Situation of the Town of Spa, and of the Springs near it. those whom it may concern, that these creatures may not be allowed to exhibit them. felves for the future in either univerfity. I am the more earnett in this request; because, where I was, I observed many persons already inftructed in this way; and who, in the course of their studies, for a number of years A paft, had learned no one thing but the art which these learned brutes practife in equal perfection; that is, The art of doing as they are bidden at the word of command. The admirers of learning in dogs and horses may pretend, that their exhibiting their lectures, even in the univerfities, may have fome B good effect, as it is one means of detecting and expofing vice, by the wonderful fagacity which these creatures claim of finding and pointing out the greatest whoremafter, or greateft drunkard in the company. And, indeed, it was fuggefted, that the learned animals had not only the permiffion, but the C authority of the univerfity officers for this purpose, at laft Stirbitch fair. But an occurrence that happened while I was there, will detect the fallhood of both thefe pretenders. For the borje, notwithstanding his pretended kill, in executing his cenforial office, blundered upon a noble 1-d, and thereby im- D puted to him a character which, every one muft allow, he does not deferve: So that his 1-p might have exclaimed, with great propriety-equo ne credite, Teucri. Neither could the horse be supposed to come to this noble 1-d, by the authority of the university officers; for it is certain thofe gentlemen E would not have fent the horse upon fuch an errand, out of mere civility, though his 25 the like lectures within the faid univerfity, the younger ftudents, for whofe fake I write, are defired to obferve, that thefe docile and fer-vile dogs do themtelves only obtain, now and then, a mouldy cruft, or bone already picked; while the main profits and emoluments accrue wholly to the mafter himself whole constant cuftom has always been, and always will be, to fhew and expofe his dogs before he feeds them. E. O. An account of the mineral waters of Spa, by PA is a town fituated in the marquifate Sof Franchiment, in the country of Liege, at the diftance of about 18 miles fouth-ealt from that capital. It lies in the middle of forefts; and the little plains in its neighbourhood, are terminated on every fide by high mountains. The country round it, is far from being fruitful. It is not without difficulty, that they obtain greens, oats, and hay, and thefe but in very fmall quantities. The foil in general is either a deep clay, morals, out of which they dig turfs, or rocky, covered with flints, and in fome places intermixed with lime-ftone, and fand. There are not at prefent, any iron works in its neighbourhood, but the remains are ftill vilible of thofe that were formerly wrought. The fprings that go under the general name of Spa, are fix in number. The Poubon is feated at the bottom of the market-place, or fquare, almoft in the heart of the town of Spa. This appellation is deprived from the old Walloon word, poubir, which fignifies to draw. It is chiefly from this fpring that the waters are taken, which are fent into foreign countries; but the inhabitants ufe it for their common drink. The F has but little preferment to difpofe of. Now, if it be clear from this inftance, that the learned dogs and horfes really have not that knowledge which they falfly pretend to have, and that they did not act at that lat Geronfiere is in a foreit to the fouth of Spa, at fair by the authority of the univerfity officers, the distance of about three quarters of a then this inftance will fufficiently make out league. It flows out of the chink of a rock, what I have been fuggefting. For, the horse and is received into a little bafon, covered by would not have dared to come to the noble a dome of free-ftone, supported by four inari-d without fome fuch authority as could, at ble columns. The Sauveniere is half a all events, prote& and fupport him. Is it league from Spa, to the weft. At a fmall not plain then, from this fingle circumftance, G diftance towards the fouth, is the fountain of that thefe animals acted by the authority of Groifbeck, which derives its name from the fome still more noble perfonage, who very Baron de Groifbeck, who in 1651 caused it well knew he might make free with his to be inclofed. The Tonnelet and Watroz, —p. And whether they were not fent by are at about half a league distance from the that more noble perfonage, to promote ftill town of Spa, and lie to the left of the Saumore the practice of implicit obedience in veniere. Thele two are the leaft efteemed of that docile univerfity, is fubmitted to the con- H the fix. fideration of the truly learned heads of it. However, for fear thefe kind and well ́intended intimations, thould not be allowed their due weight, and other matchlefs, learned dogs thould hereafter be permitted to exhibit VOL. 11. January 1759. The Pouhon, and the Sauveniere, are the most antient, having been known from time immemorial; and the Author believes that one of these must be meant by Pliny, when he mentions the fountain of Tongres. The A Geronftere and the Tonnelet were discovered C fulphureous, and ferruginous; the Tonnelet is tart, a li tle auftere, with an aluminous vitriol, and fmells fulphureous; the Watroz has an acid tafte, and a ferruginous aufterity. He fhews next what quantities of folid matter were left upon evaporation of two pounds of the water from each of thefe fprings. He remarks, that there is a different proportion in them of fulphureous fpirit, in which the Geronftere is strongest of all; after that the Sauveniere; the Groifbeck and the Tonnelet ; and the Watroz and