matters of importance. As to personal habits, begin by denying that you have any; as all perfonal habits, if they have been of any long ftanding, must have become involuntary, the unconscious culprit may affert her innocence without hazarding her veracity. "However, if you happen to be detected in the very fact, and a perfon | cries, “Now, now, you are doing it!" fabmit, but declare at the fame moment, "That it is the very first time in your whole life, you were ever known to be guilty of it; that therefore it can be no habit, and of courfe no ways reprehenfible." "Extend alfo the rage for vindication to all the objects which the most remotely concern you; take even inanimate ob. jects under your protection. Your drefs, your furniture, your property, every thing which is or has been yours, defend, and this upon the principles of the foundeft philofophy; these things all compofe a part of your perfonal merit; all that, connected the most diftantly with your idea, gives pleasure or pain to others, becomes an object of blame or praife, and confequently cims your fupport or vindication. "In the courfe of the management of your houfe, children, family, and affairs, probably fome few errors of omiffion or commiffion may ftrike your hufband's pervading eye; but thefe errors, admitting them to be errors, you will LA LIBERTA. never if you please allow to be charged to any deficiency in memory, judgment, or activity, on your part. "There are furely people enough around you to divide and share the blame send it from one to another, till at laft, by universal rejection, it is proved to belong to nobody. You will fay how ever that facts remain unalterable; and that in fome unlucky inftance, in the changes and chances of human affairs, you may be proved to have been to blame. Some ftubborn evidence may appear against you; an eye-witness perhaps: ftill you may prove an alibi, or balance the evidence. There is nothing equal to balancing evidence; doubt is, you know, the moft philofophic ftate, of the human mind, and it will be kind of you to preserve it in the breast of your husband. "Indeed the fhort method of denying abfolutely all blameable facts, Ishould recommend to pupils as the best; and if in the beginning of their career of juftification, they may ftartle at this mode, let them depend upon it, that in their future practice it muft become perfectly familiar. The nice diftinction of fimulation and diffimulation, depend but on the trick of a fyllable palliation and extenuation are univerfally allowable in felf-defence; prevarication inevitably follows, and falfehood "is but in the next degree.” POETRY. From Dr Burney's Memoirs of Metaftafio, NISA! thy pow'r is flown, In dreams thou'rt now forgot, Nor dof thou, when thou'rt near Of all thy charms I now Now if thou angry look, Thef Thofe lips however kind, What pain or pleasure gives, Nor does thy face, though fair, But ftill I know thou'lt fay, My inftinct is the fame I quit a fickle fair, Thoul't lose a heart that's true; EPIGRA M. TWIXT John and his Wife, in lieu of affection, Perpetual contest arofe; In judgment and taste each affumed the di rection, And both were proceeding to blows: When John exclaimed, Hold! my error I fee Your argument's weighty and true; You have tafte,---for in marriage you made choice of me; I have none, for I made choice of you. TABLE Of Native and Extraneous Fofils, found in the Parishes of Rutherglen and Kilbride, in the County of Lanark. (From p. 806.) As the greater part, if not all, of the Foffils to be found in this county are mentioned in the Hiftory of the Parishes of Rutherglen and Kilbride, by the Rev. Mr Ure, we fhall exhibite them in a Table, referring to that work for a particular defcription of them. Earths and Stones. Argillaceous Bluish Pipe Clay Blackish Gray Till, with vegetable im Hard black flaty Till Uncommon Till, called by the miner with Silicious or Calca. reous Spar or Zeolite White Steatites Ponderous Spar Vitreous volcanic production Compact cryftalized Zeolite Beautiful radiated Crystals of Zeolite on Till Metallic Subftances. Hæmatites, in Rawhead Moor Limestone, replete with marine produc- Iron-ftone Balls tions containing marine exuvia Tetrahedral Prisms Ludus Helmontii, Sep, tarium, or Waxen Veins Varieties of ditto Kidney ftone, Butter ftone-Thefe con Etites, Eagle stone tain the beft iron Blood red Argillaceous Iron Ore, Keel, Galena, at the Eldrig. at Stonelaw Extraneous Fofils. Impreffions of the Bark of oak, elm, &c in free-ftone Petrified productions of the Sea. Patella, or Limpet with a small flit Orthoceratites, fuperficie fulcata lævi Cornua Ammonis, fmooth and round flat Cochee Hilices Nautilus Turbo Terebra Buccinum Trochus Serpula planorbis. Shells-Bivalves, both valves equal Cockle Muscle Microscopic Multarticulate Cockle Shells with unequal valves WE fhall finish the very important correfpondence between Lord Malmef bury and M. Delacroix, fee p. 874, by inferting Lord Malmesbury's credentials. TRANSLATION of the Credentials given to Lord Malmesbury. [The Original is in Latin.] G. R. "GEORGE, by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. to all to whom these prefents hall come, greeting. Seeing that the flame of war has for a long time raged in different parts of the globe; deeply occupied with the project of terminating reguJarly fo many quarrels and diffenfions, of reftoring and confolidating the public tranquillity; refolved for this purpofe to chufe a man capable of a negotiation of this importance, and to inveft him with full authority to complete fo great a work, be it known, that the fidelity, talents, genius, perfpicuity, and experience of our faithful and dear Counfellor James Baron Malmesbury, Knight of the most honourable Order of the Bath, infpiring us with full confidence, we have named him; and he is appointed and conftituted our true, certain, and accredited Commiffary and Plenipotentiary, giving and conceding him, in all refpects, full and entire power, faculty, and authority; charging him befides with our general and special orders to confer on our part, and in our name, with the Minifter or Minifters, Commissioners, and Plenipotentiaries of the French Republic, fufficiently invested with equal authority, as well as with the Minifters, Commiffioners, or Plenipotentiaries of the other Princes and States who may take part in the prefent ne gotiation, alfo invefted with the fame autho rity; to treat either feparately or together; to confer upon the means of eftablishing a folid and durable