1753. Curious Obfervations on Gold and Silver LACE. (which Mr. Freke particularly mentions) should differ from that made in a glass reeever, is, I confefs, beyond the reach of my capacity. I beg, Sir, that you will infert the above in your next Magazine, hoping that Mr. Freke will affign fome fatisfactory reafons, and you will oblige Yours, &c. P. P. From the INSPECTOR, Jan. 23. Of Geld and Silver LACE, and why the foreign, to the great Deriment of the Nation, is preferred; with fore curious Opfervations on that Manufacture. ASHION is against our own manu factures; but that the pleafure of the fovereign may overcome. The gold Laces of Paris continue longer bright than thofe of London; and the filver laces of Lyons are originally of a better colour, and they continue fo. The rea fon is in plain words this: More gold is put upon the lace of Paris than on ours, and the filver of Lyons is purer. The difference between their gold lace and ours is however lefs than is imagined; altho' that between the filver of France and England is great: The fource of this is therefore the most worthy of enquiry, and it is the more fo, as the manufacture of filver is the foundation of the other; and the beauty or imperfection of both, in a great meafure owing to the care and kill, or the neglect and ignorance, in the working of that article. All lace is made of tilk covered with flatted wire, and this wire is filver: In the filver laces this wire is plain: Their colour at first, and their retaining the colour in the wear, will principally be E owing to the purity of that metal; and this is the business of the refiner. For the making of gold laces, that wire is gilded: This alio is done by the refiner; and the colour, and duration of colour in there will be owing, in great part, to the different quantity of gold employed, which is proportioned to the price paid by the laceman; but it will be in fome degree owing alfo to the purity or hardness of the filver, which makes the wire. As this is firmer 'tis more easily wrought, and this firmnefs is owing to the alloy; but as it is fotter, that is, purer, it will both fhew and preferve the gold better, provided a proper care be taken in the working of it. The courfe of the manufacture is this. The refiner delivers the filver in a bar, gilt or plain: The wire drawer forms it into a round wire, which is afterwards fatted: This is twisted round tilk by A B G 35 the fpinner, or in the engine, and the It I fhall begin with the refiner, and enquire whether it is there: As to the gilding, it is too eafy for mistakes; and as the degree of it is proportioned to the price paid, the refiner is not chargeable with any thing about it. It is his filver on which it depends: And this the purchafers expect of a proper quality; there being no difference of price. has been fuppofed, that the putting too great a quantity of the alloy into this, has debafed it fo much below the French: The alloy is copper, but the utmost quantity of this that can be introduced is fo little, that the profit amounts to nothing; the fufpicion of their mixing lead is yet more idle; and as for thofe who have, fancied that they debafe the metal with tin, the fufpicion is owing to ignorance alone: A fingle grain of tin would render ten pound weight of filver as brittle as fo much ice. If there be a fault therefore in the perfons of this profefion, it is not from want of integrity, but from inattention: Whether any thing of that be the cafe, themselves will judge from the fucceeding obfervations; in which I fhall trace this metal from its moft rude appearance, to its greatest dcgree of perfection. e Silver is found in almost all parts of the world, but in different forms, and different degrees of purity and perfection: Simple, or mixed with other fubftances. In America it is found in vaft abundance, pure, and running in threads and plates, along the cracks of ftones. This quires little more than once melting to fit it for ufe. We have fome of this alfo in Europe, but little. In other places the natural filver is difguifed and blended with other minerals, and art must be used to feparate it. In Germany it is frequent in a form like lead, brown, foft, and flexible: In this the filver is mixed with fulphur. In Hungary it is often found in lumps like rofin, yellowifn, and brittle: This is yet more full of fulphur, and has a little copper in it. In Tranfylvania it is met with in angular lumps of a fine red colour; this is full of artenick, and has fome iren in it. In Norway they have a little pure, but they find mot of it in white ciods, where it is mixed with