any one of these be denied? What then must be the aggregate increase? And will any one pretend that this does not require a proportionate increase of currency to represent it? But what if this increase of currency should have been one of its chief parents, if not its only parent, in defiance of wasting wars and interrupted commerce! I verily suspect that it has!-The great rise has taken place since the suspension of Bank Payments, and with a rapidity in proportion to the increased issue of Bank Paper! The precious metals must be acquired by the loss of equivalents; a well-regulated Paper Currency rises with, and is created by, the Improvements which cannot be carried on without its aid. How much more rapidly therefore, on this account, National Wealth may increase by the one way than by the other, need not be pointed out. We must not argue from abuses, nor from minor evils; in every possible system these will arise. Annuitants, and those of fixed incomes, it is said, are placed in a cruel situation, by their being unable to obtain as much for their money as formerly. But if this arises, not from excess of currency, but from increase of the wealth, is it meant that the augmentation of our national prosperity shall stop, that they may keep their relative place in the scale of riches?-The truth is, that the Farmer now pays double and treble his old rent, not because Paper is depreciated, but because Agriculture is improved; because his products are augmented; and the demand for them more keen. It is pretended that our Paper is depreciated a sicth; this surely will not account for double and treble rents! It is by our Financial System that we have been enabled to carry on for so many years the glorious and unexampled contest with the Great Scourge of Man kind at so incredible an expence: a system which, if it was in part the conse quence of our antecedent wealth, I suspect to have been equally the cause of our present wealth and strength. It seems to be almost the sole secret by which we have supported without decay an Expenditure of which the tenth part would, 40 years ago, have created a National Bankruptcy! it is on this broad scale that he has ar gued the question) Sir John Sinclair has been treated as a driveller of the lowest cast. Such unjust and dishonest opprobrium shall not terrify me from adding my feeble voice to his on so incalculably important a question; for much more forcible and comprehensive arguments than any that they have yet produced are necessary to convince me I am in the wrong. I regret that neither my time nor your paper allow me to enter more at length, and in a more methodical and dignified manner, on the various topicks of this great subject which occupy my mind. This is scribbled in the utmost haste, amongst a variety of other pressing occupations, both literary and private. The only excuse for this hurry is, that if I did not do it at this instant I should not do it at all: and polish of style and literary fame are out of the question in such a communication. A pure sense of the importance of the subject induces me Feb. 11. thus to trouble you. is S. Y. Mr. URBAN, Jan. 18. N the Histoire de la Reformation, &c. by J. de Beausobre, reference frequently made to some Remarks which it was evidently in the Author's contemplation to affix to the work. Qu. were those Remarks ever printed? and, if they were, have they found their way into this country? Dr. Currie, in his Edition of the Works of Robert Burns (vol. II. 24 edit. p. 176, note), speaks of "the beautiful Story of the Paria" being translated "in the Bee of Dr. Auderson." Qu. in which of the volumes of the Bee may that story be met with? Dr, Johnson, in his Life of Pope (Murphy's Edition of Johnson'sWorks, vol. XI. p. 137), says, that in the "Memoirs of Scriblerus" will be found particular Imitations of the History of M. Ouffie.' Qu. what is the nature, and who was the writer, of that performance? and whence may a copy of it be procured? N. Dec. 19. Mr. URBAN, PERMIT me to ask, Why England got Does it not become us therefore to the name of JOHN BULL? Was it pause, before we are induced, by light because the inhabitants loved Roast Theorists and narrow Reasoners, to touch Beef, and taught their children to prefer it, as substantial food? Or was it that it? Is our National Prosperity, on the whole, great and progressive? If it be, formerly there was something in the let us rest on the sure test of practical manners and external appearance of the wisdom, in defiance of the most subtle inhabitants of England that del Foand plausible arguments! reigners to give the country so de JAMES HALL For sentiments like these however (for grading a title? METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL, kept at CLAPTON, in Hackney, 26. Cold increasing, although the wind was South-west; a white frost on the ground. 27. I observed an Arc of Cirro-stratus to extend across the Zenith in the direction of the wind. Snow fell during the night. Feb. 2. About 9 P. M. I observed a Lunar Halo. I took the diameter of its area with a quadrant, which was about 40°. 