different decanters. that their motions are very uncertain, and that even fometimes each will afford a different indication. No dependance, therefore, can be placed in them; and thefe living barometers can deferve to be confidered as little better than playthings for children. It will be found could eftimate, he could live for one half It may not be improper, at the conclufion of this article, to defcribe the specific difference which exifts between the medicinal leech, and the horfe-leech, fince, from the circumttance of their inhabiting the fame waters, and being nearly of the fame fize, they are frequently confounded by ignorant people. The medicinal leech is of a blackifh brown colour, marked along its upper part with feveral lines of yellow dots, extending from one end of the body to the other. The under part of the body is ufually fomewhat lighter, and marked with yellowith ipots. The principal characteristic, however, confifts in the dotted lines. The horse-leech is nearly of an uniform black colour, except on the under part, which is of a cinereous green, and ufually marked with black spots. February, 1807. W. BINGLEY. For the Monthly Magazine. PARTICULARS of the PRESENT STATE of POLAND, by an ENGLISH GENTLE MAN, recently returned from that COUNLRY, after a RESIDENCE in it of TWO YEARS The of doubled lince the HE price of provifions in Poland partition; but as money has increased in proportion, no complaints are made of dearth. The ordinary price of the beft fhambles-meat is about three-pence a pound, Englith money; whereas before the two laft divifions, it was often at a penny, and never exceeded three halfpence. The moft intelligible statement, I could probably give relative to this topic is the following:-The Count Za. moytki, when in England, three or four years ago, took over with him feveral English mechanics, and among the reft a porter-brewer of fome refpectability. Happening to fee the laft of thefe perfons, when be had kept houfe in the country about six months, I enquired of him what were the average expences of his living? He faid, it was difficult if not impollible to live fo well in Poland as in England, though there fhould be no want of the means; but that, as nearly as he 2 What I conjectured, or rather what I ftated with a full conviction in my fecond paper relative to the difficulty of maintaining large armies in Poland, has been recently verified by a statement in one of the French bulletins, which affirms that beef is half a crown a pound at Warfaw; that is, it is rifen to ten times its customary price. The manufactures of Poland are very few and inconfiderable, confifting chiefly of the coarfe linen cloth worn by the peasants. The late King established, in 1776, at Grodno, the principal of town of Lithuania, manufactories of cloth, camlets, linens, cotton, filks, ftuffs, &c. Of the fate of thefe ettablishments I can give no diftinét account: for, of Ruffian Poland, I know abfolutely nothing from obfervation, and very little from report. There is, in Galicia, one manufactory of earthenware and of porcelain; and the china it produces is fufficiently neat, though there is no approach to elegance. Thefe are perhaps the only manufactories in Poland of any articles above what may be confidered as abfolutely neceffary in every country, that has the fmalleft claim to the epithet of civilized. Hence the price of all manufactured articles is extremely high. A hat of the value of a guinea in England will coft an equivalent to a guinea and half in Poland. The fame proportion takes place in the two countries, in the price of a yard of cambric, for which I have alfo paid a guinea and half. A coat, of which the cloth may be bought feparately, and made by a dirty Jew in an infignificant Polish town, will coft little lefs than five guineas. Other articles of dress are in proportion. The The manufactures of England are in great requifition, notwithstanding the prohibitions which exifted, before the arrival of the French, against their importation. You cannot enter a fhop in any large town, but every thing of this defcription is English, even to an ordinary filk purfe. Of course, this cannot be always, though it is frequently, true. I had occafion to buy a hat at Lemberg. The name of the maker, of the ftreet in London, and number where he lived, were all diftinétly noted on a label; but from fome particular and decifive marks, I could not hesitate a moment to conclude that the hat had never been in England. Trade almoft of every defcription is, for the most part, conducted by Jews. In all the large towns, and indeed in the fmall ones, their thops are not only the moft numerous, but the beft. Thefe shops have their emiffaries, who are inferior Jews, and whofe bufinefs it is to loiter about the town, and particularly about the hotels and taverns to collect cuftomers. A ftranger no fooner arrives at an hotel, than he is accofted by fome dirty Jew, who will even enter his apartment without ceremony, and is ready, on a favourable anfwer, to conduct him to the fhop of his employer. It is curious to fee the officious eagerness, the perfevering importunity, the uncealing watchfulness of every motion of the ftranger, which diftinguish these emiffary Jews, and the alacrity with which they lead the way, when they have gained their point. The fhops even in Warsaw make but little exterior difplay. Thofe which are abundantly furnished with valuable goods, have windows of inconfiderable dimensions. There are many Jews, who have even ohtained farms of the