find in your next number that you are difpofed to admit my Letters, I fhall immediately put in hand the engravings requifite for that purpose. What made me anxious to inveftigate the merits and demerits of Dr. Hager's and Dr. Montucci's controverfy, was the following ftriking Quere from the advocates of the former: "Pretending to be but a Chinese Tranfcriber, and founding his merits on this fole pretence, has he (Dr. Montucci) brought forward a fingle archetypal character of the 80,000, or more, that the language contains?" See Critical Review for February 1802, page 207. Now, as I had read the very judicious account of a Chinese MS. in the British Museum, which the Doctor had inferted four months previously in the Gentleman's Magazine, dated October and November 1801, and which was abridged in the Evangelical Magazine for November 1, 1801, wherein four fmall rows of accurate Chinese characters are exhibited, with a TABLE, containing no lefs than 212 references to the contents of that immenfe folio Chiuefe MS., I could not help fufpecting the fincerity of Dr. Hager's advocates in their charges against his antagonist. I therefore determined to examine most seriously the refpective merits of this conteft; and I fhall be happy, with your leave, to lay before the Public the refult of my enquiries through the medium of your Periodical Publication, for the good fuccefs of which you have my moft fincere withes; and remain, Mr. Editor, Your's truly, SINOLOGUS BEROLINENSIS. Jun. 8, 1804. In reply to the above Letter, the Editors of the Univerfal Magazine obferve to Sinologus Berolinenfis, that they willingly avail themselves of his proffered communications; only requesting that he may never step beyond the bounds of Candour and Impartiality in his difcuffion, and that his letters may not exceed that length which he is doubtless aware ought to be obferved in all communications to a periodical Mifcellany. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. THE favor of "Anna" is received. She will perceive we have availed ourselves of one of her communications, and her other will appear next month, if the will allow a few trifling corrections.- Her future correspondence is folicited. The "Dejected Man" is inadmiffible. Cornelius is informed, that our arrangements were made before the receipt of his Letter. We thank him for his good intention, but do not affent to the justice of his remarks. The hints of a "Well Wisher" have been received. Should we be encouraged to publish a half yearly fupplementary number to our Magazine, we shall probably be able to enter largely into his views; otherwife, he must be convinced his fuggeftions are incompatible with the ordinary arrangement of a monthly Miscellany. The Ellay of "W. E." is under confideration. "W. D." is recommended to attend to his fimples in his shop, and not the fimple thoughts of his brain. The request of Lieut. Fairman does not properly come within the scope of our defign, befides that his pamphlet has already paffed through a fecond edition. A. Z. came too late for infertion this month. Mr. Hopwood's Strictures on the "Rules, Orders, and Regulations of the So LUNAMAND "" amo mecoined and thall be attended to in our next. This friendly office, which he undertook at his own fuggeftion, led ultimately to the most beneficial effects. Orecord the actions, the merits, and the claims of cotemporary genius, is the proper and peculiar province of periodical works, inafmuch as it is folely their object to furnish amusement and inftruction, and to "Hold, as it were, the Mirror up to Nature." John Coakley Lettfom was born, in the year 1744, at Little Van Dyke, a small island about three miles in circumference, and fituated near Tortola, within the verge of the tropics. His ancestry may be traced far back, not that we think this any addition to the merits of a really good man. When only fix years old, young Lettfom was fent to England for the purpose of receiving his education. One of thofe fortuitous circumstances, which fometimes determine the fate of empires, and fometimes caft the character of individuals, attended our fubject on this occafion. Mr. Fothergill, brother to the celebrated physician of the fame name, and an eminent preacher among the Quakers, happened to be at the very fea-port where Dr. Lettfom landed, and who was accidentally lodged in the fame house with him. This gentleman, conceiving a predilection for the youth, took in fome measure the charge of his welfare, and placed him at the school of Mr. Thompfon, uncle to the physician of the fame name. Mr. Thompson's school being in the vicinity of Warrington, where Mr. Fothergill refided, he continued his fuperintendance of his education, and finally became his guardian on the death of Dr. LettVOL. I. After a proper time, our young adventurer was placed with Dr. Sutcliff, with a view to his future profeffion. He afterwards affiduously attended St. Thomas's Hospital for two years, and then returned to his native place, in order to take poffeffion of fome property which had devolved to him, and which on his arrival he found to confift chiefly of a number of negro flaves: thefe, to his honour as a man, he liberated, notwithstanding that he became, in confequence of this step reduced to confiderable embarraffment*. From this period Dr. Lettfom regarded his profeffional abilities as his fubfiftence; and, after fome fuccefsful practice in Tortola, he returned again to Europe, vifiting at the fame time the great medical schools of Paris, Edinburgh, and Leyden : at the latter he took his degrees. After a fhort stay at Paris, where he was introduced to fome of the most eminent characters then living, he finally, took up his refidence in London, and experienced feveral gratuitous honours. Thus fixed in the metropolis, his active philanthrophy foon began to exert itself, and he became fometimes the founder, and always the fupporter, of many charitable inftitutions. About this time he mar * We have recently learnt that he poffeffed a moiety of Little Van Dyke, which he then fold to affift fome relatives in diftrefs; but he has fince purchafed the whole ifland, in order, as he once obferved to a friend, that he might poffefs the ashes of his parents, who were interred in the island. P |