would be found. The gentleman on whose adjoining estate the ore of cobalt was first found, has hitherto declined all offers for the purchase of it: it is believed to be of a superior quality to that at Alderley. The works of the company at Pontefract, owing to particular circumstances, and the difficulties attending other extensive speculations, were sus substances at this place, there are some distinct features of regularity. The cobalt ore is stratified, and though near, is separate from the other ores: it is chiefly, if not entirely, in the red sand-stone. It hes near the surface, and is evidently of later formation than the other part of the hill; as the red sand-stone, where it is found, always lies upon, or intersects, the white. The latter stone is the repo-pended at the close of the last year, 1810. sitory of the other metals. The quality of the smalt produced from it does not equal that made from foreign cobalt. Whether this inferiority arise from the nature of the ore, or some defect in the process of separation, may be doubtful. Cobalt is one of the most refractory metals in the hands of the chemical analyst. It is so intimately com bined with iron, nickel, and arsenic, that its separation, in a state of perfect purity, is a process requiring great care, and attended with considerable difficulty. Cobalt, in its metallic form, has not hitherto been applied to any useful purpose. Amongst German miners cobalt ores were long known, before their nature or use was suspected. Finding frequently a black substance, which impeded their progress in the mines, cut across the metallic veins, and occasioned them much trouble, they called it cobbel, the name of a fearful dæmon, the genius of these subterranean abodes; against whose wicked machinations their priests had a Latin form of prayer, in which he is styled Cubalus. In Yorkshire, where many Saxon words are retained, ignorant nurses still appal the terrified imagination of children, with the threatened approach of Cobby. The ores of cobalt are separated as much as possible from the other minerals with which they are combined; the blue oxyd is then fused with powdered flints, and forms the substance called zaffre, used to give the beautiful blue colouring to china. It is also employed in forming blue enamels. With a different portion of siliceous earth and potash, it forms a blue glass, which is afterwards finely pulverized and washed; this is smalt; which is used to give the blue tint to writing paper. From the coarse smalts are made the powder and stone-blue of commerce, used by laundresses. For nearly the whole of these articles we are indebted to the Continent. I think it is highly probable, that, were the western side of our island scientifically explored, many repositories of this valuable mineral MONTHLY MAO, No. 209. The general appearance of the mineral substances at Alderley, their position and intermixture with rounded pieces of quartz, prove, I think, they have been washed down from higher metalliferous hills, once existing near the place, and that they have been carried and deposited in their present situation by currents and eddies, when the whole plains of the counties of Cheshire and Lancashire were covered with the sea; which has once been the case, there can be little doubt. The existence of pebbles in me tallic veins is mentioned by Werner as occurring in Hesse, and other parts of Europe; and he adduces these facts in proof of his theory. The same appearances at Alderley, I think, prove only that the hill is composed from the debris and ruins of other mines and rocks, and that any general geological conclusions drawn from this place, would not be ap plicable to regular mining districts. In a future Number I may probably offer some further observations on this part of the kingdom. In the mean time, I trust you will allow me to correct a notice respecting myself, which has been inserted in your Magazine of the last month, in which it is stated that I had discovered a new mode of analysing soils and ninerals. The error probably arose from a mistaken idea of an undertaking in which I am engaged for the mineralogical survey and examination of estates, to ascertain the quality of the minerals by chemical analysis, and to accompany the survey with a manuscript description. In the proposals for the execution of this plan, I have laid claim to no discoveries, but such as are the legitimate deductions from mineralogical observation chemical experiment. From these, if properly applied, landed proprietors might derive more advantage than from almost any other mode of national inprovement; for hitherto, the application of mineralogical science to increase the value of land, has been greatly neglected in this country. ROBERT BAKEWELL. Bury-street, St. James's. B and To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, MONG the papers of a valued friend A has been found the following analysis of Scott's Human Life, a poem of the last half century, which is now but little read, and which is, in fact, a versified and embellished translation of the celebrated Greek Picture of Cebes, the model of so many modern allegories. Dr. Johnson, in his Vision of Theodore, has profusely borrowed from it; and to Aikin's Hill of Science it has perhaps, though less obviously, furnished some hints. Scott's poem, if elegant, is diffuse and tedious; but, as its moral tendency entitles it to lasting respect, it may possibly be welcome to your readers to possess a conise sketch of its contents. The poem introduces certain strangers, who are