peace, amity, and fincere concord; and to adopt all refolutions and conclufions; to fign for us, and in our name, all the faid conventions or conclufions; to make, in confequence, every treaty or treaties, and all other ads, as he fhall judge neceffary; to deliver and receive mutually, all other objects relative to the fortunate execution of the above mentioned work; to tranfact with the fame force and the fame effe A as we should be able to do if we afsisted in perfon; guaranteeing, and on our Royal word promifing, that all and each of the tranfactions and conclufions, which shall be made and determined by our faid Plenipotentiary, fhall be made and agreed upon, ratified, accepted, and adopted with the best faith; that we fhall never fuffer any one, either in whole or in part, to infringe and act contrary to them; and in order to give every thing more fecurity and force, we have figned the prefent with our Royal hand, and affixed to it the feal of Great Britain." Given in our Palace at St James's 13th October, year of grace 1796, and of our reign the 36th. tended a tranfaction of fo much importance ed even by this refult from flili pursuing fuch to the general interefts of Europe. It is well known, that early in the prefent year, his Majefty, laying afide the confideration of many circumftances of difficulty and difcouragement, determined to take fuch fieps as were beft calculated to open the way for negotiation, if any correfponding defire prevailed on the part of his enemies. He directed an overture to be made in his name by his Minister in Switzerland, for the purpofe of afcertaining the difpofitions of the French Government with respect to peace. The anfwer which he received in return was at once haughty and evasive: It affected to question the fincerity of thofe difpofitions of which his Majefty's conduct afforded fo unequivocal a proof; it raised groundlefs objections to the mode of negociation propofed by his Majesty (that of a General Congrefs, by which peace has fo often been restored to Europe;) but it ftudiously paffed over in filence his Majefty's defire to learn what other mode would be preferred by France. It at the fame time afferted a principle, which was ftated as an indifpenfable preliminary to all negociation; a principle under which the terms of peace must have been regulated, not by the ufual confiderations of juftice, policy, and reciprocal convenience; but by an implicit fubmiffion, on the part of all other powers, to a claim founded on the internal laws and feparate conftitution of France, as having full authority to fuperfede the treaties entered into by independent ftates, to govern their interefts, to controul their engagements, and to difpofe of their dominions. A pretenfion in itself fo extravagant could in no inftance have been admitted, nor even liftened to for a moment. Its application to the prefent cafe led to nothing less than that France fhould, as a preliminary to all difcuffion, retain nearly all her conquefts, and those particularly in which his Majefty was moft concerned, both from the ties of intereft, and the facred obligations of treaties: That the should in like manner, recover back all that had been conquered from her in every part of the world: And that the fhould be left at liberty to bring forward fuch further demands, on all other points of negotiation, as fuch unqualified fubmiffion on the part of those with whom the treated could not fail to produce. On fuch grounds as thefe it was fufficiently evident that no negotiation could be eftablishcd: Neither did the anfwer of his Majefty's enemies afford any opening for continuing the the difcuffion, fince the mode of negotiation offered by his Majefty had been peremptorily rejected by them, and no other had been fated in which they were willing to con cur. His Majesty was, however, not discourag measures as appeared to him most-conducive to the end of peace; and the withes of his ally, the Emperor, correfponding with those which his Majefty had manifefted, fentiments of a fimilar tendency were expreffed on the part of his Imperial Majefty at the time of opening the campaign: But the continuance of the fame spirit and principles, on the part of the enemy, rendered this fresh overture equally unfuccessful. While the Government of France thus perfifted in obftructing every meature that could even open the way to negotiation, no endea.. vour was omitted to mislead the public opinion throughout all Europe with respect to the real caufe of the prolongation of the war, and to caft a doubt on those difpofitions which could alone have dictated the steps ta ken by his Majefty and his auguft ally. In order to deprive his enemies of all poffibility of fubterfuge or evasion, and in the hope that a juft fenfe of the continued calamities of war, and of the increasing diftreffes of France herfelf, might at length have led to more juft and pacific difpofitions, his Ma jesty renewed, in another form, and through the intervention of a friendly power, a propofal for opening negotiations for peace. The manner, in which this intervention was received, indicated the most hoftile difpofition towards Great Britain, and at the fame time afforded to all Europe a ftriking instance of that injurious and offenfive conduct which is observed on the part of the French Government, towards all other countries. The repeated overtures made in his Majefty's name were nevertheless of fuch a nature, that it was at last found inipoffible to perfift in the obfolute rejection of them, without the direst and undisguised avowal of a determination to refufe to Europe all hope of the restoration of tranquillity. A channel was therefore at length indicated through which the Government of France profeffed itself willing to carry on a negotiation, and a readinefs was expreffed (though in terms far remote from any fpirit of conciliation) to receive a Minifter authorised by his Majefty to proceed to Paris for that purpose. Many circumstances might have been urged,as affording powerful motives against adopting this fuggeftion, until the Government of France had given fome indication of a fpirit better calculated to promote the fuccefs of fuch a miffion, and to meet these advances on the pact of Great Britain. The King's defire for the restoration of general peace on juft and honourable terms, his concern for the interefts of his fubjects, and his determination to leave to his enemies no pretext for imputing to him the confequences of their own ambition, induced him to overlook CY |