Volney's Statistical Queries. 92 regretted, that a more active conduct has not long ago produced fome effects; but unhappily our waftes are ftill in their defolate condition. Upon cultivation de pends (in my opinion, in a very high degree) power, wealth, and national influence---I hope that fomething will be effected. Some degrees of wildnefs and imprudence had better far be the contequence, than to continue for another century fleeping, and dully fluggardized in that difinal torpor which can never produce ought that is valuable. In a wealthy, refined, and polished age, activity ought to be the characteristic of the nation.---Animated endeavours are an honour to any age---Sleep, therefore, no more over your moors, your downs, and forefts; but exert the fame spirit of improvement, oh, ye great! which every other branch of political economy enjoys fo diftinguished a degree.---This is the rty with of a man, who remains, dear Your fincere well-wisher, 14. What are the qualities of each wind? are they dry or rainy; warm or cold; violent or moderate? 15. In what month does moft rain fall? 16. How many inches fall in a year? 17. Are there any fogs? and at what feafon ? 18. Are there any dews? where and when, and at what time are they greatest ? 19. Do the fhowers fall gently, or are they fevere ? 20. Are there any fnows, and how long do they endure? 21. Are there any hail-ftorms, and at what feafon ? 22. What winds bring fnow and hail along with them? 23. Is there any thunder? when, and what wind reigns at that period? 24. In what direction is it ufually diffipated ? 25. Are there any hurricanes? what wiad prevails antecedently? 26. Any earthquakes? at what fea fon? what are the prefages? do they fucceed rains? 27. Are there any tides? what height do they reach? what winds accompany them? 28. Are there any phenomena peculiar to the country? 29. Has the climate experienced any known changes? and what? 30. Has the fea rifen or fallen ? te what extent? and when? ART. III. STATE of the SOIL. 31. Does the country confift of plains or mountains? and what is their cleva tion above the level of the fea? forefts, or is it naked and uncloathed ? 32. Is the land covered with trees and 33. What are the marshes, lakes, and rivers? 34. Is it poffible to calculate the number of fquare leagues in mountains, marshes, lakes, and rivers? 35. Are there any volcanoes? and are they burning or extinguished? 36. Are there any coal-mines? ART. IV. NATURAL PRODUCTS. 37. What is the quality of the foil? is it argillaceous, calcareous, toney, fandy, &c.? filled are thofe neareft the there, or in other then that the fame law ought to prevail in words, nearest the winds. It would feem the fea breezes (la bife de mer) but it is other wife, for the former rule takes place there alfo. It would be defirable to know, what particular winds produce thefe different ef fects. 38. What Volney's Statistical Queries. 18. What are the mines and metals? 39. What are the falts and falt-pits (falines)? 40. What is the difpofition and inclination of the different ftrata found in wells and caverns? 41. What are the most common vegetables, trees, shrubs, plants, grains, &c.? 42. What are the most common animals, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, insects, and reptiles? 43. Which of these are peculiar to the country? 44. What are the weights and fizes of thefe, compared with ours? SECT. II. Political State. ART. I. POPULATION. 45. What is the physical conftitution of the inhabitants of the country? their nfual height? are they fat or lean? 46. What complexion are they of? and what is the colour of their hair? 47. What is their food, and how much do they eat daily? 48. What is their beverage? are they given to intoxication? 49. What are their occupations are they labourers, or vine-dreffers, or fhepherds, or feamen, or do they inhabit towns? 50 What are their accidental or habitual maladies? 51. What are their characteristic moral qualities? are they lively or dull, witty or phlegmatic? filent or garrulous? 52. What is the total mass of popula tion? 53. What is that of the towns, compared with that of the country? $4. Do the inhabitants of the country live in villages, or are they difpersed in feparate farms? 55. What is the ftate of the roads in fummer and winter? ART. II. AGRICULTURE. N. B. The methods of agriculture being different, according to the different districts, the best way of becoming acquainted with this fubject, is to analyze two or three villages of different kinds; for example, a village in a plain, another on a mountain; one where the vine is cultivated, and another where farming alone is practifed. In each of thefe villages a farm fhould be completely analyzed. 56. In any given village, what may be the amount of the inhabitants, men, women, old men, and children? 57. What are their respective occupations? 58. What quantity of land is culti rated by the village? 