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Pearce. puted the point, and was permitted to present Mr Pearce.-Mr Pearce soon attracted the notice and esteem of persons in the highest stations and of the greatest abilities. Besides Lord Parker, he could reckon amongst his patrons or friends, Lord Macclesfield, Mr Pulteney (afterwards Earl of Bath), Archbishop Potter, Lord Hardwicke, Sir Isaac Newton, and other illustrious personages.-In 1724, the degree of doctor of divinity was conferred on him by Archbishop Wake. The same year he dedicated to his patron the earl of Macclesfield, his edition of Longinus on the Sublime, with a new Latin version and

notes.

When the church of St Martin's was rebuilt, Dr Pearce preached a sermon at the consecration, which he afterwards printed, and accompanied with an essay on the origin and progress of temples, traced from the rude stones which were first used for altars to the noble structure of Solomon, which he considers as the first temple completely covered. His observations on that building which is called the Temple of Dagon removes part of the difficulty which presents itself in the narration of the manner in which Samson destroyed it.

The deanery of Winchester becoming vacant, Dr Pearce was appointed dean in 1739; and in the year 1744 he was elected prolocutor of the lower house of convocation for the province of Canterbury. His friends now began to think of him for the episcopal dignity; but Mr Dean's language rather declined it. However, after several difficulties had been started and removed, he consented to accept the bishopric of Bangor, and promised Lord Hardwicke to do it with a good grace, He accordingly made proper acknowledgements of the royal goodness, and was consecrated Feb. 12. 1748. Upon the declining state of health of Dr Wilcocks, bishop of Rochester, the bishop of Bangor was several times applied to by Archbishop Herring to accept of Rochester, and the deanery of Westminster, in exchange for Bangor; but the bishop then first signified his desire to obtain leave to resign and retire to a private life. His lordship, however, upon being pressed, suffered himself to be prevailed upon.-" My Lord (said he to the duke of Newcastle), your grace offers these dignities to me in so generous and friendly a manner, that I promise you to accept them." Upon the death of Bishop Wilcocks he was accordingly promoted to the see of Rochester and deanery of Westminster in 1756. Bishop Sherlock died in 1761, and Lord Bath offered his interest for getting the bishop of Rochester appointed to succeed him in the diocese of London; but the bishop told his lordship, that he had determined never to be bishop of London or archbishop of Canterbury.

In the year 1763, his lordship being 73 years old, and finding himself less fit for the business of his stations as bishop and dean, informed his friend Lord Bath of his intention to resign both, and live in a retired manner upon his private fortune. Lord Bath undertook to acquaint his majesty ; who named a day and hour, when the bishop was admitted alone into the closet. He told the king, that he wished to have some interval between the fatigues of business and eternity; and desired his majesty to consult proper persons about the propriety and legality of his resignation. In about two months the king informed him, that Lord Mansfield 5

saw no objection; and that Lord Northington, who had Pearce been doubtful, on further consideration thought that the request might be complied with. Unfortunately for the bishop, Lord Bath applied for Bishop Newton to succeed. This alarmed the ministry, who thought that no dignities should be obtained but through their hands. They therefore opposed the resignation; and his majesty was informed that the bishops disliked the design. His majesty sent to him again; and at a third audience told him, that he must think no more of resigning. The bishop replied, “Sire, I am all duty and submission ;" and then retired.

In 1768 he obtained leave to resign the deanery; in 1773, he lost his lady; and after some months of lingering decay, he died at Little Ealing, June 29. 1774.

This eminent prelate distinguished himself in every part of his life by the virtues proper to his station. His literary abilities, and application to sacred and philological learning, appear by his works; the principal of which are, A letter to the clergy of the church of England, on occasion of the bishop of Rochester's commitment to the Tower, 2d edit. 1722. Miracles. of Jesus vindicated, 1727 and 1728. A review of the text of Milton, 1733. Two letters against Dr Middleton, occasioned by the doctor's letter to Waterland, on the publication of his treatise, intitled, Scripture Vindicated, 3d edit. 1752. And since his death, a commentary with notes on the four Evangelists and the acts of the Apostles, together with a new translation of St Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians, with a paraphrase and notes, have been published, with a life prefixed, frem original MSS. in 2 vols 4to.

