1766. Words of Celtic Derivation. concealed in this iron cradle: but they are fometimes fearful left it should prove of an inferior quality to gold or filver; and that if the cradle should contain wooden or leather money only, the guardian would ferve them a devilish trick. I have been at the top of this very amazing place, which is most wonderful and attonithing, and faw where the poor fellows had been at labour, but alas! I could not fee the iron cradle, or terrifick protector of it. It is faid, that Prince Brenus left papers behind him in Italy, which are now in fome repofitory at Rome, and were a few years ago difcovered by fome gentlemen there, which gave an account of this castle, and the treafure which is concealed within it. Certain it is, that two Italian gentlemen came over to England, and applied to Mr. M's. father, for permiffion to fearch the ruins; and it is faid, they could not agree about it. By the appearance of the ruins, the cattle was a very large building, and covered the whole top of the hill, and feems to have been built with the ftones dug from the rock there. About a mile from this castle, and the fame distance from Llangollen, are very curious and pleafing ruins of the abbey of Crufis; feveral arches and towers are yet ftanding, and a farmhouse and barn are formed out of fome of the apartments. The fituation of this abbey is perhaps the finest in the world for a melancholy and monkifhly religious retirement; hills, hanging woods, a winding-rufhing river, and a few fine meadows, furround it. In my ride from Llangollen towards Chirk caftle, on the top of a large hill, called Keven-Ucha, I faw one of the finest and most ravishing profpects poffible to be conceived by man; I think no poetic defcription can exceed it; I really cannot defcribe it with any juftnefs; on one hand are the fine highpointed hills around Llangollen, with Crow caftle on the top of one of them; on the other hand, you have a most extenfive view for above fifty miles, of a great part of Denbighshire, Fintfhire, Montgomery hire, Chefhire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire. At the foot of the hill on which I stood, is an amazing and moft enchanting fight of the rolling meandering Dee; above which, on the oppofite fide, are fine 447 hanging woods, interfperfed with rich paftures and corn fields; at the bottom, upon the margin of the river, are beautiful meadows, and pleafing houfes; and behind the hill is a continual range of hills, fome of which are heathy, and abound with the black and red game, while others have a fine verdure. It is really worth any persons while to travel three hundred miles for the fake of the profpect only. This, with the other views and appearances about Llangollen, have given me greater pleasure than ever I received from the finest garden, parks, or buildings, in England. Llangollen, and the circumjacent places, only two miles round, are. I think the greatest curiofities, the most romantic, the most pleafing, the most aftonishing, and delightful upon the face of the earth. I never read of any views fo luxuriant and ravishing. I am, fir, Offa's Dike, Sept, 5. Yours, &c, Extract from The Way to Things by Words fuppofed to be derived from the RH HEA, Juftice; from the Ray, which was the circle drawn round the perfons arrefted, or arraigned in the name of Justice, of which in those days religion was the parent, and incorporated with it. Out of this ray, or circle, it was the highest of. all crimes to efcape, or to tranfgrefs it, till delivered by juftice. This was called, Ray-ligio. The being bound by the ray. At this very inftant a custom fomewhat analogous to this exists in Arabia: A circle is defcribed round a prifoner of war, which he must not quit till he has fatisfied the perfon who took him. Nay, a party of his own people, or tribe, cannot rescue him; fo facred is this circle, which they call the Ray, held. However, from this Ray you have Rhea, Rheus, Rhetor, the Pareas of Lycurgus (whofe name, by the by, in the Celtic, is the maker of laws), and most probably, arreft; arraign (at-ray-in). Ray being our bar, when justice was adminiftered by the Druids on the spot This in 448 Celebrated Ruins at Rome. in the open air, fub dio, as it was many ages at Athens. Hence alfo the true, or very likely to be true,, foundation of the word fuperftitition. The druids, or magi, for they are undoubtedly fynonymous, had annexed to the tranfgreffion of Ray, or circle of justice, the terrors af imps, or fpirits, that would run away with the impious tranfgreffors of that holy circle. But when in Italy, er other countries once fubject to the Druidical law, thofe fears became exploded, and the Ray-ligion fup planted by other forms of theology and law, the fuperftition, or continu ing to ftand on the fpot, inclosed by the ray, or circle, became a reproach, or was at least accepted in a bad fenfe. Here you have alfo the most probable origin of the magic circle; and the wand of the magician was nothing but the bough, used in the arreft; a custom preferved to this moment in the conftable's ftaff, and the