be undertaken but by a company, the exclufive privilege would be the price which the nation must pay for the advantages it would derive from this com

merce.

The other privileges, of waging war, and entering into political connections, which the author complains of, and condemns, as having proved destructive, not only to the natives of India where the Europeans have fettled, but even to the commercial companies themfelves, are undoubtedly foreign to the nature of commerce; and could only be conferred, originally, for the purpose of self-prefervation. How far they were necessary in that light, will admit of much debate, and cannot positively be determined, notwithstanding the author is fo decifive on this fubject. Undoubtedly government was taught to believe that they were in difpenfable; and fince the event of fuch a fyftem, whether neceffarily or unneceffarily adopted, has produced great and important confequences, which have become materially interefting to the different states in Europe; until these states fhall affume the direction and management of those extraneous matters, (extraneous with respect to societies of merchants), the concerns of commerce, which ought to be the principal or fole object of trading companies, muft continue a matter only of fecondary confideration. But should the governments, as the author recommends, take this charge and burden on themselves, which properly belongs to them,-the trading companies, which have been overfpreading, and as it were deluging, extenfive provinces and countries, would, by contracting themselves within the limits of their proper channels, become more purely mercantile than they have ever yet appeared in Afia; and, it is probable, would pursue the interefts of commerce to a greater extent, and with better fuccefs, than they have hitherto done.

To conclude: The author's commendable zeal for commercial liberty, feems to have led him to propofe reconciling two systems which appear to be inconfiftent with each other. If a trading company must conduct the commerce with India, that company must be exclufive, or it cannot enjoy the exclufive benefit of its own arrangements; to which it has an undoubted right. But with refpect to the other privileges or preroga tives which the Eatt-India companies

have hitherto exercised in Afia, as they are totally foreign to commerce, it is probable they may have impeded or obftructed its progrefs. By being difburdened from them, and confined to their proper sphere of action, the commercial companies will have stronger incitements, and be more at liberty, to purfue the original purposes of their firft inftitution. A part, therefore, of the author's plan, but not the whole, appears to be proper: Let the companies be purely commercial, without either political or military influence or authority in Afia; but, if they are meant to fubfift, they must be exclufive.— I am, &c.

Mr URBAN,

N the year 1753 I published cafes of all kinds of fits, to which were annexed cafes of the bite of a mad dog, with my method of treating them at the London hofpital, and in my private practice, with conftant fuccefs; which is as follows.

I order cuticular incifions to be made about the place bitten, and to let them bleed till they stop of themselves; then to rub into the place bitten, and all about, mercurial ointment; and cover the fore with a mercurial plaifter. At night the patient takes a bolus, with two, three, or four grains of calomel; and the next morning a dofe of falts, or any other gentle purgative. The morning following he must go into the cold bath.

The mercurial ointment must be rubbed in every night and morning, the mercurial plaifter over it; the calomelbolus must be taken every other night, and the purgative the morning following; and the cold bath ufed the intermediate days.

This procefs being purfued rigorously during a fortnight, the patient may be affured of safety, provided he has applied immediately upon receiving the bite.

But one who practifed this mercurial procefs at Pondicherry, goes much farther, and affirms, that he had cured with it a woman who had the fymptoms of the hydrophobia upon her three days; and that he had treated thus above three hundred perfons, men, women, and children; Italians, Portuguefe, Blacks, Mulattoes, and Armenians; and that all kept free from the fymptoms of madnefs.

I do not recollect any inftance in my practice fo ftrong to the purpose as the above-mentioned; but fomething ap

A 2

proaching

proaching it was that of a man who applied to me about a fortnight after he had been bitten, and felt his head (as he expreffed it) very lumpy, and an unaccountable wearinefs all over, who got very well with this method. And as a caution not to trust in sea-bathing, I cannot omit mentioning, that a lad, about fourteen, applied to me, recently bitten, who was cured with my procefs; but another lad of the neighbourhood, bitten at the fame time, by the fame dog, be ing fent to the falt water, died of the hydrophobia fix weeks after.

A cure for the hydrophobia has, unhappily, not yet been difcovered; but as the gentleman of Pondicherry affirms, that he had cured with his mercurial procefs a woman who had the symptoms of the difeafe upon her, it is to be hoped, that the profeffors of phyfic, by maturely confidering this procefs, and improving upon it, will bring it to fuch perfection as to prove an effectual cure.