The following character of this excellent bishop was published in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1775, and was written, as we are told, by a contemporary and friend. "The world has not lost for many years a more respectable member of society than the late Dr Pearce; nor the clergy a more pious and learned prelate. In his younger days, before he became a graduate, he published that excellent edition of Longinus, still admired and quoted by the best critics. What is said of Longinus himself by our excellent English poet, is as applicable to the editor: He is himself the great sublime he draws; for very few of his order ever arrived at that perfection in eloquence, for which he was so justly cele brated. His diction was simple, nervous, and flowing; his sentiments were just and sublime; more sublime than the heathen critic, in proportion to the superior sublimity of the Christian revelation. Yet he was never puffed up with the general applauses of the world, but of an humble deportment, resembling the meek Jesus as far as the weakness of human nature can resemble a character without sin. His countenance was always placid, and displayed the benevolence of his heart, if his extensive charity had not proved it to a demonstration. His thirst of knowledge prompted him to a very studious life, and that rendered both his complexion and constitution delicate; yet it held out by the blessing of Providence beyond the 85th year of his age; which is the more extraordinary, considering the midnight lamp had cast a paleness over his complexion; yet with all his learning and knowledge, his humility and modesty restrained him from many publications, which the world may hope for from his executors; one particularly in divinity, which has been the object of his contemplation for many years

past.

Pearce past. With a view to complete that work, and to reU tire from the bustle of the word, he struggled so hard Peri. to resign his bishopric, &c. After possessing the esteem and veneration of all who knew him for a long series of years, either as rector of a very large parish, or as a dignitary of the church, he has left the world in tears; and gone to receive the infinite reward of his piety and

virtue."

PEARCH. See PERCA, ICHTHYOLOGY Index. PEARCH-Glue, the name of a kind of glue, of remarkable strength and purity, made from the skins of pearches.

PEARL, in Natural History, a hard, white, shining body, usually roundish, found in a testaceous fish, a species of Mya; which see, CONCHOLOGY Index.

Pearls, though esteemed of the number of gems, and high valued in all ages, proceed only from a distemper in the animal that produces them, analogous to the bezoars and other stony concretions in several animals of other kinds. For an account of the mode of formation of the pearl, see CONCHOLOGY, p. 476; for the history of the pearl fishery in the bay of Condatchy in Ceylon, see CEYLON, p. 363; see also Cordiner's History of that island, 4to.

Mr Bruce mentions a muscle found in the salt springs of the Nubian desert; in many of which he found those excrescences which might be called pearls, but all of them ill formed, foul, and of a bad colour, though of the same consistence, and lodged in the same part of the body as those in the sea. - "The muscle, too (says our auther), is in every respect similar, I think larger. The outer skin or covering of it is of a vivid green. Upon removing this, which is the epidermis, what next appears is a beautiful pink without gloss, and seemingly of a calcareous nature. Below this, the mother-of-pearl, which is undermost, is a white without lustre, partaking much of the blue and very little of the red; and this is all the difference I observed between it and the pearl-bearing muscle of the Red sea.

"In Scotland, especially to the northward, in all rivers running from lakes, there are found muscles that have pearls of more than ordinary merit, though seldom of large size. They were formerly tolerably cheap, but lately the wearing of real pearls coming into fashion, those of Scotland have increased in price greatly beyond their value, and superior often to the price of oriental ones when bought in the east. The reason of this is a demand from London, where they are actually employed in work, and sold as oriental. But the excellency of all glass or paste manufactory, it is likely, will keep the price of this article, and the demand for it, within bounds, when every lady has it in her power to wear in her ears, for the price of sixpence, a pearl as beautiful in colour, more elegant in form, lighter and easier to carry, and as much bigger as she pleases, than the famous ones of Cleopatra and Servilia. In Scotland, as well as in the east, the smooth and perfect shell rarely produces a pearl; the crooked and distorted shell seldom wants one.