are ushered into a Theban tem "ple, where votive offerings were suspend ed, and whose attention is drawn by a tablet, designed for a picture of Human It represented a walled court, whence rose another; and higher still, a third. At the gate of the nether area a vast crowd seemed to wait. Life. A hierophant approaches the strangers, and, after a short preliminary address, expounds to them the delineation. The "natal" gate, represents the num'bers thronging into mortal life. On one side the good genius of mankind exhibits the code of Reason and Delusion, on the other offers a bowl, whence all drink, some to fatal excess, others but taste, less erring and less blind. He then proceeds to describe the first court, or the Sensual Life, with its attendant moral. The Desires, Pleasures, and Opinions, entice with powerful charms the unguarded mind. Happy those whom Wisdom tutors, and consigns to right opinions. The strangers then behold a globe on which stands Fortune, blind, frantic, and deaf, whose tottering and unstable ball, when most trusted to, is most likely to deceive the footstep. Fortune is adored, or curst, by her various suitors, according to their success. Their attention is next directed to the garden of Sensuality. Here Sin her powerful spells employs; There stands Avidity, and dimpling Adulation-all in watch for prey; while the prodigal, bereft at length of all resource, are left in the dire gripe of Pu aishment. Loud Lamentation, wild Despair, are also Unless, rare guest, Repentance o'er the gloom distinctive marks the true can be known from the counterfeit Wisdom. Their regard is directed to the second court, in Here are assembled wrangling sophists, which is pourtrayed the Studious Life. fanciful poets, laborious pedants; All, who in learned trifles spin their wit, Or comment on the works by triflers writ. In the walks of this academic court certain active and bewitching females are present, who resemble lewd harlots, and who frequently entangle Art, Wit, and Reason, in their toils; until awakened to a sense of their condition, the seduced shall have found Th' exalted way to Truth's enlightened ground: and, having quaffed her cathartic, are cleansed, healed, and saved. Yet, by loitering here, they are still in danger of degeneracy. The strangers now ask the faithful road, Which mounts us to the joys of Truth's abode. A strait and lonely gate is pointed out, its avenue a rugged rocky soil; beyond the wicket rises the craggy mountain of Difliculty: each edge a brink Whence to vast depth dire precipices sink. Two sister figures stand on the mountain, Continence and Patience, stationed there by Wisdom, to urge on her sons. These generous guides, swift descending, draw up their trembling charge, "with their own force his panting breast they arm," and assist his progress along the road to Virtue, whose whose blissful land is freed from the annoyance Of thorny evil, or perplexing fear. The third court, or the Virtuous Life, is now to be examined by the strangers. Lefty groves, and delicious bowers, encircling a luminous enamelled meadow, are there depicted: these are the abode of all the Virtues, and of Happiness, whose palace, encircled by a golden wall, has a gate of diamond. Hence are expelled Blindness and Error, and high-boasting Pride, Intemperance, Lust, Wrath, Avarice, and all the Plagues which, in the first court, oppressed the pupil. On his admission, the Virtues approach to hail their enraptured guest. See Knowledge grasping a refulgent star; See Fortitude in panoply of war; Justice her even scale aloft displays, And rights both human and divine she weighs. There Moderation, Liberality, Temper ance, Meekness, Probity, attend to lead their votary to Happiness, the rewarder of the just. They are then directed to a lofty castle. This majestic pile extends its front above a hill, whose boundless prospect commands the courts below. Within the porch, high on a jasper throne, sits Happiness, the imperial mother, who adorns her hero with a starry crown, honourable meed Of conquests won by many a valiant deed. The curiosity of the strangers enquires what conquests. They learn that these were of the moral kind: that he had subdued the Bad Habits, formidable beasts, to which he was once a weak prey, nearly devoured; until rouzed from his sloth, he attacked them and curbed with a power ful chain. The hierophant describes these foes of mankind, Error, Ignorance, Impatience, Incontinence, Avarice, and numbers more; and again panegyrizes, as man's proper bliss, independent of and wealth, a self-approving conscience, the true substantial peace. power fund, laid the foundation of the evils which followed; these have rendered the machinery so very complex, that very few, even of the lawyers themselves, understand sions of the superior courts upon Settlethe subject. The number of legal deciform as complete a code of laws for be-. ment Cases, from the Quarter Session, wildering and confounding the judgment, as ingenuity could suggest.. This statute, in the same breath in ciple, crippled and bound it in swaddling; which it announced a great national princlothes, by declaring, that every parish should maintain its own poor; for, questions arising who where to be considered terwards passed to ascertain them. To as the poor of the parish, several acts afenter into the detail would be tedious; but from the multiplicity of statutes and de-. depends upon ten distinct general heads: cisions, the settlement of the poor now Birth, Apprenticeship, Certificate, Estate, chase, Rating, and Renting