it remains to be decided whether we ought to ascribe this difference to the culture, the plants, or the soil. II. Are the high Exposures, the middle Elevations, or the lower Grounds, best adapted for Vineyards? Of all situations, the middle grounds are most esteemed: the heat being more concentrated in them, they are exempt from the variations of the atmosphere which prevail on eminences, and from the humidity and exhalations which issue from the lower regions: the elaboration of the sap or juice is therefore more complete in the middle grounds. III. Does an East or West differ much from a South Exposure, in occasioning a sensible Difference in the Quality of the Wines? A western exposure is unfavourable to vegetation: it burns and parches without any advantage, nor does it give time for the juice to be elaborated, and spread through all the channels of vegetation, when inists, humidity, or dew, succeed: it is a certain fact, that there is a difference of one third in the quality and value between vines situated in east and west exposures. IV. Describe the Nature of the Ground or Soil which produces the best Wine. Next to exposure, the nature of the soil and of the ground influences the quality of the wine. It must be admitted, however, that grounds with a northern exposure produce wines of a generous and spirituous description; while another exposure, perhaps to the south, yields a poor and common sort of wine. It is therefore to the salts and the juices of the earth, combined with the influence of the atmosphere, that we must ascribe the goodness and qualities of soils adapted for vineyards. The most proper soil for vines is a sandy granitic earth, neither compact, nor too thick, nor clayey: frequently in the best exposures, we meet with stony soils, which give very strong wines; but warm and dry seasons are requisite in these cases, and a necessary maturity: beneath these stony soils, there are clayey and unctuous parts, and plenty of springs, which conduce to the elaboration of the juice. In general throughout Champagne the sods proper for vines rest upon banks of chalk. The vine, indeed, comes up slowly in this kind of soil, but when it has fairly taken root it grows to perfection: the heat of the atmosphere is tempered and indified by the coolness of the chalky MONTHLY MAG. No. 182. beds, the moisture of which is constantly sucked up by the vegetative channels of the vine-plant. CULTIVATION OF THE VINF. V. How is the Vine planted? In November or December, when the season admits of it, the vine is planted by making an oblong hole or furrow, one foot and a half in depth, by two or three feet in length: the plant is introduced into it and covered with earth. VI. What is the Way in which the The plants are inserted into turfs, or in longuettes. The longuette is a mere naked twig, which had been left the year preceding, and which is now carefully raised and detached, leaving the young roots behind it. The turf-plant, or marcotte, consists in digging up a turf in the marshes, and introducing into it in spring, by means of a hole made in the middle of the turf, the longuette or slip intended to be planted: this shoot with its earthy appendage is then fixed in the ground, sloping it as usual: the root is formed in the course of the year, and with a pruning-knife the longuette is cut close to the top of the shoot, and they are then removed by men, or on the backs of animals, in order to be after wards planted: this last way is the most expensive, but it is the surest, and advances the vine very fast in respect to vegetation. One hundred longuettes or bare slips cost four or five livres, and turf plants cost from 12 to 14 livres. But as two longuettes are requisite for each hole or furrow, when they plant in this way there is a trifling saving, although the other method is far preferable. VII. Is Grafting advantageous? Grafting is not in general use, except in the vines belonging to the vine-dressers themselves, and in the large plant : these vines when grafted become yellow, and languish. The graft remains for some years exposed to the air, humidity, and to bad management of the labourer, and in short to all the intemperance of the climate. VIII. How long does a good Vine Plant. last? A good vine-plant lasts 50 or 60 years, and frequently longer, according to the care which has been taken of it. A vine-plant is deteriorated generally by the bad management of the vine-dressers with respect to the shoots or slips; if they are not sunk deep enough in the T ground, ground, the vine plant becomes over. whelmed with roots, which at last form a solid cake, and absorb all the juices from the ground: the vine being thus incapable of shooting, the evil ought to be instantly remedied. IX. What Kind of Grapes are best adapted for White Wine ? Black and white grapes are planted indiscriminately in the same vineyard: and this is perhaps wrong; for the term of maturity is not the same with both kinds of grape. The reason assigned for this practice is, that wine made from black grapes alone would be too vinous, and would become muddy (sujet à tacher) in hot seasons; while wine made from white grapes would be too soft: the latter kind of would be too soft, as containing grapes more mucilage (muqueux). X. Is the Black Grape preferable to the White?