It may now, however, feem necef- which, although not fo quick in their fary to be demonftrated, that the noxious operation, are not much more falubrious vapours of lakes and marshes, are of a than the Grotto del Cano. fimilar nature, or equally mephitic with The particles of exhalations, poffefthe effluvia of dung-hills, and the nafti- fing an infular fituation in the atmofness of streets; although this is indeed phere into which they ascend, like the fufficiently obvious, I will obferve, in particles of courfe flour difperfed thro' the words of the ever to be celebra- water, are inhaled into the human fyfted Pringle, "That exhalations from tem, at every inspiration, in a proportion marshes do not confift of watery va- confonant to the acting cause; and pours alone, but alfo of putrid effluvia, where any tendency to putridity exists, arifing from innumerable animals and will act like a ferment, and accelerate vegetables that rot and die therein :" and accumulate disease, or both. This Sir John adds," that the relaxation is precifely the theory of fermenting of the fibres, and greater tendency in bread: The prepared dough has little the humours to putrify, confequent on tendency to ferment; this would go on this ftate of the atmosphere, may be flowly but for the addition of a ferconfidered as the internal and predif- ment; let it, however, be observed, pofing caufe of malignant fevers." The that when the fermentation has comfame author, fpeaking of the yellow fever, fays," it may be proper to take notice, that we have alfo fevers of this kind in Britain, but 1 muft add, that unlefs in marfhy places, the diftemper is mild, and scarce ever epidemic, that breathing a foul air will exert the virulence of any eruptic disease." It will thus appear, that innoculation, without attention to cleanlinefs, in every refpect, may fail to produce its happy influence; and the disease introduced, when the patient breathes a poifoned air, may affume a degree of malignancy more fatal, than the ordinary cafes of natural small pox. menced, fo rapidly would it goen to putrify, that nothing would ftop it; the fournefs of fome bread arifes from the fermentation not being foon enough checked by the operation of the oven's heat; the accetous fermentation has then begun in the dough, and can by no means be overcome. It is remarked by a French chymist, that fuch fmells as putrifying matter exhale, "penetrates every where, and feems to affect the bodies of animals, like a fermenting fubftance, capable of altering their fluids." The metropolis of Scotland is not free from the dangers incident to fuch It cannot be denied,' that the efflu- caufes as have been mentioned; the via of marshes is highly deliterious, nor, obfcure lanes, by much the most popu that the vapours arifing from the filth of lous parts of the city, are nafty in the ftreets, are equally noxious, as being of a extreme, and the inhabitants of Prince's fimilar nature. Refpecting effluvia in the street, have a, ftagnant marfh in front abstract, whether aromatic or mephitic, of their dwellings. our notions may not be very correct; but we know that it is fomething materical*; now, as all matter muft occupy space, it would be easy to prove, that noxious effluvia will become local to our bodies, our dwellings, and our food, by adhering to our raiment, furniture, &c. besides being in a diffused ftate in the atmosphere, which we breathe. This is clearly evinced by the fashionable practice of ufing perfumes, fome of *This word is not to be found in John in view. fon's Dictionary. Some time ago, through the medium of a news paper, the propriety of checking the eruption of putrid effluvia, from the grounds alluded to, was fuggefted to the gentlemen of this place, by fuch means as would beautify their prospect, and infure an exceffive intereft for the money that might be expended, which, to a collective body, would be a very trifle, even should the plan fail in renovating the atmosphere, the great object (To be continued.) SIR, ON LUXURY IN DOMESTIC LIFE*. THE late complaints of fcarcity of provifions, which were allowed to be well founded, have excited the meritorious labours of many perfons of humanity and opulence, and various fteps have been judiciously taken to alleviate an extent of diftrefs, which it was found impoffible immediately to remove altogether. Ruminating on thefe dircumftances, the other night, I was led to confider the fubject in various lights; and by digreffing into the manners of common life, I had almoft determined that the great caufes of fuch evils in a nation are precisely the fame, or nearly the fame, which produce fimilar effects in the cafe of individuals, I mean the folly of living up to our income, and neither forefeeing nor providing for the evil day. Bleft as we