nobles. One of thefe was pointed out to me at Dantzic, who was refident there for a time to fell his corn. He had divefted himself, however, of his beard, and of the black robe 'diftinctive of his order. The general population of Poland is ftated at 15 millions. It was thus eftimated before the last partition: but the nobles are fond of thinking that it has declined fince that event. The accounts of others, however, who may be fuppofed lefs interested in the independence of the country, do not confirm their opinion; nor, from the various marks of improvement difcoverable, particularly in the Pruffian part, would a ftranger be led to fuch a conclufion. Of this popula tion, the peasants constitute a large majority. A Polish peafant is fhort in ftature, and appears as if ftinted in his growth. He has finall grey eyes, a fhort nofe, generally fomewhat turned up; hair in general approaching to yellow, though it fometimes inclines to a darkish colour; his complexion is alfo of a yellow hue; his general afpect dull and dejected; his gait heavy and devoid of life. Still, the Poles affert that he may be drilled into a very good foldier. The peasant women are ufually very fhort, and squat. From their extreme dirtinefs and general unfightlinefs, nothing in the form of woman can be conceived lefs lovely. I have never seen in a young peafant girl, even when clean and neat, the flightest approach to beauty. The drefs of the peasants confifts chiefly in a coarfe upper garment of a dark reddith colour, more like a mantle than a coat, which reaches below the knee, and is confined round them with a girdle. This, in winter, is lined with theep-fkins. They have befides, a little fur-cap, and a few other articles of dress, all of the coarfeft materials. The dress of the peafant women is fcarcely to be analyfed, at least by a man. When they are dreffed on a Sunday, it is tawdry beyond defcription, confifting of a great variety of different colours, as in patchwork, of which, however, red is the predominant one. When thus accoutred, they look as if made up for scarecrows. In fummer, the women have nothing on but a mere fhift and an under-petticoat, which extends fcarcely below the knees; and are commonly without fhoes or ftockings. Their diet is very fcanty. They have rarely any animal food; their beft things are their milk and poor cheese, which they have in fufficient abundance; but the ftaple of their diet is the coarfe rye bread I have before mentioned, and which I have attempted in vain to fwal low. The political condition of this wretched race of beings, is ftill more degrading to human nature. I have before given fome account of a Polifh farm; and have now to add a few particulars, as connected with the fubject of the peasantry.. When a farmer rents a farm, the villages fituated on it, with their inhabitants, are confidered as included in the bargain; and the farmer derives a right to the la bour of the peafantry for the cultivation of that farm. The relation between the peafant peafant and the landholder is this-On the marriage of a young peafant, his Lord affigns him a certain quantity of land, fuficient for the maintenance of himfelf and family, in the poor manner in which they are accuftomed to live. Should the family be numerous, they have fome increase of land. At the fame time they obtain alfo a few cattle, as a cow or two, with fteers to plow their land. Thefe are fed in the ftubble, or in the open places of the woods, as the feafon admits. In consideration of thefe grants, the peafant makes a return to the Tandholder, of one half of his labour; that is, he works three days in the week for his Lord, and three for himfelf. If any of his cattle die, they are replaced by the mafter; a circumftance which renders him negligent of his little herd, as the death or lofs of fome of them is a common occurrence. Thus, though the Polish boors are not attached to the foil, in the feudal fenfe of the term, and abfolutely fubject to the will of the Lord like brute beafts; yet, they are ftill transferred as a part of the flock of the eftate on which they live to every fresh purchafer or tenant. They are not privileged to quit the foil, except in a few inflances of complete enfranchifement; and if they were, the privilege would be merely nominal: for whither thould they go? No landholder would admit a fugitive peafant, through fear of encouraging a fpirit of difaffection. It is not in their power, from the circumftances of their condition, to fell their labour indifferently to this or that mafter; and if fuch obftacles did not oppofe, the very extent of the Polish farms, and the confequent want of a fecond contiguous employer, would fuffice in moft cafes to preclude a change of maf ters. It is faid, that a few of the peafants improve the little ftock which is committed to their management, accumulating fome finall property; but their conduct is far more frequently marked by careleffnefs and want of forecast. Befides, it does not appear, that their allowance of land and cattle either is, or defigned to be, more than enough for their fcanty maintenance. I was once on a fhort journey with a nobleman, when we ftopped to bait at the farm-house of a village, as is common in Poland. The peafants got intelligence of the prefence of their Lord, and affembled in a body of twenty or thirty to prefer a petition to MONTHLY MAG. No. 156. him. I ftood at a diftance, and perceived that he did not yield to their fupplication. When he had difmiffed them, I had the curiofity to enquire the object