Account of the Rota Club. NANT's combination must be less active. Unanswerable as this reafoning feems to me, I fhall determine the point by experiment, and communicate to you the refult, if it fhould be different from the above deduction. There is another objection to the calcareous bafis: it is to be apprehended, that part of the oxymuriate of lime will, in the procefs of bleaching with , be decompofed, and its calcareous bafis fixed upon the cloth. In this cafe, the stuff, though white at first, will in a fhort time become yellow; or, if it were printed, it would be ftained in the bath in which the colours are raifed. I have ftated this objection to an eminent chemift of this town, who differs from me in opinion, alleging, that the lime being diffolved in an acid, would prevent the bad effects I apprehended from it. But he did not confider, that no bafis for any colour can be applied to cloth, if that bafis be not in actual combination with an acid.-Such an inconvenience, however, cannot arife from the ufe of the oxymuriate of potafh. But though the alcaline liquor be fuperior to Mr. TENNANT'S (which I am, however, inclined. to think is capable of much improvement), both in point of price and strength, yet it is inferior to a fimple folution of the oxygenated muriate acid in mere water. Nothing is cheaper than water, and no other vehicle impairs the bleaching power of that acid less than water. The only inconvenience lies in its application. The fuffocating vapours which efcape from it, require that it fhould be used in clofe veffels, which fhould, however, be fo contrived as to enable the bleacher to work his pieces in the liquor, that is, to expose every part of them, to the action of the liquor, as otherwise the stuff would be of an uneven colour. Having invented an apparatus for this purpofe, I refer your readers to the laft volume of the "Manchester Memoirs," in which I have given to the public a defcription of that apparatus. I am, fir, your most obedient fervant, THEO. LEWIS RUPP. Manchefter, April 19, 1798. For the Monthly Magazine. IN the year 1657, Oliver Cromwell per emptorily diffolved the laft of the republican parliaments. He had hitherto governed conftitutionally; but, being * Conformably to the conftitution fettled by the agreement of the people at the conven 325 convinced that he was no longer likely to retain the protectoral office with the confent of the legiflature, he determined to difinifs it, and to attempt an undisguised military defpotifm. The republicans took alarm; and the more literary politicians among them collected into a debating fociety, called the Rota, whofe fpeculations had for their object to involve a true idea of the beft form of government. "Their difcourfes of ordering a commonwealth (fays the royalift Anthony Wood), were the most ingenious and finart ever heard; for the arguments in the parliament houfe were but flat to thofe. This gang had a balloting box, and ballotted how things fhould be carried by way of effay; which not being ufed or known in England before, on this account, the room was every evening very full. Befide James Harrington and Henry Nevil, who were the prime men of this club, were Cyriac Skinner, Major Wildman, Roger Coke, author of "The Detection of the Four laft Reigns," William Petty and Maximilian Petty, and a great many others, fome whereof are still living, The doctrine was very taking, and the more becaufe as to human forefight there was no poffibility of the king's return. The greateft of the parliament-men hated this rotation and balloting, as being against their power. Eight or ten were for it, of which number Henry Nevil was the one who proposed it to the house, and made it out to the members, that except they embraced that fort of government, they must be ruined. The model of it was, that the third part of the fenate, or house, fhould vote out, by ballot, every year. and not be capable of being elected again for three years to come; fo that every ninth year the fenate would be wholly altered. No magiftrate was to continue above three years, and all were to be chofen by a fort of ballot, than which nothing could be more fair and impartial as it was then thought, though oppofed by many, for feveral reafons." It is probable that Milton was a member of the Rota; fince the fatirical attack on his "Ready and Easy Way to establish a free Commonwealth," profeffes to be the cen fure of the Rota, on Milton's project of conftitution. After the death of Cromwell, thefe tion of St. Albans, in November 1647, confirmed by the fecond convention of 1653, and proclaimed in the inftrument of government. Fairfax prefided in the firft, Barebones in the fecond of thefe conventions. political 326 Rota Club.....Lady W. Montague's Letters. political philofophers gave great publicity to their proceedings. In the works of Harrington, the following memorandum of one of their meetings is preferved. "At the Rota, December 20, 1659. "Refolved, that the propofer be desired, and is hereby defired to bring in a model of a free state or equal commonwealth at-large, to be further debated by this fociety; and that in order thereunto, it be first printed. "Refolved, that the model being propofed, in print, fhall be first read, and then debated by clauies. "Refolved, that a claufe being read over night, the debate thereupon begin not till the next evening. "Refolved, that fuch as will debate, be defired to bring in their queries upon, or objections