are, in this country, with a fruitful foil, and a tempe'rate and regular climate, we never fuppofe it poffible that a time may come when our foil fhall thereby be lefs productive, and our climate lefs falubrious, We enjoy the prefent hour, and are fatisfied; and, with more humanity than prudence, we affift others with what we confider as fuperfluous to purselves. It is not uncommon to be pampered with wealth, but it is a misfortune to have never experienced want. joint of meat and a pudding, with a moderate fhare of wine. The latter was generally purchased for the occafion from a neighbouring tavern, but no one thought of having a large ftock on hand, partly because it was a temptation to confume it thoughtlessly, and partly becaufe a great deal of money was thereby funk. A very eminent tavern-keeper, who, fome years before his death, rose to the highest municipal offices in the city of London, has often related to his friends, that when he lived as porter in the houfe of which he afterwards became master, his employment, all the morning, was to collect in baskets the empty wine-bottles from reputable tradefmen's houses in the neighbourhood, who having a friend to entertain, went as far as the luxury of one or two bottles of wine, upon fuch great occafions. The modes of living in private families have undergone fo complete a change, within the last thirty years, that it may be doubted whether five hundred pounds per annum, did not then go as far as one thoufand can go now. This, fome people affect to attribute to the progreffive increase of taxes, but that, I am perfuaded, if well confidered, will by no means account, in any perceptible degree, for the different value Between thirty and forty years ago, what are called genteel fa milies, in the middle ranks of life, fubftantial tradefmen, for example, thought they entertained their friends in a very handsome manner, if they gave a plain * These remarks chiefly apply to London. VOL. LVIII. of money. Now let us confider the difference of the prefent mode of living. When a tradefman, of the fame rank, entertains company, the table is covered with a great variety of dishes, many of them expenfive, and scarce vegetables and rare fruits are procured at any price to grace the board. Inftead of fending to the tavern for a few bottles of wine, for the occafion, he prefents you with wines of three or four different kinds, and informs you, that he has a pipe of one, half a pipe of another, and, perhaps, two pipes of a third, and what an excellent cellar he has built, which keeps his wine remarkably cool! To fuppofe that he had fent for the wine on purpose, would not only be unjust, becaufe untrue, but would be the greatest affront you could offer him. Now, Sir, if we take the moft fuperficial eftimate of the two dinners, we fhall find, that the one must necaffarily be three times more expenfive than the other-a difference by no means created by taxes, but by the increafed variety of expenfive articles, and the increafed confumption, or, I am afraid, the increased waste. 5 A 」་་ It would be well if the evil (for an five, and its clofenefs unwholesome. eyil I cannot help thinking it is,) were There is, firft, a temporary refidence at to ftop here; but it defcends into all fome genteel, that is, extenfive waterthe inferior ranks of life. The fervants, ing-place; and then a permanent villa whofe number is confiderably multi- in the environs, with a lawn, fhrubbery, plied, by always fitting down to plen- hot-houfe, coach houfe, ftabling for tiful tables, acquire the fame contempt eight or ten horfes, and all the et catefor economy, and the fame luxurious ras belonging to fuch an establishment. appetites as their mafters, and equally A coach-houfe muft have a coach, and learn to defpife homely food and plain horfes muft be provided for the ftabnourishment. Hence, when they come ling, and a groom for the horses. The to diftrefs, or when they come to live young gentlemen of the family are proupon th their own earnings, they carry in- vided with fmart horfes as foon as, or a to the cottage the fame appetites which little before, they are able to ride; a can be indulged only in the manfion, fine dreffed fervant to ride behind, and and have few ideas of the art of making a fine fum of money, they may not a little go a great way. Every perfon, appear fhabby are natural therefore, who is converfant in the care confequences. It is true, that these of the poor, knows how difficult it is things are taxed, and perhaps heavily to reconcile them to a homely diet, taxed, but it is equally true, that no however nourishing and proper in their man is obliged to pay the tax, who fituation. does not ufe the article; and the ne : 13 These things were not known forty But to return to the manners of the ceffity