I SHOULD like to have this with the Mufic, if worth any thing. II. CLERK SAUNDERS. "But yet his mother's malifon Ir is incomplete. The laft ftan "He's mounted on his coal-black fired; "It was half up the brae. Or this very interefting Ballad I have got a copy, differing very much from that publifhed in the Border Minstrelfy, and which has many beauties that are not in that. But ere he cam to Clyde's water, Edition. I have alfo got two other fragments of it, which will furnish fome good readings; but I wifh, by faithfully felecting from as many different genuine copies as I can procure, to be able to give fo very affecting a story in as decent a drefs as the formality of an Editor will permit. 12. MAY COLVIN. I think the Ballad on this fubject, which I have heard when a child, was better than that which has been published. 13. CLERK COLVIN & THE MERMAID. Or this I think as of the laft mentioned. There is another tragical Mermaid Song in Scotland, of a more extravagant kind, which I should like to procure. 14. SWEET WILLIE AND MAY MARGARET. 5. BÓNNY BEE HO'M, biginning, By Arthur's dale as late I went, My copy of this is very imperfec 16. A humorous fong begining, (Bend your bow Robin). "For fpoiling o'her gay goud ring, &c. I THINK there is more of the than I have got. I have alfo heard it with a different burden; and I believe the mufic is worth prefers THIS beautiful Tragic Ballad ing. begins thus 16. THE Tragic Ballad of " PEG GIE BAUN," whom her lover shot for Of this affecting compofition I have "His heart was warm, his pride was they will make a pretty good and confiftent whole between them 19. A 19. A Tragic Ballad beginning O will ye go to the school, brother' Or will ye go to the wood o'Wraft- To fee whilk o's maun fa'? They wrafled up, they wraftled down, The lee lang fummer day; But out and Willie's ta'en his knife, "And did his brother slay &c. impofe upon me, or to induce me to impose upon the public; and that nothing may be tranfmitted to me as genuinely traditionary, which is not fuch in the ftricteft fense of the terms. Good Original Ballads and Songs will be thankfully received and acknowledged in any manner that fhall feem good to the contributors; provided they will authorife me to pledge myself to the public that fuch ballads or fongs fhall never, with their confent, appear in any other publication even of the author's. And as no production of this kind that is not of very confiderable merit, and every way unexceptionable, can be admitted; I muft hope to be permitted to use my own difcretion in selecting and excluding, without being expected to give any reasons for what I do. SUCH perfons as fhall be pleased to favour me with any communications will have the goodness to send them, in as small a fize as poffible, by the Poft, or by any other fafe conveyance, either to me, at the Rev. Jonathan Boucher's, Epsom, Surrey, near London, or to Mr Constable, Bookseller, Edinburgh. I am &c. HISTORY OF GALVANISM. Concluded from page 658. IO. SUPPOSE now a pile formed in this manner, and confifting of as many fets of plates as we pleafe. It must be obvious that the uppermoft plate, which will be zinc, is electrified plus, and the lowermost Vol. LXV. plate, which is copper, electrified minus. Therefore if we unite the highest and lowest plates of the pile by means of any conductor or set of conductors whatever; it follows from the known laws of electricity, that the redundancy at the top of the pile will immediately make its way to the bottom. The confequence will be a current of electricity paffing through the pile, which muft continue till the complete oxydation of the furfaces of the zinc, next the imperfect conductors, puts an end to the action, by topping the double decompofitions which are neceflary for the action of the pile.. As the quantity of electricity, or rather the number of repeated charges which pafs through the pile, must be proportional to the number of plates, we fee the reafon why the intentity of the pile muft increase with the number of plates. The abfolute quantity of electricity difcharged from any fingle pair of plates must be proportional to the furface of thefe plates. Hence the reafon why the quantity of electricity difcharged from a pile, in a given time, depends upon the furface of the plates. 11. THE effect of clectricity on animal bodies depends upon its intenfity, or rather the number of difcharges, with an interval after each, made to pafs through the body in a given time; its effect on metals, &c. depends on the abfolute quantity which pafics through the metal in a given time. When a galvanic pile is difcharged, the fmall charge contained in every pair of plates paffes through the difcharger. But thefe feparate charges cannot be fuppofed to pals inftantaneoufly, there will be an interval between each, greatly too fmall in deed to be perceived by us, and therefore the difcharge of the pile appears inftantaneous. The number of fmall difcharges therefore which pafs instantaneously (in appearance) when a pile is difcharged, is proportional to the number of plates; the intensity of each little discharge being proportional to the On the other hand, the increase 12. This hypothefis explains fo obviously the action of the pile, whether that of Volta or Davy; the neceffity of keeping the conti guous furfaces of the two metals dry; or when only one metal is prefent, the neceflity of confining the oxydation to one of its surfaces; and in fhort every phenomenon relating to the pile itself, that it is quite unneceffary to enter into any farther illustrations. Let us rather proceed to explain the chemical phenomena which refult from the ac tion of the pile. 13. SUPPOSE a gold wire connected with the uppermost plate to ter minate in a glass of water, and ano. ther gold wire from