The mother-of-pearl manufactory is brought to the greatest perfection at Jerusalem. The most beautiful shell of this kind is that of the peninim already mentioned; but it is too brittle to be employed in any large pieces of workmanship; whence that kind named dora is most usually employed; and great quantities of this are daily brought from the Red sea to Jerusalem.

Of

these, all the fine works, the crucifixes, the wafer-boxes, Pearl. and the beads, are made, which are sent to the Spanish dominions in the New World, and produce a return incomparably greater than the staple of the greatest manufactory in the Old.

Very little is known of the natural history of the peark fish. Mr Bruce says, that, as far as he has observed, they are all stuck upright in the mud by an extremity; the muscle by one end, the pinna by the small sharp point, and the third by the hinge or square part which projects from the round. "In shallow and clear streams (says Mr Bruce), I have seen small furrows or tracks upon the sandy bottom, by which you could trace the muscle from its last station; and these not straight, but deviating into traverses and triangles, like the course of a ship in a contrary wind laid down upon a map, probably in pursuit of food. The general belief is, that the muscle is constantly stationary in a state of repose, and cannot. transfer itself from place to place. This is a vulgar prejudice, and one of those facts that are mistaken for want of sufficient pains or opportunity to make more critical observations. Others, finding the first opinion a false one, and that they are endowed with power of changing place like other animals, have, upon the same foundation, gone into the contrary extreme, so far as to attribute swiftness to them, a property surely inconsistent with their being fixed to rocks. Pliny and Solinus say that the muscles have leaders, and go in flocks; and that their leader is endowed with great cunning to protect himself and his flock from the fishers; and that, when he is taken, the others fall an easy prey. This, however, we may justly look upon to be a fable; some of the most accurate observers having discovered the motion of the muscle, which indeed is wonderful, and that they lie in heds, which is not at all so, have added the rest, to make their history complete." Our author informs us, that the muscles found in the salt springs of Nubia likewise travel far from home, and are sometimes surprised, by the ceasing of the rains, at a greater distance from their beds than they have strength and moisture to carry them. He assures us, that none of the pearl-fish are eatable ; and that they are the only fish he saw in the Red sca

that cannot be eaten.

Artificial PEARLS. Attempts have been made to take out stains from pearls, and to render the foul opaque-coloured ones equal in lustre to the oriental. Numerous processes are given for this purpose in books. of secrets and travels; but they are very far from answering what is expected from them. Pearls may be cleaned indeed from any external foulnesses by washing and rubbing them with a little Venice soap and warm water, or with ground rice and salt, with starch and powder blue, plaster of paris, coral, white vitriol and tartar, cuttle-bone, pumice-stone, and other similar substances; but a stain that reaches deep into the substance of pearls is impossible to be taken out. Nor can a number of small pearls be united into a mass similar to an entire natural one, as some pretend.

There are, however, methods of making artificial. pearls, in such manner as to be with difficulty distinguished from the best oriental. The ingredient used for this purpose was long kept a secret; but it is now discovered to be a fine silver-like substance found upon the under side of the scales of the blay or bleak fish. The scales, taken off in the usual manner, are washed and rubbed:

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rubbed with fresh parcels of fair water, and the several liquors suffered to settle: the water being then poured off, the pearly matter remains at the bottom, of the consistence of oil, called by the French essence d'orient. A little of this is dropped into a hollow bead of bluish glass, and shaken about so as to line the internal surface; after which the cavity is filled up with wax, to give solidity and weight. Pearls made in this manner are distinguishable from the natural only by their having fewer blemishes.

Mother-of-PEARL, the shell, not of the pearl oyster, but of the mytilus margaritiferus. See MYTILUS, CONCHOLOGY Index.