of fuch articles is a matter, at middle ranks. Having established this leaft in my mind, not decifively afcer mode of living, two confequences na- tained. turally follow the one is, that they cannot leave it off; and the second, that years ago. it extends to every other department of diftinction drawn between the tradef gentility. In a tradefman's rooms, you man and the gentleman, which the forformerly faw no other ornaments of the mer rarely, if ever, thought of jumping kind, than a print of the King and over. By gentlemen, it is obvious that Queer, or perhaps fome family pic here are not meant thofe abfurd things tures, fliff and ftarched, (but not un- who call themfelves gentlemen, merely like the originals) in flowing petiwigs; from wearing fine clothes, fpeaking big a fideboard of plate was never heard words, and infulting public decency, or dreamt of. Now, you have not but gentlemen of birth, of landed and only an expenfive fideboard of plate, opulent eftates, and whofe ftyle of life feldom ufed but by housebreakers, and was naturally more expenfive and grand; you behold the most elegant prints, and neceffarily fo, becaufe an expensive and fometimes pictures, in rich and eftablishment in the hands of a man of gaudy frames. It is nothing now to o'real wealth, is the only means by which give eight or ten guineas for a pair of he can encourage induftry, and promote prints, which are new, and in in the fathe happiness of his dépendants and fhion. And fo much does this fafhion neighbours, and he could afford it bet change, that it is rare to fee the fame ter than thofe who live by the precafurniture of this kind for many years rious advantages of trade. In probity, together. Wolfe must give way to honour, and fometimes, perhaps, even Chatham, Chatham to Valenciennes, and in actual wealth, the tradefman was his Valenciennes to the First of June. equal, but in manners and mode of living he thought it abfurd to emulate him, and he thought justly. It w work Proceeding farther, we find the fame fyftem expanding in every direction. The fmoke of the city becomes offen In thofe days, it must be allowed, that that when a tradefinan had, by the affiduities of a long series of years, amaf. fed a real and independent fortune, he extended his mode of living very confiderably. He had his villa for the reception of his friends, for the elegant indulgences of retirement, and fometimes, it might happen, for the reception of illuftrious vifitors; but the fame prudence and good fenfe accompanied him in his elevation, that had enabled him to attain it. His expences were fuch as could be fpared, fuch as injured no man, and fuch as he was well entitled to contract, as fome gratifying reward for a life spent in honourable industry. The elegant expences of a judicious man are always useful. Befides, all this was performed in the decline of life. Juft the reverfe is the cafe now. Tradefmen, who wifh to be thought genteel, begin precifely where they should leave off; and the confequence very frequently is, that they are compelled to leave off ere they have well begun; and pride does not eafily conform itself to a change which muft foon be proclaimed in public. They struggle, by various improper means, to fupport, the grandeur they commenced with, and when fupport is no longer poffible, they "diffolve," and literally" leave not a wreck behind." It would be unneceffary to comment on a practice fo abfurd and deftructive, yet there are reasons why it ought to be condemned in the moft fevere manner. tends to his family, who, according to the fame pernicious fyftem, have been indulged in hopes which can never be gratified, and have received an educa tion which unfits them from gaining a livelihood in ways that are humble and reputable. And lastly, its effects upon fociety in general are abundantly deftructive: It deftroys confidence between man and man, makes the whole fyftem of life a deception, and encourages falfe manners, falfe civility, and pretended friendship. It then becomes every man's intereft to deceive his neighbour, to take unfair advantages, and to leave the plain and equal path of moderate profits, for the wild vifionary profpects of fpeculation. The true fpirit of trade is loft, and that of adventure is fubftituted. The peace of a nation becomes thereby difturbed by the clamours of men, who, if they complained justly, would complain only of their own folly and madness. Such is the unhappy infatuation which too much prevails among a very numerous clafs of men, and fuch are the confequences which muft ever follow, when men are regardless of the past and the future, and think only of prefent enjoyments. Thofe who may be feduced by the fame infatuation, and have not yet fuffered its punishment, would do well to remember in time, that