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any person, in any place, and upon any quantity of grain, how ever small.

"From my experiments I am inclined to believe, that must is a taint produced by damp upon the amylaceous part of the grain or starch: that the portion of starch nearest to the husk is that which is first tainted; and that the greater or less degree of must is in proportion to the taint having penetrated more or less into the substance of the grain. In most cases, however, the taint is only superficial; but, nevertheless, if not removed, it is sufficient to contaminate the odour and flavour of the whole, especially when converted into flour.

“After various experiments, I found the following method to be attended with success :

"The wheat must be put into any convenient vessel capable of containing at least three times the quantity, and the vessel must be subsequently filled with boiling water; the grain should then be occasionally stirred, and the hollow and decayed grains (which will float) may be removed; when the water has become cold, or, in general, when about half an hour has elapsed, it is to be drawn off. It will be proper then to rince the corn with cold water, in order to remove any portion of the water which had taken up the must; after which, the corn being completely drained, is, without loss of time, to be thinly spread on the floor of a kiln, and thoroughly dried, care being taken to stir and to turn it frequently during this part of the process.

"This is all that is required; and I have constantly found that

even the most musty corn (on which ordinary kiln-drying had been tried without effect) thus became completely purified, whilst the diminution of weight caused by the solution of the tainted part was very inconsiderable.

I have the honour to remain,
Dear Sir Joseph,

Your most faithful and
obedient servant,

CHARLES HATCHETT."
Mount Clare, Roehampton,
Dec. 4, 1816.

THE COUNTRY POOR.

The two following interesting stories are extracted from the "Report of the Society for bettering the Condition of the Poor :” they are well worth the attention of those country gentlemen who have a sincere wish to ameliorate the condition of their indigent labourers.—(Times.)

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Twenty years ago there stood a small cottage by the road side, near Tadcaster, which for its sin gular beauty, and the neatness of its little garden, attracted the notice of every traveller. The remarkable propriety which appeared in every part of this tenement made Sir Thomas Bernard curious to learn the history of the owner, and he obtained it from his own mouth. Britton Abbott (such was the owner's name) was a day-labourer: beginning to work with a farmer at nine years old, and being careful and industrious, he had saved nearly 401. by the time that he was two-and-twenty. With this money he married and took a farm at 301. a year; but the farm was too much for his means,

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ineans, and before the end of the second year he found it necessary to give it up, having exhausted almost all his little property. He then removed to a cottage, where with two acres of land and his right of common he kept two cows, and lived in comfort for nine years at the expiration of that time the common was enclosed, and he had to seek a new habitation with six children, and his wife ready to lie-in again. In this state he applied to Mr. Fairfax, and told him that if he would let him have a little bit of ground by the road side he would show him the fashions on it.' The slip of land for which he asked was exactly a rood; Mr. Fairfax, after inquiring into his character, suffered him to have it; the neighbours lent him some little assistance in the carriage of his materials; he built his house, enclosed the ground with a single row of quickset, which he cut down six times when it was young, and planted the garden. The manner in which he set to work, and the way in which the work was performed, pleased Mr. Fairfax so much, that he told him he should be rent-free. His answer, as Sir Thomas Bernard justly says, deserves to be remembered.

Now, Sir, you have a pleasure in seeing my cottage and garden neat; and why should not other squires have the same pleasure in seeing the cottages and gardens as nice about them? The poor would then be happy, and would love them, and the place where they lived but now every nock of land is to be let to the great farmers, and nothing left for the poor but to go to the parish."

Though my visit, says Sir Thomas, was unexpected, and he at the latter end of his Saturday's work, his clothes were neat and sufliciently clean. His countenance was healthy and open; he was a little lame in one leg, the consequence of exposure to wet and weather. He said he had always worked hard and well; but he would not deny but, that he had loved a mug of good ale when he could get it. When I told him my object in inquiring after him, that it was in order that other poor persons might have cottages and gardens as neat as his, and that he must tell me all his secret how it was to be done, he seemed extremely pleas. ed, and very much affected: he said, nothing will make poor folks more happy than finding that great folks thought of them : that he wished every poor man had as comfortable a home as his own,-not but that he believed there might be a few thoughtless fellows who would not do good in it.'

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Britton Abbot was at this time sixty-seven, and had lived happily with his wife for five and forty years. He earned from twelve to eighteen shillings a week by task work, but to be sure,' he said,

I have a grand character in all this country! Five of his children were living, and having been well brought up, were thriving in the world. Upon his rood of ground he had fifteen apple trees, one green-gage, two winesour plumtrees, two apricot trees, currants, gooseberries, and three beehives; he reared also from this garden abundance of common vegetables, and about forty bushels of pota

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toes annually. When this man was turned adrift upon the world by the enclosure of the common, if he had been without hope, or if the rood of land for which he asked had been denied, he and his six children, and his pregnant wife, might have gone to the workhouse, and become a burden to the public, instead of setting it an example, and teaching a most important lesson to their superiors. We will transcribe Sir Thomas Bernard's words, and print them, as he has done, in a manner which may tend to excite the attention they deserve. Five unsightly, unprofitable acres of waste ground would afford habitation and comfort to twenty such families as Britton Abbot's. The quarter of an acre which was granted him was not worth a shilling a year before it came into his hands.

