departed from the Locks of Muirtown, on the first voyage through the Canal, amidst the loud and enthusiastic cheerings of a great concourse of people, and the firing of cannon. The morning was peculiarly favourable, although rather calm; and the banks of the Canal were crowded with spectators, a great number of whom accompanied the party from the Muirtown Locks to the Bridge of Bught; the band of the Invernesshire Militia going on-board at Dochgarroch Lock, and playing "God save the King." The Act of Parliament for effecting this important inland navigation was passed on the 22d of July, 1803. By a line of lochs and rivers Nature seemed to have invited the skill and enterprise of man to the undertaking, and, upon investigation, every part intend ed to be occupied by the Canal was found, with little abatement, to be very favourable to the purpose. It has been considered as probable, that, in more early ages of the world, the immense chasm (almost two-thirds of the length of which is still occupied by water,) has been nearly open from sea to sea; and that the land which now separates the lochs has been formed from the adjoining mountains, wasted by time, and brought down by torrents from rain. The Commissioners held their first meeting on the 30th of the same month, and set to work with a promptitute not in general 30 conspicuous in the discharge of public duty. It opens into Loch Beauly, part of the Murray Frith, and, Bear Clachnacary, ascends by a cluster of four locks. It was found necessary to alter the course of the Ness, by throwing up an embankment of about a thousand yards in length, and twelve feet in height, above the line of ordi'nary low water in the river. Near Inverness the soil is so loose, being composed of gravel and sand, that, in pits sunk for trial, the water rose and fell with the tide, and considerable apprehension was entertained that a proper foundation for the locks, and other necessary masonry, would not have been found; but, at length, one place was discovered of sufficient solidity to answer the purpose. The Canal then proceeds through Loch Doughfour, a little loch, which presented the greatest difficulty to the navigation on account of its shallowness, and the quantities of gravel which are carried with great velocity into, and through it. The navigation then continues to Loch Ness, a distance of about seven miles, the advantageous length and form of which determined the undertaking. It is a noble piece of water, twentythree miles and three quarters loug, and in breadth varies from a mile and a quarter to three quarters of a mile, and is nearly straight from one end to the other. Its shores are bold and commanding, and on each side risc lofty, rocky, and rugged, mountains, irregularly cut into deep gullies, with frightful precipices. The depth of its water is from one hundred and six to one hundred and twenty-nine fathoms in the middle parts, to eighty-five, seventy-five, or less, near its end, to the east. The sides, except the bays, are very steep; the rise being a foot in height to a foot and a half in breadth. At the western end of this loch stands Fort Augustus, where the foundation of the lock near this fort, and on Loch Ness, is twenty-four feet below the level of the summer surface of the lake, which, varying in its height ten feet, rendered it necessary to cut a new channel for the river through the rock on the north side, in order to get at a solid foundation of rock, the soil being too open to warrant the cutting to so great a depth. The Canal from Fort Augustus ascends about five miles to Loch Oich, which is about three miles in length, and one quarter broad, and is in some parts twenty-six fathoms in depth, and in others only five. This loch is the summit level of the Canal. From the western end of this loch the Canal is continued for about two miles, when it falls into Loch Lochy, a sheet of water ten miles and a half long, and its breadth, at the cast end, near three quarters of a mile; from thence it increases, until, in the Bay of Arkeg, it spreads to about a mile and a quarter, and is from seventy-six to seventyfour fathoms deep in many parts. On one side of this loch are high ridges of rocks and ground, descending abruptly into the lake. At the cast end of this lake is a complete little harbour, in which there are from ten to five fathoms water, admirably adapted for giving every protection to the Canal, and safe and commodious for ships to lie in. A new A new course has been cut for the river Lochy, along the bottom of the bank on the south side, where the Canal occupies the deserted part of the bed of the river, and the lake has been raised twelve feet above its ancient level. The Canal proceeds by Corpach to Loch Eil, which communicates with the Sound of Mull, and is part of the West Sea. At Corpach a sea-lock has been formed, cut out of the rock, and a small basin made within it, capable of admitting a number of ves sels with the flowing