3. Showery morning; towards evening I observed red-coloured Cirro-strati in an apparently calm region; while Fleecy-cumuli Bloated beneath them in the wind. The Cirro-strati refracted a fine red tint, while the Cumuli, passing under, and making the same angle with the Sun, appeared blackish. 4. White frost, succeeded by thaw. About 8 P. M. a Lunar Halo of about 400 diameter appeared for a few minutes during the passage of a Cirro-stratus before the Moon. 5. Sky variously spotted, streaked and freckled with Cirro-stratus in the morn 6. Temperature much increased. In the evening I observed a double Lunar 10. Frogs observed about. Thrush sings. 13. Hard shower of hai! about noon, 14. Great rise of Barometer. Clapton, Fev. 18, 1811, THOMAS FORSTER. Mr. Mr. URBAN, ENCOUR Nov. 13. NCOURAGED by the ready admission which you have given in your Magazine, to the account of various Public Schools and Institutions, I request a place for a short description of Repton Priory, and the School now founded on its site. (See Plate 1.) At so distant a period as the Saxon Heptarchy, Repton (or Reopandun as it was then called) is mentioned in the scanty Chronicles of the times, as we learn from the extracts preserved by Leland, and given in his Collectanea. It was not only the Palace of the Saxon Monarchs of Mercia, but the seat of a noble Monastery of religious men and women, before the year 660; of which Palace, or Monastery, considerable foundations are discoverable, both in the Priory and adjoining Church-yard, when any alterations have been made in the School buildings, or vaults been dug in the Church-yard. The Palace and Monastery being laid waste and destroyed by the Danes, the Priory was re-edified in the year 1172, by Matilda, widow of Ranulph, 2d Earl of Chester, and continued in a flourishing condition, till the Dissolution by Henry VIII. when it was found to be possessed of revenues to the amount of £167. 188. The site of the Priory, and its possessions in Repton, were granted to Thomas Thacker, esq. servant to Henry VIII. in whose family it continued till the year 1728, when, by the bequest of Miss Thacker, heiress to Gilbert Thacker, esq. the Priory estate in Repton was conveyed to the family of Burdett of Foremark, in which it still continues. Sir John Port, of Etwall, Knight of the Bath (so created at the Coronation of Edward VI.) who was possessed, by marriage and inheritance, of great property in the counties of Stafford, Derby, and Lancaster, having lost his two sons at an early age, and being minded to bestow some part of his estates in charitable found ations for the repose of his soul, in the year 1556 devised to his executors, Sir Thomas Giffard, Richard Harpur, esquire, and others, certain estates in the counties of Derby and Lancaster, for the foundation of an Hospital at Etwall, and a Free GramGENT. MAG. February, 1811. mar School at Repton. These institutions were accordingly established after his death, in the year 1557, and continued by Queen Mary's licence, under the direction of the Harpur family, till the year 1621; when, by an agreement between Sir John Harpur on the one part, and the Earl of Huntingdon, Lord Stanhope, and Sir Thomas Gerard, bart. on the other, the three several descendants of Sir John Port's three daughters, the superintendance, after the death of Sir John Harpur, was conveyed to the right heirs of the Founder. By the Petition of the coheirs, the Hospital and School, in the year 1621, were made a Body Corporate, by the style and title of "The Master of Etwall Hospital, the Schoolmaster of Repton, Ushers, Poor Men, and Poor Scholars;" and, in consequence of that settlement, the estates were conveyed by Sir John Harpur to the Corporation, and in that body are now vested. The foundation, from the improved state of its revenues, at present maintains a Master of the Hospital (in whom the power of receiving the rents, and paying the stipends, is vested), a Master of the School, two Ushers, 18 Poor Men in the Hospital, and 19 Poor Scholars at Repton. The entire superintendance of the School and Hospital is hereditary in the families of the Earls of Chesterfield and Moira, and Sir William Gerard, the representatives and coheirs of Sir J. Port's three daughters, who have the power of regulating the Corporation, and electing the Master of the Hospital, Schoolmaster, and Ushers; but a grant of a fourth turn with them in the appointment only of Poor Men, and Poor Scholars, was made by the Charter to the family of Harpur of Calke. The village of Repton is pleasantly situated in a valley, washed by a rapid trout-stream, that rises in the Pistern hills, about six miles distant Southward. At the Northern extremity of the village, on an elevation overlooking the adjacent country and river Trent, stands the Parish Church, of which a View is given in your vol. LXII. p. 409. Adjoining to the Church, stand the remains of the Priory, now converted into a Grammar School, and houses for Masters. The entrance from the village |