that an attempt to destroy the barrier between any set of human beings, however degraded, and the inferior animals, can serve no good purpose, either in politics or in morals; and the author's protest against the application of his doctrines would have availed little, if he had been able to substantiate them. ART. IV. The Annual Anthology. Vol. II. Crown 8vo. pp. 300. 6s. Boards. Longman and Rees. 1800. SOME OME of the Antients made a distinction respecting the two summits of Parnassus, which has been lately overlocked, They supposed that one of them produced good, and the other bad verses. The elder poets, aware of this difference in the soil, took their station on Helicon, and profited accordingly but the moderns, reckoning on the fertility of all parts of the hill, have imprudently attempted to cultivate its most unproductive regions. We fear that Mr. Southey and his friends have settled themselves among some of these heaths and morasses, and that their intended flower-garden will pay them with little else than weeds. In our account of the first volume of this work, [M. Rev. for April last,] we undertook a close examination of this poeti cal parterre, and endeavoured to convince the proprietors that it would be conducive to their interest to cultivate more ele gant plants: but, in this additional volume, we find the surface Overspred with the infelix lolium, of narcotic and disgusting properties. We shall therefore take a much shorter view of the present exhibition of flowers, as we conceive that the soil is irreclaimable, and "cultura non patiens annua." (Hor.) Instead of characterizing every poem, we shall only notice those pieces which appear to possess merit; and this review will constitute an article of very moderate length. In the rambling legendary tale of St. Juan de Gualberto, we observe two tolerably good stanzas: Slow sunk the glorious sun, a roseate light And now a placid greyness clad the heaven, gaze; Save where the west retain❜d the last green light of even. Cool breath'd the grateful air, and fresher now The fragrance of the autumnal leaves arose, The passing gale scarce moved the o'erhanging bough, Save when a falling leaf came fluttering by, Save the near brooklet's stream that murmur'd quietly.' Mr. Mr. Coleridge's Recantation, or Story of the Mad Ox, contains some humour, and just political satire. We would gladly have inserted it, but it has already appeared in some publications of the day. We observe, in many parts of this volume, an emulation and perhaps an attainment of the manner of Peter Pindar: but there is still too much of the prosaic dialogue, of which we complained in our account of the former volume.-We extract the following short poem, as a good comment on Dr. Johnson's celebrated epigram on Miss Aston; which the writer before us however has not noticed: The Fair Democrate. The wish, that fills thy generous mind, I love; and, as thy voice inspires From chains, more dear than Liberty!' The Ode to the Duchess of Devonshire, though by no means free from affectation, is pleasing on the whole. It is scarcely worth while, perhaps, to mention a plagiarism of the strange writer who signs himself Theoderit in these volumes but his Ode to a Pig, while his Nose WAS BEING* bored, resembles so closely a jeu d'esprit by Mr. Huddesford on the American War, published in his Salmagundi, that we can hardly deem the approximation accidental. No creatures, indeed, can be more cruelly bored than the readers of Theoderit, and they may well accost the object of his ode thus: 'Midst all thy ills, rejoice, O squeaking pig! That thy free soul no alphabet confined; Else, with the readers of this rhyming prig, Thy loathing heart had wish'd that thou wert blind. For howsoe'er by gimlet, or by awl, Thy nice proboscis might be sharply stung, We felt more anguish from th' affected drawl, If these poetical florists should continue their annual exhibition, we hope that they will exclude, in future, their sow Literally thus printed, in this elegant Anthology! thistles thistles and brambles. "Ill weeds grow apace;" and their luxuriance will not intitle the careless gardener to the approba tion of good judges. ART. V. A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Northumberland, with Observations on the Means of its Improvement. Drawn up for the Consideration of the Board of Agriculture. By J. Bailey and G. Culley. 8vo. pp. 209. 8s. Boards. Robinsons. 