Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

infected substances, or inhaling the breath of those who are diseased; and that it must not be confounded with the common plague of Egypt, or Constantinople, being a malady of a much more desperate and destructive kind. It has been said, by persons who have discussed the nature and character of the plague, that the cultivation of a country, the draining of the lands, and other agricultural improvements, tend to eradicate or diminish it; but at the same time, we have seen countries depopulated where there was no morass, or stagnate water, for many days journey, nor even a tree to impede the current of air, or a town, nor any thing but encampments of A. rabs, who procured water from wells of a great depth, and inhabited plains so extensive and uniform, that they resemble the sea, and are so similar in appearance after, as well as before sun-rise, that if the eye could abstract itself from the spot immediately surrounding the spectator, it could not be ascertained whether it were sea or land.

Many of the cities and towns of Morocco are visited yearly by malignant epidemies, which the natives call fruit fevers: they originate from their indulgence in fruit, which abounds all over this fertile garden of the world. The fruits deemed most febrile are musk melons, apricots, and all unripe stone fruits. Alpinus, de Medicina Egyptiorum, says, "Autumno grassantur febres pestilentiales multae quae subdole invadunt, et saepe anedicum et aegrum decipiunt."

Report on the Police of ABERDEEN.

THE Commissioners of Police for

this City have just published their annual account of Receipt and Expenditure for the last twelve months, in terms of the act of parliament. It is now fourteen years since they enter

ed into office. The act itself is limited to twenty-one years. The board have added to their annual account for the bye-past year, an extract of the whole receipt and disbursement since the commencement of the act; and have prefixed an explanation of various circumstances connected with their management.-When the commissioners came first into office, in the year 1795, both the lower and higher water-courses were in a state of the deepest depression, the first affording a scanty supply of a few gallons to two wells, and the last sometimes, agreeably to the observation of Mr Blackie, the overseer, as low as ten; but varying, at its highest supply, from seventeen to twenty gallons per minute. The public wells have since been increased to 3 times their number, from 9 to 27; and the ordinary supply at the same time given to the Infirmary, Gordon's Hospital, and the Poor's Hospital. Water has also been afforded, without any expence to Government, to the Barracks and Barrack Hospital. There is received at the Broad Street Cistern, by report of the overseer of the wells and water courses, about 120 gallons per minute; and his opinion is, that when the contents of the springs about Foun tain Hall, and Mr Harper's field are collected, this may be increased by about forty gallons per minute. But when to this the full supply of rivulet water is added, which the main is capable of receiving and discharging, by means of a filtering machine, the total supply may be nearly doubled. In this city two new streets have also been made, Union Street and King Street these are supplied with water. The public lamps are 640.The average breakage of lamp globes, by wanton mischief and accidents, in the course of the season, is not less than L.60. Fourteen lamps were broken in one night only. A singular fact appears from the annual police accounts, that, from the com

mencement

mencement of the act till the opening of Union and King Streets, the assessment had risen nearly L.50 a year; but since the period of opening these streets, it has been nearly stationary. This happens from the extensive erections, very convenient for a number of people, on moderete terms, all around, and in the vicinity of the town; and it will invariably occur, whenever there are openings from the centre of any large town into the neighbouring country.

From June 1795, to March 1809. RECEIVED.

[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

which France groans. A fresh conscription is daily expected. In the mean time, young men, who have already furnished substitutes, are compelled to march, in violation of all good faith.

To avoid its rigour in the first instance, is next to impossible: but conscripts desert in bands, from the army to the interior, whenever opportunity offers, particularly from the army of Spain: The Pyrenean mountains, and the Landes, at this time swarm with young men of this description, who prefer living as outlaws, till chance affords a possibility of re-entering their counTo such extremitry unnoticed. ty of wretchedness can men be reduced by despotism, that natural infirmities are improved, to the standard fixed by the law, as security against conscription; and among other instances, we know of weakness of sight being purposely matured into purblindness, by the gradual and constant use of magnifying glasses of high powers. These repeated drafts on the most precious part of the population of the country, have been already severely felt in various branches of its political economy; and have perhaps contributed to the depreciation of landed property. This we shall next notice.

