How often this may have already oceurred it is impossible even to form a conjecture; but that it has happened is most evident. And this reconciles to our understand ing all these late strange discoveries, and extraordinary appearances of different kinds, on and under the surface of the earth, that can in no other way be ac counted for. Such dreadful events and tremendous overwhelming catastrophes must have been construed into new creations, which, in truth and fact, were not so, and cannot be; yet may possibly recur in the regular progressive chain of celestial natural events, perhaps every 20 or 30,000 years. Compared, however, with infinite time, it is less than of yesterday, and sets every idea of limited dates at defiance. Who is Barnaby? I do not meet with such a name in any other list than Dr. Mavor's. Should it not be Barmby, who published a work without date, entitled, Short-hand unmasked." Neither do I meet with the names of Blandemore and Soure in any other list. Blosset's name is first inserted in Angell's Account of Short-hand Writers. Cross is first mentioned by Lyle, but has not Dr. Mavor continued the name in error; for, after a long and diligent search, I can find no system by such a person?-may not Lyle have been misled by this title, "The Taghmical Art, or the Art of expounding the Scripture by the Points, usually called Accents, by Walter Cross, 1698." From Lyle also, I perceive, Dr. Mavor has transferred the names of Ewen, Facey, Labourer, Ridpath, and Webster, the last of which I take, at present, to be another inadvertence of Lyle, as I have met with a work entitled, "Studies of Youth at the Writing School, by Win. Webster, 1738," which is nothing more than a grammar of the English language. Bryant is mentioned as an author in Williamson's Appendix, and I have heard of such a name as Lloyd; but these two last are not given by Mavor. June 2, 1812. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, AM obliged to "A Man of Letters" for his attention to my wish. My satisfaction would have been greater had he made a minuter reference to the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, or had he quoted more largely from this work, which, at present, I have no opportunity of consulting. Not one of the reasons which he produces from the German critic, for consi❤ dering the anexos as a cinadus, appears to be valid. The two first, “A Man of Letters" acknowledges to be destitute of force. Indeed, if stress were laid on the mere term oxos, the argument would prove nothing, by proving too much: since the Roman soldiers are spoken of in the same verse under the denomination nanono, their appropriate title! My authorities are Grotius, Rosenmüller and Schleusner, and the writers whom he quotes. And, certainly, evidence is wanting that the detestable vice in question distinguished the Jews resident in Palestine. "A Man of Letters" would hardly have conceived that "the habiliment of the individual" denotes more than the facts of his having retired to rest and hastily risen from it, had he reflected on the scene, the hour, and the circumstances of this transaction, or adverted to that relation and qualified meaning which the adjective yuuvos frequently bears, not only in the LXX and in the New Testament, but further in classical Greek authors. With regard to the alleged "free behaviour" of the young men, on which your correspondent seems disposed to place the whole strength of his cause, I confess that I cannot discover any other freedom than what soldiers would naturally use in endeavouring to seize an imagined accomplice of a person just before arrested as a reputed malefactor. Lardner, (Works, vol. vi. 103,) having cited the verses, adds, "A particular, in no other evangelist, yet very fitly taken notice of, as intimating the usual noise and disturbance when a man is taken up in the night-time as a malefactor, and is carried before a magistrate. By the noise of the people passing along, that young person was excited to come hastily out of the house where he was, to inquire what was the matter. Mr. Le Clerc, in his French Testament, has an useful note upon this place. He observes the natural simpli city of the evangelists' narration, which, as he justly says, confirms the truth of their history, N. "To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. A SIR, LTHOUGH much has been said on the common subject of Benefit Societies, yet, as no reform has taken place in consequence, I was pleased to see the subject resumed in your Number for May last. The scheme there proposed, of a voluntary parochial Benefit Society, is the very thing that is wanted, it is alto. gether feasible, and cannot but be productive of the best cffects. I agree with the writer, that, from the great and universal propensity of the nation, to enter into these societies, if proper security were provided, the one half of the applications for parish charity might be prevented; and where, as has been observed, can we more naturally look for such security, than from the parish it self. Whose interest is it, or whose bu siness is it, more properly to be guaran. tees of such a Benefit Society, than the legal guardians of the poor? By which measure, not only security would be procured, but dignity and consequence at the same time conferred upon them. The thought is so natural and