pieces may be cut of three, four,
The
and five, hundred cubic feet.
earths or rocks, are of three sorts: one
is a marl, or a deep greyish colour, moist
and soft to the touch, sometimes inter-
mixed with gypsum. In this marl is
found the kind of salt called zielona, or
green sait; it takes this colour from a
small portion of marl which it contains.
Amongst the different varieties of this
salt the spisa is distinguished; it is of a
greyish colour: it is the common salt, the
lodowaty or frozen salt, and the jarka
or sandy salt. The second sort of earth is
a rich unctuous soapy marl, which con-
tains an infinity of shells. The third
nature of the rock offers a mixture of
impure salt, with gypsum and pyrites;
in this mixture called zuber, is found the
salt-gem or crystals of salt, which are
rectangular
either regular cubes, or
prisms.

After these mests of salt, frequently
very irregular, there is generally found a
bed of marl and lime before they ar
rive at the szybakowa, or the regular bed
of fossil salt, the most compact and
pure: these beds are alternately mixed
with white clay, slate, and gypsum, they
run with a very little declination in a line
from west to east: they incline upwards
towards the south principally, and con-
sequently towards the Carpathian moun-
tains. The layers or beds of salt, are
strongly undulated above; while their
base presents a flat regular surface. The
layers, whether of salt or earth, are often
found interrupted by what the miners
call coins. In the earth, and even in
the body of the salt, are found pieces
of a black sort of wood, which fre-
quently resemble strong branches of
trees. Mons. de Born cites an instance
of a piece of an elephant's tusk having
been taken out of the mine; and he adds,
that the jaw, teeth, and several bones of
the same animal, have also been found
there.

To the north-west of Cracow is the
town of Olkusz, now in a wretched state
of decay, but formerly flourishing from
its mines.
The strata follow in regular
order: first, a marl; then a species of
marble, slate, silver ore, with a little iron
and calamine; and then the calcareous
stone. The public accounts prove, that in
1658, the royal tithe of these mines
amounted to 1,225 marks, of eight ounces
each; and to 1,858 quamtals of lead;
which may naturally be supposed to be
one-tenth less than their real value, as

or to

the royal tithe was not levied with any
rigour. Adopting for our data however
the most moderate valuation, the produce
of the mine amounted to 476,773 florins
(Polish) of the then currency,
1,907,100 florins of the present. It has
frequently been in contemplation to
resume the working, on a liberal and ad-
vantageous plan.

At Ligots is a mine of calamine.
The marbles of the environs of Czarnowa
are intersected with veins of lead; there
is a curious kind of mixture also found
there: it is a sort of white lead com-
bined and embodied with the sand:
this mineral yields in the proportion of
filty four to the hund.ed of pure lead.
The mines, the most common however
in this part, are of iron. At Drzevica,
from sixty to seventy quintals of iron
are produced weekly from a mineral
found on a sandy free-stone; in other
parts, a sort of muddy iron ore abounds,
as in the neighbourhood of Konskie.
The iron of Bieri near Wochoc, would
be most excellent, if, owing to the
want of care in its preparation, a consi-
derable portion of copper were not left
in it. A naturalist, on his travels, found
at Miedziana Gora, a piece of native iron:
it is certain that in the same place are
found pyrites of iron, azare-coloured cop-
per, malachite, vitriol, and quicksilver :
this last substance appears to abound
here. It is evident, that this is the mine-
ral of which the ancient authors speak,
when they say, "The bishops of Cracow,
among their other possessions, chiefly
prefer the city of Slawkow, on account
of the celebrated silver mines which are
in its neighbourhood."

But the riches of this interesting
country do not alone consist in metals.
Mill-stones of a superior quality are
found at Mniow; and fine marbles, in
many other places. At Chencyn, a per-
pendicular vein of pyrites of copper, three
a hill composed
ells wide, traverses
chiefly of marble: from this vein of cop-
per, according to a Polish naturalist, is
extracted lazulite; and the Palatine
Bidzinsky even offered to Pope Innocent
IX. a table made of this precious sub-

stance.

At Miedzianka, here is a green copper, disseminated in small veins through the marble: near Ostwice and Gorna.Wola, the fiods e covered with an efflorescence of vitrion and aium.

Generally speaking, the whole of this country appears to consist of rocks commixed posed of small fragments, fanciully

d

small

mixed together, and containing minerals of every sort, scattered in portions.

Both by its important productions, as well as by its military position, Upper Poland offers a considerable degree of interest in the event of a re-establishment of Poland. For the sovereign of Poland can never believe himself firm upon his throne, so long as any other power shall remain master of the passages of the Carpathian mountains: on the other side, the salt-districts, and mines of Wielicza, are the natural magazine of all Poland. Nature has rendered a separation between Upper and Lower Poland equally disadvantageous for both. The Vistula is common to them; and this natural conveyance of the productions of both countries, this great aquatic road, should never own but one sovereign, if the policy of states deigned to consult the interests of the people.