LANDED PROPERTY,

From a variety of causes, such as the want of a market, and of capital, and from the weight of taxes, is now reduced to one third of the value it had during the short peace of Amiens, both in the price it fetches, and in the value of its produce. The measure of corn, which at that time was sold for twenty-four livres, hardly finds a buyer now at ten livres; although no augmentation has taken place in the quantity produced. As to the proprietors of vineyards, especially in the south, their situation is truly deplorable. Not one crop since 1802 has paid even the expence of cultivation;

and

and it is thought hardly possible, that the present owners can keep their estates much above two years longer. It may be recollected, indeed, that Buonaparte tendered them a loan of three millions of livres, but how far this has relieved their distresses may be deduced from the following circumstances: The money costs them eight per cent.; their wines are pledged for the payment, are taken from under their management, and are lodged in the government warehouses, where they are mostly spoiled from mismanagement; they are then sold by government's agents for what they can fetch. The produce of the following year, and afterwards the land, itself, are answerable for any deficiency. To us, these appear intolerable hardships, and they are felt to be really so by the individuals yet they form but a part of the plan Buonaparte pursues, although attended by the ruin of thousands. By the cheapness of corn, he finds no difficulty in supplying his numerous armies, and the immediate fear of scarcity, the only probable cause of insurrection among the people, is completely removed. As to the distresses of the ancient land-owners, they afford him an additional guarantee of his power, by throwing the landed property into the hands of the upstarts of the revolution, who are naturally devoted to his fortunes; and who, by the low prices, are induced to make considerable purchases.

TAXES CADASTRE. The landed property, though so much reduced in value, is, neverthe. less, burthened with a direct tax of one sixth part of the supposed revenue; this of course is paid, whether or no any revenue has been received; and it is at present, in most instances,, a tax on landed capital. It is even expected, that this proportion will be, considerably augmented when the Cadastre is completed. The Cadastre is an invention of the political sect known in France under the name of

Economists: it is a survey, by mea, surement, of the whole surface of the country; fixing the boundaries of property, and specifying the nature of each plot of ground: in short, it is our Doomsday Book perfected. Considerable progress has been made in this immense work, which is intended as a guide to the land tax, and in some districts, where it is actually completed, lands have been rated according to the value they had in 1789; that is to say, three times their present value.

The

Besides this, indirect taxes have been augmented, both in the amount of duty laid on, and in the number of objects subjected to taxation. In fact, few articles have escaped it. The Gabelle, or salt duty, one of the great grievances complained of at the beginning of the revolution, which was then only partial, has been extended thro'out France, to its full amount. augmentation of turnpike duty, the establishment of a toll on all boats of any size, plying up and down navigable rivers, the augmentation of the duties paid on country produce, on its introduction into towns, (the only markets,) have tended further to depreciate agriculture, by impeding the circulation of its produce. But, by all these means, the French government raises an immense revenue: the vast number of people employed in collecting it, insures so many partisans, at least outwardly. In the general wreck of fortunes, these places are eagerly sought by men who regret better days, and who have now no o ther dependence.

[blocks in formation]

penury.

and the various duties on land and water carriage. Notwithstanding the scarcity of colonial produce, its price has lately been reduced, owing to the want of demand, occasioned by actual Refined sugars sell now for five livres a pound; brown, of inferior quality, for 55 sous. As a succedaneum for that article, in some of the wine districts, they make a kind of syrup, by boiling down the unfermented juice of the sweet grape; and this sells as high as twenty sous a bottle. The root of the wild endive, notwithstanding its bitterness, furnishes a substitute for coffee; the bark of the horse-chesnut tree replaces the Peruvian bark, &c. &c. Nor let our readers start at these undoubted facts; the remembrance of Robespierre's reign will reconcile the French to any thing short of actual starvation Those who have still some capital left, employ it in the ways we have already noticed; or in Monts de Piete, which are extensive pawnbrokers' shops, authorised by government, in all large towns; in which money brings twenty per cent. at least; all other kinds of money-lending are completely at an end. The discount of bills is a mere matter of accommodation, confined to a very few monied men, and the rate is accordingly very low; generally below five per cent. MANUFACTURES.