obvious, that I wonder it has not long ago been practised. I do sincerely wish, that humane public-spirited gentlemen would immediately take the proposal into their serious consideration, and put it in effect. By so doing, they would infallibly lower the poor-rates, do the greatest favor to the poor and the middling classes; and, in fine, perform the utmost possible good with the least trouble. It is evident, that no risque could accrue to the parish guarantees, (who must also perform the office of curators and legislators;) for the scheme would be so devised as to render that impossible. I confess, that private as well as public considerations have caused me to enter with some warmth into this affair. An aged relation of mine was so much reduced in his worldly circumstances, that he had no other prospect of escape from the disgrace of a workhouse, but the allowance of a Benefit Society. He became at last unable to pay his monthly contribution, and, from pity to an unfortunate, but respectable, man, I have for two years done it for him; judge what must have been my disappointment, when I was informed last week that the society was dissolved. London, June 3, 1612. MERCATOR. observations on the various hardships of law, its useless protraction, and unrea sonable expence, by W. N. I had hi therto thought, that these vexatious circumstances were unavoidable; but, having reflected a good deal on what that gentleman has said, I cannot but be of opinion with him, that a thorough reformation in the practice of law is much wanted, and that all civil cases might be reduced to the same simplicity, and brought within the same compass, as criminal ones, not only without danger, but with the greatest advantage and safety to the subject. I give the more attention to W. N.'s remark, as they are the result of a fair and dispassionate view of the subject, not dictated by any spleen or animosity against law or lawyers, never having personally experienced any of its evils. I should be very well pleased to be able to boast, I shall not say of his prudence, but of his good fortune; for, although I view the law with as much terror as he can possibly do, yet the utmost prudence cannot at all times avoid it, the most cautious man cannot avoid being dragged into its vortex; and I lament to say, from my own experience, that there is no state in human affairs in which one is subjected to such varied uneasiness. That law may be stript of all its hor rors, appears to me to be by no means impossible. So much did I feel myself interested in your notion, that I seriously questioned a lawyer of whom I have a good opinion, whether he thought it was absolutely necessary that trials respecting civil matters should be clogged with greater embarrassments, and attended with a hundred times the expence of criminal trials; whether a greater degree of caution and ceremony was needed in passing sentence on a man's property than on his life. Doubts and difficulties must be equally incident to the one as well as the other; yet in the least important matter it is found necessary sometimes to pause for years, while the other can always be dispatched in a few hours. To this I obtained no other answer, than that such was the practice. But why, I asked, are you so inconsistent in your practice, as to decide controversies about small sums in a summary manner, where the same attention to justice is requisite, and the difficulties attending them must be exactly the same as about those of the highest value; I cannot conceive any other reason, than the fear that the learned useless perplexities of law be done away, and the trade itself almost annihilated, annihilated. You are speaking, says my friend, of courts of conscience, where in small matters reference is made to the oath of the plaintiff. This appeared to me altogether unsatisfactory; for cer tainly, oaths are admitted in all courts, when proper and necessary; and in no court, whether called of conscience or not, will an oath be taken contrary to the documented evidence of facts. I wish some of your law-readers would attempt a solution of these difficulties, not in the narrow professional style, but on philosophical principles. If this cannot be done, I must conclude, that all the perplexing hardships of law are factitious; and ought, without any dread of the consequences, to be swept away as the accumulated lumber of ages. All legal disputes might then be settled to the unspeakable advantage of society, at one, or at most two, short unexpensive hearings, as at present at Guildhall and Fullwood's rents. What a blessed era! A golden age! Not only relieved from the torture, the distraction of suspence, but sure at the worst of not being ruined by unknown expences. S. P. Cold-bath Square, May 1, 1812. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR,. YOUR Correspondent Ignoramus in quires, (vol. xxxiii. p. 153,) what is the difference between the termina-, tions er and ist; of which he instances the use in the words dissenter, philose pher, and in the words methodist, deist. But the word philosopher is impurely formed; the verb being to philosophize, we ought to have formed the word phi losophizer. Where no verb pre-exists, this formative syllable cannot be correctly attached: although usage has consecrated some words so coined. The ending ist is of Greek origin, and probably signifies stander; it has attained in Greek much the same office as the Goting herr; thus, from agony, struggle, comes agonist, a struggler, or wrestler, But this ending is not be 2 come completely English; and can only be attached in our tongue to words of Greek derivation, or to words debning the subdivisions of philosophy, which the Latins, in their language, (where the syllable was naturalized) would have formed. The words methodist, philosophist, ca tholicist, and the words deist, materialist, mortalist, are therefore defensible words; although dissentist would not be so. The formative syllable ism, among the continental historians of philosophy is regularly employed to denominate a system of opinion. Thus materialism is the name given to the system of those who teach that every thing is material;' mortalism is the name given to the system of those who teach that the soul is mortal; pietism is the name given to the system of those who teach that merit consists in devotional feeling; and galvanism to the system of Galvani. When a system has been so denomi nated, the professors of that system are called ists; materialists, mortalists, pietists, galvanists. The system of the French philosophes came, through this analogy, to the name of philosophism, and its professors to the name of "philo=" sophists. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, SIR, ALL attempts, either to prevent or destroy effectually the insect, commonly denominated the Turnip Fly, have hitherto been abortive. The fallacy of every plan, as yet suggested, is lamentably proved by the disappointment of each successive year. The expence and the anxiety attending these endeavours, and the enormous losses which the cultivators of turnips have sustained from the depredations of this enemy to vegetation, are real national evils. This plant has now been cultivated in England for near two centuries; and, during the whole space, authors have complained of the fly, as the most formidable foe to its prosperity. In proportion as the value of this root is esteemed and encouraged, the more is the necessity for some efficacious remedy' felt, and its want deplored. The mischief is assuredly extending; and all the ingenuity of man has been in vain exerted to check its progress. The experience of the past ought to have long, since impressed us with the fact, that, if we are desirous to seek a radical cure for the the disease, we must discover other If we designate any creature by a name which belongs to a quite different being, we perpetuate error, because it confounds the characters and properties of one class with those that attach properly to another class. Thus, the insect, which is the present object of inquiry, is not a fly but a beetle! It is according to Linnaus of the order Coleoptera, and of the genus, Chrysomela. Of this genus, naturalists arrange numerous species; some of them are exceedingly minute, and beautiful from the diversity of their colours. As the characteristics and habits of beetles and flies are essentially different, it becomes indispensable to confer a dis. tinctive appellation that may be familiar in the common language of husbandry. The Turnip Beetle appears most appropriate; for the turnip has many other enemies among the herbivorous insects; of these, several are real flies, either in their perfect winged form, or in that of their larva, or caterpillar state. As the subject is of the deepest interest to the whole community, I enter tain a very confident hope that this invitation will be conducive to active and general investigation; and that it will stimuute every farmer and naturalist to direct their attention, during the ap. proaching turnip season, to the various points to which the queries lead. From their answers, connected with pre-existent information, we may deduec such useful practical inferences, as will enable us to unravel, eventually, that mystery in which the matter is now involved; and to establish, finally, a more success ful system for the culture of the turnip. It will be seen that many of these ques tions are retrospective, and, where they can be so answered, it will forward the investigation, but they are likewise prospectively applicable; and it is to the future I look chiefly for more accurate information in most of the points to which I have taken the liberty of directing the attention of the practical farmer. 1. Which years have been most remarkable for the ravages of the Turnip Beetle, and which was the last? 2. Have ever the saine fields been before infested? 3. Were the seasons of infection noted as being particularly favourable or unfavourable to the preparatory fallow? 4. What has been the course of crops? 5. What was the nature and depth of soil, and what the sub-soil of the fields so affected, and what their aspect, east, west, south, or north? 6. Were they sheltered by trees or high fences on either side, and which? 7. Are they on a hill or in a valley, a de scent or level ground? the quantity per acre; the quality, viz. long or rotten, dung compost or lime, &c. ? 8. When and in what manner manured And how soon after the seed furrow was the 9. How many ploughings had the field? seed sown? 10. Was any top-dressing used; of what nature, with what view, and what the effect? 