tide, which, after the gates are closed, may ascend the locks at leisure, of which the whole number will be twenty-five, and the number of lock-gates thirty-eight: these, by being in clusters, are much less expensive than in separate locks, on account of the back of one forming the front of the next; whereas separate locks must be complete in all their parts. Bridges have been constructed of cast-iron, similar to those at the West-India Docks and London Docks, which swing horizontally to each side of the Canal, or lock. At the eastern end of Loch Eil stands Fort William, as far as which there is a safe navigation and harbour for shipping. In this manner the junction of the two seas has been effected. The Canal is twenty feet deep, fifty wide at bottom, and one hundred and ten feet wide at top, and admits of the passage of thirty-two-gun frigates, and of course of the largest merchant vessels. It was originally intended to have cut the Canal so as to admit of forty-four gun frigates; but not only would the additional cost have been very great, but it was by no means certain that the depth of water in Loch Beauly, near the eastern entrance of the Canal, would safely or conveniently admit the passage of frigates of so large a rate at the ordinary high-water depth. The time of passing a thirty-eight feet lock will be about twenty minutes, a forty feet lock about twenty-two minutes, and a forty-three feet lock twenty-five mi nutes. The smallest size of vessels trading to the Baltic is about seventy-five feet in length, twenty-one feet in width, in draught of water twelve feet, and in burden one hundred and twenty tons. The largest size is about one hundred and thirty feet long, thirty-five feet wide, in draught of water nineteen feet, and in burden six hundred and fifty tons. 'This union of the two seas being effected, the amelioration of this part of the Highlands, and of a considerable distance round, must be great and rapid. New sources of industry and enterprise will be opened, new settlements will be established, new towns will rise, the fisheries will be increased, and agriculture will wave, wherever the soil will admit, her golden harvest. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, Earl of Liverpool's residence, and in the neighbourhood of Kingston, For For the Monthly Magazine. OBJECTIONS to TALAVERA'S PLAN of RELIEF to the AGRICULTURAL and other INDUSTRIOUS CLASSES; and the PRINCIPLE of a CORN-RENT recommended. HE disease of the body politic is ing to allow of rash and empirical remedies being applied without danger of a dissolution; under this description of remedy, I cannot avoid placing the proposal made in the commencing paragraph of Talavera's letter in your October number, page 226,-I mean with regard to the sweeping enactment by which he proposes to lower by one-half all wages and the prices of corn. What! after corn, and most other agricultural products, are already lowered far more than one-half in price, and the funds, tolls, debts, rents of houses, and the salaries and pensions of public servants, have very rarely suffered any diminution, (the paying off the five per cents. being merely what was originally bargained for, and always expected,) propose now to treat these claims all alike, and reduce them one-half in amount: was ever so unjust and monstrous a proposition made? I have not included rents of lands in the enumeration above, because it is well known to every one sufficiently competent to put pen to paper on the subject, that these have suffered dimination, in many cases almost to anniInlation; and that, except in a comparatively few instances, of rich land cheaply rented, no profits accrue to the farmer, (after paying his tithes, taxes, rates, tradesmen, labourers, &c. and taking the usual interest for his capital employed and risked, whereon to subsist himself and family,) out of which any rent can be paid to the landlord; and, although a great portion of landlords may not yet have materially lessened their claims, or abated or forgiven arrears, and settled with their tenants, yet it must be evident that arrears of rent are, in such cases, cruelly accumulating, which can only be discharged by a sacrifice of the farmer's capital, or more frequently now of his very means of subsistence, his capital being gone already; of which the shockingly numerous sales of farmers' entire stock and furniture, which fill the advertisement-columns of most provincial newspapers, are meJancholy proofs. MONTHLY MAG, No. 375. As to labourers, properly so called, especially agricultural ones, how can they possibly sufler a diminution of one-half of their wages without a corresponding increase of poor's rates? to say nothing of the misery, and endangering of the public peace, which sion. Hard-hearted and inconsiderate parson-justices, like some in Wiltshire, may have studied and proposed to allow the very minimum of food to the poor, which can keep soul and body together; but these