It has been afferted lately by gentlemen eminent in the faculty, that the mercurial treatment is not a fafe prefervative .rom the confequences of the bite of mad animals. But as it does not appear, that in their management they had made ufe of the cold bath, which may be deemed a powerful affistant to the operation of the other means, and the reft of their treatment not being exactly like nine, which always has proved fuccefifal, none of my patients having afterwards been afflicted with the hydrophobia, I must therefore perfevere in the opinion, that my mercurial procefs is a fafe and fure preventive of the dreadful confequences of the bite of mad animals. And that this practice may be univerfally known and adopted, is the fincere wifh of, &c J. ANDREE.

a farther encouragement, not only for patients, but for practitioners, to try the mercurial procefs recommended by Dr Andrée, that gentleman has collected, and fent us, fome cafes in which it has proved successful in checking the difeafe confequent thereon, and, one in particular, of curing it in the very last ftage; but as thefe cafes have already appeared as advertisements in the newspapers, all that is incumbent on us to do in order to co-operate with the Doctor, in making known a probable remedy for a disease the most dreadful of all others, and for which no other has yet been found effectual, is to refer the reader to a Mr Robinson, who was attended by Dr Layard, of Hatton-street, and a Mr Robert Caftleman, of Camberwell, who was attended by Dr Hill, of St Mary Axe. These are faid to have been cured in the laft ftage of the distemper, particularly the latter. It mult not, however, be omitted, that to the Doctor's procefs both Dr Layard and Dr Hill added opiates; and as Mr Pott has lately [38. 60. 446.] difcovered a fingular property in opium of checking one species of mortification, it may not be amifs to mark its effects in correcting other corruptions of the blood, which, though in fome cafes lefs quick, may, if not repelled, be no lefs fatal.

SIR,

London, Nov. 1777. IF the fituation of Ireland were deemed worthy of the attention of the people in power here, or in that miferable country, it would not be, as it is at prefent, diftinguished by two of the most striking particulars; depopulation, in confequence of the richness of its foil, and the vileft of all flavery, refulting from an imaginary independence.

life, in the fulleft abundance. Plenty in thofe parts feems to fhoot from the foil, yet the eye is fhocked at the wretched contraft which the human fpecies exhibits. The bullock and the fteer are fat and lufty; but the famifhed peasant pre

fents a face worn to the bone with comOver the lawns Na

plicated mifery. ture throws her richest vestment, while

the

the few human creatures that are to be feen crawl about in rags!

To an Englishman this will appear a ftonishing; he will be amazed how human folly or wickedness can thus fruftrate the fpecial bounty of Providence. But the fact is fo; and I believe, not any of the Irish nobility, and others of landed property, who spend their fortunes in England, will be hardy enough to deny it.

There are a variety of evil caufes to which the misfortunes of Ireland may be imputed; but the moft radical grievance is the mock independence of its legiflature, fo much, and fo falfely, the boast and glory of its conftitution.

It is the legiflators that engrofs almoft all the landed property of Ireland; grafing of cattle appears to them much more profitable than agriculture. Hence, with out confulting the good that muft arife from tillage, and the confequent increase of population, they lay out all their beft grounds for the breeding and fattening of cattle. A fingle man can take fufficient care of the fame space of graingground, which would afford full employment for full 300 men if turned by the plough. Thus the rich are gainers,-the poor ftarved. Bullocks, and not men, cover the earth defigned by the Deity for the use and convenience of the latter. Thus the offended traveller meets nothing but ftalls and fheep-cots, inftead of human habitations; and thus that plenty which was poured over the country for the benefit of thoufands, is engroffed by the unfeeling rapacity of a few.

Thofe few compofe that legislature which alone can, but which will not, put a stop to national calamity, and retore to men the ufe of thofe divine advantages which are at this moment enjoyed by brutes!

CORMAC.

fuch laws are infringed, no body will at this time think of denying: of late years, particularly, the practice has been detected, and even avowed, with impunity. Perhaps the progrefs of this violation of the bribery-act has been gradual; and as it became more univerfal, the idea of its criminality has declined; till, by frequent repetition, and general confent, thefe laws were in danger of becoming obfolete in the British conftitution; every one overlooking in another what he was confcious of having committed himfelf. But the imprudence of certain men, whofe rapid rife to extraordinary opulence had attracted the refentment of the reft of the nation, having exposed their conduct to the cenfure of this law, and left them to the rancorous profecution, not of Patriotifm, but of Envy, an accidental check was given to an evil, whose progrefs tended to eftablish the avowed afcendency of corruption over the powers of British legiflation. [38.336.]

In feveral inftances the laws have but a confined influence in governing the conduct of men: where they can be eluded without fhame, the breach of them is reckoned no difhonour. There is another principle much more powerful in reftraining individuals; and this is the influence of public opinion. Where a nation or a fociety hold a point to be difhonourable, although not enjoined by any particular law, individuals are withheld from tranfgreffing, from the fear of having their conduct reprobated by their countrymen or affociates. Such reftrictions are often the best guardians of liberty and public virtue; and where they have fo noble a tendency, they thould be enthufiaftically adhered to and preferved: for when a breach is once overlooked, a repetition is thought lefs criminal; till cuftom familiarizes the neglect, and the charm is at last totally broken, which might have refifted the affaults of vice, or repelled the incroachments of corruption.

It has for a long time been confidered as a point of honour among the royal boroughs of Scotland, (which could style themfelves independent), to elect their own countrymen for their reprefentatives in parliament; and I have heard this circumftance boafted of in other parts of the world, as a proof of a confcientious conduct in them, beyond many of the boroughs in England. Undoubtedly Scotfmen are the most likely to be interested in the welfare of Scotland; and the small

number