-State the Cause of this Superiority. There is not much variety in the of Champagne. grapes The black are generally preferred to the white grapes for several reasons: in the first place, the black grapes resist much better the rains and frost so common about vintage time. Secondly, because there is more vinosity and fineness in the black grape, and it gives more of what is called body to the wine: the white on the contrary is too mucilaginous, renders the wine soft, and exposes it to become yellow, er to thicken. There are whole cantons, however, such as Chouilly, Cramant, Avise, Bisseuil, &c. where there are but very few black grapes, and yet their wine is in high estimation. XI. Which of the Exposures is most sub ject to the Hoarfrosts of Spring? The effects of frost are only to be feared at sunrise: the eastern exposures are consequently most apt to suffer, although it has been ascertained that vine-plants freeze in every exposure. Thus, all the preservative methods hitherto indicated, such as fumigations, or poles armed with long branches of foliage capable of being agitated by the air, are mere reveries of the imagination: they have been employed indeed in small enclosures; but they never preserved a sin gle cluster of grapes, and are incapable of being applied to a large vineyard. XII. At what Period is the Vine to be pruned? About the end of February or beginning of March, the most essential operation must be performed, namely, that of cutting the plant. When it is very strong, two branches or stumps only are left. XIII. How many Eyes are left in the Plant? Three eyes upon each branch: when the vine is weak, one branch only is cut off. XIV. At what Height from the Ground is the Plant pruned? When the plant is young and the rind is not marked with old prunings, the plant is cut at the height of three or four inches: the vine-dressers cut higher, because they frequently cultivate three branches, and leave four eyes. XV. To what Height is the Vine allowed to rise? Not higher than a foot and a half,-to avoid dilating the sap too much. XVI. At what Season does the first Ope ration in the Vineyards commence? After having pruned the vine, the first operation is that of hoeing: this consists in digging up the earth around the plants, so as to uncover their roots for a moment, and detach the earth from them which may have become clotted; the hoe being always inserted into the earth about a foot from the plant. At the end of March, or beginning of April, when the thaws have softened the ground, the hoeing commences. XVII. What is the Period of Planting by Slips or Cuttings? This kind of planting is performed at the time when the vine is planted. XVIII. In what Manner is this Kind of Planting managed? In pruning, the vine-dresser reserves, in the barest and most sterile places, certain skips, upon which he leaves only two or three stalks, according to the strength of the slip: the hole or furrow being made, the slip is gently inclined, by disengaging the roots, and by means of a pair of tongs the stalks are held while placing in the furrow, at from four to six inches distance: from each other: the slip being thus fixed at the depth of a foot or thereabout, a hand-basketfull of manure is thrown at the root of the slip; the hole is then filled up with natural earth in a loose manner, in order to admit of the two or three stalks sending out their shoots without being bruised. XIX. How many Operations are there to be performed between the Pruning and the Vintage Season? The prunings being over, as the same vines are not pruned every year, and even in those which have been pruned the earth has not been thoroughly stirred, the vines are trimmed at the beginning of May this trinuming is called labourage du bourgeon, bourgeon, and is followed by the tyeing up Finally; about the middle of August, in order to clear away the grass fron the roots of the plant, and to raise up the grapes which may have fallen to the ground, a third and last trimming takes place. The following is the routine practised in the vineyards of Champagne: 1. They are cut in February or March. 2. Hoed in March. 3. Pruned in April and May. which we generally feel about the part afflicted, proceeds from inflammation, which your correspondent forgets is the consequence and not the cause of heat. The fibres, by means of which we receive the sense of pain, are covered and defended from external matter by the third and innermost skin. This covering being destroyed or otherwise materially injured by fire, air, or any other extraneous matter having access to the nerves causes exquisite pain, which water or wet cloths do but increase. Spirits of turpentine, which one of your correspondents suggests, or any other sort of oil, by supplying the place of a covering, instantly relieves the pain. If a blister be not very large, honey, or white lead, should be laid on to keep the air out. If it is large, it should be punctured, and oil applied; but the skin should not be taken off until it is dressed. The propriety of keeping the air from burns may be proved by 4. Tied or propped up in April and May. any one who has courage to try the fol 5. First trimming for the shoots. 6. Pare and tie in June. 7. Second trimming in July. At the end of September, or later if the season has been backward, before proceeding to the labours of the vintage, in order to obtain the fruit at the most complete state of ripeness, The stalk of the grape must be brown and woody; The grape pendent; The skin or pellicle of the grape tender, and not brittle when chewed; When a seed can be easily detached from the juice of the grape: which should in its turn present a vinous and transparent appearance, without having any green in it; When the grape stones are brown, dry, and not glutinous. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. lowing simple experiment: "Let a drop of hot sealing wax fall upon the finger; bear the pain till it is gone off, and let the sealing wax remain upon the finger five or ten minutes; then take it off, and no marks of a burn will be found. On the other hand, a blister is raised, if it is instantly taken off." Glaziers use white lead whenever they receive burns from soldering irons. If you put your hand or foot into a bason of water rather hotter than you can bear, the pain is greater the moment you take it out, than while it remains in. Your's, &c. C. T. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. I' SIR, in WAS rather surprised when I read 66 your Proceedings of Learned Societies," (No. 181, p. 60.) that Mr. William Garrard has laid before the Royal Society the discovery which he has made, of a new property of the tangents of three angles of a plane triangle, which plane triangle, the sum of the three tanbe thus expressed: "In every may gents of the three angles multiplied by the square of radius, is equal to the con tinned product of ts, Now, Sir, the discovery of this theorem does not belong to Mr. Garrard; for you will find it in the mathematical part of the Ladies' Diary, for 1797, p. 38, in an answer to a very trifling question. It is therefore, somewhat extraordinary that it should be admitted into the last volume of the Philosophical Transactions as a new discovery. Your's, &c. February 4, 1809. MATHEMATICUS. To To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. I SIR, ACKNOWLEDGE the justice of Crito's remark in your last Number, on that passage in my little tale of" Learn ing better than House and Land," where I have described the Marine Rainbow. He rightly supposes that I never could have meant to say, that every wave on every side represented a rainbow; and that the omission to limit that phenomenon to a particular portion of the sca was purely accidental. Some weeks previous to the publication of his letter, I had myself noticed the omission, and pointed it out to the publisher of the book, who, with a laudable attention to the interest of the juvenile reader, immediately ordered the leaf to be cancelled at his own expence. As reprint ed, the passage now runs as follows: "Innumerable small rainbows were seen at once starting up to view, and vanishing, in rapid succession-all within a lunited space in the quarter opposed to the sun-where the showery spray of each wave, as tossed from its curling top by the wind, offered to the astonished sight the momentary exhibition of a perfect rainbow, though of diminished size." Islington, Your's, &c. November 2, 1808. J. CAREY. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, HEY who are acquainted with the Tgenealogy of the Buonaparte family, and their connections, will know how to apply the following remarks of St. Foix, in the fifth volume of his "Essais Historiques sur Paris," p. 61. If we compare the papal power under Gregory the Sevcuth with that of the Emperor of the French, it will afford an illustration of Horace's dramatic remark: ❝ ———— mutato nomine, de te Fabula narratur."- "I have been led (says St. Foix) to think that it would not have been very surprising, to see the different thrones of Europe filled by journeymen tailors, bakers, joiners, &c. This will, at first, appear to be a ridiculous, absurd, and extravagant idea; but let us enter into an examination of the subject. Have not several of the popes pretended that they had a right to dispose of crowns in whatever manner it seemed good to them, and not only to depose the actual possessors, but even to exclude their children and family from the succession. History furnishes many examples of this. When Pope Gregory the Ninth was endeavouring to wrest the imperial crown from Frederic the Second, did he not offer it to a stranger, to the brother of St. Louis? Did not Alexander the Sixth, by a Buil, dated the 4th of May, 1492, give the West Indies to Ferdinand, King of Arragon, and the East Indies to the Prince of Portugal? Did not Julius the Second declare, that, by his decree of excommunication against Louis the Twelfth, the throne of France was become vacant, and that he granted it to any one who might be able to seize it? Did not Sixtus the Fifth and Gregory the Fourteenth exert all their power and in. fluence to deprive the House of Bourbon of its inheritance, and to transfer the crown of France to the House of Guise? Now as these pontiffs arrogated to themselves the right of giving sceptres to whomsoever they pleased, might not these pretended distributers of crowns have happened to cast their eyes on their own relatives? And, when it is considered, that Gregory the Sixth was the son of a joiner, and many of his equally enterprising successors, had sprung from parents of the lowest condition, perhaps my reflection may not appear altogether extravagant, absurd, and ridiculous." Such has been the revolution in the temporal power of Europe that these reFrance; and what was mere possibility flections may, with justice, be applied to when the papal influence was at its height, has been reduced to a matter of fact. within the limits of a few years. If you think this worth insertion in give pleasure to your very entertaining Miscellany, it will Your's, &c. HISTORICUS. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, W HILE I contemplate the degree of perfection to which the mechanical arts have attained in this country, from the superior skill and ingenuity of its artizans, I cannot help lamenting that, among them, so very few should be found acquainted with even the rudiments of drawing; a competent know ledge of which, is as essentially requisite to the mechanician as to the architect; for the former would find himself equally at a loss in attempting the construction of a piece of mechanism, without being able to draw the proportions of its com ponent SIR, ponent parts; as would the architect in To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. beginning to build an elegant mansion without, first, laying down his ground-YOUR respectable and widely circu lated Magazine, being justly celcbrated for its impartiality, and being, likewise, much to its honour, almost the only publication of merit, open to a candid appeal against the misrepresentations of ignorant and illiberal criticism, you will, I am confident, with pleasure allow an old correspondent to introduce a few remarks on the egregious blundering and puerile reasoning displayed by the "British Critic for fast December," in the review of a work entitled, " Institutes of Latin Grammar." While pedantry, dullness, venality, and absurdity, have been, without sufficient discrimination, and, often, from improper motives, attributed to most of our periodical reviews, it is allowed by the learned, that, for party spirit, personal invectives, the unwarrantable application of illiberal epithets*, favoritism, shallow reasoning, and ignorance even of the plainest principles of the English language, this review, unquestionably, stands' * See an instance of this, successfully exposed in the Gentleman's Magazine for last December, P. 1072. plan, and drawing a section and clevation of his intended structure. That we have mechanics possessing these qualifications, I am willing to allow; but their numbers are comparatively small. Yet, under these disadvantages, we are distinguished for our mechanical inventions; but I am confident we should rise still higher in the scale of pre-emimence, if the art of drawing were made an indispensable branch of the education, of every person intended for a mechanical profession. Then our manufacturers would be enabled, in a superior degree, to unite elegance of design with utility; and diffuse a tasteful variety over the works of art; many of which, at present, offend the eye of the classical critic by their clumsy disproportion, and unmeaning ponderosity. From these considerations I am led to wish an institution, in this country, similar to the Gratuitous School of Drawing in Paris, the importance of which, is noticed in Mr. Elines's Account of the State of the Fine Arts in France, published in this Magazine for October last, An establishment like this, for teaching gratuitously a limited number of students, architectural and mechanical drawing, mechanics, pneumatics, and chemistry, as far as is applicable to useful purposes, would be an object of such vast importance in this country, as to render it a kind of national reproach to be without one. I regard the encouragement given to Mr. Lancaster's new system of education, as a circumstance highly honourable to the feelings of the public; because it exhibits a triumph over that narrow and selfish policy, which threatened it with opposition, on the ground of calling into action an ungovernable portion of hui, e. the patient] even to endangering their lives, &c." p. 639. "The preface annexed," p. 566, is something like a bull. "The committee printed and distributed no less [not fewer] than 51,432 books." p. 600. universally generally] read." p. 625. And, upon the same principle, the following is objectionable; "so sufficiently refuted." p. 640. In the position of definitives, the British Cri tic is scarcely ever correct; thus "It is only instead of It is said to be only a dictionary said to be a dictionary of gardening," p. 547, of gardening," or, if the last word is, exclusively, to be limited, of gardening only.” "We at least might have been favoured with the character of each genus." p. 55% This is a very presumptuous assertion; at least cannot be worse placed. "Yet we would neither detract from his fame nor his usefulness," man intellect. In noticing an invention so extensively useful, perhaps it will not be entirely irrelevant to the subject I have been treating of in this letter, to enquire, whether it would not be practicable to teach drawing, as far as regards the outline, upon the same principle, and by the same means, as Mr. Lancaster teaches writing? If it could be so taught (and, at present, I see no objection), I leave it to him to consider its importance'; particularly, in the school he is now establishing in the town of Birmingham. London, February 9, 1809. Your's, &c. E. LYDIATT The following grammatical errors and for last December, are a few out of the many improprieties, taken from the British Critic with which almost every page of that work constantly teems: We feel grateful to the diligence and accuracy, which has brought together, &c." p. 631. "These are enough to prove that he had not sufficiently determined to what extent he should proceed on this point, and in some degree destroys the uniformity and systematic arrangement which is so conspicuous in every part of the work." P. 552. Alas! poor Priscian's head! “ unless to satisfy the mind of the patient; it is therefore highly cruel to torture them, So |