a Tenement. Hiring and Service, Marriage, Office, PurFunds destined to the relief of the languid and distressed, have been dissipated in attempting to remove the burthen of maintenance from limits, in which the unhappy wanderer sought shelter. For more than two centuries have the poor been driven up and down, often afflicted with disease and infirmity, to the imminent danger of life. Let us imagine deserted by her husband, and cast upon a poor woman just delivered of a child, the parish, waiting for the Doctor's cer tificate of her being sufficiently recovered to be removed to a distant settlement in an inclement season. Upon such occasion, an appeal to the passions may be fairly allowed, for it is only by arousing the feelings, we hope to meliorate the condition of the poor. locality, nor can the pauper receive a bet❤ National protection is not confined to ter or cheaper maintenance, by transporting him to a place of settlement near 200 miles. If the desire for reform be sincere, wo To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, must not affect alarm at novelty in prac tice, convinced by experience of the utter SIR, teries, the poor were under the protection of the church, afterwards committed to parish-officers; and the very excellent principle established by the statute of Elizabeth, for their food, clothing, and employment, was only defeated by the mode adopted for enforcing it-the principle was national; the practice, parochial. Limiting the burthen to a inere parochial fer them to remain, is shutting our eyes against the light, and sinning against conviction. To meliorate what is false, is a vain attempt; radical defects may be removed, but never admit of improvement,, Many laws have passed; and as many thousands pursuing the same plan, would be equally fruitless. What is the cause of the removal? the answer is, to get rid of the burthes burthen Then let the fund be national, and instantly vanish parish removals, appeals, certificates, and settlement cases, with all the miserable train of endless litigation upon questions of no other importance, than as the poor man's naturai liberty is abridged, and to encourage a practice which obstructs labour, and is therefore at once an injury to the state and an aggravation of distress. Treating the poor as the children of a particular district, is a petty expedient; and this forsooth, because it was the place where their parents were born, or casually resi ded. Is not the king intitled to their allegiance, as members of the state; and are they, on account of poverty, to be excluded from the ordinary pale of protection, and to be imprisoned within their own parish? The enjoyment of natural liberty, not incompatible with public safety, might be allowed as their consolation-Their country should be their settlement, the nation their guardians. In order to economy, the plan must be simple and universal. Under the fostering hand of national protection, the poor would feel that they have a home to fight for, a country to defend. This grand object accomplished, the vessel of state, although on a dangerous sea, in a tempest, may yet brave the storm; but when every heart and hand are wanted in the steerage, leave none to perish on the rocks, nor unprotected after her arrival in port. 1st. Establish a national fund by an equal annual pound-rate on all visible property throughout the country; the first not exceeding the average of the pre sent rates. 2d. Establish Boards of Governors, applicable as near as may be to an equal number of inhabited houses; one in the most extensive parish; and where two or more are of nearly an equal extent, they may for this purpose be joined, under the direction of the Quarter Session. 3d. Justices resident within the division, qualified for governors, to act with six others, returned by the division, chosen by ballot; each person assessed, to vote. 4th. Appoint three sets of treasurers, for promptitude in payments, and to facilitate reimbursements to districts and counties in which the expenditures may have exceeded their respective quotas a treasurer for each district, a county and a national treasurer; the rates payable to the treasurer of the district; declare the balance annually; let him acgordingly receive from, or pay to, the county treasurer; the latter, in like manner, receive from, or pay to, the national treasurer. The accounts of district treasurers certified to the county treasurers, those of the latter to the national treasurer: deficiency in the national treasury provided for by the ensuing rate. Dise tricts, guilty of wanton excess in expenditure, chargeable with it. 5th. Paupers not removable without their consent; and all removals with such consent, at the public expence, subject to the discretion of the Board of Gover nors. 6th. The Boards may convert parish workhouses, or any other parochial building, into temporary lodgings for them within the district, and out of the savings may erect schools of industry, purchase materials and implements for their employment, appoint officers, and make weekly allowances to each pauper, or family, according to the numbers. 7th. All beggars to be apprehended and conveyed before the governors, who should commit them to hard labor to the House of Correction within the district, ar for the county, for one week: for every subsequent offence, the quantum of the preceding punishment doubled. 