351 being heard the travellers haftened to their affiftance. The fkiff being happily found on the fhore undamaged, the humane trangers put off to the little island, where they found the brothers almoft exhausted. When food was offered to the elder brother, his ftomach could hardly bear the fmaileft portion; and after he was conveyed to his father's houfe, he continued fome days in a very dangerous diforder; of which however he recovered, and furvived this difafter seven and thirty years. The other foon retrieved his ftrength and health; and in the year 1691 drew up this narration, as a pious acknowledgment of God's providence." The fame author in his account of the animals and quadrupeds of Norway. fays, " But the moft fingular of all thefe animals is the Lemming, the native country of which is faid to be the mountains of Kolen in Lapland. This creature feems to be a fpecies of the rat, with a short tail, very short legs, large whiskers, fmall eyes and ears, and long tharp teeth. About once or twice in twenty years they appear in vaft numbers, advancing along the ground, and devouring every thing that is green, like a peftilence. Some flocks of them march from he Kolen, through Nordland and Finmark, to the wettern ocean, which they enter, and, after having fwam about for fome time, perith. Other bodies taka their route through Swedish Laplan i to the Sinus Bothnicus, where they drown in the fame manner. Taez advance in a direct line; and if they are obliged to go round a large ftowe or rock, they feek their former line of direction, in which they proceed. they are opposed by the pealants, the will fand and bark at them: Never thelefs, great numbers of them are detroyed and eaten by the Lapland dog If a boat happens to be in their way, lying in a river or creek which they intend to pafs, they march in at ons end or fide of the veffel, and out at the other. The appearance of thee vermin is looked upon as an omen of a bad harvest, and heretofore ther was a form of exorcifm ufed ag them by the Romish clergy: but it th prognofticate a fcanty crop, they m amends in occationing a good hunting 1768. A SURPRIZING ESCAPE. canina, each to the amount of an ounce twice a day; and this was all they could find at one fearch. Their ftomachs were eased, their fpirits refreshed, and the acute pains which had begun to feize their arms and shoulders, immediately abated. Eleven days did they fubfift on this vegetable; but it failed on the twelfth, and they were reduced to the brink of defpair, when they accidentally found a little spot overgrown with forrel, which they confumed at one meal: nevertheless, it was reproduced in less than four and twenty hours; and the devout young men, with tears of gratitude, and due acknowledgments to heaven, owned it as an interpofition of Providence in their behalf. During the fuft days of their fuffering, they had called and beckoned to their dog, and used every poffibie allurement to induce that animal to fwim over, that they might kill him for their fubfiftence; but he would not obey their figuals. They were now reduced to fuch a weak condition, that they could not ftand, and hardly make thift to creep from their hut in queft of the forrel. The elder was feized, with a violent palpitation of the heart, which throbbed fo loud as to be heard at fome distance, and he appeared to be in extremity. The younger with his knife, engraved upon a piece of timber a short account of their unhappy fate, and pointed out a text in the Pfalins, on which he requested that, their fune. ral fermon might be preached. Then they joined in fervent prayer, and, embracing one another, refigned themfelves to death without murmuring. Their dog had tarried eight days with their baggage on the shore, and then returned to their father's houfe, where he refused food; but howled and moaned inceflantly. From the grief of this faithful animal, the parents concluded that their children had met with fome misfortune, and dispatched a man in fearch of them to the mountain. He arrived on the eleventh day at the lake, where he found their cloaths, and, concluding they were drowned, returned with these melancholy tidings. On the thirteenth day of their famine, the youths having by this time given up all hope of relief, heard the found of horfes travelling up the mountains. They forthwith raised their voices, and, fea 11. f Of the Ducks of Iceland. 