Indian ink, you will, I doubt not, give the preference to the coal, as it will be found free from a brownish cast, always perceivable in the former. The harshness observable in the inclosed drawing arises from the extreme badness of the pencil I was obliged to use, and not from the quality of the ink, which is susceptible of the greatest softness.

The coal is found to be superior to lamp or ivory black for paint, printers ink, and blacking leather. It also makes the best writing ink for records that has yet been discovered. The colour is deeper, and is not in the least affected by the oxy-muriatic acid, or any other chemical agent, and must remain unaltered by time. The application of coal to these purposes was discovered by Mr. Jacob Cist of this place-he has obtained a patent.

Very sincerely your friend,

Thomas Cooper, Esq.

JOHN B. GIBSON.

The only objection to the preceding account of the uses to which stone coal may be put, is, that whatever mucilaginous substance be used to fix it on the paper, water can wash it away. But that it will afford a colouring matter unattackable by any acid, and , unalterable by any time, cannot be doubted. The discovery is of importance. T. C.

Platina. Dr. Bollman, whose ingenuity and perseverance upon this subject deserves well of the public, has succeeded in giving a plating of platina to iron, of which I have a specimen. Also I believe to copper. The use of this metal will be extended to many manufactures.

He has succeeded in giving the mercurial-coloured metalline coating to porcelain with platina. He will by and by introduce it into the glassworks, if not in the form of crucibles (which can be done) at least to furnish an unoxydable smooth plate, on which the glass blower can work his vessel. It promises, in his hands, to become a very important object to the useful and ornamental arts.

Statistics. The following table has been inserted in two or three of our daily papers. The last number of the sixth column has been printed 16,452,656. This must be a mistake. I have inserted six instead of sixteen, for reasons obvious on inspection. In my former number, I stated, by conjecture, the poor rates of Great Britain at six millions sterling, in round numbers. I was about half a million too low.

British Statistics. The following table, exhibiting a concise and striking view of the internal condition of England, is extracted from a British paper of 16th October, 1813.

Exhibiting at one view the depreciation of our currency, the disproportion between the advance made in the price of labour and the fall which has taken place in the value of money; with its consequent progressive pauperism, from the revolution of

This is not inconsistent with the account I have given in page 251 of this volume.

The peck loaf ought to weigh 17 lb. 6 oz. Therefore the quartern loaf ought to weigh one fourth of this, or 4 lb. 5 oz. Every sack of flour is to weigh 24 cwt. net weight, or 280 lb. and out of this ought to be made 20 peck loaves. When the price of grain rises, the magistrates who set the assize of bread, allow the quartern loaf to be diminished in weight. Fine wheaten bread, is allowed to weigh but three fourths only of the weight required for household bread.

The following table is from Niles's Register.

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT

Of the Population and Land Forces of different states at present engaged in the war.

407,760

Balance in favour of the allies 27,206,289

It is mentioned as a remarkable event, that within these three weeks there has been more new accounts opened at the bank of England, than there has been for the four preceding years, princi pally by foreigners. London paper.

British Revenue. An official account laid before the house of commons, states the amount of the nct produce of the perma: hent taxes in Great Britain for the year ending the 25th of October, 1812, at 38,743,4287. 16s. 83d.; and for the year ending the 25th of October, 1813, at 37,833,3667. 12s. 11⁄2d,; being a deficiency of about 900,000l. The same account states the total amount of the net produce of the war taxes, for the year, ending the 25th January, 1812, at 21,822,5327. 148. 104d.: and for the year ending the 25th October, 1813, at 22,740,5681. 4s, 04d.; being an increase to about the amount of the deficiency in the permanent taxes. Thus the net produce of the public revenue of Great Britain, for the year ending the 25th of October, 1813, is 60,573,9347. 16s. 2d. To 60,573,9347. add the poor rate 6,452,656 the amount will be 67,026,5901. sterling levied on the country, beside tythes and other ecclesiastical sources of taxation.

In 1812, the income tax was considered as somewhat short of 13 million, including arrearages due. At ten per cent. this would be levied on an estimated income of 130 millions. Hence, on the average, every man in Great Britain, pays one half at least, of his income in taxes. I do not want to be perpetually harping on főreign commerce, and the wars it induces, but surely it well deserves to be considered, how much of this enormous taxation can fairly be imputed, directly or indirectly to that source.

I meant in the present volume to have given an account of French statistics. I shall remit that, till the publication of Mr. I. T. Naylor's book.

So of the United States statistics, I shall be able to give a better view of this subject, after the recess of congress and our state legislatures.

Dyeing. My booksellers hasten to inform me, that a translation of Berthollet on dyeing is about to be published. Also a new edition of Dr. Bancroft's book on that subject. No one has done so much to elucidate the theory of dyeing as Berthollet and his son. Dr. Bancroft's experiments, though principally made (at least in his first volume) to extend the sale of his quercetron bark (the bark of the black oak quercus nigra) are of importance. I expect something from the new edition. I think all persons interested in the art of dyeing, will purchase both books. But when I come to that article, which I may probably treat of earlier than I at first intended, I shall endeavour to make it the interest of persons concerned in the art of dyeing to purchase also the Empo.

rium that contains it; but I am not anxious hastily to publish my collections, for fear that many if not most of the facts and processes may be forestalled by these proposed publications. I hope to make that article when I come to it, a good one; which I cannot, without looking at the latest sources of information. T. C.

Potatoes. I consider the paper of Mr. Curwen on this subject, so fully corroborated, and in a manner so very different, by the experiments of Professor Davy, as very important. If an acre in potatoes yields but twice the weight of produce, as an acre in wheat, it affords an equal weight of nutriment. But an acre in potatoes equally well managed, will afford near twenty times the weight: nor is there great difference in the expence of cultivation; for potatoe ground highly manured, is the very best preparation for a wheat crop. In my neighbourhood in Lancashire and Cheshire, potatoes (when an early and a late crop were raised for the Manchester market) would justify twenty pound sterling, a Lancashire acre (about more than a statute acre) in manure. The inferences in respect of national as well as individual saving from the facts stated, are of the very first moment. T. C.

Lightning. The following cautions respecting the danger that may occasionally arise from lightning, are sufficiently obvious, but they deserve to be frequently brought into notice. T. C.

In storms of this kind we are frequently, from inadvertence, exposed to imminent danger, when a timely, and in general a very practicable, mere change of station would secure us against it.

It has been long known that the cause of thunder, is the same with that which produces the ordinary phenomena of electricity; thunder being no other than a grand species of electricity, or, rather, that electricity in the hands of man is a feeble imitation of thunder from the hand of the Almighty. A thunder-cloud may be considered as a large conductor, actually insulated and surcharged with electric matter; which, should it meet with another cloud not electrified, or less so than itself, will discharge part of its subtile fluid into the latter, by flashes of lightning and formi- . dable reports of thunder; until an equilibrium of quantity be restored.

Whether this principle, the electric fluid, actually emanates from the sun, and commixes with our atmosphere, as some philosophers conceive; or whether it is a principle inherent in the earth and its appendages, per se, is a question not necessary to be