Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

similar to that of Mavor, Bigland, and others; and the subjects of the two first parts are to be found in systems of mineralogy and botany; but there is no work with which we are acquainted, in which so much valuable information in all these departments is comprised within the same extent. There is, we are persuaded, no class of readers to whom this book will not be both amusing and instructive. To those who have already studied the subjects in larger works, it will serve to recall the particulars which are most interesting, and may be advantageously employed as a book of reference. Those, on the other hand, who have not entered upon such inquiries, will find a great deal to gratify their curiosity, conveyed in an agreeable manner. To young persons, especially young ladies, who have seldom an opportunity of studying large systems of natural history, we would particularly recommend this work. If it were read in small portions daily, and an account of the pupil's progress rendered, either in writing or in conversation, the young would soon be found to have acquired more information on the topics of which it treats, than many who have perused larger systems in a vague and cursory manner. Besides affording much information,-as it is arranged on the plan of the best systems, it will insensibly accustom the mind to the classifications of natural history, and thereby prepare the reader for the study of more extensive works. We must not, however, forbear to mention some slight defects, which we would wish much to see supplied, whenever it comes to another edition. In addition to the general index, there should be a separate index to each volume. In the first volume, only some of the families of minerals are enumerated, and for no other reason than that the Table might all be contained in one page. Another defect in the same part of the work is, that little is said of what are called compound rocks, or even of the different soils; and nothing at all of what every one has often occasion to hear mentioned, we mean the manner in which the earth is supposed to have been formed. Now we think that it would

be interesting, and at the same time easy, to give a short account of these

rocks, and above all, of the different kinds of soils, and also to give some idea of what is meant by the theories of the earth. Another subject which we should have expected to see noticed, is fossil remains. In this there is much to interest and amuse; and it certainly falls within the author's plan. All these things would add little to the size, while they would greatly increase the value of the publication. It is proper also to remark, that the author might have taken more frequent occasion than he has done to impress on the minds of his readers the appearances of wisdom and goodness which are so often to be met with in the works of nature. In books intended for the use of the young, this is a duty that ought never to be omitted; and the performance of it constitutes one great excellence in the writings of Bigland and Mavor. Of the style and manner we cannot give a better idea, than by making an extract almost at random, which may be considered a fair specimen of what the book contains.

"The common pear is a well known garden fruit, derived from an English stock, the wild pear tree (Pyrus communis), which in hedges and thickets in Somersetgrows shire and Sussex. It would be an endless

task to describe the different known varieties of the cultivated pear. Some of these are very large, and others extremely small : some have a rich and luscious flavour, and others, as the iron pear, are so hard and disagreeable to the taste, as to be absolutely unfit to eat. Pears are chiefly used in desserts; and one or two of the kinds are

stewed with sugar, baked, or preserved in

syrup.

The

"The fermented juice of pears is called perry, and is prepared nearly in the same manner as that of apples is for cider. The greatest quantities of perry are made in Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Squash, the Oldfield, and the Barland perry are esteemed the best. Many of the dealers in Champaigne wine are said to use of it: and indeed, real good perry is little perry to a great extent in the adulteration inferior in flavour or quality to champaigne.

"Of the wood of the pear tree, which is light, smooth, compact, and of a yellowish colour, carpenters' and joiners' tools are usually made, as well as the common kinds of flat rulers, and measuring scales. It is also used for picture frames that are to be stained black. The leaves impart a yellow dye, and are sometimes employed to communicate a green colour to blue cloth,'

180

Analytical Notices.-Encyclopædia Britannica-Supplement. [May

ANALYTICAL NOTICES.

1. ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA SUPPLEMENT.

Vol. II. Part I. AMONG the many distinctions by which our northern metropolis is known in the literary world, it is not the least honourable, that the first Encyclopædia, in point of celebrity, if not of time, published in Britain, was projected and executed in Edinburgh. On the plan of the Encyclopædia Britannica, important improvements have no doubt been made in other similar works; but it was even from the first a most valuable repository of knowledge, and many of the leading articles in science and literature were executed with an ability which has never been surpassed. Science, however, is unceasing in her progress; and is found, in the course of a few years, to have left far behind, the fields in which her votaries had formerly accompanied her with all the delight of discovery. The records of her advancement given in Encyclopædias soon become defective; and the deficiency must be supplied either by new editions, or by supplemental articles. The proprietors of the Britannica, though they have repeatedly been called upon, by an extended sale, to renew the editions of their work, have generally chosen to give, in the form of supplements, the additional information which the progress of science required. The Supplement which is now going on, has attracted much of the public attention by the pomp of its announcement, and has deserved it, so far as published, by the splendour of its execution.