against, the claufe in debate, if they think fit, in writing. "Refolved, that debate being fufficiently had upon a claufe, the question be put by the balloting box, not any way to determine of or meddle with the government of thefe nations, but to difcover the judgment of this fociety on the best form of popular government in abftra&t." At length this club of law-givers, this committee of conftitution, having agreed on the model at large of a free ftate, propofed, through Henry Nevil, to the reaffembled fragment of the too celebrated long parliament, to appoint a committee to receive Mr. Harrington's propofals for fettling the government of this country. He affigned as the reafon for his motion, that the fairest way of introducing a government is, that it be first propofed to conviction, before it be impofed by power and he further recommended, that to the committee of the houfe might be added one hundred perfons (who were named) as of fuch judgment and authority, that they being convinced, the plan muft needs have an healing effect. So great was the reputation of this difinterefted and patriotic fociety for learning, for talent, and for eloquence, that it became a question, whether it were more honourable to belong to the Rota, or to the fociety of Virtuofi. The members of the Rota threw in the teeth of their rivals, that they had an excellent faculty of magnifying a loufe and diminishing a commonwealth. When the perfidy of General George Monk had accomplished the Reftoration, Charles II. revenged this epigram, by erecting the Virtuofi into a Royal Society; by difperfing the members of the Rota; and by exiling Harrington for life, to the inland of Saint Nicholas, To the Editor of the Monthly Magazines SIR, OUR anecdote concerning Lady Y Wortley Montague, containing the affertion-"When the publication was about to take place, Lord Bute, who had married her daughter, fent for the editor, and offered one hundred pounds to fup, prefs them. The man took the money, promifed-and published,"-is a grofs mistake. My worthy and intimate friend, the rev. Benjamin Sowden, of Rotterdam, who died during the American conteft, informed me, in fome of thofe annual vifits he paid to Ipfwich (where I was once fettled), and to London, to the following purpofe: When Lady Mary Wortley Montague was returning from the Continent to England, the refided for a while at Rotterdam, waiting for a 20 gun frigate to bring her fafely over, as it was a time of war. During her ftay Mr. Sowden waited upon her. His good fenfe, agreeable converfation, and fuitable conduct were fo pleafing to her ladyship, that she made him a prefent of her manufcript letters; and, in her own hand-writing, attefted her having given them to Mr. Sowden. Lady Bute having been informed (probably by Lady Montague's chaplain), that the manufcripts of her ladyfhip were in the poffeffion of Mr. Sowden, claimed them of him. He confulted, if I mistake not, among others, Meirs. Cliffords, the bankers. Lord Bute was acquainted with the particular donation of them to Mr. Sowden. The giving them up was ftill urged. At length Meflrs. Cliffords and Mr. Sowden concluding, that a proper acknowledg ment for fo valuable a manufcript treasure would undoubtedly be made, the letters were fafely conveyed to Lady Bute. No acknowledgment was made. The letters were fhortly after publifhed, and had an amazing fale. This raifed the fpirits of Meffrs. Cliffords and Sowden, and fuch measures were taken, that the latter was prefented with three hundred pounds. It was at length difcovered, that a Scotchman, who was to enjoy the whole profits of the impreffion, paid the three hundred pounds. I remember, that meeting Mr. Sowden afterwards at Mr. Field's, the bookfeller, the latter faid to the former, if we had poffeffed the publishing and fale of them jointly, we fhould each have gotten three hundred pounds. St. Neot's, April 9, 1798. Your humble fervant, WILLIAM GORDON. On Sonnets and the Word To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. IN SIR, N the ingenious hints on verfification, p. 263, Mr. DYER is certainly miftaken when he fays that Milton introduced the fonnet-measure into England. It was ingrafted upon our stock of national poety at leaft a century before, by Henry, Earl of Surry, who celebrated his Geraldine, a lady of Florentine extraction, in the Petrarchian ftanza. It was adopted with eagerness by the numerous imitators of our "firft claffical poet;" and appears to have been as favourite a fpecies of compofition in the age of Elizabeth as it is at the prefent day: fince many centuries of fonnets, amatory, encomiaftic, fentimental, and fpiritual, were published near the clofe of her reign. During that of James (though he had been a fonnetteer) the fashion feems to have declined; and Milton, therefore, rather revived_than_introduced, that Italian mode of metrical drefs; which, however unbecoming on many occafions, almost all our modern poets have condefcended to wear. At p. 264. col. 2. Mr. DYER has committed another flight mistake, in charging Milton with a fault which is imputable to the æra at which he lived. The word afpéct was, before his time, uniformly accented upon the laft fyllable. In my refearches among the works of our earlier verfifiers, one folitary inftance only has occurred of a contrary ufage, which may be confidered as a mere exception to a generally established rule. Dr. FARMER, in his well-known Effay, doubts whether afpect, in any fenfe of the word, was ever accented on the firft fvllable in the time of Shakespeare: and he alludes to a paffage in Hudibras, where even Butler followed the ancient accentuation "As if the planet's first aft Mr. D. I truft, will pardon the minutenets of these obfervations, and may probably concur with the writer in thinking it unfafe to follow the track of any critical predeceffor, without a careful examination of the ground on which he I am, &c. trod. S. K. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, A CORRESPONDENT, in laft your Magazine, has been anxious to exculpate the fociety of Friends, or Quakers, from the charge of deifm brought against them by Hume, Guthrie, and others. It is indeed unjuftifiable in writers of their clafs, to have mireprefented, in various ways. a very refpectable body of people, concerning whom they had the power of obtaining the most accurate information. If, according to the fenfe of the term generally received, deifin confifts in "acknowledging the exiftence of one God, the creator and preferver of the universe; and in following the light and law of nature, to the exclufion of all revealed religion, the Friends are certainly not Deifts:-for they allow of divine revela tion to a much greater extent than any other denomination of Chriftians. Perhaps, Mr. Editor, we might clafs them better, were we permitted to eftablifh two kinds of Deifts: ft. Those of natural religion. 2dly. Deifts of revelation; the former being as above stated; the latter acknowledging one perfect and eternal God (not compofed of different perfons, as the majority of Chriftians would perfuade themselves); and believing that his will has been revealed to mankind at fundry times, and through a number of individuals. The Quakers are clearly not Trinitarians: they never perfonify the holy SpiPart II. 1. 941. rit, but confider it as an attribute of God, or an emanation from him, which This very accent, he adds, hath trou- enlightens men beyond the extent of nabled the annotators on Milton. Dr. tural reafon, and gives them an inward BENTLEY obferves it to be "a tone dif- fenfe or confcioufnefs of the divine will. ferent from the prefent ufe ;" and Mr. I. N. however, afferts they do recognize MAINWARING remarks, in his "Treatife" the divinity of Chrift, the Son of God, of Harmony and Numbers," that the line cited by Mr. DYER is "defective both in accent and quantity, a fyllable being acuted and long, which ought to be graved and fhort." Thefe gentiemen have not been fufficiently aware that Milton affected the antique. MONTHLY MAG. No. XXXI, the Meffiah, the Word, the Mediator of the new Covenant:" but how do they acknowledge it, Mr. Editor?-because Jefus Chrift is the wifdom and power of God unto falvation." This, Sir, is allowing Chrift's divinity in words: but the elucidation of the thing completely fets We may conclude, therefore, that the Quakers, according to the diftinction above made, are Deifts of Revelation, nearly agreeing in their leading tenet with the Socinians, or Unitarians, though they differ from them in points of difcipline, and with refpect to the miniftry. This conclufion at leaft is deducible from I. N.'s ftatement, which feems taken from the Friend's last thoughts on the fubject, published, I believe, by order of the fociety. It mut, however, be confeffed, that individual writers of the fociety give different views of the point in queftion. Some acknowledging the Trinity, though faintly and rather evafvely; others, from what they have faid, and from the quotations they have carefully felected, appear more inclined to the Arian doctrine; but the greater number feem defirous of waving the queftion altogether, or, in fpeaking of it, content themselves with bringing forward fome very general texts of fcripture. From a fhynefs in the Friends, of comparing ideas on thefe fubjects with other profeffors of christianity, and from their holding the fcriptures only in a fecondary degree of eftimation ("Jefus Chrift, and hot the fcripture, being," according to them, "the word of God"), fome fufpicion of heterodoxy has at all times attached to their fe&t. By maintaining that none can rightly understand or profit by the fcriptures, except those who read them under the influence of the fame fpirit, as was communicated to the prophets, or evangelifts, in writing them; and that men, at this day, may be fo immediately actuated and enlightened by divine infpiration, that no external teacher whatever can be requifite for them; they not only diminish the importance of the fcripture as a rule of practice, but feem to render, in fome meafure, unneceffay the revela tion therein contained. Hence, the Ca. tholics, Lutherans, and many members of the church of England, not attending properly to the mode in which the Friends qualify their doctrines, denounce them without hesitation, and unjustly arrange In a Summary View of the Doctrines and Difcipline of the People called Quakers, &c. of Quakers.....Biondi. the profeffors of them among the first kind of Deifts. It is fcarcely poffible, Mr. Editor, for a perion not a member of the fociety, to be acquainted with every circumftance relating to it. Should there be any mifstatement in what has been said, I shall be very happy to fee it corrected; and am confident it would afford fatisfaction to many others, to fee the opinion of the fociety more explicitly detailed than it has yet been, refpecting the points above mentioned. If it should