11. Were the seeds steeped, and in what preparation? Were they all of the same year's product or of different years? 12. Were they sown by drill or broad cast And on what day of the month? 13. What was the state of the weather? Was it hot and dry, warm and showery, rainy &c. &c.? 14. In how many days after sowing did the plants appear? 15. At what hour and on what day of the month did the Beetles appear, and how soom after the plants were up It would be desirable that the condition and changes of the weather and the temperature of the air, from the sowing of the seeds to the first appearance of the Beetle, should be stated with as much precision as possible, and for that pur pose an exact meteorological journal should be kept, from the sowing till the plants are in the rough leaf, and out of danger of this enemy: and it is particu larly requested that on the first appearance of the insect the height of the baro meter SIR, meter and of the thermometer in the To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. open air, (and the latter instrument being out of all shade) about two o'clock of the twefully registered and reported. 16. Did the Beetles appear at once in different parts of the field, or commence their career at one particular spot, and advance progressively to others? And whether in any determinate line, or diverging indiscriminately? 17. Upon an average what time do they occupy on clearing an acre of turnip-plants? 18. Patches are often observed to escape and flourish. Can this be ascribed to any thing in the nature of the ground? Is it there more springy; do trees or fences shade it from the sun's direct rays; has the dung fallen thicker there, or, in the spreading, have these patches been missed? 19. Have the same true Turnip Beetles ever destroyed more than one crop in the same season? If so, state the facts. 20. On what evidence rests the opinion that these Beetles are migratory? 21. Have any other vegetable crops been destroyed by this Beetle in a manner similar to turnips? 22. What methods have been employed to prevent or destroy them, and what has been the result? 23. When the crop has been entirely devoured, and no means used to kill the Beetles, have their dead bodies been found in any coniderable numbers on the field? 24. Have their origin, natural dissolution, or departure, been so accurately attended to as to be explained from actual personal obser vations? 25. What is the natural history of the Tarip Beetle (the Chrysomela saltatoria, or the kaping Chrysomela)? What are the periods of Its metamorphoses, its habits, &c. &c.; and what author gives a particular account of this insect? 26. Are early or late sown turnips most in danger? Further, to facilitate my views, I request your permission, Mr. Editor, to allow all letters, (postage free,) to be directed for me at your office. But, as all reasoning must be untenable, unless it be supported by well authenticated facts, I entreat those gentlemen who favour this with replies to subscribe their real names and places of residence. Of course they will be respected as private communications, and not published till a proper arrangement of the whole evidence is digested, when the result, if worthy, shall be submitted to the public. On such occasion I shall take pleasure in acknowledging all obligations. G. M. B. London, April 4, 1812. Na late number of thy Miscellany, a objections to the practice of women's preaching, which exists in the religious Society of Friends, upon the following passage in the first Epistle to the Corin thians, "Let your women keep silence in the churches, &c.--and, if they wil bands at home, for it is a shame for learn any thing, let them ask their huswomen to speak in the church." The Friends have not been backward in such works as have been published, explanatory of their religious opinions, to assign their reasons for not limiting the sacred office of a minister of the Gospel to men; as may be seen by consulting "Barclay's Apology," Prop. x. Sec. 27, and "the Principles of Reli Christians usually called Quakers," by gion as professed by the Society of Henry Tuke, Chap. 5.; but, as these may not have fallen under the Churchman's notice, the following remarks are offered for his consideration. An attentive perusal of the two verses that have been brought forward will, I think, clearly show that they do not at all bear upon the question. We shall probably obtain a more correct idea of few verses which immediately precede the Apostle's prohibition, if we read a it. "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteti by, let the first hold his peace; for ye may all prophesy one by one," (if all, then women as well as men, and it appears that women did prophesy,) "that all may learn, and all may be comforted. And the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints." structions were given to prevent the I apprehend that these incontinuance of some irregularities which then prevailed in the Corinthian church among the ministers of the Gospel. Paul, after reminding those to whom he was writing, that "God is not the author of confusion, but of peace," went on to allude to the conduct of some female members of the newlyestablished church, who had interrupted the ministers whilst they were incul cating the precepts of Christianity, and were therefore enjoined to seek an explanation from their husbands at home, rather |