W. B. H.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

EVERAL of your correspondents

flint, one may imagine, that the substances composing them may have been dissolved by some menstruums, and have mixed together on coming in contact, when in a liquid state; but the fact appears otherwise with respect to these shells; they preserve their natural characters so correctly, that their change can, in some instances, be only known, even to fossilogists, by actual examination of their substances; here the silicifying matter seems to have been taken up by the calcareous matter of the shells, and a total change in their nature, with out any alteration in form, appears to have been the result. I should wish your correspondents to advert to this circumstance, as one of them has a notion that the outer coat of common flints is indicative of a gradual increase in their bulk.

The above-mentioned shells are found in great abundance and variety of genera, among the loose sand, and in the Whitstone Pits on Blackdown hills in Devonshire; and also in other parts of England.

The study of extraneous fossils is

Siwsing thrown out the idea that the becoming every day more attended to;

masses of flint found in chalk-pits, are produced from the chalk itself by some unknown operation of nature, I am induced to point out to their notice, through the medium of your publication, the circumstance of fossil sea-shells being sometimes found of a siliceous, instead of calcareous, substance. In the case of the amorphous masses of

and if some of your corresponding
tourists would point out where any have
been recently discovered, giving either
their proper or provincial names, as most
convenient to themselves, it would
doubtless give great pleasure to many
others of your constant readers, as
well as,
X. Y. Z.

London, 6th, June, 1810.

MEMOIRS AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS.

Original and authentic MEMOIRS of the late

LORD ROKEBY.

ATHEW ROBINSON, (Morris,) the

This venerable peer was born at York, in March 1713, many years before his father came into possession of the Kent

M^late Lord Rokeby, was son of ish estates, and before even the death

Mathew Robinson, esq. a gentleman formerly well known in Kent by his residence in that county during the life of his wife, the heiress of the families of Morris and Drake, but who, holding those estates during her life only, resided, from the time of her death, in London, where he died so late as 1778, at the age of 84; on which event the paternal estates in Yorkshire descended to the subject of this article, who had possessed the seat at Horton, and the other inheritance of his mother, from her decease in 1745.

of his great grandfather Thomas Morris,
esq. the builder of the present mansion
at Horton, who died in 1717. Mr.
Morris left an only daughter, at that
time the wife of the celebrated Dr. Con
yers Middleton, whom she re-married
in 1710, being the widow of Mr. Drake,
Recorder of Cambridge. But her son,
Mr. Morris Drake, succeeded lus grand-
father, and added the name of Morris
to his own. He died young before 1723;
and the Horton estates reverted to his
mother, who spent a
here with her husband, Dr. Middleton.

summer or two

It was at her death, in 1723, that these estates came to Mrs. Robinson.

I know that the generality of readers despise these dull relations of a family; and what they call the dry detail of the inheritance of dirty acres. But to these, perhaps, in the present case, may be traced back that habit of acute investigation, and of bold and original opinions, which so much distinguished the late Lord Rokeby; and that pre-eminence in elegant literature which rendered his sister, Mrs. Montagu, so justly celebrated. Dr. Middleton, a man of profound thinking, of various and extensive know ledge, and a most accomplished writer, whose Life of Cicero, composed "in the most correct and elegant style, and abounding with every thing that can instruct and entertain, that can inform the understanding and polish the taste," is celebrated all over Europe, held forth a model of intellectual exertion to the young family connected with him, which was not likely to fail in effect on abilities paturally searching and vigorous. Whatever injuries Mr. Robinson's family night owe to him in pecuniary matters, his house at Cambridge was always open to them; and his manners, enriched by learning, and polished by travel, afforded no common advantages of conversation and instruction to them. "You have doubtless heard," writes Mr. Gray of the loss the poet, on Aug. 9, 1750, I have had in Dr. Middleton, whose house was the only easy place one could find to converse in at Cambridge. For my part, I find a friend so uncommon a thing, that I cannot help regretting even an old acquaintance, which is an indiffe. rent likeness of it; and though I do not approve of the spirit of his books, methinks 'tis pity the world should lose so rare a thing as a good writer."

Mr. Mathew Robinson was yet a child when he became, by the death of his uncle, Drake Morris, next in succession, not only to the paternal estates in Yorkshire, but those of his mother in Kent and Cambridgeshire.

He was about this time at the public school of Westminster, and thence removed to Trinity-hall, in Cambridge, of a lay-college, of which in due time he became fellow, and so remained till his death. His companions were men not only of rank and fortune, but of minds energetic like his own, who afterwards made a conspicuous figure on the theatre of public life.