appear that the Friends, as a body, have no established creed, no fyftem at all, but leave individual members to interpret nice fcriptural points for themfelves, as well they may be enabled, I fee no harm there would be in openly avowing this. Who will not think it better to do so, than endeavour to enforce a belief, the terms of which can scarcely be understood, under the threatened penalty of temporal sufferance, or eternal damnation? A free communication on these fubjets, from fome enlightened Friend, would, I think, be highly fatisfactory to the public, and might give additional reputation to the fociety, which is already fo much admired for its correctness, and for its exemplary internal difcipline. The fociety can now boast of many eminent literary characters, both male and female: and furely the information defireable could in no wife be diffused to a greater extent than through the channel of the Monthly Magazine. Hermitage, May 7, 1798. M. N. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, YOUR Correfpondent T. Y. in your of Biondi, an hiftorian recommended to Mifcellany for laft March, fpeaks nafdino de Rebolledo," as a name with young ftudents by the Spanish poet, Berwhich he is unacquainted." It may, therefore, be an acceptable piece of information to him, and to your other readers, to be told, that Biondi, or rather Sir Giovanni Francifco Biondi, was a native of Lielena, an island of Dalmatia, in the guiph of Venice. Sir Henry Wotton, the ambaffador there, introduced him to the notice of King James the First, by miflions to the Duke of Savoy. He was whom he was employed on fecret comafterwards honoured with the knighthood, and made gentleman of the bedchamber to King Charles the First, to whom he dedicated the hiftorical work, The Snail an Animal of Prey.....Tour in America. which gave him celebrity, entitled "An To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. I HAVE it in my power to add a cone fhoulder. In the month of June laft, as I was walking on the Town Moor in an evening, I faw a large black fnail lying obliquely over the back of a half-grown frog, and apparently devouring its left The novelty of the circumftance induced me to difplace the fnail, and I then saw that it had eaten very deep, and the wound was little fhort of half an inch in diameter, and quite fresh. The fkin of the frog appeared as if it had been dead one day, or longer, of courfe it is dubious whether the fnail had attacked it when living, or fimply feized it when dead. I own I am inclined to the former idea, as I know that fnails have the power of raifing themfelves on their hinder parts, and throwing themselves forward as far as their bodies will admit, which you know are capable of great protrufion; and alfo because the pofition of the fnail was fuch as does not militate with what would have taken place, on the confequent attempt of the frog to escape his affailant, the head of the inail being on the left shoulder of the frog, and its body crossing just before its right thigh. I am, &c. Newcafile. W. C. 329 Pennfylvania, you are welcome to infert in your valuable Mifcellany.-On their fidelity you may rely. I am, Sir, your's, &c. CAMPOLIDE. ' London, April, 1798. caravans ufed in fome of the western On the 16th May, 1794, leaving the interefting city of New York, I took my pafiage for Paulus-Hook, in one of the barks that conftantly ply between the two States. A fiart breeze foon carried us acrofs their natural boundary-the majestic and rapid Hudfon, or North river, and, for the first time, I trod on the Jerfey fhore, whofe romantic borders I had fo oft contemplated in diftant perfpective, from the delightful walk on the battery. We were no fooner landed than the stage was ready to convey us on our purposed journey to Philadelphia, diftant 95 miles. Thefe carriages are in reality very little better than covered carts, refembling the counties of England, and, like them, expofed in front to the duft and inclemencies of the weather. Seated therein on wooden other, and miferably ftraitened for want benches, placed very clofe behind each of room; you are charged an exorbitant fare (confidering the wretched accommodations); and if perchance you ride in one of thefe very pleasant vehicles during a heavy rain, it is ten to one you get a complete foaking, as they are rather apt to leak at the interstices. Is it not furprising, that on a road fo much frequented, they do not introduce the English ftages, and poft-chaifes; but thefe, as well as other take place among a people already to enimprovements, will doubtless progreffively lightened, and defirous of meliorating erful ftreams in the courfe of the journey, their condition. We paffed feveral powthe Hudion, the Raritan, the Secondriver, and the Delaware. The incommodious ferries across thefe rivers, and the tottering and narrow wooden bridges over the marfhes and ftreamlets, were both hazardous and unpleasant, and the occafion of much unavoidable delay; but the myriads of mosquitos, or gnats, were infinitely more vexatious than any impediments in the route. The first place we paffed through was Bergen, an inconfiderable village; the next was Newark (nine miles from New-York), where an elegant church and its tall fpire attracted our notice, as much as the very neat and modern appearance of the town itself; meft of the houfes being prettily built of wood, and fancifully painted on the cutfides. The environs are fruitful in apples, Uuz and |