TT.

• The

Mr. Jofeph Sandford.-Remarks on Dr. Priestley.

It may not be improper to add here, that his contemporary Mr. Joseph Sandford followed dis noble example in not permitting his valuable library to be feparated and difperfed; he having bequeathed it to Exeter college, of which he was originally a member. Thefe two admirable fcholars affifted the learned editor of the magnificent edition of the "Marmora Oxonienfia" in 1763; in the Preface to which he has made honorable mention of them in these words:" fed præcipuæ debentur grates duobus viris Reverendis e Collegio Balliolenfi, qui per totum vitæ curriculum literis maxime dediti, ubique propter eruditionem omnigenam immenfamque merito jam pridem inclaruere; et dudum hujufce loci, quod et opto diu fint, ornamenta fuerunt infigniffima."

Mr. URBAN,

ACADEMICUS.

MY inclinations have lately been

very much gratified by a view of the feveral writers in Dr. Priestley's controverfy, and a very judicious expofition of the whole difpute, published under the title of "A Slight Sketch "of the Controverfy between Dr. "Priestley and his Opponents;" and while I pay the author the only tribute in my power, that of gratitude, for his very liberal entertainment, I cannot help withing that an equally ingenious pen would ftate the accounts of Mr. Gibbon and his antagonists, and ftrike the juft balance between them. The author of the "Slight "Sketch" has thought that Dr. Prieftly's opinion is not much affifted by Bofcovich's refined fpeculations on the properties of matter; for, though it be very different from what has been ufually thought, it is ftill equally dif tant from perception and reflection. This, Mr. Urban, is ftrictly true, and the arguments for Dr. Prieftley's opinion, deduced from the nature of matter, lead rather to an univerfal fcepticism than to the fupport of a particular opinion. In fact, Mr. Mitchell and Father Bofcovich feem only to have put the tortoife under the ele phant, and attributed to powers of attraction and repulfion what has been ufually attributed to matter. If, however, Dr. P. builds on this ground, he must allow that thefe powers are mate. rial, or what modern philofophers chufe to call modifications of matter, fo that the nature of matter, in the abAtract, neceffarily, according to his views, remains the fame. But there

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are other views of matter, which I do not know that Dr. P. has taken, that are not inconfiftent with his argument. He feems to have contended (for his reporter, the author of the Slight Sketch, is very full of it) that there can be no relation between matter and what we have been used to call spirit, and, confequently, that they cannot affect each other but by the means of an intermediate agent, which must be material or not, and, in either cafe, must be unfit for a connecting medium. It is, however, by no means clear, that there can be no relation between matter and fpirit. Matter may be fubftituted and refined in infinitum, or, what means the fame, in indefinitum, and ftill be as unlike fpirit as before, for we know nothing of the difference between them.-If we fuppofe fpirit to exist, it may be capable of attraction and repulfion; and, in that way, it may influence matter, or be influenced by it. We have a very common experiment, that will luftrate this argument. if a needle, touched with a load-ftone, be made to fwim on water, and a piece of bright steel, touched with the fame power, or an old kitchen poker, be placed at fome difiance, the needle is immediately icnfible of its approach, and the point or eye moves towards it, according as the head or point of the poker approaches the veffel. If we examine into the change produced in the needle, by being touched with the load-ftone, we shall find none. If we examine the properties of the power which produces thefe effects, we thall find them in every respect different from matter. As we know then a power different from matter, and yet endowed with powers of attraction and repulfion, it cannot be inconfiftent with any rules of philofophy to fuppote this power acting in the human frame. This argument will be much illuftrated by reviewing the common phænomena of electricity; and we may, with confidence conclude, that if thefe feveral powers are material, our knowledge of the properties of matter is very limited. That thefe powers poffefs qualities which are ufually attributed to fpirit, I dare not contend, but, as they are different from matter, they ought to be more fully inveftigated before we can be certain that it is matter alone of which the human frame confifts. [This ingenious writer's reafoning will be continued.]

Mif

Mifcellaneous Obfervations from various

7.