Three Parts of it have already appeared: the first preceded by a dissertation exhibiting a general view of the progress of metaphysical, ethical, and political philosophy, by Professor Dugald Stewart; and the third, which begins the second volume, by a similar dissertation on the history of the mathematical and physical sciences, by Professor Play fair. These dissertations are extremely valuable; and did the Supplement contain nothing more, we should have considered it as a very precious donation to the literary world. In the short sketch which we

propose to give of works of this nature, our plan and limits admit of no retrospect beyond the last published Number. Óf Mr Stewart's dissertation, therefore, we shall only say, that we agree with some distinguished critics in considering it as the most splendid of his works, and as combining a number of qualities which place the author at the head of the elegant writers of philosophy in our language.

The order which Mr Playfair follows in his discourse, is very properly determined by a regard to the subserviency of one science to the progress of another, and the consequent priority of the former in the course of regular study. He first traces, therefore, the progress of the pure mathematics, one of the two principal instruments which have been applied to the advancement of natural science. As the other instrument is experience, the principles of the inductive method, or that branch of logic which teaches the application of experiment and observation to the interpretation of nature, form, of course, the second object of his inquiry. He next proceeds to treat of natural philosophy, under the divisions of mechanics, astronomy, and optics. Under the general denomination of mechanics he includes the theory of motion, as applied not only to solids, but to fluids, both incompressible and elastic. Optics he places after astronomy, because the discoveries in mechanics, he observes, have much less affected the progress of the former of these sciences than of the latter. A sixth division succeeds, containing the laws of the three unknown substances, if, indeed, they may be called substances,-heat, electricity, and magnetism. As we intend hereafter to give, in another part of our work, a pretty full analysis of this dissertation, written by a correspondent, we shall content ourselves at present with this general outline of Mr Playfair's plan. In the object which he modestly proposes to himself,-to treat his subjects with clearness and precision,—Mr Playfair has completely succeeded. No author, indeed, with whom we are acquainted, excels him in luminous arrangement, or in perspicuous expres

1817. Analytical Notices.Encyclopædia Britannica.-Supplement.

sion. At all times perfectly master of his subject, he conveys his ideas to his readers with a clearness, an ease, and elegant simplicity, which render his works, in our opinion, models of philosophical composition.

Of the other articles in this part of the Supplement, the first is AUSTRALASIA. A vague idea had long prevailed among European geographers, that an immense continent existed beyond the limits of discovery in the south, and extended even to the pole. To this imaginary continent they gave the name of Terra Australis Incognita. Though later researches have proved that there is no such continent, or at least that it can only be of a moderate size, and enclosed by impenetrable barriers of ice, yet in the three great oceans in the south of the globe, there have been discovered almost innumerable islands, which demanded, of course, some systematic arrangement. With this view, the President de Brosses proposed that the lands and islands in the Austral world should be divided into three portions, those in the Indian ocean, and in the south of Asia, to be named Australasia; those in the two Pacifics, Polynesia, from the number of islands; and those in the Atlantic, to the south of Cape Horn, and the Cape of Good Hope, Magellanica. Under the name of Australasia, the writer of this artiele comprehends-1. Notasia, or new Holland-2. Van Diemen's Land-3. Papua, or New Guinea-4. New Britain, New Ireland, and neighbouring islands-5. Solomon's Islands-6.New Hebrides-7. New Caledonia-8. New Zealand, and isles to the southward9. Kerguelen's Islands, or Islands of Desolation-10. St Paul and Amsterdam-11. Numerous reefs and islets of coral scattered over the Australasian sea. After this enumeration, the three last particulars of which have seldom been classed by geographers under the name of Australasia, though they are so classed with evident propriety, the author proceeds to give a pretty full account of each of them, in the order in which they are named. One considerable advantage this article possesses, in consequence of its being so lately published. When the corresponding article in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia was written, it was known that Captain Flinders had ascertained Van Diemen's Land to be a large island separated from New Holland by a strait