riff's wand. Here alfo occurs, perhaps, the true primitive reason why jurymen, being once charged with the prifoner, could nov depart, till they had acquitted, or condemned him. The trial being in the open air, and the culprit being under no confinement but of the fuperftitition of the Ray, or. circle of justice, by which he was ray-ligiously, bound, that bond. füb. fifted no longer on him, after the jury THE Sept. had once taken cognizance of his cafe Their departure then was confidered as a terntination of procedure, and the prifoner was, ipfo facto, at liberty; thence the neceffity of immediate deci fion. The great merit of King Alfred, was not his creating, but his restoring the antient laws of Britain, under fuch neceffary modifications as the change of circumftances and religion required. There is, in general, great injuftice done to thofe times, fuppofed barbarous, which preceded the Roman invafion. The Romant corrupted, but did not civilize Britain, and fubstituted laws far from preferable to thofe they abrogated. What volumes. Have not been written on the feudal tenures, while hardly any thing is faid of the allodial ones, which were the laws of Druidism, and to which we returned on the extinction of military tyranny." Celebrated Ruins at Rome, with a fir engraved Representation of them. View of two bedchambers in A the golden houfe of Nero, ab furdly erected near the temples of the fun and moon, and of Ifis and Serapis z Remains of that for the summer. 31 Remains of that for winter accommodation. They are in the garden of the fathers of St. Francis, in the Cow field (Campo Vaccino) a Romet Solation of Mr. J. P's Question, p. 425: HE girts of the ends being 8 and 2, then Put the length of the tree, and let y to complete the cone, then by the method of taking for the fide of the fquare, we have 25* 16 By the Propofer. the the girt in the middle. length of the top wanting of the girt in the middle the folidity of the tree. And by the properties of the cone we have 8: *+ y^:: 2; yi. y=' x+162x + 32 : 3* x 3 the girt at the fmall end of the length of ditto. Therefore by the fame method we have 3x 16 3 + 3x 3 48x** the folidity of the remaining piece. Whence per question 504x1152 = 0. Solved gives x 48. Therefore 106,9824 the true folidity. Plymouth, Dec. 5, 1766. W. W.R. The 1766. 449 The History of the laft Seffion of Parliament, &c. The History of the Sefkon of Parliament which began Dec. 17, 1765, being the fifth Seffion of the Twelfth Parliament of Great-Britain, with an Account of all the material Questions therein determined, and of the political Difputes thereby occafioned. without doors. Continued from p. 400. T HESE were the most remarka ble affairs that happened before the Christmas holidays; for at the rifing of the house on the 20th they adjourned till Tuefday the 14th of January then next; on which day his majefty came again to the house of lords, and made a moft gracious fpeech from the throne which the reader may fee in London Magazine for 1766, p. 37. To this fpeech both houses anfwered as ufual by most loyal addrefles, and his majesty's answer to each when prefented, may be feen in ditto Mag. p. 51. And as from both his majesty's Speeches as well as from the addrelles of both houfes upon both occafions, it appears, that the act of the preceding feffion for impofing a stamp duty upon our American colonies, with the contefts and disturbances thereby occafioned, was to be the chief affair brought before this feffion, I fhall begin with an account of the proceedings upon that important affair, and conclude that fubject, before I proceed to any thing else. As his majefty, in both his fpeeches from the throne, had been fo gracious as to tell his parliament, that he would order all the advices and papers relative to the matters of importance that had happened in his colonies in America to be laid before them, accordingly, on the 14th of January, as foon as the house of commons had appointed a committee to draw up the address to his majefty which they had then refoived on, Mr. Secretary Conway stood up and, by his majesty's command, prefented to the houfe copies or extracts of a great many letters from or to his majesty's governors in America, and from or to his ministers here. And also a great many other papers relative to the ftamp duty act which had been paffed the preceding feffion; all which letters and papers were ordered to be referred to a committee of the whole houfe, and it was refolved, that the house would, on the 28th, refolve itfelf into a committee of the whole houfe Sept. 1766. for that purpofe; and that the house might on that day be as full as peffi ble it was ordered, that the houfe fhould on that day be called over, as also that Mr. Speaker thould write circular letters, to the fheriffs and flewards of the feveral counties in Great Britain, requiring the attendance of the members of that houfe, upon the faid 28th of January. On the 17th of January, there was prefented to the house and read a petition of the merchants of London trading to North America, setting forth that the petitioners