Correfpondents.

trees in

O. diflikes all the reafons affigned for planting yew church-yards, except two; one, their gloomy afpect; the other, their noxious qual ty. The first, intended to add folemnity to the confecrated ground; the other, to preferve it from the ravages of cattle. To countenance his fit reafon, he quotes Dryden, who calls the yew the mouner jew; and Virgil, who calls it the baueful yew; and, to make it ftill more fitting for the place, adds the magic ufe which Shakespeare makes of it in Macbeth ;

Liver of blafpheming Jew,

Gall of goats and-flips of zew,
Silver'd in the moon's eclipfe.
And the great dramatif's opinion
of its noxious properties is evident from
Hecate's anfwer to the aerial Ipirit;
With new fall'n dew,
From church-yard jew
I will but 'noint,

And then I'll mount, &c.
A friend to Literature wishes that
fome among the learned would direct
him in a regular courfe of reading, by
which he may be enabled to acquire a
competent knowledge of the fciences,
as all feem to have a dependance one
upon the other. He particularly re-
quets a lift of fuch books as contain
elements and introductions, general and
particular treatifes, ranged in the exact
order in which they fhould be ftudied;
pointing out at the fame time the best
authors in the English language, with
the writers for and againft their feveral
works. Alfo a catalogue of books on
any particular fubject, branching out
of other books in which fuch parti-
cular fubjects are more generally treat-
ed, by which the different fentiments
of authors may be collected by thofe
who have leiture and inclination to
compare them. This, he thinks, would
much increase the fale of books, and
mke amning in general more pleaf-
ng and profitable. If the date of the
bucks to be pointed out were to be
added, with obfervations on oratory,
memory, and a plan for a common-
place book, it would make the writer's
views ftill more complete.

7. O. thinks the account already published of the little common hedge animal the urchin or Ledge-bog, very imperfect, and fupplies many of its fingu arities watch have elcaped the noce of other naturalifts, particularly with regard to the manner of collecting

its food. It will eat, he says, whatever any other pig will eat; but is fondeft of fruit, for which it is not unufual for it to fight defperately when occafion offers; more especially when the crab apples lie in clusters about the hedges, if two or more of thefe animals meet, a combat ensues, which may be known by their fqueak. ing, and whichever is the conqueror, loads himself with the booty, by rolling among the apples, and carrying off the prize in his prickles. Thefe, our correfpondent fays, they hoard for their winter food; but at the fame time do not neglect to avail themselves of their milky food whenever they have an opportunity to fuck the cows. He afferts, that he had actually seen a hedgehog hanging to the teat of a cow at Edmonton, which it had bitten fo as to make the blood flow plentifully; for the mouth of the animal being too fmall to receive the teat of the cow in fubftance, it irritates the part by its teeth, and puts the poor beaft into great agony. For this reafon, in fome parishes the inhabitants agree to give a fmail premium to thofe who destroy them, though there is no ftatute or law to enforce the payment.

Many readers of Mr. DodЛley's Annual Register are at a lofs to know why in that for 1778 no more notice is taken (either in the Hiftory of Europe, or in the Chronicle) of the feafight of July 27, 1778, than if no fuch event had happened.

A. W. from Bath gives a ludicrous account of the humours of the place. Formerly, he fays, the phyficians were all together by the ears; the regulars of England refufing their brethren of Scotland rank, and claffing them with those only who, quitting the peltle, had just got credit enough to purchase a diploma. Now the cafe is altered. The black-legged fociety engrofs all the calumny to themfelves, and are not at all difconcerted at having the ruin of the town laid to their charge: for his own part, being himself a poet, and confequently having nothing to lofe, he can fee no great harm that can accrue to the town from that hononourable inftitution. They are certainly a fet of hofpitable gentlemen, with whom every body is welcome to eat and to drink; and there fhould be fome body, fure, to pay the reckoning. The rooks are of ufe to eat up the grubs, and the night owl to prey upon the mice, and harpers to circulate the

fpare

A correfpondent would be glad to know where the work referred to in the note on the following paffage, from page 17 of the 5th edition of the celebrated" Short Hiftory of the Oppo"fition during the lait feffion of par"liament," is to be found, as he, indeed, doubts, whether any fuch work exits: "The party were deaf to "the "tale of tears;" and all the attention paid to the unfortunate general [Bur-by the blood of our ancestors, but goyne] fcarce amounted to one "dolo

An Account of the Rife and Suppreffion of the Whue Boys in Ireland, from Young's Tour 1. Ireland, lately puhi fied.