1800. NOR ORTHUMBERLAND may be considered as a mineral rather than an agricultural county; and if antideluvian longevity were now prevalent, we should anticipate most uncomfortable sensations of cold in some future winter, on perusing the information conveyed to us in this work, respecting the exhaustible state of the coals: for we are here told that, in two or three centuries, they will be so far wrought out, that the metropolis can be no longer supplied from this quarter. As, however, we do not expect to be classed with Methuselah, we shall keep a good fire, and leave our children's children to find elsewhere a substitute for Newcastle coal. To attend, then, to the particulars in the Survey before us; it appears that the County of Northumberland, together with those detached parts of the county of Durham called Norhamshire, Islandshire, and Bedlingtonshire t, includes in its greatest length from north to south 64 miles, in breadth 48, and contains 1980 square miles, or 1,267,200 acres ; of which there are stated to be 450,000 mountainous and unfit for tillage, leaving 817,200 that may be cultivated by the plough. It is divided into six wards its climate, in regard to temperature, is extremely variable; and its surface exhibits both strong and light soil. Among the mineral productions, coal occupies the first place; and, as this is an interesting subject to a great portion of the kingdom, we shall lay before our readers a part of the curious detail respecting this substance. We pass over the cal Norhamshire and Islandshire are situated at the northern extremity of the county of Northumberland, and comprehend a triangular space, the two sides of which are formed by the river Tweed and Ger man Ocean, and the base the northern boundary of Glendale and Bambro' Wards; it contains about 72 square miles of well-inclosed culti vated country.' Bedlingtonshire is situated at the south-east corner of Castle Ward, bounded on the east by the German Ocean, and on the north and south by the rivers Wansbeck and Blyth, and contains about 30 square miles.' We are not informed what is the population of this county. culation culation of the cost and charge on a ship load of coals containing 20 keels, or 160 Newcastle chaldrons, delivered in the port of London; and extract only what relates to the actual state of the collieries, and their period of exhaustion. It has been asserted, that "the coals in this county are inexhaustible.” —Mr. Williams, in his Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom, is of a different opinion, and thinks it a matter of such importance as to deserve the serious attention of the Legislature.-Towards elucidating this point, it may be of some use to estimate what number of acres are wrought yearly in this county to supply the requisite quantity of coals: in order to accomplish this object, the thickness and number of workable seams of coal must be first ascertained; for which purpose we have been favoured with sections exhibiting the thickness and depth of the various strata, in some of the deepest pits in the county; which will not only be useful for the present purpose, but we hope will be acceptable to many of our readers, who are curious in researches of subterraneous geography. At St. Anthon's colliery (three miles east of Newcastle) the different seams of coal are as follow: In the above pit or shaft, which is nearly the deepest in the kingdom, there are no less than 16 seams of coal. But many of these, To many persons, the information here annexed by way of note will be acceptable. A keel of coals is 21 tons 4 cwt. and contains 8 Newcastle chaldrons, so that each chaldron is 53 cwt.-A London chaldron (mark the difference!) contains 36 heaped Winchester bushels, and weighs on an average 28 cwt. (according to the quality of the coals) which weights being nearly in the ratio of 8 to 15, it is always reckoned that 8 Newcastle chaldrons make 15 London chaldrons.' How came it to pass that the same word at Newcastle and London should denote such different quantities? from from their thinness, are not workable. The 9th, called the high mair coal, and the 16th, the low main coal, are the two principal seams for affording quantities of coal, being together 12 feet thick, and are those most generally wrought. But the 10th, 13th, and 14th, are all workable seams, and will afford considerable quantities of coal; the aggregate of the three making nearly 9 feet thick; so that the total thickness of the workable seems in this colliery amount to 22 feet. In Montague Main colliery (three miles west of Newcastle) the different seams of coal are as follow: • In this shaft there are 15 seams of coal, of which only four are workable, viz. the 4th, 7th, 11th, and 12th, making together 4 yds. ■ ft. 7 ins. of workable coal. If the medium be taken betwixt this and St. Anthon's, it will be nearly 6 yards thick of workable coal, from which may be formed A calculation of the quantity of coal in an acre of ground, supposing the aggregate thickness of the various seams amount to 6 yards. An acre of ground contains which, multiplied by the thickness, gives From which deduct for waste, and the part or pillars necessary to be left in working there remains And as three cubic yards of coal, when wrought, afford a Newcastle |