181

between one and two degrees in breadth

that, in a subsequent voyage, he had circumnavigated New Holland-and that, in a still later voyage, he had made many important discoveries. It was known that, after losing his ship, he had set sail for England with his papers, plans, and charts of discovery, when he was most shamefully detained at the Isle of France; and that, in spite of an order for his liberation, procured in consequence of an application by the Royal Society of London to the National Institute of Paris, the governor refused to permit him to depart. When the article in the Supplement was written, it could be stated, that after a captivity of seven years, he had at length arrived in England in 1810, and published, in 1814, his discoveries in two volumes, accompanied with an atlas of charts, which may be held forth as models in maritime surveying. Captain Flinders has completed the survey in detail of the coasts of New Holland, with the exception of the west and northwest coasts, which he was prevented from exploring by the loss of his ship. It is to be hoped, that the local government of New South Wales will take an early opportunity of completing the survey in which Flinders was so unfortunately interrupted. In this article, too, are recorded the still more recent, and no less interesting, discoveries, made in the interior of this vast island by Mr Evans and Governor Macquarrie. The country, according to their accounts, was in all respects delightful, still improving as they penetrated westward, and holding out the most inviting prospects to future colonists. Little more is added, in this article, to the information which we already possessed respecting the islands of Australasia, excepting the discovery of a few islets to the south and southwest of Lord Auckland's group.

The next article in the Supplement is AUSTRIA, a new account of which was rendered indispensably necessary, by the recent events in which that empire bore so conspicuous a share. It begins with a very rapid sketch of the recent history of Austria, and to the account of the same events given in the corresponding article in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, it has to add this unexpected and wonderful circumstance, that in consequence of the downfall of Napoleon, Austria is now

182 Analytical Notices.-Encyclopædia Britannica.-Supplement. [May

restored to more than her former splendour. At the commencement of the French revolution, the Austrian dominions contained a population of 25,000,000,-as confirmed by the Congress of Vienna, their population is 27,926,000.-This mighty empire includes, at present, Bohemia, Moravia, Austrian, Silesia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg and Berchstolgaden; Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Friuli, and Trieste; Galicia, Buckowine, Hungary, Transylvania, Sclavonia, Croatia, Venetian States, Istria, Dalmatia, Tyrol, Lombardy, and other acquisitions in Italy. The power of this empire is less than we might expect from its extent of population, owing, as is judiciously observed, to

the want of that consonance of national manners, and that congeniality of national feeling, which are essential to ease in governing, and which have long formed the strength of France and Britain.

The next article of considerable length is BAKING, leaving which to the consideration of bakers and physicians, we pass on to a very intelligent paper on the BALANCE of POWER. -We regret that the author has not developed more fully the clear and enlightened views which he entertains on this important subject, particularly as it is a subject not generally treated of in works of a similar nature. The policy of balancing the power of one state against another, was never pursued but in modern Europe-nor was it till the commencement of the sixteenth century, that the European states began to be formed into one grand fede ral league, to be the guardians of each other's interests. The ultimate intention of this system of policy was, to secure every state in the full possession of all its rights, by checking the first encroachments of ambition, watching the movements of foreign powers, and uniting their respective force in support of the weak against the strong. It was no part of this system to equalize the powers of the states composing the grand community-which is as impracticable as to preserve an equality of property among the individual members of a nation. The question is not what amount of power above a nother any state possesses, provided that power is fairly acquired, but whether any state possesses its power in such circumstances, as to enable it to

trespass at will on a weaker neighbour. The ancients had certainly some idea of such a political equipoise; but whether that idea was merely speculative, or whether it influenced their political conduct, is a question which has divided some of our ablest writers. Mr Hume maintains, that the authority of this system was scarcely less extensive in ancient than in modern Europe; while Mr Brougham affirms, that in this department of politics, the ancients displayed nothing beyond a speculative knowledge. The truth seems to lie between these assertions. The great principle of preserving a due balance of power, is to be traced in many of the transactions of the Grecian states; but that principle was never so regular in its operation, nor so authoritative in its influence, as it has become among the modern nations of Europe. It was in Italy, divided into a number of small states and commonwealths, that this principle first assumed the appearance of system. Early in the fifteenth century, we see the balance of power becoming an object of constant concern among these states-and about the close of that century, these ideas began to extend to other quarters, and to influence the operations of mightier kingdoms. The beneficial effects of such a system are sufficiently obvious. It checked the frequency of wars-it was a barrier against the strong, and a bulwark to the weak. We heartily concur with the author of this article, in reprobating and lamenting the fatal violation of this salutary principle in the partition of Poland-which presented the alarming example of a deliberate, unchecked conspiracy against the independent existence of an unoffending country. With regard to the interest of Great Britain in the balancing system, it is very justly remarked, that our commerce and our colonies render it absurd to talk of our being insulated as an empire, because Britain is an island; and that we could not always be as secure, and as free from uneasy apprehension, in a state of total insula tion from foreign connexions, as with friends or confederates to employ or oppose a formidable enemy on his own confines. We accord, likewise, in the observation, that it is often proper to watch and to warn, to use the influence of our remonstrances and counsels, without having recourse, except