In his 32d year (1745), his mother,

for whom he had the warmest affection, died, and he came immediately, by the will of his great grandfather, Morris, into possession of the maternal part of his, inheritance. With a taste totally dissimilar to that of his father, who, though of polished manners, and highly accom plished, possessed the elegant rather, than the strong qualities of the mind, and was never happy out of the clubs of Bond-street, and the gaieties of a London life, he instantly took complete possession of the country mansion, and embraced with enthusiasm all the manly, pleasures of an enlightened country gen tleman.

But he was soon called away from this peaceful character, to add to it another, which crowns it with its highest ornament, but which now, from the gradual operation of the national debt, of the increase of commercial wealth, and the corruption of nianners, is too seldom united with it. The neighbouring city of Canterbury invited him in 1747 to be a candidate to represent them in Parliament. In this election he was completely successful. The happy pli

ancy of his popular manners, adapted to all the various ranks of society, has been well expressed by the writer of his Memoir in the Monthly Magazine. Early as he had freed his mind from all the trammels of authority and custom, he, at a period when form and ceremony kept the different orders, perhaps as much too distant from each other as the total removal of those barriers bas lately mingled them too indiscriminately toge ther, was in the constant habit of displaying that frankness of sentiment and ease of manners, which at once removed diffi dence, tranquillized awkwardness, flattered low pride, and delighted humble worth. And his spirit, his penetration, and the quickness of his powers of retort, accompanied by the same frankness, ena bled him to repress in a moment the occasional encroachments of ill-judged fa miliarity, and at once to obtain respect

Sandleford, June 9, 1777.

DEAR BROTHER,

"It would be with much greater pleasure I should take up my pen to tell you I am at Sandleford, if I could flatter myself with the hope of alluring you to it. You would find me in the character of a farmeress. The meagre condition of the soil forbids me to live in the state of a shepherdess queen, which I look upon to be the highest human dignity. The plough, the harrow, and the spade, re. mind us that the golden age is past, and subsistence depends on labour; prosperity on industrious application. A little of the clay of which you complain would do us a great deal of good. I should be glad to take my dominions here from the goddess Ceres to give them to the god Pan; and I think you will agree with me in that taste; for wherever he presides, there Nature's republic is established; the ox in his pasture is as free and as much at his ease, as the proprietor of the soil; and the days of the first are not more shortened to feed the intemperance of others, than the rich landlord's by the indulgence of his own. I look upon the goddess Ceres as a much less impartial and kind deity. The ancients thought they did her honour by ascribing to her the invention of laws; we must consider her also as the mother of faw-suits; and indeed of all the divisions and dissensions and distinctions among man kind. Naturalists tell us, all the oaks that have ever been were contained in the first acorn: I believe we may affirm, by the same mode of reasoning, that all arts and sciences were contained in the first ear of corn. To possess lasting treasure and exclusive property, has been the great business and aim of man. At Sandleford you will find us busy in the care of arable land. By two little purchases Mr. Montagu made here, my farm contains acres. As I now consider it as Amazonian land, I affect to consider the women as capable of assisting in agriculture as much as the men; they weed my corn, hoe my turnips, and set my potatoes, and by these means promote the prosperity of their families. A landlord, where le droit du Seigneur prevailed, would not expose the complexion of his female vassals to the sun. I must confess my Amazons hardly deserve to be accounted of the fair sex; and they have not the resources of pearl, powder, and rouge, when the natural lilies and roses are faded.

but though my health is good, the faded roses do not "evive; and I assure you, I am always of the colour of la fcuite morte; my complexion has long fallen into the sere and yellow leaf; and I assure you, one is as much warned against using art by seeing the ladies of Paris, as the Spartan youths by observing the effect of intoxicating liquors on the Helots. The vast quantity of rouge worn there by the fine ladies makes them hideous. As I always imagine one is less looked at by wearing the uniform of the society one lives in, I allowed my frizeur to put on whatever rouge was usually worn; but a few years ago I believe my vanity would not have submitted to such a disfiguration. As soon as I got to Dover, I returned to my former complexion. I own I think I would make that complexion a little better by putting on a little rouge; but at my age any appearance of solicitude about complexion is absurd; and therefore I remain where age and former ill health has brought me; and rejoice how ever that I enjoy the comforts of health, though deprived of its pleasing looks.

"It has given me great pleasure to hear, by many opportunities, that your health is pretty good; but if St. Anthony's fire should moitace a return, remem ber that his distemper as well as his temptation, is most dangerous in a desert or wilderness, and repair to the city of Bath. Though I say this, I was never more sensible of the charms of rural life and the blessing of tranquillity; but at the same time I am sensible my relish for them is much quickened by having been, for above a twelvemonth past, in a very different mode of life.