the fame water to terminate in the undermost plate of the pile; Here the circle is completed by a perfect conductor, namely, the gold wire. Of course the current of electricity muft pafs through that wire from the fummit to the bafe of the pile. It would pafs without interruption were not the wire broken in the middle and the interval fupplied with water. When the electric fluid comes to to the extremity of the wire it is obliged to traverse the water; but this is impoffible without previously combining with hydrogen. hydrogen can only be obtained at the expence of the water. Accord ingly the water is decompofed at The the the point of the wire; the oxygen gas difengaged, and the hydrogen, combined with the electricity, paffes through the water till it comes the point of the other wire. This wire having a stronger affinity for electrcity than the water has, the electric fluid enters it, and passes on to the pile. But it cannot enter the wire till it has feparated from the hydrogen. Accordingly the hydrogen gas is difengaged at the extremity of the fecond wire. Ir the liquid into which thewires are plunged be ammonia, the hydrogen is obtained at the expence of that fubftance. Of course azotic gas is difengaged at the extremity of the firft wire, and hydrogen gas at the extremity of the fecond. SUPPOSE the liquid to be water containing a little common air and = of course azote. Oxygen gas has the property of combining with azote, provided it be within its reach at the moment of its difengagement, and the refulting compound is nitric acid: in like manner hydrogen gas has the property of combining at the moment of its difengagement with azote, and the refulting compound is ammonia. Hence the reafon that in common water a little nitric acid is formed at the point of the pofitive wire, and a little ammonia at the point of the negative! SUPPOSE the liquids to contain a metallic falt whofe bafe is the oxide, of filver, mecury, &c.: hydrogen gas has the property of reducing metals provided it comes into contact with their oxides at the moment of its difengagement. Hence the reafon that in thefe cafes the metal is depofited on the negative wire. 14. SUPPOSE Copper or iron wires to be ufed to complete the circle inftead of gold wires: oxygen has the property of uniting with thefe metals, provided it comes into contact with them at the moment of its difengagement. Hence the reafon that no oxygen in that cafe feparates from the pofitive wire, but that it depofites abundance of oxygen. 15. SUPPOSE charcoal or plumbago to be employed to complete the circle instead of wire, and that the chain of it is in like manner interrupted by an imperfect conductor, as water. In that cafe, carbonic acid gas feparates from the pofitive conductor, becaufe oxygen has the property of combining with carbon, provided that body be present at the moment of its difengagement. For a fimiliar reafon carbonated hydrogen is feparated from the negative conductor. SUCH is a fhort tatement of the hypothefis which ferves to connect together the galvanic phenomena. A fuller illuftration would be unneceffary. Every reader will be enabled without difficulty, from the remarks now 'made, to explain all the known phenomena of galva niim. FROM WITMAN'S TRAVELS IN ASIATIC TURKEY, SYRIA, AND EGYPT of WE rofe at five in the morning of the 18th, and went to the chapel, where mafs was performing. We breakfafted fhortly after, and at feven o'clock left Jerufalem on our way to Bethlem, accompanied by the fuperior and feveral of the monks belonging to the Latin convent, in which we had taken up our refidence. On our quitting the city, we paffed Mount Sion, on which the walls of the city are partly built, and which is feparated by a valley from the hill where Judas Iscariot fold Jefus for thirty pieces of money. The road winds over a part of this hill. After an hour's journey, we reached a convent built by St Helena, from whence we had a view of Bethlem, the road leading to which is extremely rocky, and of a very dreary appearance. On approaching, the Dead Sea was in our view. Bethlem ftands on a lofty mountain, the foil of which abounds in chalk and mari. The inhabitants came out to welcome us on the road; and this was done by the women, by a moft hideous fhrieking noife, accompanied by geftures and diftortions, which it would be difficult to defcribe. On our paffage through the streets, the houfes were thronged with people. As we approached the convent, in which we were received with great hofpitality, we pafled beneath the ruins of an ancient gate-way, and al terwards entered a lofty building, erected by St Helena, anciently #tyled the temple, but now the convent, of St Catherine. It is ornamented with at leaft fifty lofty and beautiful to lumas of marble, of the Corinthian order; and has on its walls the remains of feveral fine paintings, ir fresa, of fcriptural fubjects, reprefenting the apoftles, patriarchs, &c. The beauty and fymmetry of the temple have been in fome meafure deftroyed by a portion of it, which they have converted into a chapel, having been divided off by the Greeks, who receiv ed permiflion from the Turks to do fa, on their confenting to pay an annual contribution. After having partaken of an excel. lent break faft, provided by the fupe. rior of the convent, we went to fee the three furprifing bafins built by Solomon, near to which he is faid to have spent much of his time. The pools, or bafins of Solomon, are three in number, and fituated in a floping hollow of the mountain, one above another; so that the waters of the uppermost defcend into the fecond, and thofe of the fecond to the third. There figure is quadrangular. The breadth is nearly the fame in all, amounting to between eighty and nine. ty paces. In their length they differ; the |