PEARL-Ash, a fixed alkaline salt, prepared chiefly in Germany, Russia, and Poland, by melting the salts out of the ashes of burnt wood; and having reduced them again to dryness, evaporating the moisture, and calcining them for a considerable time in a furnace moderately hot. The goodness of pearl-ashes must be distinguished by a uniform and white appearance, they are nevertheless subject to a common adulteration, not easy to be distinguished by the mere appearance: which is done by the addition of common salt. In order to find out this fraud, take a small quantity of the suspected salt; and after it has been softened by lying in the air, put it over the fire in a shovel if it contains any common salt, a crackling and slight explosion will take place as the salt grows hot.

Pearl-ashes are much used in the manufacture of glass, and require no preparation, except where very great transparency is required, as in the case of looking-glass, and the best kind of window-glass. For this purpose dissolve them in four times their weight of boiling water: when they are dissolved, let the solution be put into a clean tub, and suffered to remain there 24 hours or more. Let the clear part of the fluid be then decanted off from the sediment, and put back into the iron pot in which the solution was made; in this let the water be evaporated till the salts be left perfectly dry. Keep those that are not designed for immediate use in stone jars, well secured from moisture and air.

Mr Kirwan, who instituted a set of experiments on the alkaline substances used in bleaching, &c. (see Irish Transact. for 1789), tells us, that in 100 parts of the Dantzick pearl-ash, the vegetable alkali amounted to somewhat above 63. His pearl-ash he prepares by calcining a ley of vegetable ashes dried into a salt to whiteness. In this operation, he says, "particular care should be taken that it should not melt, as the extractive matter would not be thoroughly consumed, and the alkali would form such a union with the earthy parts as could not easily be dissolved." He has " added this caution, as Dr Lewis and Mr Dossie have inadvertently directed the contrary." We apprehend, however, that here is a little inaccuracy; and that it was not for pearlash, but for the unrefined pot-ash, that these gentlemen directed fusion. The fact is, that the American potashes, examined by them, had unquestionably suffered fusion; which was effected in the same iron pot in which the evaporation was finished, by rather increasing the fire at the end of the process: by this management, one of the most troublesome operations in the whole manufactüre, the separation of the hard salt from the vessels with hammers and chissels, was avoided; and though the extractive matter was not consumed, it was burnt to an in

dissoluble coal; so that the salt, though black itself, produced a pale or colourless solution, and was uncommonly strong. Mr Kirwan has also given tables of the quan tities of ashes and salt obtained from different vegetables; and he concludes from them, 1. "That in general weeds yield much more ashes, and their ashes much more salt, than woods; and that consequently, as to salts of the vegetable alkali kind, neither America, Trieste, nor the northern countries, possess any advantage over us. 2. That of all weeds, fumitory produces most salt, and next to it wormwood; but if we attend only to the quantity of salt in a given weight of ashes, the ashes of wormwood contain most. Trifolium fibrinum also produces more ashes and salt than fern." See POTASH.

PEARSON, JOHN, a very learned English bishop in the 17th century, was born at Snoring in 1613. After his education at Eton and Cambridge, he entered into holy orders in 1639, and was the same year collated to the prebend of Netherhaven in the church of Sarum. In 1640 he was appointed chaplain to the lord-keeper Finch, and by him presented to the living of Torrington in Suffolk. In 1650 he was made minister of St Clement's, East-Cheap, in London. In 1657, he and Mr Gunning had a dispute with two Roman Catholics upon the subject of schism; a very unfair account of which was printed at Paris in 1658. Some time after, he published at London An Exposition of the Creed, in folio, dedicated to his parishioners of St Clement's East-Cheap, to whom the substance of that excellent work had been preached several years before, and by whom he had been desired to make it public. The same year he likewise published The Golden Remains of the ever memorable Mr John Hales of Eton; to which he prefixed a preface, containing, of that great man, with whom he had been acquainted for many years, a character drawn with great elegance and force. Soon after the Restoration, he was presented by Juxon, then bishop of London, to the rectory of St Christopher's in that city; created doctor of divinity at Cambridge, in pursuance of the king's letters mandatory; installed prebendary of Ely, archdeacon of Surry; and made master of Jesus college in Cambridge; all before the end of the year 1668. March 25th 1661, he was appointed Margaret professor of divinity in that university; and, the first day of the ensuing year, was nominated one of the commissioners for the review of the liturgy in the conference at the Savoy. April 14th 1662, he was admitted master of Trinity college in Cambridge; and, in August, resigned his rectory of St Christopher's and prebend of Sarum.-In 1667 he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1672 he published at Cambridge, in 4to, Vindicia Epistolarum S.