there is no abfolute neceffity impofed upon any man to ruin himself for the gratification of his neighbours; and that the First; because of its confequences reign of fashion in trade, is a mere uupon the party himself. He is thus furpation, a flavery from which they fent back into the world, without friends, would do well to emancipate themfelves, without credit, and without reputation; by eftablishing that folid credit with the and he is driven to commit frauds and wife and the unduftrious, which cannot crines at which he would have once, be fhaken by the hifs of ignorances of Startled with all the indignation of the the clamour of diffipation. I am, fir, most virtuous mind. Secondly, it ex yours, &c. nday af } 25થી A ¢ TO THE EDITOR OF THE SCOTS MAGAZINE. SIR ATTENDING an auction of pictures, old furniture, &c. not long ago, I faw what I thought very large fums paid for articles to which I would not B. have given houfe-room. An old Chi- out out of the way. What ftruck me most was an old head, all tattered and dirty, faid to be John Knox's the Reformer, which was likely to bring any price, had not a gentleman, more knowing than fome of the connoifeurs and collectors, whispered that it was a mistake, for the head was not done for Knox, nor was the painting an original antique. On my return, my thoughts naturally turned upon what I had feen, and I thall trouble you with a few observations that occurred to me, on the folly of thofe who call themselves COLLECTORS. The first of thefe is the Antiquary, who is ignorant of every thing that paffes under his own eye, pays no attention to any improvement made in his own time, and looks with cold difregard upon all objects, let their local and temporary importance be ever fo great, if they have not paffed through the funnel of antiquity, tobacco ftoppers. Of the first he has all preached by Sacheverel, and the reft of the loyal fupporters of church and state; and of the laft, above thirty cut out of the royal oak. One of the collectors of black letter books, a few months ago, purchased a Hebrew manufcript for a Caxton, and as he never reads, it anfwered his purpose quite as well. The fame gentleman had a great collection of Nankio, and other old china, much of which was imported into this country before we had any commerce with the East Indies. We have collectors of perriwigs and tobacco-pipes: one of thefe gentlemen lately gave a confiderable fum for the black wig which was worn by Charles 11.; and the other paid a-high price for the tube out of which the auctioneer pofitively afferted Sir Walter Raleigh fmoked his firft pipe of best Virginia. We have alfo collectors of tobacco papers and meffage cards; and at an auction, not long ago, upward of two and twenty thousand, which, at great coft, a collector had got together, and with great pains had pafted in a port-folio, were, upon his demife, brought under the hammer, and, ftrange to tell, fold for feven fhillings and fixpence!—not one third of the expence of pasting them into the book. The meffage cards and fhop bills are got together merely to fhew where the traders and men of rank lived, from the earliest appearance of civilization in this country. A rufty coin, an old worm-eaten poft, A mouldy fragment of an author loft, is, with thefe gentlemen, of more value than the most elegant piece of modern art, or the moft fublime effort of modern genius. One of them, at a moft enormous expence, collects all the ancient maps of all parts of the world, and makes it his boast, that among fe veral thousands which are in his ftudy, there is not one in which any one place is put near, either the latitude or proper longitude. Similar to this are your lectors of fearce prints, who will give forty or fifty guineas for an unfinished tics, who collect all the cancelled leaves; impreffior, upon no other grounds than these will fhew the first thoughts of our the engraving being taken off for an ex- first writers, and prove by their alteraperiment before the principal figure was tions that fecond thoughts are best. As introduced, or pay thirty pounds for a to collectors of pictures, Bramfton has print not worth thirty farthings, because described those who lived in his time, the artift engraved it while he was an and it exactly agrees with thofe who apprentice. This has properly enough live in this: col There is another fet of learned cri price. been faid to be burying a man of talents In curious paintings I'm exceeding nice, in the ruins of his baby-houfe; for fure- And know their several beauties by their ly fuch things are little deferving to be configned to the port-folio. There is. another collector of a very fingular tafte. He confines his collections to two obects, thirtieth of January fermons, and Auctions and fales I conftantly attend, ON |