I

Male many enquiries, fays Mr. Young, into the origin of those difturbances, and found that no fuch thing as a leveller or white boy was head of till 1760, which was long after the landing of Thurot, or the in tended expedition of M. Conflansnor was there ever any foreign coin feen among them, though reports to the contrary were circulated; and in all the evidence that was taken during ten or twelve years, in which time there appeared a vari.ty of informers, none were found, whofe tellimony could be relied on, that ever proved any foreign interpofition. Thofe very few who attempted to favour it were of the most infamous and pe‹jured characters. All the reft, whofe intereft it was to make a difcovery, if they had known it, and who concealed nothing else, pretended to no fuch knowledge. No foreign money appeared; no arms of foreign conftruction; no prefumptive proof whatever of fuch a connection. They began in Tipperary and were owing to fome inclofures of commons, which they threw down, leveil ng the ditches; and were firit known by the name of Levellers. Arter that they began with the tithe proctors (who are men that hire tithes of the rectors); and thefe proctors either screwed the cottars up to the utmoft fhilling, or re let the thes to fuch as did it. It was a common practice with them to go in parties about the country, fwearing many to be true to them, and forcing them to join by menaces, which they very often carried into execution. At last, they fet up to be the general redreflers of grievances; punished all obnoxious perfons who advanced the value of lands, or hired farms over their beads, and, having taken the adminiftration of justice into their own hands, were not very exact in the dif tribution of it, forced milers to releafe their apprentices; carried off the daughters of rich farmers; ravished them into marriages, of which four inftances happened in a fortnight. They levied ums of money on the middling and lower farmers, in order to fupport their caufe, by paying attornies, &c. for defeating profecutions against them; and many of them fub. fitted for fome years without work, fupported by these contributions. Some

times they committed confiderable rob beries, breaking into houfes, and taking the money under pretence of redreffing grievances. In the course of thefe outrages, they burnt feveral houses, and deftroyed the whole fubftance of men obnoxious to them. The barbarities they committed were fhocking.

Óne of their ufual punishments (and by no means the most fevere) was, taking people out of their beds, carrying them muffled in winter on horfeback for fome diftance, and burying them up to their chins in a hole filled with briars; not forgetting to cut off one or both their ears. In this manner the evil exifted for eight or ten years, during which time the gentlemen of the country took measures to quell them, Many of the magiftrates were active in apprehending them; but the want of evidence prevented punishment; for many of those who even fuffered by them had not spirit to profecute. The gentlemen of the country had frequent expeditions to discover them in arms; but their intelligence was fo uncommonly good by their influence over the common people, that not one party that ever went out in quest of them was fuccessful. Government offered large rewards for informations, which brought a few every year to the gal lows, without any radical cure for the evil. The reason why it was not more effective was, the neceffity that any perfon who gave evidence against them was under of quitting his house and country, or remaining expofed to their refentment; at last their violence rofe to a height. The popish inhabitants of Ballyragget, fix miles from Kilkenny, were the first of the lower people who dared openly to affociate against them; they threatened deftruction to the town; gave notice that they would attack it; were as good as their word; came 200 ftrong; drew up before a houfe, in which were 15 armed men, and fired in at the windows. The 15 men handled their arms fo well, that in a few rounds they killed 40 or 50. They fled immediately, and ever after left Bellyragget in peace. Indeed, they have never been refifted at all without fhewing a great want of fpirit and difcipline, It should, however, be obferved, that they had but very few arms, thofe in bad order, and no cartridges.

This check, Mr. Young fuppofes, contributed much to their total fuppression; and the vigilance of govern

ment