Ignatii, in answer to M. Daillé; to which is subjoined, Isaaci Vossii epistolæ duæ adversus Davidem Blondellum. Upon the death of the celebrated Wilkins, Pearson was appointed his successor in the see of Chester, to which he was consecrated February 9th 1672-3. In 1682, his Annales Cyprianici, sive tredecim annorum, quibus S. Cyprian, inter Christianos versatus est, historia chronologica, was published at Oxford, with Fell's edition of that Father's works. Pearson was disabled from all public service by ill health a considerable time before his death, which happened at Chester, July 16. 1686. PEASANT, a hind, one whose business is in rural labour.

Pe:

Peas

Peasant.

It is amongst this order of men that a philosopher
would look for innocent and ingenious mauners. The
situation of the peasantry is such as secludes them from
the devastations of luxury and licentiousness; for when
the contagion has once reached the recesses of rural
retirement, and corrupted the minds of habitual inno
pence, that nation has reached the summit of vice, and
is hastening to that decay which has always been the
effect of vicious indulgence. The peasantry of this coun-
try still in a great measure retain that simplicity of man-
ners and rustic innocence which ought to be the cha-
racteristic of this order of society; and, in many parts,
their condition is such as, were all its advantages suf-
ficiently known, would create envy in the minds of those
who have toiled through life, amidst the bustle of the
world, in quest of that happiness which it could not
confer.

O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint,
Agricolas.

VIRGIL.

In other countries the peasants do not enjoy the same liberty as they do in our own, and are consequently not so happy. In all feudal governments they are abject slaves, entirely at the disposal of some petty despot. This was the case in Poland, where the native peasants were subject to the most horrid slavery, though those descended of the Germans, who settled in Poland during the reign of Boleslaus the Chaste and Cassimir the Great, enjoyed very distinguished privileges. Amongst the native slaves, too, those of the crown avere in a better condition than those of individuals. See POLAND.

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they render this bread more palatable, by stuffing it with Peasant.
onions and groats, carrots or green corn, and seasoning
it with sweet oil. The rye-bread is sometimes white,
and their other articles of food are eggs, salt-fish, bacon,
and mushrooms; their favourite dish is a kind of hodge
podge, made of salt or sometimes fresh meat, groats,
rye-flour, highly seasoned with onions and garlick,
which latter ingredients are much used by the Russians.
Besides, mushrooms are so exceedingly common in these
regions, as to form a very essential part of their provi-
sion. I seldom entered a cottage without seeing great
abundance of them; and in passing through the markets,
I was often astonished at the prodigious quantity exposed
for sale their variety was no less remarkable than their
number; they were of many colours, amongst which, I
particularly noticed white, black, brown, yellow, green
and pink. The common drink of the peasants is quass,
a fermented liquor, somewhat like sweet wort, made by
pouring warm water on rye or barley meal; and deem-
ed an excellent antiscorbutic. They are extremely fond
of whisky, a spirituous liquor distilled from malt, which
the poorest can occasionally command, and which their
inclination often leads them to use to great excess."

