mited intercourse of commerce at present existing. But the large profits, which small capitals require, explain the want of intercourse. This conspires with the deficiency of capital in manufactures and husbandry to depress Bengal: for in agriculture particularly, which is the basis of prosperity to a country, the want of capital is a bar to all improvement. Under a system of government which neither drained its wealth, nor curbed rational enterprize, Bengal could not fail to revive; the employment of capital in husbandry would introduce large farms; and from these would flow every improvement wanted; and which must naturally extend from husbandry into every branch of arts and commerce.' P. 52. We should have enlarged further on these curious articles, had they been more generally interesting. A View of the political State of Bengal, comprchending an Examination of the English Government and Policy in that Country, previous to the Year 1780, by Gholaum Hossein Khan,' an author mentioned in our review of the third volume of the Register, taken from his historical work, entitled, Seir Mutakharin, or a View of modern Times-contains an account of the political system of the Indian, or Mohammedan, monarchs, and the errors of the English government in the earlier periods. Mr. Elmore's 'Account of the Trade of Siam' is selected from the Mariner's Directory and Guide to the Trade and Navigation of the Indian and China Seas.' The country, from this description, appears rich and fruitful to an astonishing degree. 'An Account of an Explosion of a Meteor near Benares' has been already the subject of our examination, in the review of the Philosophical Transactions for 1802, whence it is taken. M. Garonne's work, just published, furnishes a good narrative of the India Company of France; and this is the last article of the department. In the correspondence with the editor, we find a recent instance of the abject superstition which leads the Hindu wives to perish on the funeral pile of their husbands. Two wives of the same husband sacrificed themselves in 1802, notwithstanding every effort made to dissuade them from the attempt by the English government, and their own relatives. Mr. Gilchrist communicates the epitaph on Tippoo Sultan, of which we shall add his translation. When Tippoo vowed to raise the crescent's fame, • Mark here the date of that exchange below, "A heavenly star, our faith's defender shines." r. 130. We may, with the author, admire the generosity of the conquerors, who have allowed this epitaph to be affixed to the wall of his mausoleum, but cannot commend their policy. The blood of martyrs' is the seed of heresies, as well as of the church. A few Observations on Persian Poetry,' and 'A Translation of the Seventh Chapter of the Dibajeh,' conclude this part of the work. In the poetical department, among the translations from the Persian, we meet with almost the only gazel of Hafiz which has not already appeared, either in English or Latin, in prose or verse; it is the following. Arise, arise, my Hebe rise, Cast earth upon each care and pain: What though these prudes malign our fame, In fame like their's we seek not bliss: Drink deep, my girl, and drink a shame They scoff me if by sighs I show These hallow'd pains then let me keep, To think from whence my sorrows rose. For, ah! what cypress can compare • Hafiz, have patience, still you say, My breast has learnt but to obey, Its toils may yet be over paid.' P. 146. The books reviewed are, Colonel Capper's Observations on the Winds and Monsoons--The Persian Moonshee, by Mr. Gladwin, published for Debrett in 1801-The Bakhtyar Nameh, translated by sir W. Ouseley, published also in 1801a curious work, published in Paris, translated from the Sanscrit, by Anquetil Duperon, entitled Oupnek hat—' The Secret to be concealed' of which we hope to give an account in our next Appendix: it is very rare even in India. The other works noticed are the sixth volume of the Asiatic Researches-Essays by the Students of the College of Fort William in Bengal Mr. Gilchrist's New Theory and Prospectus of Persian Verbs→→ and M. Lebedeff's Grammar of the pure and mixed East-Indian dialects. ART. II. Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. VIII. (Continued from p. 401, of our last Volume.) XII. OBSERVATIONS on Calp. By the Honourable George Knox, M. R. I. A.' Calp is the black quarry-stone of Dublin, placed, by Mr. Kirwan, among the argillaceous stones; and indeed its physical external characters fully justify the conduct of that very able naturalist. On chemical analysis, however, one hundred grains are found to contain sixty-eight of lime, and eighteen of flint: the clay amounts only to seven and a half; the carbon and bitumen to three grains, with a small portion of iron and water. Mr. Knox adds, at some length, his reasons for supposing that the iron is oxygenated, and that a part, at least, of the colouring matter is from carbon and bitumen; and they appear sufficiently satisfactory. Some little azotic gas was obtained, which the author suspects may have arisen from the animal matter, to which the origin of the lime-stone was probably owing. Near Lucan, also, is a boiling well which affords much azotic gas. An analysis of the Lucan water is added, which, in a gallon, contains eleven and a half grains of carbonat of lime, nineteen and a half of carbonat of soda, eight of sulphur, two of muriat of soda, and three-fourths of carbonat of magnesia. XIII. On the Orbits in which Bodies revolve, being acted upon by a centripetal Force varying as any Function of the Distance, when those Orbits have two Apsides. By the Reverend J. Brinkley, A. M. Andrews' Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin.' This masterly paper is incapable of abridgement. XIV. Observations and Experiments undertaken with a View to determine the Quantity of Sulphur contained in Sulphuric Acid; and of this latter contained in Sulphates in general. By Richard Chenevix, F. R.S. and M.R.I.A.' In a paper presented to the Royal Society on some arseniats of copper and iron, Mr. Chenevix had occasion to observe that the proportion of sulphur was very unequal; and this was found to be owing to a partial oxydation and acidification of the