had been long concerned in carrying on the trade between this country and the British colonies on the continent of North America; and that they had annually exported very large quantities of British manufactures, confifting of woollen goods of all kinds, cottons, linens, hardware, fhoes, household furniture, and almoft without exception, of every other fpecies of goods manufactured in thefe kingdoms, befide other articles imported from abroad, chiefly purchased with our manufactures and with the produce of our colonies; by all which, many thousand manufacturers, feamen and labourers, had been employed, to the very great and increafing benefit of this nation; and that, in return for thefe exports, the petitioners had received from the colonies, rice, indico tobacco, naval ftores, oil, whale fins, furrs, and lately potah, with other commodities, befide remittances by bills of exchange and bullion obtained by the colonists in payment for articles of their produce, not required for the British market, and therefore exported to other places; and that from the nature of this trade, confing of Britifh manufactures exported, and of the import of raw materials from America, many of them ufed in our manufactures, and all of them tending to leffen our dependence on neighbouring states, it must be deemed of the highest importance in the commercial fyftem of this nation; and that Mur m this 450 this commerce, fo beneficial to the ftate, and fo neceflary for the fupport of multitudes, then lay under fuch difficulties and difcouragements, that nothing less than its utter ruin was apprehended, without the immediate interpofition of parliament; and that, in confequence of the trade between the colonies and the mother country, as established and as permitted for many years, and of the experience which the petitioners had long had of the readiness of the Americans to make their just remittances, to the utmoft of their real ability, they had been induced to make and venture fuch large exportations of British manufactures, as to leave the colonies indebted to the merchants of Great Britain in the fum of feveral millions fterling; and that now the colonifts, when preffed for payment, appeal to past experience, in proof of their willingness; but declare it is not in their power, at prefent, to make good their engagements, alledging that the taxes and reftrictions laid upon them, and the extention of the jurifdiction of vice admiralty courts established by fome late acts of parliament, particularly by an act paffed in the 4th year of his prefent majelty, for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America, and by an act pafied in the 5th year of his pretent majefty, for granting and applying certain ftamp duties, and other duties in the British colonies and plantations in America, with feveral regulations and restraints, which if founded in acts of parliament for defined purpoles, they reprefent to have been extended in fuch a manner as to difturb Legal commerce and harrafs the fair trader, and to have to far interrupted the ufual and former umoft fruitful branches of their commerce, reftrained the fale of their produce, thrown the ftate of the feveral provinces into confufion, and brought on fo great a number of actual bankruptcies, that the former opportunities and means of remittances and payments were utterly lott and taken from them; and that the petitioners were by these unhappy events, reduced to the neceffity of applying to the houfe, in order to fecure themfeives and their families from impending ruin; to prevent a multitude of manufacturers from be The HISTORY of the laft Seffion of Parliament. Sept coming a burden to the community, or elfe feeking their bread in other countries, to the irretrievable lofs of this kingdom; and to preferve the ftrength of this nation intire, its commerce flourishing, the revenues increafing, our navigation, the Bulwark of the kingdom, in a state of growth and extenfion, and the colonies from inclination, duty and intereft, firmly attached to the mother country; and therefore praying the confideration of the premifes, and intreating fuch relief as to the house should seem expediert. This petition was referred to the committee of the whole houfe, to whom it was referred to confider of the feveral papers prefented to the house on the 14th by Mr. fecretary Conway, in obedience to his majesty's command; and I have given the fubftance of it at full length, because it was extremely well drawn up, because most of the facts mentioned in it are notorioufly true, and because from these facts it appears how neceflary it is for this nation to protect and encourage our colonies and plantations in America; for the petitioners might have added, and indeed I wonder they did not add in this petition, after the words [increafing benefit of this nation] as follows and to the raifing of the rents of all the land eftates in this kingdom to that furprising height they are now arrived at, and at which they could not, without this American trade, be fupported for any number of years. Of As foon as this petition