Coffee-house. But I hope you'll not judge with the multitude, because you have been an eye-witness to my behaviour, in no less than seven engage ments with the common Enemy. I had then the reputation of being a brave man, and am conscious that I am so still, even when I once more tell you, I dare not fight you. "The reasons of my conduct in this affair, Sir, are very valid, though but very few. To be brief, Sir, I had rather endure the contempt of Man than the anger of my Maker; a temporal evil, rather than an eternal one. In one of the wisest States of the world, there was no Law against Parricide, because they thought it a crime which the worst of villains would be incapable of. Perhaps the silence of our Legislature, with regard to Duelling, is owing to some such reason. What can be more enormous than for men, not to say Christians and friends, to thirst for the blood of each other: nay more to aim the blow, with a true Italian vengeance, at once both at the body and soul. "I hope, in the coolness of reflection, you'll think as I do. If otherwise, I am determined to give you up to the tyranny of your passion, as I am to remain master of my own. Yours, &c. A. R." Mr. URBAN, Aug. 9, Guide?"-My motive for the inquiry arises out of the following "Opinion" of an eminent Civilian, given in that year, and which probably stifled the publication, or at least occasioned its appearing under some other title. CAUSIDICUS. Yours, &c. "Opinion for Mr. BROWN, Attorney in Chancery Lane. "Doctors Commons, Oct. 26, 1763. is established in the Church of England "Q. 1. The Book of Common Prayer by the successive Acts of Uniformity 5, 6 Edw. VI. c. 1; 1 Eliz. c. 2; 13, 14 Car. I. c. 4. In this latter Act, s. 25, the Parliament was so cautious of any the least alterations in the Common Prayer Book, that they allowed not even the names of the King or Queen to be altered but by lawful authority. In the same Act, s. 28, the Book of Common Prayer is considered as a Record.-By the Act 4, 5 Annæ, c. 8. entitled, An Act for the better security of her Majesties Person and Government, and of the Succession to the Crown of England in the Protestant Line, it is enacted that the Succession, shall not give assent to any Lords Justices, appointed by the Act of Bill for altering the Act of Uniformity, upon pain of High Treason. By the 5, 6 Annæ, c. 5, the Act of Uniformity shall be unalterable under the Union of AVERY fine Portrait on the Robe England and Scotland. liam Domville, Bart. in the Robe which he wore last year when he had the honour of riding before the Prince Regent and the Allied Sovereigns on their dining at Guildball (vol. LXXXIV. I. p. 685), is placed in the Court-room of Stationers Hall. It was painted by William Owen, Esq. a Royal Academician, by the unanimous vote of the Court of Assistants of that respectable Company, in testimony of their estimation of the meritorious services to them performed by the worthy Baronet for half a Century. And it is to be hoped that copies of the Portrait will be multiplied by an Engraving, which Mr. Joseph Collyer, one of the oldest Associate Engravers of the Royal Academy, and who is at present Master of the Stationers Company, would perform with fidelity, and con umore. Yours, &c. A. LIVERYMAN. Mr. URBAN, Gray's Inn, Aug. 10. book was published, under the dis- The Churchman's Guide, now before me, is a Common Prayer Book, under a new title, and contains a transposition of several Prayers, which, in my opinion, will be considered in Law as alterations of the Common Prayer Book; and A. B. will be punishable by Law, if he publishes it, because, by so doing, he will infringe the Privileges of the two Universities, and the Patent of the King's Printer. known to the Gentlemen of the ComWhat risque he runs by so doing, is best mon Law. Upon the whole, I am of opinion this book cannot be legally published." Q. 2. "No answer can be given." Q. 3. "If any application is to be made to his Grace the Abp. of Canterbury, it should be by Divines of the greatest eminence, rank, and learning.' "AND. COLTEE DUCAREL." Mr. URBAN, Aug. 11. OR the information of C. C. Fone remarks on the Massereene Viscounty are inserted in Part I. Patent granted by Charles II. to the first Peer of that title. Sir It would seem, therefore, on the extinction of the male descendants of Sir John Skeffington by Mary Clot HE inference which your readers worthy, that the heir general of the T will draw from the just paralick body of Sir John Clotworthy will in future be entitled to the Viscounty of Massereene and Barony of Lough neagh. The Patent mentions only "the heirs general of the body," and gives no preference to the male over the female line. The present Earl of Massereene is the last male descendant of Sir John Skeffington and Mary