radical by means of the nitrous acid employed to dissolve the ore. Having, then, found the quantity that remained untouched, the rest was to be sought in the liquors that had washed the precis pitates. The difficulties which attend this investigation, and the numerous corrections requisite, must be sufficiently obvious to every chemist. They are here stated at some length; but we cannot follow the arguments minutely. One hundred parts of calcined sulphat of lime appeared to contain fifty-seven of lime, and forty-three of sulphuric acid; and seventy-one and a half of sulphur, combined with thirty-eight and a half of oxygen, form one hundred grains of real sulphuric acid. The proportions found, by Thenard, of barytes and acid in the sulphat of barytes-viz. 74.82 and 25.18-come very near our author's results. XV. Meteorological Observations made at Londonderry in the Year 1800. By William Patterson, M. D. and M. R.I.A.' The highest point of the barometer was 30.49 inches in July; the lowest 28.85 in January: the mean 29.82+. The thermometer was 81° in July, and 23° in December: the mean 49.75. The mean heat of April was 49°. De Luc's hygrometer was, in December, 52, in August, 30. The rain amounted to 29.226+. April, October, and November, were the most rainy months; next to them January, August, and September: the driest February and March. The prevailing winds west and north-west. Some curious observations on the weather of Ireland, made 150 years since by Dr Boate, are added, with corresponding remarks; but the whole would detain us too long. One passage we shall select. ⚫ One observation more from Dr. Boate, I cannot refrain citing, because it relates to the salubrity of the air of this island, which, if it were as exempt from wet as it is from cold, he protests, "would be one of the sweetest and pleasantest in the whole world, and very few countries could be named, that might be compared with Ireland for agreeable temperateness." To demonstrate the salubrity of the cli mate, and to shew that the healthiness of the inhabitants is not owing to" any peculiar quality of their bodies, but proceedeth from some hidden property of the land and the air itself;" he adduces two facts: "First, in that strangers coming to Ireland do partake of the same exemption; and, as long as they continue there, are as free of those evils, from which that climate is exempt, as the Irish themselves.""Secondly, in that the natives, born and brought up in Ireland, coming into other countries, are found to be subject unto the same diseases as other people." He adds, that even when military bodies, composed of strangers, and liable to the severe diseases generally incident to an army, were seized with such diseases, their origin was traced to errors in the use of the non-naturals, not to any peculiar fault in the air of the country.-In what measure this last observation is corroborated by succeeding facts, I am not qualified to decide, our data being yet insufficient for the purpose of conclusive calculation; but, if we were allowed to reason on the point, we should say, that since the air was free from the species of vitiation which, in most other countries, occasions that trying sickness, called seusoning, at a period so far back as one hundred and fifty years ago, when the island was in a state vastly waste and uncultivated, compared with its present situation, may we not now ascribe to it at least an equally be nign disposition, or rather a superior one, arising from the improved and spreading culture of the land?' r. 257. The causes of the mild winters of Ireland are next considered, and are investigated with some ingenuity, but a little too theoretically. The last causes are the true, and almost the only ones-the vicinity of the Atlantic, the gulf stream from the coast of Florida, and the want of high mountains; to which should have been added the prevailing winds from the west. The concluding observations on the importance of meteorological observations are excellent. • XVI. Of the Variations of the Atmosphere. By Richard Kirwan, Esq. LL. D. F. R.S. and P. R.I.A. This very extensive and valuable paper is itself a volume, and consists of 238 pages. The president also seldom indulges a diffuse style; his observations are always peculiarly comprehensive and concise. The object of his paper is thus shortly explained in the first paragraph. The variations of the known properties of the atmosphere, viz. of its state of moisture or dryness, and its disposition to admit, retain, or dismiss the watery fluid, its temperature, gravity, elasticity, and electricity in different seasons, and frequently in the same season, and in different years, in the same or in different latitudes, at the same or at different distances, whether vertical or lateral, from the oceans separating the two continents that form the solid mass of the globe, as well as on those oceans themselves, and the currents which from different points with more or less permanency agitate the whole atmospheric mass, form, together with the investigation of their causes, the principal objects of meteorological science.' P. 269. The obstacles which have obstructed the progress of meteorology are next detailed, as well as the means by which many of these have been obviated. This forms a concise, but instructive discussion; and we then proceed to the subject of the memoir. Moisture in the atmosphere may be considered as rising into it, subsisting in it, or descending from it. The first has the priority in our author's examination; and he treats of evaporation as produced-rather perhaps influenced-by heat,'affinity to the air of the atmosphere,' agitation,' 'electricity,' and light. In the first section, viz. on evaporation as influenced by heat, Mr. Kirwan speaks of the cause of evaporation, and. prefers the system of Dr. Halley, viz. the solution of water in air, to the more modern doctrine of decomposition. We suspect, however, that he does not consider the question in its most extensive view. In many cases, undoubtedly, the solution takes place, and the water in the air can be recovered; but he should have reflected that the air, in summer, gives no water to the deliquescing salts; and yet, within an hour, the most |