was referr ed as aforesaid, there were severally prefented to the house and read, and feverally referred to the fame committee, the following petitions, viz. the master, wardens, and commonalty, of the fociety of merchants ven turers of the city of Bristol, under their common feal; of the merchants, tradeimen and manufacturers of the fame city; of the merchants of Liverpoole, trading to and from America and the coaft of Africa; of the merchants, tradesmen and manufacturers of the town and parish of Halifax; of the merchants and inhabitants of the borough of Leeds, trading to the feveral colonics of North America, and of the manufa&urers of broad woollen cloth, and fundry other affortments of woollen goods, manufactured for 1766. The HISTORY of the laft Seffion of Parliament. for fupplying the North American markets; of the merchants of Lancafter trading to and from North America; of the merchants, manufacturers, and traders of the town of Manchester, and neighbourhood thereof; of the manufacturers of the town and county of Leicester; and of the clothiers and manufacturers of fuperfine broad cloth, in the town of Bradford in Wiltshire; all complaining of a great decay in the trade to the North American colonies, owing to the late obftructions and embarraffments laid thereon, and praying relief. And afterwards, before the 28th, there were prefented to the house and read, and referred to the fame committee, the following petitions, viz. of the principal inhabitants of the town of Frome; of the merchants, factors, and manufacturers of Birmingham; of the mayor, bailifts, and commonalty, of the city of Coventry, and the principal tradesmen and manufacturers of filk ribbands and worsted goods, in and near the faid city, whofe common feal and names are thereunto refpectively affixed, in behalf of themfelves and others concerned in the faid manufactures; of the merchants and dealers in the filk, mohair, and button manufactures, refiding in the town of Macclesfield; of the merchants traders and manufacturers of Woolverhampton; of the merchants, traders, and manufacturers of Stourbridge; of the merchants and manufacturers of Dudley; of the tradefmen, manufacturers, &c. of the borough of Minehead; of the mayor, aldermen, burgeffes, principal inhabitants, and traders in the woollen manufactory in Taunton; of the matter, wardens, and commonalty of blanket weavers in Witney; of the mayor, recorder, aldermen, theriff, and coinmenalty of the town and county of the town of Newcastle upon Tyne; of the merchants of Glafgow trading to North America; of the bailiff and burgeffes of Chippenham; and of the principal tradefmen, manufacturers, and inhabitants of the town of Nottingham; all containing much the fame complaint as in the former petitions, and concluding with the fame prayer. In giving this lift of petitions I have been the more particular, as it not only fhews how much the people even 451 of this kingdom are interested in this affair, but also it fhews how diligent the merchants and factors of London had been in procuring petitions upon this occafion from all parts of the kingdom; which fhews how cautious minifters (hould be of adopting any scheme or measure which may affect the immediate intereft of a great number of particular men, for however much they may think it tends towards promoting the public good, yet in time of peace they may expect to meet a vigorous and warm oppofition from the people without doors: It is therefore dangerous for a minifter in time of peace to introduce any new tax, or any great alteration in the old and accustomed forms of government ; whereas in time of war the voice of particular men is drowned in the general din of arms: The fears or the hopes of the people prevent their at tending to any thing but the events of the war. Likewife, before the faid 28th of January, there were feveral more letters and papers relative to this affair, laid before the houfe, by his majesty's command; and a great many accounts relating to our trade in general, as well as our American trade in particular, had been called for and prefented; confequently on that day the houfe, according to order, refolved itfelf into the faid committee, as it again did on the 29th, and 31ft of January, and on the 3d, 5th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 17th, 18th, and 21ft, of February, on fome of which days the committee continued fitting till after one o'clock the next morning; and we cannot wonder at their having spent fo much time in that committee, if we confider what they had to do; for in this interval a great number of other letters and papers had been laid before the house, by his majesty's command, a great number more of accounts prefented, and a confiderable number of gentlemen examined, who had been ordered to attend for that purpose. And moreover a petition of the clothiers of Melkfham in Wiltshire, of the fame tenor with the former, had been prefented, read and referred; and befide all thefe petitions from the manufacturing cities and towns in this ifland, there had been prefented and read on the Mmm 2 11th |