of their petition; and he replied, that they had begged for an increated allowance of land, on the plea that what they had was infufficient for their fupport. He added, "I did not grant it them; becaufe their prefent allotment is the ufual quantity; and as it has fufficed hitherto, fo it will for the time to come. Belides, (faid he) if I give them more, I well know, that it will not, in reality, better their circumstances." Poland does not furnish a man of more humanity than the one who rejected this apparently reasonable petition. But it must be allowed, that he had good reafons for what he did. Thofe degraded and wretched beings, inftead of hoarding the fmall furplus of their abfolute neceffities, are almost univerfally accustomed to expend it in that abominable spirit which they call fchnaps. It is incredible what quantities of this pernicious liquor is drank both by the peafant men and women! I have been told, that a woman will frequently drink a pint and even more, at a fitting, and that too in no great length of time. I have myself often feen one of these poor women led home between two men, fo intoxicated as to be unable to ftand; there can be no queftion, that the exceffive ufe of this whisky (were it not to libel whisky thus to ftile it) ought to be enumerated among the chief proximate caufes of the deficient population of Poland. It is indeed fo confidered by the Poles; and Count Zamoyski has lately established a porterbrewery in Galitzia, in the hope of checking eventually fo hurtful a habit, by the fubftitution of that wholefefome bever age. The farmers are intermediate between the nobles and the peafants. They are a refpectable clafs of men; and have free accels to the noble's table. Hence, they fometimes acquire a degree of polish fuperior to what is ufually found among English farmers, though tenfold more opulent. The fituation of a farmer, therefore, has fome peculiar advantages; and it is accordingly, the highest object of ambition to a young Pole, not of independent fortune, to get the leafe of a good farm; when he establishes himself in life, in the best manner which Poland admits. As a first step, however, to the obtainment of a farm, it is often the cafe, Ti that that a young man becomes connected with a nobleman's family in fome official capacity, and turns farmer only when he marries. But even his marriage does not neceffarily preclude his continued connection with the family; for fhould his fervices be deemed of fufficient confequence, a contiguous abode is provided him. The houses of the farmers are commonly built of wood, and have merely a ground-floor. On the exterior, they are, in every point of view, humble, very often mean in appearance; the interior is occafionally fomewhat better; though an Englishman looks in vain for any thing like comfort, There are ufually two or three ordinary rooms whitewashed, though one only ferves, for the most part, as a fitting-room. The floors are fometimes of earth only, but more frequently planked. A bed almost always ftands in every room, fometimes though rarely with curtains. The only double bed, however, is that for the mafter and mittrefs of the family; and which stands in the principal room; the others are mere couches for. fingle per ́fons, placed in the corners. In the midst of all these homely appearances, you are much, though equally, furprized at feeing the table fet out with confiderable neatness, and abundantly fupplied with good things. Every plate is Furnished with a napkin and a filver fork; the courfes are almoft as numerous, and follow the fame order as in the houfe of a nobleman, froin which the whole is obviously imitated. There is fome little incongruity in all this, it must be owned; but incongruities of this defcription are abundant in Poland. To give the reader fome idea of the value of land in Poland, I fhall mention a purchase, with the particulars of which I happened to be made acquainted. The manufacturer of porcelain, above-mentioned, had become rich enough to have a quantity of fuperfluous capital, which he was defirous of vesting in the folid property of land. Accordingly, he purchafed an estate, for which he gave about two thousand pounds fterling. The exact number of acres it is not in my power to ftate; but from the information of a gentleman prefent who had been in England, I learnt, that the whole must be about two thousand acres, half of which, however, was in foreft. The houfe on this eftate was the largest and the best, exclufive of thofe of the nobles, I had feen. There were several rooms larger than ordinary, well whitewashed, and the furniture and general appearance fufficiently neat and commodious; yet it was built folely of wood. It had also a fpacious garden, fenced by a wooden enclosure, and laid out into walks, &c. I have been thus particular in my account of this purchase, because this fingle inftance furnishes a striking proof, how certainly manufactures are followed by opulence and improvement. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, N your very ufeful and entertaining I Mifcellany, under the head Liteferve announced, certain bookfellers of rary and Philofophical Varieties, I obLondon have undertaken to publish a fplendid and coftly edition of Hollinfhead, which they intend to follow by fimilar editions of others of the early Chronicles of England. It ftrikes me as very fingular, that they fhould have made fuch a grand mistake, as to begin at the wrong end, and prefer Hollinghead, who was only a compiler, and not an original author (except what he relates in his own time.) It has been long lamented we have had no Gibson to tranflate our Saxon authors or manufcripts; all our modern publications on antiquities are most miferably poor, and extremely unfatisfac-. tory. The whole Society of Antiquarians have nicles, but continue to go on working never dared to publish our Saxon Chrolike moles blindfold for the good of the general readers of English history. I with you would recommend through your ufeful Magazine, the early tranflation into English, of all our Saxon mang fcripts now lying dead and useless in the British Museum. tranflated into English, and printed in a Lam fully perfuaded, Sir, were they neat, but not fplendid or expensive style, that 6000 copies would be fold before a twelvemonth. In every gentleman's houfe I go into in the country, it feems to be the general with and defire. The foundation of our history at prefent is fo obfcured and clouded, that no man can tell whom to believe on the subject of our history prior to the Conqueft. time, I remain with great refpect, Apologizing for the trespass on your AN ENGLISH READER OF ENGLISH HISTORY. Te To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, E read fo frequently of perfons occupies the space in immediate contact with the floor. The fireman crawls then into the houfe on his hands and knees, WE for of and keeps his face, in his progrefs, as ing themselves by leaping out of window when a houfe is on fire, for want of the means of efcape, that I feel it my duty to mention a fimple contrivance which I have for many years adopted, and which enables me to fleep in fecurity. I provide two or three of my chambers with a moderately ftout rope, fuch as may be bought for a fhilling or eighteen-pence; I tie knots in them, and falten one end either to a bed-poft, to a tirong ftaple, or any other fuitable fixture. In cafe of fire, and of my inability to escape from the lower part of the houfe, either of thefe ropes thrown out of a window, would enable me or my family to flip down it. The knots would afford us refting places for the hands and feet; and children and infirm perfons might be let down by means of a running noofe, with which I always provide the lower end of the rope. If from inattention, for I cannot fuppofe the practicability of the means will be doubted, or the expence of the ropes be begrudged, houfes on fire are unprovided with this fimple means of efcape, it is the duty of all the neighbours, without delay or folicitation, to bring out and ftrew under the windows of the houfe on fire, all their feather beds and mattreffes, till the family are in fecurity. In communicating thefe precautions to the public, relative to the means of efcape from fire, I confider it very in portant to make known to the world a means of efcaping fuffocation in a room filled with fmoke. It is practifed by the firemen in the metropolis, with a degree of fuccefs and addrefs which has entitled them to the name of Salamanders. If a houfe were on fire, fo that no ordinary perfon could venture into any part of it without fuffering immediate fuffocation, and its owner wished to refcue from the flames any precious object, an experienced London fireman will extricate it without hesitation or hazard. He effects this by means of a principle well known in the fcience of pneu matics, but which the intellectual powers of man would never apply a priori to fuch a combination of circumtances. The heat, finoke, and unrefpirable air, afcend to the upper parts of the room, and a stream of pure air clofe to the floor as poffible; and in this manner he will go and return to any part of the premifes not actually in flames. A knowledge of this practice cannot but be of extenfive ufe to the community, and I know no means of conveying it with fuch effect and autho rity as the Monthly Magazine. COMMON SENSE. London, March 28, 1807. For the Monthly Magazine. CONCERNING A WAR-WHOOP. HERE are not words in our lan THER guage which have fo often been written in letters of blood, as No Pʊpery. Henry VIII. put to death Sir Thomas More, Fither, the bishop of Rochefter, and numberleis inferior victims, that we might have No Popery. Under Edward VI. Cardinal Beaton was affaffinated in Scotland; Tonftal, and other English bishops, were imprifoned, perfecuted, plundered, and reduced to mifery, that we might have No Popery. Leat this barbaric zealotry fhould be called anti-religious; Joan of Kent was burnt alive for denying the miraculous conception, and Vanparis for denying the divinity of Chrift. Not from antipathy againit intolerance had the cry been railed of No Popery. Bucer was the grand contriver of the doctrine, the liturgy, and the difcipline of the church of England. He fired from a double battery at Papift and Unitarian, declaring from the pulpit, that Catholicin ought to be exterminated, and that Servetus ought to have his bowels torn out. Yet this man, whom our lawgivers employed to accommodate their statutes to No Popery, was bo a Jew, and died a Jew. Queen Mary had the fpirit and the power to retaliate on the reformers. After the victory of her adverfaries, the acquired the epithet bloody, for rivalling Catharine dei Medici in cruelty of intolerance. Her motto was No Bucerifm. Elizabeth was not bloody. She preferred ftifling and ftrangling to beheading and burning. She stopped the breath of one hundred and feventy-five Catholic priefts, and of five Catholic women, whofe crime was no other than teaching their hereditary religion in England. Tt2 The |