8th. The Boards to make other regulations necessary to forward the general plan, and to carry the law into execution. For the Monthly Magazine. On the COMPULSIVE BINDING-OUT OF POOR CHILDREN APPRENTICES, without their own, or the consent of their PARENTS. HAVE omitted longer than I could I have wished, the case of binding-out as an apprentice a child to a great distance from the father by compulsion. If proper persons can be found in the same parish, they ought certainly to be preferred. The act of binding-out a child, without either its own consent or that of its parents, tends so much to violation of humanity and natural right, without which there is no true policy, that it ought to be most strictly watched. It depends on 43 Eliz. c. 2. § 5, which is the foundation of the English system of the Poor Laws. I cannot say that I think this the best part of it. By this act, a male child, if it appear that his parents are not able to maintain it, either the child or they being chargeable to the parish, may be bound out to twenty-one, and a female to twenty-one, or marriage, by the parish-officers, with excite painful associations, or any strong the assent of two justices, to be apprea tices where they shall see convenient. And it has been determined, that both justices must be present, for that it is a judicial act, and not merely ministerial; they being bound to exercise their best deliberation as to the fitness of the person, the place, and the employment, to which the apprentice is to be bound. It would be void, if they were not both present at the binding: their assent is not formal, but necessary; and they are bound to withhold it if they see any reasonable objection. It is manifest that convenient means what is fitting, (xabuun) in The circumstances of the case must be view. every peculiar and clear, and very strongly proved, that would justify binding-out to a very great distance from the dwelling of the child, or of the parent; much mere from almost one side of the island to the other. If an evident abuse of power should in any such case be detected, the justices would, of course, be criminally answerable; either by indictment or information, according to the circumstances; or the father might bring an action of special trespass on the case. The binding-out of apprentices at the age of ten years, under 3 Anne, c. 6, is certainly an exceedingly strong in stance of legislative interference. P.S. Where an incorporated hundred interfered to bind-out a child to service, with out consent of the child, the legislature not having entrusted them with such a power, it met with the strongest reprehension from Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough. I should greatly doubt the validity of a Binding under either Act, where the child was not present at the binding: for how otherwise are the justices to judge of its fitness to be bound as proposed. ILLNESS MITIGABLE BY MUSIC. In a late illness, which has been and is the subject of public solicitude, I take the liberty of intimating, and especially considering the habitual predilection of the sufferer for the highest compositions in that divine art, that the disorder may be at least considerably alleviated, and possibly even removed, by music; meaning, assuredly, music of the slow, soft, and soothing, kind. In the selection, care would of course be taken, if it should be thought adviseable to try its influence, to avoid every thing likely to ↑ Ţ, 29, E. ¡II. K. v. Hams tall Ridwaer. emotion. The tranquillising power of music is no new idea. It is a fact of repeated experience, more or less observed in every age and country; and whether we regard that assemblage of sensative powers, which we call our body, or that active energy which we denominate mind, the salutary and benign influence of harmonious sound appears every way conform able to Nature. Nov. 22, 1810. CAFEL LOFFT. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. I SIR, WAS exceedingly glad to see the subject of the present war taken up by your correspondent, "A True Briton;" and I further hope that it will be re sumed in every succeeding Magazine, till the thing itself, melancholy and distres ing in every point of view, shall wholly cease to exist. Descriptions of this kind, in order to leave behind them a due impression on the reader's mind, should be as brief as possible; and therefore I shall instantly proceed to answer your correspondent's questions. 1. What are the English fighting for? I was about to amend this interroga. tory, and to make it "compelled to fight for," till I recollected that, from the most artful means that perhaps have ever been practised, the very people themselves have been deluded into belief in the justice and necessity of the measure. Indeed, a very considerable portion of the public, in the various shapes of loan-mongers, contractors, gatherers, gun-smiths, gun-powder merarmy-agents, newspaper editors, taxchants, and merchants of all kinds, are most materially benefited by a continu ation of the war. The wild beasts too at the City Menagerie, the StockExchange, are incessantly grunting against peace, or roaring for eternal war, innocent men. that they may fatten on the carcases of All the jubilee tribe too and there is some reason to fear that are greatly interested on this occasion; they, or their descendants, will celebrate another jubilee for the fiftieth year of the itself, the chief member of which we de war. Even a branch of the constitution clare, and indeed happily know to be incapable of doing wrong, might be implicated in the suspicion of being interested in the profits of the war, if we did not likewise know that all the profits, or droits, as they are legally termed, were |