1817. Analytical Notices.-Encyclopædia Britannica-Supplement.

in urgent cases, to the extremity of

arms.

Of the BALTIC a very full, and, we are inclined to believe, a very correct account is given, under the different heads of general description, extent, depth, level of its waters with those of the ocean, tides, superior and inferior currents, saltness, temperature, winds, fisheries, coasts, canals and commerce. The plan of the article is faulty, in embracing too much information, and, of course, occupying a space out of all due proportion with the rest of the work. Under the head of coasts, in particular, the author enters into a detailed account of towns which he should have merely enumerated, leaving a fuller description of them to be given either under their respective names, or under the names of the countries in which they are situated. The same observation will apply to his account of the rivers which fall into the Baltic, and the canals which communicate with it. With these exceptions, we think the article very satisfactory.

The next article which claims our attention is BANKING. After explaining, in a very satisfactory manner, the purpose for which banks were originally established, and their general utility, the author proceeds to notice some of the recent transactions of the Bank of England, and to describe the effects produced by so powerful an engine on the circulation and commerce of the country. Most of our readers, perhaps, know, that this bank, the most important in the world, whether we consider its wealth, or the amazing extent of its transactions, was established, by a charter of William and Mary, in July 1694. It was projected by William Paterson, a native of Dumfriesshire, who is said to have taken the bank of St George, in Genoa, for his model; and who was assisted in arranging his plan by Michael Godfrey, a gentleman of great consideration in London. The charter was granted for the term of twelve years; and the corporation was determinable on a year's notice. The ori ginal capital, lodged by the proprietors in the Exchequer, was £1,200,000, for which they received 8 per cent. interest, and were allowed by government, £4000 additional in name of house expenses. The detail of the transactions of the bank, to the year

183

1810, are given with more precision in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia; but the author of this article has the advantage of having written six years later, and can therefore state, that the loan of £3,000,000, with which, in consideration of the renewal of its charter, the bank agreed to accommodate government for six years without interest, and which was afterwards continued during the war at an interest of 3 per cent., was discharged in the year 1814; that the additional £3,000,000, which, in 1808, the directors, in consideration of the immense profit accruing from the use of the public money, agreed to lend to government without interest, until six months after the conclusion of a definitive treaty of peace, was continued to the public till the 5th of April 1816; that, according to an arrangement then made, the bank was allowed to add to its capital £2,910,600 ; and, in return, the loan of £3,000,000 was continued, at an interest of 3 per cent. In 1746, the advances to government, which form the undivided capital of the bank, amounted to £11,686,800; they now amount to £20,686,800. The increase of its circulation has been amazingly rapid. By the report laid before Parliament lately, it appears, that in 1718 the total amount of Bank of England notes in circulation was £1,829,930; in April 1816 it was £26,594,360. Never at any former period have the affairs of this bank been in so flourishing a state as at present. A principal cause of that prosperity is the immense amount of the national debt£830,000,000; for the management of which the bank receives £340 per million for the first £600,000,000, and £300 per million on the excess above £600,000,000. It has likewise an allowance of £800 per million on the whole amount of every loan of which it receives the payment; on every lottery contract it is allowed £1000; and it has the use of all the public money committed to its charge, besides several other allowances of less importance. But for the other sources of its wealth, and the general detail of its business, we must refer our readers to the arti cle itself, which will be found equally clear in its statements and accurate in its information. The topics which it embraces, besides those to which we have already adverted, are the " advantages resulting from the use of

« PoprzedniaDalej »