Clotworthy; on his Lordship's decease without issue male, his only daughter, the Lady Harriet Foster, becomes invested under the Patent with the dignities of Viscountess Massereene and Baroness Loughneagh, as "heir general of the body" of Sir John Clotworthy, the first Viscount. The Earldom of Massereene becomes extinct. But it is a question perhaps to be determined by Lawyers, whether the daughter of Lady Harriet's eldest son would not inherit the Viscounty in preference to her second son: in short, whether the Viscounty does not in future descend like a Peerage in fee. In Mr. Wright's Address to Attorneys, and in your quotation from that useful publication, page 529, there is a mistake in calling Lord Chancellor Jocelyn, Lord Roden. The Chancellor never enjoyed that title: the hopours to which he attained were those of Baron Newport and Viscount JoceJyn. The title of Earl of Roden was couferred on his son Robert, the second Viscount Jocelyn. The Chancellor was grandson of Sir Robert Jocelyn, Bart. of Hide Hall, Herts; and by the extinction of the elder branches, the auticut seat of Hide Hall, together with the English Baronetage, has devolved on the Roden family within a few years, by the death (as I be lieve) of Sir Conyers Jocelyn, the last Baronet of the elder branch. I have the honour to send for insertion in the Magazine is, that great Commanders have minds cast in the same moulds; and that success depends much on great ability, quickness, and self possessión; qualities, no doubt, which many more of our countrymen possess, though perhaps not in so high a degree as the two instances here upon record. VERAX. Remarkable Coincidence with inferior Force May the former in three Hours, the latter in three Minutes, drove all before him. The Result, signal and decisive Victory. to the Military and Naval Glory In both instances the Enemy thought himself sure of success; the plunder of Brussels was promised by Buonaparte, and a banquet was prepared at Boston for the Chesapeake. *** LXXXV. Part I. 135. a. l. 7, for Oxford, read Cambridge. 238. b. l. 16 from bots tom, for have, read has. Botanic THE HE Act of Parliament which has recently passed," for the better regulating the Practice of Apothecaries," recites, "that so much mischief has arisen from great numbers of Persons having exercised the functions of Apothecaries who are incompetent thereto, that it is become necessary that provision should be made to remedy such evils." Many of these evils have arisen from the almost total neglect of the study of Plants among the Medical Students, and more particularly so at the present season, when a few of our indigenous vegetables compose the most active and useful preparations of the present day; and although the number of them is comparatively small, yet many have been the fatal consequences of their having been mistaken or substituted by ignorant practitioners. A person has lately been poisoned by Foxglove having been used instead of Coltsfoot. These plants are so very dissimilar in appearance, that I could not have given credit to it, if I had not ascertained it to be a fact. Few seasons pass over without instances of people being poisoned from the indiscriminate use of the small Agaric, or Mushroom, known by the name of Champignions ; several species of which are deadly poison. once Two cases of this dreadful nature have lately occurred in the practice of a Gentleman of eminence* a brother-pupil of mine, who, from his knowledge of Botany, discovered the cause, and counteracted the poisonous influence, by which means two whole families have been rescued from the grave. In consequence of the necessity arising therefrom, I have undertaken to teach * On examination, the kind eaten proved that the Agaricus campanulatus was mistaken for the A. campestris, or White Champignion. The parties were. cured by violent emetics being administered. Botany by making excursions into the fields near London, as was the usual practice of my late Partner, Mr. William Curtis, and in which I have been honoured with the attendance and approbation of a respectable class. As you thought proper, Sir, to give an account of this Garden * I beg you to insert a sketch of a plan for establishing a complete School for this purpose. "The HERBORISING EXCURSIONS are made in certain days in every month, by meeting at Hampstead, Battersea Fields, and other places; and on these occasions, specimens are gathered and named, their botanical as well as their medicinal qualities examined, and instructions given for forming them into a Hortus Siccus, as a work for re ference in future. “I have appropriated a spot of ground, in which are planted all the different vegetables used in Medicine, which I intend to be open to the inspection of any Gentleman who may find it his interest to consult it. A library of useful books in elucidation of this subject is likewise established in the garden; and, that such articles may be procured fresh' and good when wanted in cases of emerserved, so that all persons may in future gency, the produce thereof will be rebe supplied with such articles, perfectly true, either fresh from the beds, or dried under my own inspection. "I moreover intend to set apart certain days during the season, when Practical Lectures, more particularly explanatory of the Classification of Plants, Phytology, &c. will be given in the Library at the Garden." Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, 66 W. SALISBURY. July 21. THE following paragraph, from the Cambridge Chronicle" of July. 11th, may be worth recording in the Gentleman's Magazine. "During the last week, two persons belonging to the University Printingoffice called upon the Professor of Mineralogy (Dr. Clarke), with specimens. of what is vulgarly termed petrified moss,' said to have been found in a petrifying well near Coton.' The having no other means of communiProfessor has been to the spot; and cating to the University, at this season, what he conceives to be the greatest natural curiosity in the County, he has desired the Editor of this Paper to inform his Readers that the said well is in all * Gent. Mag, vol. LXXX, ii. p. 113. respects respects similar to the celebrated petrifying spring of Matlock, in Derbyshire; incrusting moss, rushes, &c. with a deposit of carbonated lime, so as to exhibit a beautiful reticular stalactite. Persons going from Cambridge are recommended for a guide, to the cottage of Wm. Paulett, the first on the right, upon entering the village of Coton. The well is situated in a field belonging to Mr. Angier, who has given permission to this man to conduct strangers to the spot." Another Coton curiosity may be found described in Birch's History of the Royal Society, vol. IV. p. 165. Yours, &c. RICHMONDIENSIS. Mr. URBAN, Y Aug. 6. I OUR Correspondent St. Ives has given an ample historical detail of the old family of Laurence; yet, think, with one considerable omission.. He has not adverted to the Essex branch, several centuries past settled at Colchester, and for a great length of time engaged in the principal manufacture of that town, the bay making. Individuals of the family represented that Borough in Parliament, through several reigns, until between the years 1120 and 1730. By certain old documents it appears that the origin of this branch was in the grand or great grandfather of the President (I have forgotten which), probably from a younger son. The Laurences, I have heard, did not begin to substitute the w for the u, neither here nor in the West Indies, until subsequently to the Revolution, and then not universally. St. IVES has not touched the question of Richard Lawrence, who wrote on Ireland, whether or not he descended from the old family. Whence does James Lawrence, the author, I presume, of the History of the Nairs, derive his title as Knight of Malta? Mr. URBAN, Aug. 4. SINC INCE your Correspondent, Part I. p. 513, appears determined to have every thing his own way, it is needless to offer additional conjectures about the Hall of Winchester Palace. He has at length brought his laborious arguments to a conclution, with which he threatened to sision, without a tittle of demonstralence every other animadversion. nent has said, he engrosses exclusive From a retrospect of all my oppoenumerates a multitude of plates and authority for his information; he books that have been consulted, carefully concealing every word and line that militates against him. He does not tell your Readers that he has seen a print where the roof is of equal height on each side of the window, or that the East end of his half had three early Pointed windows; or he forgets that in another a lantern is distinctly marked over that part which I ever thought to have been the hall; or does he even suggest the probability that what he produced as an undeniable proof, might not have been taken after alterations; or did it ever enter his mind that this portion might have been a gallery, or state apartment; and as it cannot be supposed that those draughtsmen were incorrect, how shall we account for this print showing double the number of windows that the building could have had in the given dimensions. This sufficiently proves that my adversary "will see only one side of the question:" It should be noticed, that fig. 4 is incorrect in outline; the main arch being semi-oval, instead of pointed, as in the original. AN OBSERVER. *** Vol. LXXXIV. Part ii. p. 530, col. 1, 1. 38, for ten read two This un fortunate Mistake of the Press seems to have been eagerly caught at by Mr. Gwilt, in p. 516 of our present vol EDIT. Mr. |