the flights of steps which lead from one part to another; yet not a human footstep is to be heard, except when the curiosity of a traveller leads him to pay a hasty visit to the ruined habitation of those, whose very name has passed away, and whose cultivated fields are become an almost impassable jungle, the haunt of tigers, and the seat of pestilence and desolation. Af ter copying the inscriptions, and taking views of the most interesting objects, we with difficulty made our way through the jungle, to an open space, on the verge of the cultivated tracts, where our stents were pitched out of the way of fever and tigers.

ROBERT WALLACE was born on the 7th January 1697 (O.S.), at the village of Kincardine in Perthshire, where his father, the Rev. Mathew Wallace, was parish-minister. He was an only child, and enjoyed the undivided attention of his parents, who sedulously watched over his early culture. After attending the grammar-school of Stirling, he was sent, in 1711, to the University of Edinburgh. Here he studied for several years, attracting the attention equally of his teachers and his fellow students, by his assiduous application, and his remarkable progress. He was one of the original members of the Rankenian Club, a literary society instituted at Edinburgh about 1716, and which had the honour perhaps of laying the foundation of the present literary fame of Scotland; at least the Rankenians were certainly the first to excite Scotchmen to study accuracy and taste in their English compositions. The title "Rankenian" was derived merely from the name of the tavernkeeper in whose house they met. The

Society subsisted for a long series of years; and a list of its members may be seen in the appendix to the first volume of Lord Woodhouselee's Life of Lord Kames.

The mathematics, in their various branches, occupied much of Mr Wallace's attention. Such was his proficiency, that at the age of 23 he was selected by Professor Gregory, who had fallen into bad health, to supply his place in teaching the mathematical classes. This he accordingly did, with much approbation during the session 1720,-21.

Mr Wallace's studious habits inclined him to the church, of which he was admitted a licentiate in 1722. In the following year he was presented. shire. Here he remained for ten to the living of Moffat in Dumfriesyears; and in 1733, he was called to the metropolis, to fill the pulpit of the New Greyfriars Church.

About two years after this, he became one of the founders and zealous

promoters of the Philosophical Society, which, in 1783, was superseded by the institution of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, all the members of the former being considered as fellows of the new society.

Mr Wallace's conduct as a leading member of the Church of Scotland, was bold, dignified, and consistent. In 1737, he opposed the arbitrary injunctions laid on the Scottish clergy to fulminate from their pulpits anathemas against all who should conceal or succour those persons who had been in any way concerned in what is called the Porteous mob, and who had, with an unnecessary violence on the part of Government, been proscribed as rebels. Mr Wallace was henceforth looked upon as an oppositionist during the remaining years of Sir Robert Walpole's administration. In 1739 he was translated from the Greyfriars to the New North Church, commonly called Haddo's Hold. Upon the change of ministry in 1742, when

John,

John, Marquis of Tweeddale, was appointed one of the Principal Secretaries of State, Mr Wallace immediately came into favour; and he was for several years after exclusively intrusted with the couduct of the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland.

He was one of the founders and principal promoters of the Fund for Annuities to the Widows and Children of the Clergy of Scotland. In 1743 he was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly; and in this meeting the scheme for the fund was a greed to. In the end of the same year he went to London, to solicit the sanction of Parliament, which he succeeded in obtaining.

In 1744 he was appointed one of his Majesty's chaplains for Scotland, an office which he held till his death.

Upon the resignation, in 1746, of the Marquis of Tweeddale, who had been the patron and friend of Mr Wallace, the management of the Church affairs of Scotland was committed to other hands. The additional leisure thus afforded him, Mr Wallace devoted chiefly to literary pursuits. Among other things, he carefully revised an Essay on the Numbers of Mankind, which he had read, several years before, to the Philosophical Society. In this Essay he maintained the superior populousness of ancient nations, on the simple principle, That most food must produce most people; at the same time proving that the ancients bestowed the greatest possible attention on agriculture, and on the production of provisions of every kind. It seems highly probable that the reading of this Essay before the Philosophical Society, incited Mr David Hume, one of its members, to write his wellknown Discourse on the Populousness of Ancient Nations, which was published among his " Essays" in 1752. In this discourse, that celebrated writer adopted the other side of the question, and argued, with great learn ing and acuteness, against the supe

rior populousness of ancient states.Mr Wallace did not hesitate to enter the lists with his able antagonist, with whom, however, he still continued to to live in the strictest habits of friendship. In 1753 he sent his "Essay on the Numbers of Mankind" to the press, together with an Appendix, equai in length to the body of the work, containing answers to Mr Hume's principal arguments. In this appendix he mentions, in language of respectful gratitude, the assistance he had received while treating of subjects connected with Roman law, from a friend versed in that department. This friend was his second son George, then an advocate at the Scottish bar, and afterwards distinguished as the author of various literary pieces.