copper. In England cur lead ore contains a great deal of it, and we extra it thence, 2 Thefo Thefe different fubftances contained with filver in the particular ores I have mentioned, are not established as mixed with them, on fufpicion, or from report: I fpeak from experience, having separated them. Nor is this, tho' hitherto wholly unregarded, a fubject of little confideration. It may appear to many, that filver, A when pure, and perfectly refined, is the fame from whatfoever ore it have been extracted: But either this is not the cafe, or elíe our workmen never do perfectly refine it; for the filversmith, and for all other works, it is indeed the fame from whatfoever ore it be extracted: But for the lace trade, when the colour is to be preferved to fuch a nicety, it is not; the leaft thing in the world affects that, and all depends upon it. Our refiners are convinced, that the English made filver, that is, the filver extracted from lead, will never be brought to the true purity and brilliance of colour: This is owing to fome particles of the lead still remaining in it, and giving it a C bluish caft. From this, which is what they know upon experience, I fhall reafon with regard to the rest. D As the English filver retains fome tincture of the lead, which makes it blue, the German will retain fome tinge of its fulphur, which will make it quickly tarnih. The Hungarian will retain more of this, as it has more fulphur in it, and therefore it will tarnish fooner. The Tranfylvanian will retain fome of its arfenick; and the metal, tho' well coloured, will be harth, for at fenick has the effect of tin; and finally, the Norway filver, retaining fomewhat of its copper tint, will fuffer more than by a triple quantity of alloy. This is not fpecula- E tion; the refiners are convinced of one part of it, the rest I have proved, by expofing to the air plates of the metal from the different ores, and they have tarnished accordingly. It is evident therefore, that if our refiners would ufe for the wire trade, only the American filver, they would furnish F wire of a better colour, and more lafting. Among other Obfervations of BRITANNICUS, up OATS, in the London-Evening Poft of Jan. 16, are the following. I F men would but rightly confider the true nature of an oath, they would never take it without trembling, even tho' what they were about to fwear was truth. G King, our Creator? If mortals should never approach his prefence without trembling, even tho' they intend to declare the truth: How audaciously impious, how wonderfully wicked, muft that man be, who dares to appear before him with, and call upon to be a witness to, a falhood? There is no fin whatfoever, not even murder itself, that fo furely, and in fo particular a manner, calls down its own punishment in this life, as perjury: And the reafon for it is very plain and evident; because that abominable crime muft, in many cafes, be hidden from, and escape the judgment of mankind, and be known only to the heart of the criminal, and to God, whofe holy name he has prostituted, and made fubfervient to injuftice: And therefore if God did not, in a most particular manner, punifh it in this world, men would be too apt to conclude, he did not regard, rule and govern it; nor would indeed the punishment of that horrible fin in the next world only, an fwer his wife ends in the moral rectitude of this The man who dares to take a falfe oath muft, one should think, believe that God does not either know or regard it and therefore God, who is all goodness, will furely convince him of the contrary, by a juft and remarkable punishment. The perjurer, who calls God to witness his falfhood, does furely, at the fame time, call down his own punishment. Perjury, like poifon, certainly destroys the guilty taker. As the perjurer disclaims all future help from God, fe all the evils of the world muft furround him; his gold will diffolve into air, and all his poffeffions vanish like a dream: Inftead of health, rottennefs will feize his bones, and age fuddenly furprize him, like a midnight thief; fickness and forrows will fink him to the grave.