"I regret very much that the emperor did not come to Paris last summer, though I suppose amongst the French nobility I met with men as polite; amongst the academicians with men more learned, ingenious, and witty, yet as I am a vir tuoso in what relates to the human character, and love to see how it appears in various situations, I should have seen an emperor, as an emperor is an unique in human society at present; and the Austrian family has also had a stronglymarked personal character.

"All my French correspondents assure me that his imperial majesty veils his dignity on all occasions under the character of Count de Falkenstein. He sleeps at his ambassador's, but dines with the two noblemen of his court, who attend him at an hotel garni. When he goes to Versailles to visit his sister, be refuses to lodge in the palace, and lies at

a baguio,

1

a bagnio. He goes sometimes to Ver-
sailles in his coach, at others in a fiacre,
or walks. The French, who are much
struck with every thing that is new, are
full of wonder and respect, and at the
public spectacles they give a thunder of
applause whenever he appears.

"In private society his majesty is easy
and attable, and by what I can under-
stand, glad to shew he is more conver-
sant in the common affairs of human
life, than princes usually are. The ch
jects of his curiosity, and the subjects of
his discourse, are such as seem to ind.
cate he is a man of sense; whether he
has talents for empire, time must shew.
Without understanding the doctrine of
chances as well as De Moivre, one inay
pronounce the chances are nearly infinite
that he has not. I am glad however
princes begin to travel; one has a chance
of meeting these itinerant monarchs some-
where, and they amuse us at least as well
as stuffed eagles or lions in a museuin.

"I was in great hopes that you would
have had the curiosity to have come to
town, to have heard lord Chatham in
support of his motion the other day, and
when you had got so far towards Bath
you might have proceeded, and I should
have had the happiness of seeing you
here. The primate of Ireland, and sir
Wilham Robinson, were so good as to
call on me in their way to London; they
I believe the
staid only three days.
primate will go to Tunbridge before he
returns to Ireland.

"I believe I shall not remove from
hence till the middle of next month, when
I propose to make a visit at Mount Edge-
cumbe. I am ashamed of this long let
ter. I have an opportunity of sending it
I am, dear
to London this moment.
brother, with most affectionate esteem,
E. MONTAGU."

In the dispute with America, Mr. Ro-
binson, though long retired from parlia
iment, was a most strenuous and able op-
ponent of the ministerial plans. In the
progress of that unhappy affair, he wrote
several pamphlets, which were received
with great attention. The earliest I have
met with is entied, "Considerations
on the Measures carrying on with respect
to the British Colonies in North America.
The second edition, with addition; and
an Appendix relative to the present State
of Affairs on that Continent," with the
following motto: There is neither king
or sovereign lord on earth who has, be-
yond his own domain, power to lay one
farthing on his subjects, without the

grant and consent of those who pay it,
unless he does it by tyranny and vio-
leuce.'--Phil. de Commines, ch. 103. It
is dated April, 1774, and the Appendix,
in the following November.

This memoir is not intended as a ful-
some and indiscriminate panegyric, and
therefore I have no hesitation in owning
that the language is unequal, often un-
couth, and seldom elegant; but it is not
deficient in vigour; and, however unskilled
in the graces of style the writer night
be, for powers of thinking, for sagacity
and extent of information, he deserves
much praise.

The Appendix commences in the following words: "The foregoing sheets were first published in April, and we are now in the next November. Tune and events have, in the short intervening space of seven months, but too plainly and too strongly confirmed the opinions respecting our American measures and their consequences, which were then presumed by the author to be laid before the public. It is in the preceding pages explained, that the plan proposed and confided in by the administration on that occasion appeared to be, that the removal of the Custom-kouse, and the suspension of the commerce of Boston, would soon bring on their knees, and subject to our commands, the inhabitants of that town and of its colony, who were, by that means to become, besides their own obedience, an example and a terror to the rest of their brethren on that continent; but the policy and the probability of this fine-spun scheme are there doubted of, questioned, and discussed. It is represented that the harsh and violent measures then carrying on in America be received no otherwise than as a declaration of war, and depend upon the same issue; that it could only be by force or by conquest, if they were subinitted to; that we must expect to have to do with an union of that continent; that it would among them be made a common cause not to be taxed by us; and that they would certainly join, combine, and associate toIs there any occagether, for their general and mutual assistance and defence. sion to say whether these things have proved true?

"We were at the same time warned, that if it was intended to use force and violence, the decision might not be so very soon, or so very sure; that these being a truly free people, and their governments democratical, they would be able to arm every man in their country;

that