352 66 Of the Ducks of Iceland, from the Same. E reckon ten different kinds W of wild ducks (in Iceland) five of which are fit to be eaten, and well flavoured. Of these the downbird is the most efteemed and cherished. The duck is of the common-fize, and a dark-brown colour, except on the breaft, which is of a lighter hue: The drake is as large as a goofe, and has a great number of white feathers. They delight to build in little lonely iflands: But the people have inticed them to the main land by tender ufage, and fcreening them from all disturbance. Thus treated, they will fit upon their eggs, when vifited, and even fuffer them to be taken away, once or twice in a feafon. The duck will continue to lay others, until he is allowed to hatch a brood: In that cafe they will return next year, and multiply on the July The Turkey being a Fowl in high Efteem at the tables of the Curious, the following Method of rearing that tender Bird, fuccefsfully practifed among the Swedes, may prove ferviceable to our Housewives. PLUNGE the chick into a veffel of cold water, the very hour, if poffible, at least the very day, it is hatched, forcing it to fwallow one whole pepper-corn, after which return it to the mother. From that time it will become hardy, and fear the cold no more than a hen's chick. But it must be remembered that this delicate fpecies of fowl is alfo fubject to a particular diforder when young, which frequently carries it off in a few days. When they begin to droop, therefore, examine carefully the feathers on the rump, and you will find there two or three, the quill part of which shall be filled with blood. Draw thefe and the chick will recover, and afterward require no other care than is bestowed on common poultry. Three parishes in Sweden, which ufe this method, are faid to have gained feveral hundred pounds by the rearing of turkies. In their nefts, fame pot pluck the down from their A QUESTION by Mr. W. BAXTER. feet high, and the other 180, and their distance 230; now between these towers is a concave trench, forming a femi-ellipfis, whofe tranverfe diameter is the distance of the towers, and the femi-conjugate 100: It is required to find the length of a ladder standing in the curve of the ellipfis, fo that it, hall just reach the top of each tower? To the AUTHOR, &c. B Remarks of Pad. Faolo (p. 175-) EING very much pleased with the A Friend to the Memory of Edw. KI, 17681 A SPEECH. A SPEE С Н. If there the doors of the house cous ftantly shut againft ftrangers, had contented himself with infifting, that there is a standing order to this effect, and that a ftanding order fhould be strictly obferved, I should have thought it my duty to fubmit to his lordship's motion, though I confess with some reluctance. But when the noble lord, not satisfied with an authority paramount to all argument, thinks it neceflary to give reafons for his opinion, he feems to admit that the point is at least difputable; therefore I hope he will permit me to offer fome reasons to the house, why I differ from him entirely. The only tolerable pretence for refufing admittance to trangers of decent appearance and behaviour, is, left there should not be room for the members to attend to bufinefs with eafe and convenience to themselves. Whenever this happens, and we all know how feldom it does happen, every member has a right (and I dare fay his lordship will feldom fail to make use of it) to move that the houfe may be cleared. In every other light, I think that, fo far from being offended at the prefence of ftrangers, we fhould wish to have as many witnesses as poffible of all our proceedings. What his lordship's motives may be, I cannot pretend to determine; but, for my own part, as I am neither afhamed nor afraid of what I fay in this house, I care not how foon, or how univerfally it is reported abroad. We are not a council of ftate, nor is it our business to deliberate upon, or direct the fecret operations of government, though it be our duty fometimes to enquire into them. We are the reprefentatives of the people, and in effect a popular affembly. To aim at fecrecy in our debates, would not only be a vain and ridiculous attempt, but, I apprehend, abfolutely contrary to the principle upon which this houfe is constituted. It would be turning a democratical affembly into the form of an aristocracy. The nobility of Venice wifely bar the doors of their fenate-house, because they are not the reprefentatives, but the tyrants of the people. Such a policy may be prudent and neceffary, where the inteJuly, 1768. 353 refts of a few who govern, are diffe- governed. But I flatter myself, the noble lord will not infinuate, that the Great Britain have different or fepa- --- conduct 1 354 A REMARKABLE PROTEST. 5. The earl of Buchan. 14. The earl of Bute. July After the election his lordship entered the following proteft, which they had the mfs to refufe to put in the minutes. PROTEST. I David, earl of Buchan, being uns willing that my name, or the names Account of the Election of Sixteen Scots of fuch peers of Scotland, as may think SIR, Peers. S you have a great gufto for fresh proper to adhere to this my proteft, fhould be handed down to pofterity, as joining or acquiefcing in a minifterial A intelligence of a political nature, and unconftitutioing a I have taken the earliest opportunity of tranfmitting to you, an account of the proceedings of, what is commonly called the election of fixteen of the Scottish peerage at Edinburgh, to reprefent that community; (in other words the Congé d'Elire, pour Ecoffe.) I happened to be in Scotland at the time, and as I write the fhort-hand as well, I believe, as any of that poffé who came down to Edinburgh, on occafion of the Douglas caufe, I am enabled to give you a defcription authentic enough of the bufinefs, and of the earl of Buchan's proteft, which, for the honour of Scotland, I beg leave just to obferve, was neither figned nor feconded by one of that illuftrious fraternity, nor did one peer adventure to vote for Lord Buchan in preference to Lord Je, although that lord was totally unknown, and that the earl had offered himself, above fix weeks before, on the bafis of a free election; but I add no more: "Let the ftricken deer go weep." When it came to the vote of the earl of Buchan, his lordship food up, and faid, "My lords, Without the leaft deference to the minitter or his agents, I vote for the following peers: 1. The duke of Gordon. 