of view, the average for the whole of the last twelve years. The annexed meteorological summary of the last twelve years, may be considered as sufficient to establish the temperature, density, and quantity of rain of this place. The instruments are very superior, and the times of registering have been attended to with a necha nical exactness. The barometer has a large open bason, and the column of mercury is perfectly free from air and Thermometer, Barometer, Barometer, Rain, Inches. Inches. Inches. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. T SIR, a very HE prevalence of chronic complaints in that class of disease which arises in an almost imperceptible way, and ad. vance by slow degrees, will naturally induce the inquirer to ask for the cause of that prevalence, as the increase of those maladies within late years fully evinces that there are some very active agents engaged in their origin and existence. To ascertain this cause is perhaps a difficult task, as it is veiled in some obscurity; but it is the wish and intention of the writer, in the prosecution of the subject, to point out some of the most general causes. To discover the exciting agents of disease is certainly gratifying to the physiological inquirer, and must afford instruction and amusement to the man of general science: but it ranks far behind in respect to importance, to possessing a knowledge of the plan of treatment best adapted to combat disease, or to stay its progress when only in a state of commencement; and, though it is far from my intention in these pages to enter into the minutie of disease or its treatment, vet I conceive, that the observations interspersed, will have the effect of giving the unprofessional reader a mere rational WILLIAM PITT. and scientific view of those diseases termed bilious, than is vuigarly entertained; and that the hints suggested will tend to warn him of the first encroachments of disease in the animal system; by which means he may place himself under medical treatinent, ere the malady becomes established; as it is a fact, I believe, generally admitted, that many diseases, which have baffled and rendered void all the efforts of professional skill, and which, in the event, have proved fatal, might have been checked and restrained in their commencement, had their first symptoms been watched and early treatinent adopted. I could adduce many striking instances, within my own knowledge, of the truth of this assertion; but it is needless, as it is a fact too well known to be doubted. Medical assist. ance is seldom resorted to, until symptoms become desperate, and a disease confirmed; consequently, much more time is required, and less chance of a perfect recovery, than if the first advances were watched and attended to. Bile, as is vulgarly known, is a very undefined term; and, as there are so many misconceptions, which will be taken notice of respecting the term bilions, among the unprofessional public, I conceive it as absolutely 1813.] Remarks on Voltaire's Criticism of Shakespeare. absolutely necessary, in order to sub- To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, SIR, THE observations of an ingenious T commentator on Shakespeare, in your Miscellany, some months since, drew my attention to the beautiful lines: "Blow, blow, thou winter's wind;" and reminded me of a translation, in Blow, blow, thou winter's wind- Dente mordaci rabidæ procellæ, Jupiter durus rigeat pruinâ, Acrius urit. 29 Shakespeare's mixture of Buffoonery and Solemnity,) that he says, This mixture is intolerable. These severe criticisins of Voltaire might have been, perhaps, the result of wit, more than of judgment and precision; I should be inclined to think, that these criticisms on our immortal countrymen may fail, as well as that of bis knowledge of our history: of the latter, his own pen has dropped glaring evidence. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, In his Preface to Thomas Corneille's Earl of Essex, Monsieur de Voltaire al lows, that the Truth of History has been grossly perverted in that piece; in excuse, N perusing Voltaire's edition of Cor- Enfield, Nov. 13, 1812. M. COGAN. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. I SIR, SEND you the subsequent composition for insertion in your repository of useful and entertaining varieties It was written in a few minutes, by a young man who is diffident of his own abilities. He has composed various other short pieces, both in rhyme and blank verse; and, as your Magazine is perused by many readers of great taste and discrimination, I am desirous of the opinion of some of your correspondents, upon this communication, to ascertain whether the author ought to cultivate his powers of fancy, or turn his attention to other subjects of a different nature and importance. Sept. 14, 1812. HENRY ENFIELD. MORNING, "Now darkness roils up this vast black scroll to the end of the West, and leaves this mighty cavity of air, and the expanded earth, to the majestic God of day, who pours from his golden urn, exhaustless, a wide-spreading flood of silvery light. All things rejoice at his beautiful