Pouhon leaft of all. It has been hitherto thought impoffible to fix, or to collect the fulphur of the Geronftere; but this Writer affures us, that he has found in the bafon a whitifh kind of matter, which, when dried and sprinkled upon a hot iron, or exposed to the flame of a candle, emitted a strong fulphureous scent. Thefe waters differ alfo,more or less, in their facility of being decompofed. The Geronftere being the most fulphureous, is the fooneft altered, and is therefore the leaft fit to be transported; the water of the Pouhon, on the contrary, affords the greatest resistance, and for this reafon, is that which is commonly fent into foreign countries. He then enters into fome farther detail, in respect to the decompounding of these mineral waters, the order in which these appearances are difclofed, and from thence explains how, from thefe appearances, may be deduced the nature and the properties of thefe waters. He adds to his former experiments, that the Spawaters do not coagulate milk, that they do not make a true effervefcence with acids, except with the oil of vitriol, which will act as ftrongly upon common water; that in like manuer, they make none with alkalies; that they precipitate the folation of the falt of lead, D The activity of these waters is not all, in in the form of milky-powder: and that fpint proportion to the quantity of fixed matter of wine, and oil of tartar per deliquium, caufe which they contain; for the Geronstere, a weak mealy precipitation. which does not hold above a third of what may be extracted from the Pouhon, is the brifkeft of all, and the most apt to occasion a giddiuefs in the head; which proves that the principal virtue of thefe waters confifts in a volatile principle, that efcapes any chemical analytis, and diffipates itfelf immediately into The temperature of these waters, it seems, is not always the fame. The Author ob. ferves, that they varied in the fummer of the year 1756, from the forty-fixth to the fifty- E fecond degree of Fahrenheit's thermometer. In general, the water is colder towards the bottom of the bafons than at the furface; the warmer the weather, the more this difpro portion appears; and the longer the water continues in the bafon, without admitting freth, the nearer it approaches to the temper F of the air. The refult of his reasoning and experiments is, that the Spa-waters are both acid and alkaline; or rather, they contain in them an acid and an alkaline; but this acid is so fubtle, and fo volatile, that it is almoft im poffible to feparate it from the other principles. They are alfo vitriolic, that is, if we understand by vitriol, an iron diffolved by an acid; but this is fo flightly united, that the least heat, the action of the air, or the smallest agitation, produces a feparation, Thefe waters differ very confiderably from each other, in respect to tafte. The Pouhon is acid and ferrugineus; the Geronitere, is fulphureous, leaving an impreffion of acid and iron upon the palate; the Sauveniere has a fulphureous tartnefs, with a little tincture of the iron; the Groilbeck tattes very harp, the air. Dr. Limbourg, to confirm his notions, as to the nature of the waters of the Spa, and to render the manner in which they are formed in the entrails of the earth, more apparent, has endeavoured to imitate them by art. He took for this purpofe fome iron ore calcined and powdered, and having made it into a pafte, with water, he daubed with this mixture the infide of a veffel, at the bottom of which he caused a certain quantity of fulphur G to be fet on fire, the vapours of which neceffarily were enveloped in the pafte; he then poured on water, by which he obtained what the acid vapours had diffolved of the iron. This water had the ferruginous tafte, and the fulphureous fmell, turned purple or black with vegetable aftringents, and red with the tincture of Tournifol, emitted air copiously upon agitation, was eafily decompofed, became speedily covered with a fcum of different colours, and, in a little time, let fall a ferruginous matter. H The The Attention of the Dutch to their Commercial Interefts. A The water of the Pouhon fountain is the fittett in cafes of a relaxed habit, when the patient's ftomach is ftrong enough to bear it. The Geronftere is better adapted for perfons of a delicate frame, and weak ftomach; it warms and exhilerates, and is most proper where there is an inaction and insensibility of the fibres, and where no inflammation is to be apprehended, in nervous cafes, and in female disorders. The Sauveniere ought to be preferred in cutaneous maladies, flow fevers, confumptions that depend on acrimony, and the fcurvy. It may be confidered as of a middle nature between the Pouhon and the B Geronftere, so that it may be fubstituted in any cafe, where the former is prejudicial from its weight, or the latter from its heat. The Groifbeck may be employed, generally fpeaking, in the fame cafes with the Sauveniere, only it is a little colder, and not quite fo light upon the ftomach. The water of the Tonnelet C is chiefly used to drink with wine at meals, and is in this respect very agreeable. The Watroz is feldom used at all. The common practice, however, is to begin with the least active, and the leaft heating, in order to difpofe the body gradually for the use of the most efficacious. The month of May, and the beginning of June; the end of Auguft, and the month of September, are the proper feafons. As to the quantity in which they are to be drank, the time of drinking them, the neceffary preparations, and the regimen to be obferved, thefe, according to every patient's cafe, are regulated by the physician. 