2. The duke of Argyl. 3. The duke of Atholl. 4. The earl of Morton. fixteen peers to reprefent the peerage of Scotland in parliament, do protelt, in my own name, and in the names of all thofe who thall adhere to this my proteftation, That, whereas a lift of fixteen peers for Scotland has been framed, long before the time of this election, by perfons in high truft under the crown, and that fuch lifts have been in a moft fcandalous manner called by the moft facred name of the King's Lift, to the prostitution of that most venerable authority, which it is well known cannot be used conftitutionally in matters of election, declared to be free by the most important charters of British liberty. And, likewife, when we confider, that this lift has been daringly thewn by the minifter to feveral peers now present in this affembly, and the contents of it fupported and conveyed, by ftill more daring agents, to other peers likewife now prefent, to the fubverfion of the freedom of election, by intimidating thofe who were to give their fuffrages for fixteen men, who are to be velted with the deposit of the liberties of the order, and capable of operating, in a moft remarkable manner, upon the liberties of the -, and of the nation in general, when we confider these matters, we cannot but be filled with the higheft indignation, at the attempts, which 1768. Letter to the Earl of Shelburne. 355 timated to the speaker of the houfe his defire of having a copy of a certain letter, which the houfe had directed to be fent to the fpeakers of the feveral houses of affembly in the other colonies, a copy of which, it is prefumed, will be laid before your lordship, the houfe appointed a committee to wait on his excellency, and acquaint him, that they were ready to lay before him the faid letter, and their whole proceedings, relating to an important affair than before them, if he fhould de fire it. And the fame committee was directed, humbly to requeft his excellency to favour the house with a copy of your lordship's letter, together with his own letters to which it referred : Whereupon meffages paffed between the governor and the houfe, which the houfe beg leave to inclofe to your Lordship. As the houfe think they have just grounds of fufpicion, that his excellency's letters to your Lordship contain, at least, an implication or charge and accufation against them, which they are kept in ignorance of; they rely upon your known candour and justice, that upon this their humble request, you will be pleafed to give orders that copies be laid before the house of reprefentatives; that they may have the opportunity of vindicating themselves and their conftituents, and of happily removing from your mind an opinion of them, grounded, as your Lordship might then reasonably judge, upon good information, as having behaved to the fecretary of this province to read to the house of reprefentatives a letter he had received from your Lordship, dated Whitehall, the 17th of Septem ber, 1767; which having done, the fecretary withdrew, without leaving a copy as ufual. The house were both grieved and aftonished, to find your Lordship under a neceffity of expreffing fuch untavourable fentiments of the two houfes of the general affembly, as well as of fome particular members of this houfe, altogether strangers to you, with regard to the election of counsellors in May laft. They obferved that your Lordship's letter had a reference to feveral of his excellency's letters, upon which your fentiments feemed to be formed; and as his excellency had in ter of loyal fubjects. They hope you will be fo favourable as to fufpend your further judgment of them, till they can be made acquainted with the matters that may have been alledged againft them, and can make their defence. In the mean time, they beg leave juft to mention to your Lordship, that the elections of the last May, fo far as this houfe had a part in them, were made with a freedom and deliberation fuitable to the importance of them: That they were influenced by no motives, but the profperity of his majelty's government, and the happinefs of his fubjects; that the nonelection of feveral gentlemen of diftinguished character and itation, was by no means the effect of party prejudice, private refentment, or motives Y y 2 Atill |