Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

No. III. Abstract of the Prices of the different STOCKS fince the Year 1730.

Some account of the origin of the different kinds of Stocks here mentioned, viz. India Stock, Bank Stock, S. S. Stock, S. S. Annuities, and 3 per Cents, might have been given, as it would have proved agreeable to many readers.

• No. IV. An Antidote to Defpondency; or, progressive Affertions from refpectable Authority, tending to prove that the Nation was actually undone, prior to the Revolution in 1688; and that it has remained in a State of Ruin and Decay ever fince that memorable Era.'

That the gift of prophecy hath long fince ceafed, we have here very abundant proofs; for though many respectable authors have laid claim to it, on the fubject of national debt, experience hath long falfified their predictions. Yet, in fpite of this experience, they still continue to predict as before. Sir John thinks it is now time to examine the foundation of the doctrines which have given rise to these gloomy notions; and we are of the fame opinion.

No. V. State of the Public Income and Expenditure during the reign of King William.'

This is by far the most curious and interefting paper in this Appendix; and the author exhibits it as a model, to be copied by Minifters, for giving a clear notion of the progreffive state of the income and expenditure of the kingdom. The whole is comprised in eight pages, and is clear and fatisfactory. We are forry our limits forbid us to lay it before our readers; but we fhall give the general Abstract of it:

A General

A General Abstract of the Receipts and ffues of the Public Revenue, Taxes, and Loans, during the Reign of King William, from the 5th of November 1688 to the 25th March 1702.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

The lant claufe of this article feems not to be very intelligible.

[blocks in formation]

VII. Promifcuous taxes

VIII. Divers receipts
Of the general amount of money borrowed and
repaid within the time of this account, in
several years, the money borrowed exceed-
ing the money repaid in those years refpec-
tively the fum of £13,348,680 5: 101,
though in the other years the money repaid
exceeded the money borrowed in thefe years
refpectively the fum of £3,341,903 881
as per contra, which reduced the net money
more than repaid during the whole time of
this account to 10,006,770: 17:1

[ocr errors]

There remained on the 5th Nov, 1688, in the
Exchequer, in the hands of the feveral Recre
Error in the preceding account

[ocr errors]

2,557,649 7 74
7,531,305 18 11
480,915

2 2

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Sir John concludes this Appendix with the following remark,

and note of information:

The receipts and iffues thus exactly balance each other, and it is remarkable to find in a matter of fuch magnitude the error of a fingle farthing specially taken notice of, a full proof of the care and accuracy with which the public accounts were kept, for some time pofterior to the revolution. How far the fame attention has been paid to them in latter times, and whether fimilar abstracts of them are still regularly drawn up, is more than the author has yet been able to difcover, however anxious he has been to obtain information upon the fubject.'

And he immediately fubjoins in a note:

I have been fortunate enough to procure (after fo curious and important a manufcript had been loft, by the perfon to whom it was entrusted) an account of receipts and iffues up to the 27th of March 1714. Since that period, the votes of parliament and the ftate of public fervices and grants annually laid before the House of Commons, are the principal fources of information to which the author has had access. They are far, however, from being fo complete, as an accurate inveftigation of the fubject would require, and in particular the fums annually paid to the public creditors, and the nature of the Civil Lift expenditure, are left totally uncertain or indefinite.'

We cannot help once more regretting, that when a gentleman of fuch abilities is willing to beftow his attention and labour in collecting and arranging materials for public information, concerning a fubject of fuch great national importance, he should be debarred, by any means, from having access to those repofitories where authentic information may be obtained.

ART. IV. Aftronomical and Geographical Effays: containing, I. A comprehenfive View of the General Principles of Aftronomy. II. The Ufe of the Globes. III. The Defcription and Use of the Armillary Sphere, Planetarium, &c. IV. An Introduction to the Practice of Aftronomy, or the Ufe of the Quadrant and Equatorial. By George Adams, Mathematical Inftrument Maker to his Majefty. 8vo. pp. 665. and 22 Copper-plates. 10s. 6d. Boards. Sold by the Author, No. 60, Fleet-freet. 1789.

latę Mr. Adams's treatife on the globes being out of

THE print, his fon, the author of thefe Effays, was impor

tuned by his learned friends to reprint it. With this intention, he began to revife his father's work, to arrange the problems in a more methodical manner, and make fuch additions as the advanced ftate of the fcience feemed to require. Profecuting this defign, he foon found that it was eafy to render it fubfervient to his plan of publishing, from time to time, Effays, defcribing the ufe of mathematical and philofophical inftruments; efpecially when it is confidered that the defcription of those inftruments, which have been contrived to fmooth the path to the science of astronomy,

9

aftronomy, or to facilitate the practice of the arts depending on it, could be no where introduced with more propriety, than in an elementary treatife on the fubject.