It may here be worthy of remark, that Mr Hume, in a very long note, in an early edition of his Essays, published during his own life, paid a very high compliment to Mr Wallace, and admitted that he had derived much information from his work.

In 1756 the University of Edinburgh spontaneously conferred the degree of D.D. on Mr Wallace, Mr Wishart, Mr M'Night, and some other distinguished clergymen.

66

In 1758 Dr Wallace published a volume, intituled, " Characteristics of the present political State of Great Britain," in which, with a patriotic feeling of exultation, he cherished the drooping spirits of his countrymen, and with an almost prophetic eye, depicted the prospects of greatness and happiness which awaited Britain, and which have since been realized even amidst the "crash" of the nations of Europe.

In 1761 he published another volume, intituled, "Various Prospects of Mankind, Nature, and Providence,” -a work less known perhaps than his other writings, but which equally deserves to be read. It is now, however, but rarely to be met with.

He prepared for the press several others

other pieces, which it is unnecessary here to specify. He was in the practice of corresponding with all the learned men of his day in Europe, and his house was frequented by the literary characters of the country.It may be added, that in the celebrated controversy concerning the character of Mary Queen of Scots, he dissented from the opinions of Principal Robertson, and warmly espoused those of Dr Stuart and Mr Tytler, the vindicators of the unfortunate Queen.

He died, 29th July 1771, at his country lodgings at Broughton Loan, (a spot now occupied by the east end of York Place and Albany Row.) He was then in his 75th year*.

Dr Wallace had married Helen, daughter of the Rev. George Turnbull of Tynningham; and he left, by her, three children: Mathew, who was preceptor to the present Duke of Gordon, and afterwards vicar of Tenterden in Kent; George, an advocate, already mentioned; and a daughter named Elizabeth. These all died unmarried. It will be recollected that we mentioned in the outset that Dr Wallace was an only child: his father, it may be added, was an only

son.

This accounts for the total failure of heirs-male in the family.

A striking likeness, and beautiful portrait of Dr Wallace, done in 1764, by Millar, the Reynolds of his day, has been presented by his representatives to the Trustees for the Widows Fund, to be placed in their hall. It has already been mentioned how much this excellent scheme owed, in its formation and developement, to the Doctor's genius and exertions.

* See Scots Magazine for 1771, vol. xxxiii. p. 340, et seq. where several particulars concerning Dr Wallace are collected. From these, and from additional information politely furnished by the Doctor's representatives, this ac

count has been drawn up. August 1809.

- It may be proper, before concluding, to remark, that Mr Malthus, in his celebrated" Essay on Population,' first published in 1798, has derived from Dr Wallace's work "On_the Numbers of Mankind," some of those important principles, by means of which he has so successfully assailed the systems of Condorcet and Godwin, and shewn the absurdity of expecting the perfectibility and immortality of man in this world, or such a state of equality in society as should banish vice and misery from the earth. Mr Malthus has shewn, that the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power of the earth, to produce subsistence for man: that in consequence of the law of our nature which makes food indispensable to life; the effects of these two unequal powers must by some means be kept equal: and that some strong checks on population are therefore necessary; these, he observes, are to be found in scarcity of food and in vicious habits ;—a sort of necessary evils, which, by the the constitution of human nature, and human society, must always more or less prevail. It may be proper to mention, that as far as Mr Malthus touches on religious topics, his sentiments are widely different from those of Dr Wallace, which, from his various moral and theological writings, appear to have been of the Calvinistic school.

The attention of the public having, of late years, been much directed tothe subject of population, especially by the very general circulation of the book just referred to, Dr Wallace's Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind, (which was once very popular, and was translated into several languages on the Continent,) has naturally come to be again in request. It has long been considered as a scarce book; and we understand that a new edition has just come from the press, possessing the advantage of having been printed

from

from a copy containing the last corrections of the author, and some farther emendations by his son, the late George Wallace, Esq. advocate.

Memoirs of the Progress of MANUFACTURES, CHEMISTRY, SCIENCE,

and the FINE ARTS.