These people are extremely backward in the mechanic arts, though, where they have much intercourse with other nations, this does not appear, and therefore does not proceed from natural inability; indeed we have already given an instance of one peasant of Russia, who seems to possess very superior talents. See NEVA.

The dress of these people is well calculated for the climate in which they live: they are particularly careThe peasants of Russia, (Mr Coxe tells us) are a ful of their extremities. On their legs they wear one hardy race of men, and of great bodily strength. Their or two pair of thick worsted stockings; and they encottages are constructed with tolerable propriety, after velope their legs with wrappers of coarse flannel, or the manner of those in Lithuania; but they are very cloth, several feet in length, and over these they frepoorly furnished. The peasants are greedy of money, quently draw a pair of boots, so large as to receive and as the same anthor informs us, somewhat inclined to their bulky contents with ease. The lower sort of thieving. They afford horses to travellers, and act the people are grossly ignorant; of which we shall give a Coxe's Tra- part of coachmen and postilions. "In their common in- very surprising instance in the words of Mr Coxe.tercourse they are remarkably polite to each other: "In many families, the father marries his son while a they take off their cap at meeting; bow ceremoniously boy of seven, eight, or nine years old, to a girl of a and frequently, and usually exchange a salute. They more advanced age, in order, as it is said, to procure and Den- accompany their ordinary discourse with much action, an able-bodied woman for the domestic service: be and innumerable gestures; and are exceedingly servile cohabits with this person, now become his daughterin their expressions of deference to their superiors: in in-law, and frequently has several children by her. accosting a person of consequence, they prostrate them-In my progress through Russia, I observed in some selves, and even touch the ground with their heads. We were often struck at receiving this kind of eastern homage, not only from beggars, but frequently from children, and occasionally from some of the peasantswife, but in reality the father's concubine. These inthemselves.

cels into
Poland,
Russia,
Sweden,

mark.

"The peasants are well clothed, comfortably lodged, and seem to enjoy plenty of wholesome food. Their rye-bread, whose blackness at first disgusts the eye, and whose sourness the taste, of a delicate traveller, agrees very well with the appetite: as I became reconciled to it from use, I found it at all times no unpleasant morsel, and, when seasoned with hunger, it was quite. delicious:

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cottages, as it were, two mistresses of a family, one the
peasant's real wife, who was old enough to be his mo
ther; and the other, who was nominally the son's

cestuous marriages, sanctified by inveterate custom, and
permitted by the parish-priests, were formerly more
common than they are at present; but as the nation
becomes more refined, and the priests somewhat more
enlightened; and as they have lately been discounte-
nanced by government, they are daily falling into dis-
use; and, it is to be hoped, will be no longer tolera-
ted (A)."

The

(A)" The truth of this fact, which fell under my own observation, and which I authenticated by repeated inqui-
ries from all ranks of people, is still further confirmed by the following passage in the Antidote to the Journey into
Siberia, although the author gives another reason for those early marriages. The peasants and common people
VOL. XVI. Part I.
+
L

not

Peasant.

The peasants of Russia, like those of Poland, are divided into those of the crown and those of individuals; the first of which are in the best condition; but all of them undergo great hardships, being subject to the despotic will of some cruel overseer. They may obtain freedom, 1. By manumission on the death of their master, or otherwise: 2. By purchase; and, lastly, By serving in the army or navy. The empress has redressed some of the grievances of this class of her subjects. The hardiness of the peasants arises in a great measure from their mode of education and way of life, and from the violent changes and great extremes of heat and cold to which they are exposed.

"The peasants of Finland differ widely from the Russians in their look and dress: they have for the most part fair complexions, and many of them red hair: they shave their beards, wear their hair parted at the top, and hanging to a considerable length over their shoulders (B). We could not avoid remarking, that they were in general more civilized than the Russians; and that even in the smallest villages we were able to procure much better accommodations than we usually meet with in the largest towns which we had hitherto visited in this empire."