Our information on this subject is not so complete as we could have wished; yet from a variety of accounts, we are led to believe, that this branch of French national resources suffers less than any other, if their for mer state be taken into consideration This is owing principally to their supply of the home market, which French manufactures have exclusively to themselves; hence their produce always finds a ready sale, whatever may be its quality. Neither has the want of the principal raw materials been so severely felt as many have supposed.Substitutes have been easily found for

the dyeing drugs; and the privation of cotton has been but momentary.Extensive plantations of herbaceous cotton have succeeded extremely well in Italy, and especially in the kingdom of Naples: although the want of seed has somewhat checked their extent. These plantations are under the management of Frenchmen, who receive every kind of encouragement : the cotton is bought beforehand by the principal French manufacturers; the staple is even finer than was expected, and spins to No. 150. Yet manufactured goods manufactured goods of every kind are enormously dear; the necessities of the population, though lessened by misery, are but scantily supplied; nor need we fear the rivalship of those manufacturers, while they labour under their present want of capital, and are liable to the drafts of the conscrip→ tion. They now vegetate on a hotbed, with a kind of luxuriance rendered conspicuous by the surrounding desolation, but they could not stand for one instant the rough blast of a free trade.

EMIGRATION.

Nothing can more strongly prove the state of France, than the eagerness with which people of the present middling class seize the opportunity of leaving it. Bourdeaux now hardly reckons fifty thousand inhabitants instead of double that number: many, no doubt, have retired to the cheaper and more interior parts of the country, to be enabled to live, but, at the first news of the partial raising of the embargo, people gathering the wrecks of their fortunes have in all sea-ports applied for passports, which are not refused, except to young men liable to the conscription. They principally go to America; the only country now free from the scourge of war. A single American vessel, the Hope, a few days after its arrivel in the Garonne, had collected upwards of forty passengers: half of them were women.-Literary Panorama.

Establish

580

Establishment of the LIVERPOOL Bota

nic Garden.

Extracted from an Introduction to a Gatalogue of Plants belonging to it, just pub

lished.

THE

HE Liverpool Botanic Garden was established by public subcription, in the year 1800, and opened in 1803. About ten statute acres of land were purchased at a convenient distance from the town, and rather more than one half of them have been appropriated to the garden. Two lodges have been built for the residence of the Curator, a committee room, and other purposes; and the whole is enclosed with a substantial stone wall. The remaining land is sold ; and such has been the rapid, and perhaps unprecedented advance in the value of property in the vicinity of Liverpool, that the sale of the half has nearly repaid the purchase of the whole. The land is held by a renewable lease, under the Corporation of Liverpool, who, with the same distinguished liberality and generosity, with which they have encouraged any proposal for the improvement or ornament of the town, have made a free grant to the Proprietors of the reversionary interest of the garden and buildings, "so long as the same shall remain appropriated to the purposes of the present institution."

The disposition of the garden was suggested by William Roscoe, Esq. to whose zeal and active exertion in the dissemination of science, the encouragement of the fine arts, the general improvement of the mind, and cultivation of those talents which give dignity to character and happiness to life, this Institution owes its existence. The large Conservatory is an elegant and spacious range of buildings, 240 feet long, and in the centre 24 feet high; it is divided into five distinct compartments, heated to different degrees of temperature, adapted to the preservation of plants

from every part of the world. There is also a small Conservatory, with bark pits, and an aquarium, of dimensions sufficient to contain, at least, one specimen of every rare and tender aquatic; and a large compartment, with small frames and wooden covers, hath lately been appropriated for the preservation of such herbaceous plants as are too tender to endure the severity of our winter. When the funds of the Institution shall be adequate to the expense, it is intended to add a library, of works of Natural History, with an apartment for the preservation of collections of specimens of dried plants, of which the Proprietors are already in the possession of about 3000, collected by the late Dr. Forster, in his voyages to the South Seas, with large and valuable contributions from his friends and correspondents.

The situation of the garden is peculiarly favourable, being so near a large sea-port town, from which the communication is direct and frequent to the most remote parts of the earth; and the merchants and masters of vessels are entitled to the thanks of the Proprietors, for their numerous and valuable presents of plants and seeds to the Botanic Garden. They wish also gratefully to acknowledge their obligations to the several Proprietors of private collections; to some of the most eminent cultivators of plants for sale; to many gentlemen who have favoured them with the most rare indigenous plants of Great Britain, discovered in their botanical excursions; to the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin; and to the superintendant of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, for their several valuable additions to their present collection.

To the perseverence, assiduity, and zeal of the Curator, Mr John Shepherd, the Proprietors owe the greatest and most valuable part of their plants: to whose knowledge, accuracy, and industry in the discharge of the seve

rala

« ZurückWeiter »