-It is a great concern to me to fay, but it is a truth, that this horrid crime is become too general in this nation. The adminiftring an oath on every flight occafion, and the indecent and irreverent manner in which it is adminiftred, tends not only to promote perjury, but to fubvert all truth and justice. The fpirit therefore that now appears among fome gentlemen of virtue, to alter and abolish fome obfolete and inconfiftent oaths, cannot be too much commended *. If oaths were feldomer taken, and in a more awful manner administered, it would, in fome meafure, fupprefs that dreadful fin. And furely, if we view it only in a political light, it is the intereft of every itate, to render oaths as inviolable as words and ceremonies can poffibly make them. * See our Magazine for laft year, p. 575, 59, 592. IANTHE IANTH E and IP HIS. 37 ASONG, New fet to Mufick. # anthe the lovely, the joy of the plain, By Iphis was lov'd, and lov'd Iphis again: She liv'd in the youth, and the youth in the fair; Their pleature A New COUNTRY DANCE. The first man takes his partner with his right hand and leads her round the fecond man, then round the fecond woman, all four foot it and turn hands quite round, then right and left with the fecond couple quite round, and hands across with the third, lead thro' the top couple and meet your partner, turn arms across, all fix foot it, and turn with your own partners, lead thro' the third couple, caft up, meet and turn partners. Poetical Essays in JANUARY, Tranflation of a Posм in the Mufe Anglicanæ, entitled, Dantur Spectra. By Mr. HACKETT. TOR Delian godhead, nor Pierian maid, (Poetic dreams) I call unto my aid vance, 1753. Hence Hodge and Lobbin the fond tale ad- Or early Phoebus on their fports bath rofe. Impetuous hurries onward to the place; Hence pining difcontent her mind invades ; tafte. For here the ghost his former care reAnd the paft labours of his life purfues. Death changes not his mind, on the fame plan Intent he works, a shadow and a man. warms Glory een bere the warrior's bofom [arms : And stirs him up to fhadowy ftats of See, how his fiery courter thakes his main, [plains Sce, like a tempeft, how he fcours the With what vaft firength his tough yew bow he bends! With what rapidity his fword defcends ! Hence Poetical ESSAYS in JANUARY, 1753. Hence in the air we oft furvey with fear And with difmay behold the battle bleed. omen taught, [fought; Sung Churchill's victories, e'er Churchill Saw Lewis, fpoil'd of empire and of fame, Submit his hopes to Anna's jufter claim. Myself, had fate like omen giv'n, had Strung [fung The lofty-founding lyre; myself had Jn kindred ftrain, how bravely Vernon fought, [ought. How bravely Britain conquer'd, where the But flying from the difmal din of arms, Where yonder peaceful valley's verdure charms, Behold the lover's melancholy fhade, See, how he gazes on the beauteous maid! See, how his eyes devour her charming face! [t'embrace! How his arms ftrain her lovely form In vain :-The infubftantial air denies, Eludes his grap, and from his wishes files. Here the old fage, his philofophic pride, And gravity of mution laid aide, Flies fwiltly o'er the plain ;-behind, appears [ears, His curft Xantippe thund'ring in his Repeating after death the plagues of life, And proves herself e'en here a very wife. The Soph, her well-known thunder to appeafe, [knees. With tears implores her mercy on his But now far other voices reach mine ear, Far other fhades, a noble train comes here, My brother bards, Blackmore and all the hoft, [fons doth boaft. Whom Grub-street 'mongst her fav'rite Here as on earth they most divinely fing Here as on earth they touch the beavenly firing; [feel, Secure and blithe ne'er pinching burger Nor dread approach of dun with vocal beel. Safe here from criticifm's rigid laws, They live moft happy in their own applaufe: [for fong, Whom mayft thou join, great Colley fam'd The worthy minion of the Grub Street throng; And in thefe peaceful and fecure abodes, Sing Cafar's glories, and repeat-thy cues: Sage Ogilvy reproves thy long delays, And Quarle and Withers, fam`d for lofty lays, [crowd Call on thee, to be gone : the learned Repeat the word, and Culley call aloud. Lo call'd he comes ! with confcious pride elate, [rate. And his firut plainly fpeaks himla 39 Myfelf, fo glory bids, in'equal strain Enlift myself among the glorious train Who with loud acclamations rend the sky, And weave the laurel for their new ally. Oh! how my heart with gen'rous love of fame Diftends, and Colley's but a [name. meager 'Tis gone and like the dufky fhades of night, My glory fades at the return of light. My dear companions from my fide are torn, And hapless I am left alone to mourn. Thus when at fet of day the hungry clown [down, In the refreshing arms of fleep lies Reafon, and all her powers found re treat, AST, my love, thine eyes around, Take, O! Damon, while I live, Not the verdure of the grove, Nor the garden's fairest flow'rs, Can delight thy Damon's eye, By the bank with poplars crown'd, Not the feather'd fongiters all, Nor the flute's melodious found, Bat |