Such is the fubftance of the account which Mr. Adams gives, in the preface, of his defign in the prefent publication; the contents of which are as follow:

The firft Effay is an Introduction to Aftronomy; and is divided into three parts. In the firft, the author fuppofes the pupil placed at the fun, the centre of the folar fyftem. From this fituation, be confiders the appearance of the heavens, and the motions of the planets. The fixed ftars are defcribed, with a fhort hiftory of the feveral catalogues of them that have been made, from the time of Hipparchus, who firft dared, as Pliny expreffes it, to undertake a tafk, that feemed to furpafs the power of a divinity; viz. to number the ftars for pofterity, and to reduce them into order.' His catalogue, as adopted by Ptolemy, contained only 1026 ftars; fince that time, the lift has been confiderably augmented, and is daily receiving fresh increafe by the improvement of telescopes. Dr. Herschel, under whofe eye, M. de la Lande fays, "the univerfe increases," has enumerated 44 thousand, in the space of a few degrees; and by analogy, there appears to be 75 millions in the heavens. If they fill infinite space, their number muft, confequently, be infinite.

The phænomena of the beavens, as feen from the earth, are confidered in the second part of the first Effay. These phænomena are the facts which lay the foundation of all aftronomical knowlege; to account for, and explain them, is its principal bufinefs; and with this view, Mr. Adams treats of the apparent motion of the fun, the moon, the ftars, and the planets; and a complete defcription of the Copernican fyftem forms the subject of the laft part of this introductory Effay.

The fecond Eflay is a treatife on the ufe of the terreftrial and celeftial globes. Mr. Adams firft enumerates the advantages which globes poffefs, for illuftrating the first principles of astronomy and geography, in preference to maps or fpherical projections on plane furfaces. The nature of thefe projections is indeed extremely fimple, fince they are nothing more than the fhadows of the circles of the globe received on a given plane, the light being placed in a given point; but it requires more geometry than is generally poffeffed by beginners, either to demonftrate the principles of the projection, or to comprehend the properties of the projected circles. The globe, on the contrary, exhibits every thing in true pofition and figure, and leaves nothing to be fupplied by the imagination of the ftudent; fhewing, on the most curfory infpection, the relative fituation of all parts of the sphere, and the various interfections of thofe artificial

circles

circles employed by aftronomers and geographers for the more eafy folution of problems. In this part of the work, Mr. Adams points out the pre-eminence of globes mounted in his new and accurate manner, over the common, or rather the old and Ptolemaic mode of fitting them up. They are, doubtless, in many refpects, fuperior; and confidering the ready ideas which they communicate to the pupil (by that means leffening the labour of the tutor), the difference in price cannot, with propriety, be objected to; though Mr. Adams fufpects that it may be an obftacle to their being univerfally adopted. The price of the globes of 18 inches, mounted in the beft manner, with ftained frames, is ten guineas, and of thofe of 12 inches, five and an half; with mahogany frames, they are fomewhat dearer; but to accommodate different purchafers, they are of the feveral fizes from 28 to 3 inches, and from the price of 50l. to a guinea and a half; befide various fizes mounted in the old way.

The remainder of the Effay is employed with a description of the globes, and the method of folving, by their means, problems illuftrating principles, explaining the apparent planetary motions, &c. The problems are well felected and judiciously arranged; and the directions for folving them are fo plain and easy, that the ftudent will feldom want the affiftance of his tutor.

The third Effay contains the defcription of feveral inftruments, which are defigned to illuftrate the general principles of aftronomy. They confift of planetaria, armillary spheres, &c. As an abridgment of this effay would be totally unintelligible without the figures, we fhall therefore only add, that the inftruments are founded on true principles, difplay great mechanical invention, and are fubfervient to illuftrate the phænomena and explain the motions of the heavenly bodies; fo as to exhibit, in a fatisfactory manner, the causes of all the appearances, as far as thefe caufes depend on the motions and relative fituations of the bodies which compofe the Copernican fyftem.

No part of mathematical fcience is more apt to furprise the generality of mankind, than the measurement of the relative pofitions and diftances of inacceffible objects. To determine the diftance of a ship feen on a remote part of the unvaried furface of the ocean, to ascertain the height of the clouds and meteors which float in the atmosphere, and to fhew with certainty the wonderful dimenfions and diftances of the fun and other bodies, apparently gliding on the fame vifible canopy, are among thofe problems, which, to the vulgar, feem beyond the reach of human art; they are, nevertheless, truly refolved by means of inftruments conftructed on mathematical principles. The chief of thefe inftruments are the quadrant and the equatorial, which, with confiderable improvements, are fully defcribed in the fourth Ellay. To render the defcriptions of thefe inftruments the

more

« FöregåendeFortsätt »