صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

is almost as great as that which they ought to feel. The discussion of old con stitutional questions should fill a part of the volume; and the tracts on the subject should either be resuscitated, or an abstract be supplied. We forbear to mention two or three of the earliest under the administration of President Washington, because we wish not to confine but to enlarge the range of inquiry. These hints we have offered, because we think the publication will become valuable from the learning and industry of the editor.

We highly applaud the attempt of Mr. Hall, and the publication is much more interesting than could have been expected from so novel an undertaking. As friends to the publication, we should have been more pleased, had the space occupied by Perrin and Blake been filled with other matter, as so full a report of that case, is found in Collectanea Juridica, vol. i. 283. We will also suggest to Mr. Hall, that the State Papers will take up too much room in his Journal, if published entire, and if not entire, that we have no pleasure in turning over the important documents which we had read months before in the gazettes.

USEFUL ARTS.

Among the greatest impediments to the progress of improvement in the useful arts, may be reckoned a blind and bigoted attachment to customs and processes, whose absurdity is sanctioned by antiquity. The aborigines of America, it is said, were averse to iron implements of husbandry, and refused to adopt European improvements in agriculture for fear of giving offence to the GREAT SPIRIT, who, they alleged, would visit them with droughts, mildew, storm, and pestilence, by way of punishment for such innovations on the customs of their ancestors. The honest boors in some part of Germany, in transporting their corn to be ground, it is reported, tie a stone at the mouth of the sack, of weight sufficient, when laid on a horse, to balance the grain at the other end, and plead the authority of custom. Although a similar spirit prevails as little in the United States as in most countries, yet something of the kind may be observed. The practical farmer, artist, and mechanick too frequently entertain violent prejudices against theory, and even refuse their assent to important improvements, which are the result of experiment, provided the evidence of such improvements is to be found in books. Hence many processes, which are well known, and in common practice in Europe, are either not introduced or very partially made use of in the United States. These prejudices, however, it is hoped, are becoming evanescent, and the time approaches in which the useful truths of philosophy will be as familiar to the mechanick at his bench, or the farmer in his field or at his fire side, as to the chymist in his laboratory or the philosopher in his closet.

Impressed with the foregoing sentiments, we were highly pleased with a work lately published by C. and A. Conrad & Co. entitled "The Register of Arts, or a Compendious View of some of the most Useful Modern Discoveries and Inventions, by Thomas Green Fessenden." This work does not pretend to originality, but as we learn from the preface, in culling from foreign journals, the editor has confined himself to such papers as promise to be of practical utility in the United States, and has given such specimens of American ingenuity as promise to be most extensively beneficial.

Many of the articles are such as have obtained the sanction of learned socicties in Europe and America. The authors of many of the inventions and improvements recorded in the volume, have been honoured with medals and other rewards for their ingenuity, bestowed by gentlemen fully competent to appreciate their value. The foreign articles are derived principally, from the following respectable sources. The Transactions of the society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine; Nicholson's Philosophical Journal; The Society of Agriculture for the department of the Seine; The Repertory of Arts; Retrospect of Discoveries; Annales de Chimie; The Bath and West of England Society: Journals of the Royal Institution of Great Britain; Papers of the Commercial Board of Agriculture; Aikins's Athenaeum; Annales des Arts et Manufac tures; Johnson's History of Animal Chymistry; Bibliotheque Physico-Economique; the Transactions of the Economical Society of Leipsick; Hunter's Georgical Essays; The Journal de Physique; Bulletin des Sciences, dea

Letters, et Des Arts; Journal Des Mines; The Annals of Medicine; The Decade Phylosophique; The Translations of the Economical Society of Petersburgh, and Translations of the Royal Academy of Stockholm.

The editor has been less copious than could have been wished on the subject of American arts and manufactures, inventions and improvements, and states by way of apology, that those who have or fancy they have made improvements or inventions, have generally objected to make them publick, “alleging that the patent laws of the United States, were by most apprehended not to give sufficient security to the patentee in the property of his invention." He has, however, given a list of all the patents, which have been taken out of the office of the secretary of state, from July, 1790, to January, 1805, specifying the subject of the patents, with their dates, and the names of the patentces. Among the articles which are descriptive of American ingenuity, we observed, Account of a method for preventing the premature decay of fruit trees; Description of a method of cultivating peach trees, with a view to prevent their premature decay; Mix's main spring for carriages; Account of the profit and loss on Merino sheep, by Robert R. Livingston, Esq; The best mode of taking honey; Description of a submarine vessel; Experiments and observations on calcareous and gypseous earths; on the cultivation of the poppy plant; On expressing oil from sunflower seed; On the raising of red clover seed; On expressing oil from bean seed, &c.