:

The peasants of Sweden (Mr Coxe informs us) are more honest than those in Russia; in better condition, and possessing more of the conveniencies of life, both with respect to food and furniture. "They are well clad in strong cloth of their own weaving. Their cottages, though built with wood, and only of one story, are comfortable and commodious. The room in which the family sleep is provided with ranges of beds in tiers (if I may so express myself), one above the other upon the wooden testers of the beds in which the women lie, are placed others for the reception of the men, to which they ascend by means of ladders. To a person who has just quitted Germany, and been accustomed to tolerable inns, the Swedish cottages may perhaps appear miserable hovels; to me, who had been long used to places of far inferior accommodation, they seemed almost palaces. The traveller is able to procure many conveniences, and particularly a separate room from that inhabited by the family, which could seldom be obtained in the Polish and Russian villages. During my course through those two countries, a bed was a phenomenon which seldom occurred, excepting in the large towns, and even then not always completely equipped; but the poorest huts of Sweden were never deficient in this article of comfort: an evident proof that the Swedish peasants are more civilized than those of Poland and Russia.-After having witnessed the slavery of the peasants in those two countries, it was a pleasing satisfaction to find myself again among freemen, in a kingdom where there is a more equal di

vision of property; where there is no vassalage; where Peasant the lowest order enjoy a security of their persons and Peat property; and where the advantages resulting from this right are visible to the commonest observer."

The peasants of Holland and Switzerland are all in a very tolerable condition; not subject to the undisputed controal of a hireling master, they are freemen, and enjoy in their several stations the blessings of freedom. In Bohemia, Hungary, and a great part of Germany, they are legally slaves, and suffer all the miseries attending such a condition. In Spain, Savoy, and Italy, they are little better. In France, their situation was such as to warrant the first Revolution; but by carrying. matters too far, they are now infinitely worse than they were at any former period.

PEAT, a well known inflammable substance, used in many parts of the world as fuel. There are two species:

1. A yellowish-brown or black peat, found in moorish grounds in Scotland, Holland, and Germany.— When fresh, it is of a viscid consistence, but hardens by exposure to the air. It consists, according to Kirwan, of clay mixed with calcareous earth and pyrites; sometimes also it contains common salt. While soft, it is formed into oblong pieces for fuel, after the pyritaceous and stony matters are separated. By distillation it yields water, acid, oil, and volatile alkali; the ashes containing a small proportion of fixed alkali; and being either white or red according to the proportion of pyrites contained in the substance.

The oil which is obtained from peat has a very pungent taste; and an empyreumatic smell, less fetid than that of animal substances, more so than that of mineral bitumens: it congeals in the cold into a pitchy mass, which liquefies in a small heat: it readily catches fire from a candle, but burns less vehemently than other oils, and immediately goes out upon removing the external flame; it dissolves almost totally in rectified spirit of wine into a dark brownish red liquor.

2. The second species is found near Newbury in Berkshire. In the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1757, we have an account of this species; the substance of which is as follows:

Peat is a composition of the branches, twigs, leaves, and roots of trees, with grass, straw, plants, and weeds, which having lain long in water, is formed into a mass so soft as to be cut through with a sharp spade. The colour is a blackish brown, and it is used in many places for firing. There is a stratum of this peat on each side the Kennet, near Newbury in Berks, which is from about a quarter to half a mile wide, and many miles long. The depth below the surface of the ground is from one foot to eight. Great numbers of entire trees

are

not only marry their sons at 14 and 15 years of age, but even at eight or nine, and that for the sake of having a work woman the more in the person of the son's wife: By the same rule, they try to keep their daughters single as long as possible, because they don't choose to lose a work woman. These premature marriages are of little use to the state; for which reason, methods to get the better of this custom have been sought for, and I hope will soon take place the bishops are attentive to prevent these marriages as much as possible, and have of late succeeded greatly in their endeavours. It is only the inhabitants of some of the provinces in Russia that still retain this bad custom."

(B) The Russians have generally dark complexions and hair: they also wear their beards, and cut their bair

short.

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