27 tifed to preferve their fisheries, and to fecure to themselves alone the trade of the Afiatick fpices, are well known, and not at prefent to our purpose. There was however another species of commerce, which demanded their attention even more than either of the former; as it was not only a profitable branch of traffic in itself, but as it greatly tended to the fecurity of the reft, by being the principal basis of their naval power: this was the trade of freightage, or the carrying trade, the subject of our prefent difcourfe.---To understand their views in this respect, we must first take notice of the foundation, on which their policy was built: They had fucceeded to the Hanfeatic traders, in becoming the carriers of the world: long poffeffion had therefore furnished thein with great numbers of failors and thips; and to there they added, uncommon parfimony, and induftry, the natural endowments of their people; thefe made them contented with small profits, and enabled them to carry the manufactures of each country, even cheaper, than the natives of it themselves: with fuch happy circumftances in their favour, they were fure of making this branch of trade wholly and D perpetually their own, if they could, by their negotiations and policy, eftablish two points. The firft was, that no nation fhould grant to its own natives any privileges in relation to freightage, which the people of Holland fhould not equally enjoy. --And as the confequences of war would otherwife frequently E interrupt the courfe of this traffic, they laboured to obtain, as their fecond point, That whenever any other nation was engaged in war, they might then enjoy, as neuters, the right of protecting the property of its enemies.---Thefe points, once obtained,would open a larger field, on which their industry might exert itself, than what they could otherwife of right pretend to enjoy: they were wife, however, in endeavouring to obtain it no nation befides themfelves had more shipping, than what was equal to the carriage of their own manufactures; they alone therefore could carry on the freightage G of other countries, and largely reap, when their neighbours were at war, the advantages propofed. An explanation of the reajons that induced They were indeed at this time fo fully mafters of almost all the commerce of the world; that they had little elfe to do, but to preferve the poffeffion of it.-Thearts which they prac The regency of Holland laboured with great perfeverance for the establishment of these two points: their great minifter De Witt, filled all his inftructions and dispatches with every Hargument and motive, which his active mind could invent, in support of these favourite maxims: they were willing to give up any temporary advantage to gain that, which, once Lettres de Monfieur De Witt paffim. acquired, acquired, would prove for ages an overflowing fpring of wealth. By their negotiations they fit endeavoured to induce France to comply with their defires in thefe refpects; but here they were a long while unsuccessful: in oppofition to the first point of their policy, Fouquet, while he was at the head of the French marine and finances, eftablished the tax of fifty fous per ton on all foreign shipping; and endeavoured thereby to encourage and aug ment the freightage of his own country; and when, upon his difgrace, Colbert fucceeded to his employments, this tax of fifty fous was almoft the only part of the former's policy, which the latter thought fit to adopt. It is amazing, with what zeal and application the minifters of Helland contended for the abolition of it: France at length relaxed her severity on this head, not fo much to favour the trade of the Dutch, as in compliance with the interefts of her own. Colbert's great schemes to improve the manufactures of his country had met with better fuccefs, than his plans for the augmentation of its marine; and the frequent wars, in which his ambi tious mafter involved his kingdoms, gave repeated checks to the freightage of his peo ple. France therefore, at laft found it neceffary to give a larger vent to her manu. factures, by opening her ports to foreign veffels; and for this purpose, she took off the tax of fifty fous, by the treaty of Ryfwick, as far as related to the hips of Holland alone: and fince that time, he has regulated her conduct in this particular, as the intereft of her trade requires. In time of war fhe always remits this tax, as the is then forced to make ufe of the freightage of neutral nations, her naval power not being equal to the protection of her own; and in time of peace, the preferves the tax, or not, as the increase or diminution of her thipping requires, always giving the greatest encouragement to her own marine, which is confiftent with the prefervation of her manufactures. France confented fooner to the other point of Dutch policy, and granted by treaty, to the veffels of Holland, as neuters, the right of protecting the effects of an enemy: the laws of France indeed continue still to determine univerfally against this right; and in this respect therefore their laws and treaties contradi& each other: fome very ancient ordinances of that kingdom had adjudged as lawful prize in this cafe, not only the enemies goods, but had joined alfo in the con. demnation, the neutral veffel, which carried them; the laft, however, of thefe points was remitted as early as 1646, by a temporary treaty then made with Holland; the neutral veffel, and all the effects of a friend found on board it, by this were ordered to be spared: by a fubfequent negotiation, Holland endea youred to get this privilege farther confirmed and extended: it was one great part of Monfieur Boreel's employment in his long embaffy at Paris: at laft, however, in the A memorable treaty of defensive alliance between Holland and France, of the 27th of April, 1662, this favour