projects will assuredly fail. As to the wages of common artizans and others in great towns, whom I intended to distinguish above from labourers, supposing that steady industry, sobriety, and frugality, were generally exercised by these, and by their families, corresponding with or exceeding those habits in the country labourers, it might in such case seem, that their pay might suffer a great diminution; but, supposing that the difficulty, next to a miracle, could be effected, of suddenly reforming the habits of the "Saint Monday" gin and porter swilling artizans and some labourers of towns, what in such case would become of the revenue? And how, and with the other proposed reductions, could even one-half of the present enormous funded interest, salaries, pensions, &c. continue to be paid? The proposed exemption of the fundholders, in Talavera's second paragraph, I do not comprehend: how, also, the Bank's own bullion, accumulated in its own coffers, for payment of its promissory notes, held by individuals, can "become disposable national property," I cannot conceive. If agricultural produce could be supposed to sell at half its present price, which would be about two shillings per bushel for wheat, on the ave rage of all the farmer's sales,-well might the manufacturer and the merchant be capable of opening new channels of export, and find "a remunerating price abroad;" but what, in such case, would become of the whole agricultural population? 66 The remedies proposed by Talavera would infallibly bring upon us the "evil day" which he thinks to avert; but, whether with sufficient knowledge of his subject, your readers must judge; as they will also on the propriety of the suggestions with which I shall now conclude, viz.-That as 3 E the chief evils affecting the industrious classes, and those under contracts for fixed money-payments, arise from the altered value of the national money; it is the principle of a corn-rent, or reverting to wheat as a standard, by which to measure and estimate the original value of, and by which to reduce now these monied engagements, which can alone cure these evils: but, unfortunately, no authentic and general tables of averages exist, which might show the averages of one, of two, of three, &c. years' prices of wheat, as recorded weekly in the London Gazette, ending with and including each weekly return therein; although such proposed tables have, some time ago, and again lately, been described and strongly recommended by a sensible writer in the Farmer's Journal newspaper. BRITANNIA. St. Pancras; Oct. 10. For the Monthly Magazine. EXTRACTS from a JOURNAL of METEOROLOGY and NATURAL HISTORY kept at HARTFIELD, for the purpose of recording FACTS which illustrate the PROGNOSTICS of ATMOSPHERIC CHANGES, and the INFLUENCE of PECULIARITIES of WEATHER on ANIMAL and VEGE TABLE LIFE. By T. FORSTER, M.B. F.L.S. Member of the Astronomical Society of London, &c. [Dr. T. Forster proposes to communicate this Journal to us monthly, each number including the period between the 20 days of the two foregoing months. Few observations having been made during the last month, the present article contains the observations made since last Midsummer, including those made during a tour on the continent.] JNE. wind. Ther. 67. Verbascum UNE 20, 1822. — Cloudy, with virgatum, V. thapsus, and V. lychnitis, in flower. 22.--Scabiosa atropurpurea in flower. The sky exhibited to-day a vast variety of beautiful modifications of cloud; the atmosphere was what is usually termed highly electrified, and the clouds very red at sun-set.-Ther. 73°; bar. 30'00. 23.-The phenomena of yesterday were followed to-day by very hot weather. Lilium bulbiferum in blow. July 9.-A soft air and cloudy day, followed by rain. I noticed among patients the prevalence of vertigo, and other head-diseases; indeed they have been very prevalent in Sussex during the present summer solstice. 17.—Travelling between Calais and Boulogne, I noticed millions of butterflies, covering the fields for many miles: I never before witnessed such a prodigious quantity of them. Cichorium intybus common by all the road-sides. 28.-Ascended Mount Jura, where I noticed Campanula rotundifolia and Campanula alpina; the former very abundant. 29. A remarkable instance occurred on this and the two following days of the coincidence of violent and mischievous storms of thunder and lightning. This evening one of the most violent storms ever witnessed occurred as I was passing between Gex and Noyon, about 6 P.M.* 51 30.-A repetition of violent storms to-day followed the lodgment of clouds on the tops of the mountains of Savoy several persons were killed, and vineyards destroyed. The thermometer stood at 84° at Lausanne at mid-day. I have accounts, which I hope shortly to publish, of violent storms which occurred at the same time in various parts of Europe; which confirms an opinion I have long entertained of the simultaneous occurrence of similar phenomena in distant parts of the world. Aug. 6.