Among the inventions described in this work, for which the authors received premiums from foreign societies, are, a machine for grinding colours; Description of a wheel drag; Implement to enable shoemakers to work in a standing position; Cheap engine for raising water; Apparatus for driving copper bolts into ships, and a method of relieving cattle or sheep when they are hoven or swollen.

Among others, which appear to possess great utility, are, a process for wa. tering hemp; Purification of fish oil; On steam, as a vehicle for conveying heat; On bleaching powder; Dutch method of preserving herrings; A cement for preserving vessels from worms; On raising and dressing hemp ; On the form of animals; On the analysis of soils; On making glue; On pruning orchards; On promoting the growth of young fruit trees; On grass land; On bleaching cotton: On preparing radical vinegar, &c. &c.

In that part of the work which is expressly devoted to American improve. ments, we have a sketch of manufactures, manufactories, bridges, canals, patent inventions, &c. The most prominent articles are, an account of Trenton bridge; Of Schuylkill bridge; Artificial mineral waters; The Lehigh coal mine; Mr. Evans's improvements in steam and mill machinery; The Pennsylvania academy of fine arts; The Philadelphia Museum; The pneumatick cock and hydrostatick blow pipe, by Mr. Robert Hare, jun.

The English mode of forming iron rail ways is described at length, pp. 236, 239, 282. From the latter we learn that it has been found by experiment that "one horse, value 201. on a declivity of an iron road five sixteenths of an inch in a yard, drew thirty five tons, overcoming the vis inertiae with

ease

"In a great many cases," says the author of the article referred to," it will occur, where a rail way, either connected with a canal or not, will be the mode of a cheaper conveyance than water would be. It clearly appears in the case of the Ashby canal, that their rail way, which is now executing, and a double one will cost two thirds less than a canal would have done in the district of their rail way, where the ground for a canal is unfavourable, and furnish the article of lime, which it is chiefly intended to convey at two fifths less than a canal would have done. A rail way is more certain than a canal, being more easily repaired; neither do frost nor dry seasons affect the trade thereon."

In most parts of the United States, the vicissitudes of the seasons which affeet canals are greater than in England, and the reasoning in favour of iron rail ways, will of course apply still stronger in this country than in Great Britain.

From the foregoing slight sketch of the "Register of Arts," the utility of the work is obvious, and will, it is hoped, recommend it to the attention of the publick. U. S. Gazette.

Extract of a letter from a gentleman who arrived in the Pacifick, from London, to the editor of the Philadelphia Gazette.

"Our countryman WEST maintains his preeminence in the art of painting; his years decline, but his genius blazes in the meridian. The annual exhibition of the Royal Academy was opened on the 1st. of May; and connoisseurs admit that the contributions of West stand unrivalled; the subject of his best picture is taken from the following part of Gray's Bard:

"On a rock whose haughty brow
Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,
Rob'd in the sable garb of wo,

With haggard eyes the poet stood;

Loose his beard and hoary hair,

Streamed like a meteor to the troubled air,

And with a master's hand and prophet's fire
Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre."

"The silent picture of the painter is more vivid and impressive than the speaking picture of the poet. Colonel Trumbull, who left America last winter, had sent some landscapes which were much commended. Our young and thinly populated country, notwithstanding untoward circumstances, has been fertile in the production of eminent painters. Besides those whose fame is already known to the world, we have younger artists who are bursting from obscurity into light. The portraits of Mr. Vanderlin, of New York, and his historical and original picture of "Marius sitting amid the ruins of Carthage," have been admired by connoisseurs in Italy, and Angelica Kauffman, before her death in 1807, pronounced another American to be superiour in landscape painting to any of the numerous pupils from different countries who were then at Rome.

"Painting is nearly allied to poetry; no inconsiderable degree of taste, judgment, and imagination are necessary to form a painter; and although vanity has been imputed, and perhaps in some cases justly, to the American character, yet the genius for painting, which is displayed, is a fair object of pride, and warrants a hope that the sister art of poetry will ere long be cultivated with equal success.