presence, at the beautiful pre sence 30 Particularsrespecting Joanna Southcott and Mr.Carpenter. [Feb.1, sence of the King of the East. Roses open their ruby lips, and breathe soft their choicest fragrance; birds praise his powerful beauty, pouring forth sweetest notes of thrilling eloquence; earth smiles, well pleased; air dances in many a curious maze; and the lake and the river receive, with shining face of joy, the soft impressions of the lovely light. Shall man, Lord of earth and sea, who walketh erect in the majesty of his form, who stampeth on the earth, and saith, "it is mine;" who stretcheth out his right hand for a sceptre, and commands the beasts and the fowls; whose eyes span the Heavens; whose voice is the thunder of terror; whose thought pierces through the Heaven of Heaven, and follows the comet's course, and reaches into the fathomless cavern of futurity; shall God-like man lie buried under the darkness of his eye-lids, in unprofitable and monotonous oblivion, dead to the countless felicities of light!-Awake! thou who art so capable of varied happiness, call into life thy numerous powers-thy senses, shake off old sloth, rouse up thy vigour like a lion, go forth, and inhale, at every pore and every sense, the pleasures of the morn, unspeakable in beauty. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. "Philalethes" has contradicted a statement made by me, in my sketch of the former aud present state of Lambeth, &c. I can have no disrespect for the writer, but I do not like noticing anonymous replies, and, indeed, have but little inclination, or time, for controversy. I In the hasty sketch which I gave of remarkable ob objects or occurrences, might have mentioned the quarrel between Mr. Carpenter and Joanna South. cott; but felt no wish to dwell more par. ticularly on that subject. But it might pot have occurred to your correspon. dent, that negative information is not al. ways satisfactory or candid: he has told us that neither Mrs. Southcott nor her friends ever attend Mr. Carpenter's House of God; but has neglected to in form us in what particulars their doctrines now differ; and the ambiguity of his language might lead some to doubt whether Mr. Carpenter had ever been the supporter of the awful pretensions of this extraordinary female, who considers herself "the Bride, the Lamb's Wife, and the Woman clothed with the Sun." I think my information sufficiently correct to permit me to say that the chief cause of the dispute originated. in Mr. Carpenter's belief in the visitations of the Youth of Neckinger-Mills notoriety. Mrs. Southcott, feeling a na- I was once present when Mr. Carpenter explained the representations of the visions, said to be seen by the aforesaid youth; they were then drawn and coloured on large paper, and held up under his pulpit, while he named to the audience, the time and place at which those wonders were seen. The absurdi ties he related, and the confidence with which he declared his firm belief in them, alinost induced me to doubt the evidence of my own senses. -Mr. Hana, who was formerly one of Mrs. Southcott's followers, has, since his recantation, taken up the pen to expose her impudence and falsehoods: according to him, "she opened her commission in 1792," and declared herself to be the woman spoken of in the Revelations; that her business is to warn the world of the near approach of the Millenium, and to seal the people for the enjoyment of the same to the amount of 144,000, &c. &c. (See his Life of Joanna Southcott, Letter to the Bishop of London, &c.) With 'respect to the letter, or seal, as it is termed, which has excited so much inquiry among the curious, the following is a description of one which was profanely broke open, and presented to me as a curiosity. of the In the centre of an oval which occupies one side of the paper, is the name disciple who is sealed, other side appears the following words, "The sealed of the Lord, The elect precious Man's Redemption, To Inherit the Tree of Life, To be made Heirs of God and Joint Heirs with Jesus Christ. May 21, 1803." To this, in a scarcely legible hand, is signed, "Jounna South cott." One of the seals, intended to secure the contents, appears to represent a lion: the other impression has 1. C. with two stars, the explanation of which, she says, was given her by the spirit. On the face of this letter appears again the then name of the person sealed; and some of 1 1813.] Prizes Distributed by the Smithfield Club. them have these words added-"Not to November 15, 1812. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, 31 glishmen, to have one of our great men grace this noble emporium, one whom people of every nation may view and admire, instead of one who is a disgrace to our nation, and an object of contempt? Herts, Sept. 15, 1812. W. BEEK. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. I NDIGNATION always arises in my bosom, when I view, in the Royal Exchange, the statue of that most proligate monarch Charles II. I Greece and Rome erected statues to their heroes, patriots, orators, &c.; when these were seen, their noble actions were recalled to memory. Beholders thought of them with gratitude. The sight of them encouraged others to love their country; reflected shaine on self-interest ed men, and despicable traitors; and stimulated youth to obtain such honors. But, when any one sees, in the first place, in the centre of the first city in the world, the statue of this man, how will he be astonished to hear, that he, whom it represents, was a drunkard-a profligate-a traitor-whose court was a seraglio, who was a patron of vice; who, to support his vicious courses, sold Dunkirk to Louis XV. of France!* Would it not be more grateful to En * Hume, vol. vii., p. 394-Rapin, vol. ii. p. 619, 640, 653, 675. PRIZE OΧΕΝ. SIR, N order to ascertain, by an annual sheep, and pigs, respectively, will improve the most in weight of meat, of good quality, for the market, in a given time, and with a given consumption of food; the Smithfield Club, which was instituted in 1798, through the patriotic endeavours of the late Duke of Bedford, distributed their annual prizes in December last, on the award of Mr. George Guerrier of Poplar, Essex; Mr. Wm. Harrison of Folkington, Sussex; and Mr. Emanuel Pester, of Yeovil, Somersetshire, the three judges appointed for examining the animals exhibited, and considering the several particulars in the certificates of their breeds, ages, food, &c.-Below is a return of the particulars * See a similar account last year, in vol. xxxiii. p. 209. L PRIZE PIG. Pork, Loose Feet. 1bs. Entrais, Weight alive. lbs. Mr. James King's 29-weeks old Suffolk) Pig, fed on barley-meal and water.... ) H SIR, AVING lately seen Mr. Gardiner's paper on Modern Music, my admaration of the great master of the old school, has drawn from me a few remarks, which possibly you may deem unworthy your notice; though I feel some encouragement in offering them, from recollecting your reception of a former communication, containing an inquiry concerning the poetical contributors to Handel. In your Magazine for April, 1807, amongst other replies to it, the one from Mr. Evans, of Bristol, by communicating considerable information, laid me under an agreeable obligation to that gentleman, for which my thanks are but a poor return. Your correspondent W. G. whose musical genius and eccentricity equally debght and amuse his friends, has spread over his first paper a blaze of imagination, through which it is somewhat difficult to discern the justness of his critieism, as resulting from the soundness of his judgment, and the purity of his taste. Some suspicion of an obliquity of judgment, or of an aberration from the truth of nature and good taste, can hardly he avoided, when an enthusiast talks of a " menstroum" chord, in which all the chords are chemically changed; of chemical "precipitation," "volcanic eruptions," &c. It opens a new expectation to me, that the next discovery of musical science will issue from Sir H. Davy's laboratory. Let not Mr. G. take exception at the word enthusiast; I mean to dignify, not degrade, him in it; esteeming enthusiasm in music to have an alliance with the great and good of human character, To speak of either of the mighty masters of harmony, Handel and Haydn, as having attained the ne-plus-ultra of mu. sical excellence, would be equally idle;. but we may give the palm to one or the other without an imputation of blind attachment to either. Those of your readers, Mr. Editor, who can understand the scientific points between Oxensis and Mr. Gardiner, will perceive the merits of the question do not rest upon them. No one would measure the powers of Newton's mind by a philosophical trifle; nor of Locke's understanding by a metaphysical subtilty; nor of Shakespeare's genius by a point of grammar; nor would I decide between Handel and Haydn by a chord of the 13th, or 4 minor 3ds. Admitting that they possessed equal science, or even that Haydn refined on that of Handel, I cannot but prefer the latter, on the basis of his truth to nature, and his faithful, powerful, and most affecting language of human sentiments and passion, which the genius of the former has not equally expressed. This is the ground on which we must compare these great composers. They have, in their works, addressed themselves to the most profound, dignified, and amiable emotions of man: query, which of them with most complete success? Thousands have felt something like inspiration after a sacred performance of Handel's, -a holy sentiment and impression, as though a celestial ambassador, with a choir of angels, had been speaking to them; and there has been a consciousness of an exercise of the soul under it, similar in purity and elevation to the enthusiasm of devotion and virtue. A grand sentiment and a high tone of feeling have also been communicated to many by the Creation; but, I do not think it so obvious, Mr. Editor, that Haydn's ambitious splendor, "theatrical" air, elaborate ornament, and brilliant science, have eminently inspired the hallowed feeling, that bears so powerful a testimony to the genius of his rival. I cannot but feel, sir, there is a degree of sophistication (if you will allow the |