was obtained in its full extent. This article was again renewed by the marine treaty of 1678, and confirmed by all the fubfequent treaties between thefe two powers: B France, from the condition of her marine, could certainly reap no advantage from the infertion of this article in her own treaties ; but it was wife in her to endeavour to establish the point, as a general maxim of national law among other countries: experience hath proved to her the ufe cf it in time of war. C E But Holland most exerted her policy to bring that nation to a compliance with her maxims, whom the most apprehended as her rival in trade: the fcandalous ignorance of the English minifters in point of commerce, and the little attention, which they paid to the interests of it, gave such advantages for D fome time to the Dutch, that more vessels of that country were feen in the ports of our colonies, than even of our own; the shiping of England from the reign of Elizabeth had been in a conftant decline; we should hardly have believed that in the reign of Charles the first, England could not have furnifhed more than three merchant vessels of 300 tons, if Sir Jofiah Child had not affirmed it; the time at length arrived, when we were to be put in this refpect on an equality with our neighbours, and to vindicate (as it were) the advantages of our own induftry and produce to ourselves; in 1651 the parliament of England paffed into an ordinance that noble ftrain of commercial policy, called fince the act of navigation. Mr. St. John returning about this time from his embaffy at the Hague became the happy instrument, which Providence made use of, to accomplish this great work; refenting highly the refufal which Ghad there been given to his propofals, and the infults, which had been offered to his perfon, he warmly folicited, and at length induced the council of state to move the parliament to pals it; the committee fat five days in forming it; and it was at last published by order of the house with great pomp and ceremony at the Royal Exchange: The Dutch were to fenfible of its confequences, that it was the principal caufe of the enfuing war; they called it in a manifefto published foon after, a vile a&t and order :" at the negotiations for that peace, which put an end to F H the conceffions to Holland. England's ill-judged 29 land, were the conceffions which England then chofe to make, that she might obtain the affittance of that Republick against France; to what other purpofe could England at this time admit into her treaties a point, which the had before fo long refused to the conftant folicitations of the States? Any benefit which the British trade might reap from the mutual ftipulation of this article, could never be the object which the Minifters of this country had in view: The article, confidered by itself, is of the most fatal confequence to the power and trade of Great Britain; when she is at B peace, and her neighbours are at war, fhe Our ancestors, with equal conftancy for cannot reap any benefit from it, as her own fome time withstood the other maxim of Thipping is not more than equal to the trade Dutch policy, and would not permit their of her people;and when, on the other yeffels, as neuters, to protect the effects of the hand, Great Britain is at war, and her neighenemy. Frequent applications were made bours at peace, it tends to defeat the best part before the restoration, both to the parliament of her power, and to render fruitless the efand to the protector, to alter the courfe of forts of her naval force ;--- while at the fame proceeding in this refpect; but thofe heads, time confidered as a general maxim of right which formed the act of Navigation, were among other nations, Great Britain neither too wife to confent to this; a particular occa. wants the use of it, as the is equal in time of fion, however, at last induced England to war to the protection of her own fhipping make the conceffion; by the treaty of comneither can her merchants enjoy the advantage merce made at the Hague, 17th of February, of it, as the employment of foreign freightage 1668, this point was fettled to the fatisfaction D is in moft refpects directly contrary to her of Holland. The circumstances of the time laws. This article was again renewed in the and the fituation of affairs when this article treaty of commerce of 1674, which is the was framed, account for its admiffion into this maritime regulation that at prefent fubfifts betreaty, and very strongly apologize for the tween Great Britain and Holland. authors of it; Lewis the XIVth had then just commenced the first career of his ambition, and England refolved with fpirit to throw herfelf in Of Infolvent Debtors. ESINCE the publication of the letter, F concerning the condition of thofe who are confined in gaol by their creditors (vol. 1. P. 303.) an enquiry is faid to have been' made, by which it appears that more than twenty thousand are at this time prifoners for debt. It feems to be the opinion of the later Computifts, that the inhabitants of England do not exceed fix millions, of which twenty thousand is the three-hundreth part. What shall we fay of the humanity or the wisdom of a nation that voluntarily facrifices one in every three hundred to lingering deG ftruction! The misfortune of an Individual do not extend their influence to many; yet, if we confider the relations and effects of confinguinity and friendship, and the general reciprocation of wants and benefits, which make one man dear or neceflary to another, Hit may reafonably be fuppofed, that every man languishing in prifon gives trouble of fome kind to two others who love or need him. By this multiplication of mifery we fee diftiefs extended to the hundreth part of the whole Society.. If |