Joseph Austin, a bricklayer in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, had often looked with a longing eye upon a bit of ground by the road side, part of what is called the Lord's Waste, by a term which reflects little credit upon manorial rights, or parochial management. Whenever he looked at this spot he used to think what a nice place it would be for a house and being a house-builder by trade, and something of a castle-builder by nature, he used, as soon as he fell asleep at night, to dream that he was at work there with his bricks and his trowel. At length he applied to the manor court, and got a verbal leave to build there. Two of his neighbours, moved by envy as he says, threatened that if he began

his house they would pull it down; upon this he applied a second time to the court, and obtained a legal permission with the assent of all the copyholders, paying for the entry of his name on the court rolls, and sixpence a year quit rent. And here we must do our country the justice to observe, that if a man of known industry and good character, like Joseph Austin or Britton Abbot, applies for an indulgence of this kind, there is very little probability that the application will be refused. Austin was at this time about forty-two years of age; he had a wife and four children, and his whole stock of worldly riches amounted to fourteen shillings: but men who deserve friends are seldom without them; and a master, with whom he usually worked at harvest, sold him an old cottage for nine guineas, which he was to work out. He had for some time in his leisure hours been preparing bats, a sort of bricks made of clay and straw, well beaten together, eigh teen inches long, twelve wide, and four deep, not burnt, but dried in the sun; with these and the materials of the old cottage he went to work. The bats make a better wall than lath and plaster with a coating of clay, less wood is required, and the house is stronger and warmer; but they must be protected from rain as much as possible, and especially toward the bottom. As he had to live and support his family by his daily labour, this building could only be carried on when his regular day's work was done; he has often continued it by moonlight, and heard the clock strike

twelve before he withdrew from an occupation in which his heart was engaged; this, too, when he had to rise at four the next morning, walk to Cambridge (nearly four miles distant) to his work, and return in the evening. If his constitution had not been unusually strong, it must have sunk under these extraordinary exertions-a fate more frequent than is generally supposed among the industrious poor. But he seems to have possessed an unweariable frame of body, as well as an invincible spirit. When the building was one story high, and the beams were to be laid on, the carpenter discovered that the timber from the old cottage would not serve for so large a place. This was a severe disappointment nothing, however, discouraged him; he covered it over with a few loads of haum, and immediately began a small place in the same manner, at the end, working at this with such perseverance that he got his family in within four months after the foundations were laid. This great object being accomplished, he went on leisurely with the rest as he could save money for what was wanting after five years he raised the second story, and in ten it was tiled and coated; the inside was not completed when Mr. Plumtre communicated the story to the society, but there was house room for himself and his family, and another apartment was let for a guinea a year.

In this manner,' says that gentleman, Joseph Austin, with singular industry and economy, in the course of ten years built himself a house, which he began

with only 14s. in his pocket. During that time his wife had four children, and buried as many more. The money which it cost him was about 501., the whole of which was saved from the earnings of daily labour. The house and garden occupy about twenty poles of ground; and the garden is as creditable as the house to the industry and good sense of the owner; one of the fences was made of sweetbriar and roses mixed with woodbine, another of dwarf plum-trees, and against the back of the house he had planted a vine, a nectarine, and a peach-tree.'

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ter-Ballet-master-and Scene. In what part of the Theatre was the one-shilling Gallery? Distinguish accurately between Operas and Puppet-shews.

2. Where was Downing-street? Who was Prime Minister when Crib defeated Molineux-and where did the battle take place? Explain the terms milling-fibbing-cross-buttock-neck and

crop-bang up-and-prime.

3. Give the dates of all the Parliaments from their first institution to the period of the hard frost on the Thames. In what month of what year was Mr. Abbot elected Speaker? Why was he called "the little man in the wig?" When the Speaker was out of the chair, where was the mace put?

4. Enumerate the principal houses of call in and about London, marking those of the Tailors, Bricklayers, and Shoemakers, and stating from what Brewery each house was supplied with Brown Stout. Who was the tutelary Saint of the Shoemakers? At what time was his feast celebrated? Who was Saint Swithin? Do you remember any remarkable English proverb respecting him?

5. Give a ground plan of Gilead House. Mention the leading topics of the Guide to Health, with some account of the Anti-Impetigines-Daffy's Elixir-Blaine's Distemper Powders Ching's Worm Lozenges-and Hooper's Female Pills.

6. Give characters of Wat Tyler, Jack Cade, and Sir Francis Burdett. Did the latter return from the Tower by water or land? On what occasion did Mr. Lethbridge's "hair stand on ind ?” VOL. LVIII.

Correct the solecism, and give the reason of your alteration.

7. Enumerate the roads on which double toll was taken on Sundays. Did this custom extend to Christmas Day and Good Friday? Who was toll-taker at Tyburn, when Mrs. Brownrigg was executed ?

8. Distinguish accurately between Sculls and Oars-Boat and Punt-Jack-ass and Donkey-Gauger, Exciseman, and Supervisor Pantaloons, Trowsers, Gaiters, and Över-alls-At what place of education were any of these forbidden? Which? and Why?

9. Express the following words in the Lancashire, Derbyshire, London, and Exmoor dialectsBacon-Poker-You-I-Doctor-and Turnpike-gate.

10. Mention the principal coach Inns in London, with a correct list of the Coaches which set out from the Bolt-in-Tun. Where were the chief stands of Hackney Coaches?-and what was the number of that in which the Princess Charlotte drove to Connaught House? To what stand do you suppose this removed after it set her down?

11. Give a succinct account, with dates, of the following persons-Belcher-Mr. WaithmanMajor Cartwright-Martin Van Butchell-and Edmund Henry Barker.

12. Draw a Map of the Thames with the surrounding country, marking particularly Wapping, Blackwall, Richmond, and the Isle of Dogs. Distinguish between Newsastle on Tyne, and Newcastle under Line-Gloucester and Double Gloucester-and 2 R

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