To Mr URBAN, on compleating VOLUME XXXI. of the GENTLE Jo MAN'S MAGAZINE, OY to thee, URBAN, on the closing Year, And long return'd the Lyre's mellifluous Sound; At length, more bleft, a dearer Task is thine, confefs The fweet Complacence that is bleft to blefs. Then with new Force his dreaded Falchion And glances, vengeful, on Iberian Fields; O may thy Page his future Triumphs tell, Then, joyfull Task! through distant Realms That PEACE returns, in Heav'n a favʼrite To PEACE, be all thy future Labours due, And give thee Strains unfully'd with a Tear. Lift of PLATES in this VOLUME; with Directions to place them. 1. January. A whole fheet Map of his Majefty's dominions in Germany, in which may be traced the motions of the Allied and French armies, during this whole Year. II. February. A large Map of the country about Breßlau, being the fourth particular Map on the plan propofed laft year, No. 35. III. March Reprefentation of the impreffion of a fish on flate 104 IV. A new invented Apparatus for brewing 320 V. April. A view of the attack of Severndroog 153 VI.-Map of the Island of Belleifle 150 VII. May. A large Map of the country about Lignitz, being the fifth, No. 34. VIII. June. A representation of the 272 IX.-A portable Furnace; and a view 418 XV. December. A View of the inside of Guildhall, as it appeared at the Entertainment of the Royal Family 548 XVI. SUPPLEMENT. Reprefentation of a new Bridge lately built at Dublin. 610* Place the MAPS together, at the End of the VOLUM 3. T PREFACE. HE Editor of the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, cannot think of a better Preface to this Volume of his Work, than a fhort Recapitulation of the principal Articles it contains; for the Year that is now paft, has been crowded with memorable Events, of which our Readers, having before feen the Particulars, cannot but be pleased to have a general View. They will alfo judge of his endeavours to deserve the Encouragement with which they have long favoured him, by the Variety and Importance of the Pieces which has been brought together in this Mifcellany. The Year 1761, was begun with the Petition of a Citizen of the World, to all the Belligerant Sovereigns, to put a stop to the Miseries of War, and reftore to their People the Bleffings of Peace: It was written originally in French, and fhews the Author to be a Man of great Senfibility and Humanity, and a confiderable Mafter in the Pathetic. But the Month of January is principally dif tinguished by a Paper of Queries concerning the Dutch, in which the Rights of Commerce as, they refpect the Republick and Great Britain, are difcuffed. In the Month of February, the approaching Tranfit of Venus over the Sun's Disk, became an Object of great Attention to the Learned of all Nations, as a Phænomenon equally rare and important; in this Month, therefore, we inferted a curious Paper, in which a material Error in the celebrated Dr Halley's Calculation of the different Appearances of it in different Parts of the Globe, was detected. In the Magazine for this Month, was alfo first published, an original Letter from M. de Voltaire to Lord Lyttleton, with his Lordhip's Anfwer, Literary Curiofities which were afterwards copied into all the Papers and Magazines of the fubfequent Month; and in this Month were inferted, fome remarkable Anecdotes of the Life of John Rheinbold Patkul, who, though in a Public Character from Peter the Great, was, by the Bafenefs and Timidity of Auguftus King of Poland, feized as a State Criminal, and by the brutal Revenge of Charles the XIIth of Sweden, put to Death with great Torment. In March, there is an Account of the Effects of a Tornado; particularly in the Shipwreck of the Pembroke Man of War, in St David's Road in India, more authentic and circumftantial than any other yet extant: There are alfo Obfervations on the Twilight in different Latitudes, of great Ufe to Navigation. In April is inferted, the Declaration of the Empress Queen for holding a Congrefs at Augsbourg, of which the Preliminaries could never be fettled, but which gave Occafion to a feperate Negociation between England and France, that has been traced through its whole Progress in the courfe of the Year. In the Year 1760, the celebrated Dr Storck, Phyfician to the Emprefs Queen at Vienna, published his important Discovery of the Virtues of Hemlock in the Cure of Cancers, and several Physicians here prefcribed the fame Remedy, but without fuccefs; we should, therefore, have been deprived of this great Remedy, if Dr Watfon, whole botanical Knowledge does honour not only to himself, but his Country, had not with too much reason, fufpected that the Experiments here were not made with the fame Plant. This Gentleman having made choice of our Collection to publish his Remarks, fome excellent Directions to diftinguish the true Hemlock from a Variety of other Plants, which at different Seasons of the Year greatly refemble it, will be found in the Magazine for this Month. Alfo a remarkable Letter from Col. Leflis to the K. of Prufia, and a circumftantial Account of the Murder of Mrs King, by one Gardelle, a Frenchman. In May, a new Parliament being chofen, a correct Lift of the Members was inferted; an Account was given of the Tranfit of Venus over the Sun in 1639, the first that was ever obferved in England; an orignal Letter of Oliver Cromwell was first published; and fome authentic Particulars of the Life of the celebrated General Lowendahl. In June will be found a very curious Paper of Peter Collinson, Efq; F.R. S. on the Migration of Swallows, containing fome inconteftible extraordinary Facts which may ferve to determine the long-difputed Question, Whether Swallows are Birds of Paffage? His Majefty's Letter to the General Affembly of the Church of Scotland, with the Affembly's Anfwer, and the Address of the Minifters; and Elders affembled in Synod; alfo the Letters written by General Officers, giving an Account of the Reduction of Belleifle, feveral Obfervations of the Tranfit of Venus, another original Letter of Oliver Cromwell's, and an authentic Account of the good Effects of Extract of Hemlock, in confequence of Dr Watson's Paper. |