[ocr errors]

CATALOGUE

OF NEW PUBLICATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES.

FOR JUNE, 1809.

Sunt bona, sunt quaedam medioeria, sunt mala plura. MART.

NEW WORKS.

Georgick Papers for 1809, consisting of letters and extracts communicated to the Massachusetts Society for promoting agriculture. Published by the Trustees. Boston; Russell and Cutler.

Two Discourses; the first delivered on taking leave of the old meeting house in the third parish in Dedham, Feb. 26th. and the second at the dedica tion of the new house in said parish, March 1, 1809. By Thomas Thacher, A. M. pastor of the church in said parish. Dedham ; H. Mann.

A Discourse delivered before the Lieutenant Governour, the Council and Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, May 31, 1809, being the day of General Election. By David Osgood, D. D. pastor of the church in Medford. Boston; Russell and Cutler.

An Address to the people of the United States on the measures pursued by the executive with respect to the Batture at New Orleans, &c. &c. By Edward Livingston, of the city of New Orleans, counsellor at law. New Orleans; Bradford and Anderson.

A Review of the cause of the New Orleans Batture, and of the discussions, &c. &c. By Peter Stephen Du Ponceau, C. L. Philadelphia; Jane Aitken': An Epistle to a member of the General Court of Massachusetts, for 1809. Boston.

A General View of the Doctrines of Christianity, compiled principally from Fellows's Religion without Cant. Boston; Hastings, Etheridge and Bliss. An Address to the Charitable Fire Society, &c. By Alexander Townsend. Boston; Russell and Cutler.

NEW EDITIONS.

A Practical Treatise on Bills of Exchange, Checks on Bankers, Promissory Notes, Bankers' Cash Notes, and Bank Notes. By Joseph Chitty, Esq. of the Middle Temple. A new edition; from the second corrected and enlarged London edition; with the addition of recent English and American cases. By Joseph Story, Esq. counsellor at law. 8vo. Price $4. Boston; Farrand, Mallory and Co.

The complete Works of Dr. Jonathan Edwards, in 8 vols. 8vo. Boston; 1. Thomas.

Milner's Church History. 4 vols. 8vo. Boston; Farrand, Mallory and Co.

WORKS PROPOSED, AND IN PRESS.

Hastings, Etheridge and Bliss, have in press, the first volume of the Works of Samuel Johnson, L. L. D. in eighteen volumes, with an Essay on his Life and Genius, by Arthur Murphy, Esq.

Samuel Jeffries and Joseph Robinson, of Baltimore propose to publish by subscription, The Life of Francis Guy, landscape painter in America, &c &c. written by himself.

Lincoln and Edmands have in press, Murray's Sequel to the English Reader.

Farrand, Mallory and Co. are preparing for the press, Coke's Reports, from the last London edition.

Also.....Coke upon Littleton.

Proposals will soon be issued for obtaining subscribers to the other four volumes of the Institutes.

Oliver and Munroe have issued proposals for publishing by subscription, a New England Biographical Dictionary; containing a brief account of eminent and worthy persons from the first settlement of the country. By the Rev. John Eliot, D. D.

The work, for which the encouragement of the publick is now solicited, is already completed, and is passing through the press. The author, who is a member of the Historical Society, has, in consequence of his connection with that institution, for many years turned his attention to the history and biography of New England; and, after having often enriched their collections with his own communications, in this work avails himself of many documents to be found only in their possession. All the friends of New England principles and habits, we presume, will feel an interest in this dictionary; and our most curious antiquarians well know, without our praises, what to expect from these labours of Dr. Eliot, which they have often solicited him to complete and to publish. To collect the scattered information of individuals, and impress it on paper, before those memories, which now retain it, shall have failed; to rescue from oblivion many names, which, in older countries, would have been eagerly saved by literary industry or curiosity; to point out to future historians and biographers the sources of American history; and to provide an abundant stock of anecdotes for future literary and ecclesiastical annalists in a rising country, are some of the many purposes, which the publication of this work will essentially promote. When the presses every where teem with unsolicited and unprofitable novelties, and encouragement is every day given to compilations and transcripts of American history of little value and of short duration, the printers of this volume presume that an original work of this kind and value, from the pen of the Rev. Dr. Eliot, will not be suffered to fail of publication, through the want of subscriptions, or through defect of curiosity in a generous publick.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« السابقةمتابعة »