A

MINE of zinc ore has been discovered on Lord Ribblesdale's estate, in Craven, Yorkshire, where there were formerly copper mines.This ore has been used as a substitute in painting for white lead, the colour of which it attains by long exposure: it does not blister, is more adhesive, and is not decomposed by salt water. This mineral is found in strata at the bottom of caverns, about 8 fathoms from the surface, in some places 6 feet thick. One of the caverns is 104 yards, another 84, a third 40 yards in length, and above 14 yards wide, It is supposed to have been sublimed by a volcano, as the stones surrounding it have been vitrified. About 2000 tons of it have been sold at from 57. to 10%. to make brass when mixed with copper, exclusive of what has been used for painting. If this discovery should be followed by others of a like kind, so that there should be a full supply of the mineral, and it should be found to answer the purposes required, it is possible that the use of white lead as paint, with its deleterious effects, may be in a great degree superseded.

Dr Wollaston has been led, by Mr Davy's experiments on the separation and transfer of chemical agents by means of the Voltaic apparatus, to imagine it probable, that animal secretions are effected by the agency of a similar electric power. In this opinion he is supported by the following experiment: He took a piece of glass tube, about three quarters of an inch in diameter, and nearly two inches long, open at both ends; and covered f them with a piece of clean Into this little vessel he

a

poured some water, in which had been dissolved of its weight of salt; and after placing it upon shilling, with the bladder slightly moistened externally, he bent a wire of zinc, so that while one extremity rested on the shilling, the other might be immersed about an inch in the water. By successive examination of the external surface of the bladder, he found that even this feeble power occasioned soda to be separated from the water, and to transude thro' the substance of the bladder. The presence of alkali was discernible by the application of reddened litmus paper, after two or three minutes, and was generally manifest even by the test of turmeric before five minutes had expired. This experiment tends to confirm the conjecture, that similar agents may be instrumental in effecting the various animal secretions which have not yet been otherwise explained. The qualities of each secreted fluid may hereafter instruct us in the species of electricity that prevails in each organ of the body.

Mr James Thompson of ChurchBridge, near Blackburn, in Lancashire, has made various experiments on the sulphate of barytes. His analysis of that substance confirms with trifling variation the results already obtained by Withering, Kirwan, Clement and Desormes, and prove-1. That carbonate of barytes, both native and artificial, is composed of carbonic acid 21.75, barytes 78.25.-2. That nitrate of barytes is composed of acid and water 40.7, barytes 59.3.--3. That calcined sulphate of lime contains sulphuric acid 58, lime 42.-4, and lastly, That calcined sulphate of barytes is composed of sulphuric acid 33, barytes 67.

From a series of experiments on the germination of seeds instituted by Mr J. Acton, of Ipswich, it appears, that when germinating seeds are first placed in oxigen gas, a considerable absorption takes place; the quantity

being regulated by the state of the seeds and the temperature of the atmosphere. In one experiment the absorption in eleven hours was 1.60 cubic inches, being nearly one third of the quantity employed.

M. Creve, of Wisbaden, has discovered a method of recovering wine that has turned sour. For this purpose he employs powdered charcoal. The inhabitants of the banks of the Rhine have presented him with a medal for this discovery.

From an analysis of the kaneelstein, which has always been considered as a species of jacinth, Professor Lampadius has ascertained the accuracy of that opinion. Its colour is orange, approaching that of cinnamon, whence Werner gave it its name. M. Lam

padius obtained from it

But the case is altered considerably, when the writer of a useless and insipid book attempts to ride into public view, on the shoulders of an author, whose understanding and zeal have been exercised in a cause and in a manner, which reflect the highest credit upon both.

The extensive circulation of " Colebs in search of a Wife," it was natural to think, would become an object of envy to the whole tribe of petty composers, who live by imposing on the corrupted taste of the present age. Their minds were, no doubt, early set on edge by its popularity, and, like the children in the streets, after the racing season, with caps and coats inverted, they are all seen strenuously endeavouring to perform an exploit, and to gain a glory, similar, as they imagine, to those which have affected their minds with such pungent emulation. But we might have ventured to whisper in the ear of every one, who thus sought to rival the merit, and to participate in the fame of Coelebs,' that he had undertaken a task of no inconsiderable difficulty, and that he most probably would place his own performance in a disadvantageous light, by such a competition.

The present author, whoever he is, has committed a very great error in this respect. We will not indeed affirm, that his work could ever have been respectable in the eyes of any competent judge; but its vices and defects would certainly have been less prominent and perceptible. The perusal of Colebs' serves but as a torch to discover the deformities of Nubilia; and then, we fear, to lighten her to her 'tomb. The fact is, however,-and an extraordinary fact it certainly is,

-that the only circumstance, from which the reader could at all perceive that this book was suggested by the publication of Colebs,' is to be found in the nature of its title. And much

better