-I noticed to-day that small field-mice were particularly numerous all along the road-side through Alsace, from Bâle to Colmar, and thence to Strasbourg. I noticed the stork, CicoHirundo apus, seen at Strasbourg. nia alba, on the wing. The last swift, 15.-Butomus umbellatus and Senecio paludosus very common, and Holland. in flower, by the sides of the canals in Sept. 18.-Falling stars common fonight; they foreboded wind from the east, which followed on the 19th. Oct. 17-The last swallow, Hirundo rustica, seen. An unusually violent shower of rain and hail. Erysipelas prevails much, particularly among the lower classes of people. Hartwell; Oct. 21. T. F. N.B.-This Journal will be continued daily, with more copious observations, beginning with the 20th of October. of this storm, and those which occurred I have already published an account coincidentally, and therefore I was not minute in my account in this Journal. To “Our plan of cultivation is, with very few exceptions, and under certain modifications, dependant on local circumstances; the same with the ancient Roman system, or the three-field culture, a method which in this country is equally adapted to both large and small estates. The first field, called winter-field, is sown with rye and wheat, and usually with equal portions of both sorts of corn. "The second field, called the summer-field, is sown with barley and oats. Of the third field, called the fallowfield, two-thirds are sown with herbs, ligumes, and roots, such as clover, lucerne, &c. pease, vetches, beans, lentils, cabbage, turnips, and potatoes. The remaining third of the fallow-field, in course, the ninth part of the whole arable ground, lies untilled, (in the English phrase, a naked fallow,) and affords pasture for the sheep, which feed on it during the summer, as they do likewise on the wood pastares. There is, moreover, a proportional part of the whole estate appropriated to permanent meadows. "On almost all the large estates in our parts, the whole stock of cattle is fed throughout the year in the yards or the stables; during the summer with clover, lucerne, &c.; the winter, with roots and greens, as turnips, potatoes, cabbages, and clover-hay. The poorer husbandmen drive their cattle in summer chiefly to the wood pastures. The sheep generally, with the cattle, feed during the summer on the woods and fallows; during the winter, in stables, on clover-hay and peasestraw, also with corn or pease, and sometimes oil-cake. On our great estates are generally found large-sized and improved breeds of cattle, either of Swiss or Dutch extraction, with Merino sheep. Hogs, improved either by English or Hungarian stocks, are bred for sale on extensive estates, especially on those which have exten sive breweries or distilleries; but small proprietors seldom breed more pigs than for their home consumption. "System of Management at Harbké. "This estate contains about 3000 German acres of arable fields and meadows, and 4000 acres of woodland and pasture; on which are now employed ten sets of working horses, four in a team. These are usually purchased, rising two years old, in Hanover, and are chiefly the produce of English Yorkshire half-bred stallions. They are a large-sized, powerful, and active, breed of horses, endowed with that degree of speed required by the present improved state of agriculture. "The cattle consist of 150 head, of the Swiss breed, from the canton of Freyburg. Their use consists in the produce of the dairy, and of beef and veal for the household; but oxen are not employed in tilling the ground. The flocks of Merino sheep amount to 2000 head. "Hogs 200, produced by a cross of large English boars with the German sows. The English boars have long pendulous ears, are very large, but fatten and propagate slowly. The crossed breed is free from several of those defects, and at the same time retains some of the superior qualities of the English boar. "The whole of this estate is managed, under my own superintendance, by one principal and two subordinate stewards, having under their direction an adequate number of servants and day-labourers. There is moreover upon the domain a very considerable brewery, with brick and tile kilns, &c. Also a small stud of high-bred horses, oriental and English, and eight brood mares. 66 "It may be necessary to advert to a branch of rural administration not usually annexed in England to the management of estates; I mean the care of woods and forests. As we are situated in the northern parts of Germany, almost entirely destitute of true pit-coal, as we do not abound in bovey-coal, or brown coal, and turf, wood is our chief fuel; in course, the proper management and preservation of our forests is matter of equal necessity and profit. In these parts we have loaf-wood, as oak, elm, beech, plane, and the superior timber. Our forests consist of both timber and underwood. As to the first, the forest is divided |