93 59. What are their measures of length and capacity, compared with ours? 60. What is the price of neceffaries, compared with that of labour? 61. Are they labourers, proprietors, ar farmers? do they pay in money or kind? 62. How long do their leafes run, and what are the principal claufes in them? 63. How many farms are there, dependent on each village? 64. What is the proportion between the good and bad land? 65. Which are the best cultivated, large or fmall farms? 66. Do the farms confift of home or outlying grounds? 67. Are the fields enclosed? and in what manner? what do they produce? 68. Are there any commons? and 69. Is there any right of paffage through private property? tails of a farm, you are to enquire, Having determined refpecting the de 70. The number of labourers, the mode in which they are lodged, the quantity of land and animals? 71. What is the rotation of crops? 72. How many years in fucceffion are the lands cultivated, and what fallow are they allowed? 73. What grains are fown yearly? and what quantity is allowed to an acre? 74. What are the periods for fowing and reaping? 75. What is the difference between the produce and the expences of every year? 76. What is the quantity of land in natural and artificial graffes? 77. What quantity of land is requifite for the feeding a cow, ox, mule, horse, theep, &c.? How much does each cofume in a day? 78. What are the animals used n agriculture? how are they harnessed ? 79. What are the inftruments of tillage? 80. What is the rent of the farm, compared with its eftimated produce? 81. What is the intereft of money? 82. How are the husbandmen fed? the amount per annum? and the value of the stock? 83. What is the weight of a fleece, and of the meat under it? 84. What profit is fuppofed to accrue from a sheep? and also from an ewe? 85. What kind of manure is used? 86. How does the family employ itself in the evenings? and what fpecies of industry does it practise ? $7. What 87. What is the difference obfervable between the manners and the improvement of a village where vines are cultivated, and one that produces corn? between a mountain village, and one seated in a plain? 88. In what manner is the vine cultivated? 89. What are the different kinds of wines? how are they kept? what the quality? the fpecies of grape? the produce of an acre? the price of any given quantity? 90. What are the trees cultivated? olives, mulberries, elms, chefnut, &c.? What are the particular modes of rearing them? What is the average produce of each? and of an acre? 91. What are the other products of the country, either in cotton, indigo, coffee, fugar, tobacco, &c. and the methods used in cultivating them? 92. What new and useful article can be introduced? ART. III. INDUSTRY. 93. What are the arts most practifed in the country? 94. Which of these are the most lucrative? 95. What is remarkable in each, on the score either of economy or effect? 96. What arts and manufactures are moft cultivated? 97. Can any others be introduced? and which? 98. Are there any mines? of what kind? how are they worked, especially those of iron? ART. IV. COMMERCE. 99. What are the articles imported and exported? roo. What is the balance of trade? 101. What kind of carriages are used for the tranfit of goods? are there any waggons of what kind are they? how much do they carry? 102. What weight can a horfe, mule, afs, or camel carry? 103. What is the rate of carriage? 104. Of what kind is the internal and external navigation? 105. What are the navigable rivers? are there any canals? can any be cut? .106. What is the ftate of the coaft in general? is it high or low? does the fea encroach on, or leave it? 107. What are the ports, havens, and bays? 108. Is the exportation of grain permitted or denied? 109. What is the intereft of money among commercial men? ART. V. GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION. 110. What is the form of the govern ment? 111. What is the diftribution of pow ers, administrative, civil, and judicial? 112. What are the impofts? 113. How are they laid on, affeffed, and received? 114. What is the expence of the receipt? 115. What is the proportion between the taxes and the revenue of the contributors? 116. What is the amount of the impofts of a village, in comparifon with its revenue? 117. Is there a clear and precise code of civil laws, or only of customs and ufages? 118. Are there many lawsuits? 119. What is the principal cause of contention in the towns and country? 120. How is the right of property verified? are the title-deeds in the verna cular tongue, and are they easily read? 121. Are there many lawyers? 122. Do the fuitors plead in perfon? 123. By whom are the judges nominated and paid? are they appointed for life? 124. What is the order obferved in refpect to fucceffions and inheritances? 125. Is the claim of primogeniture allowed? are there any fubftitutions and testaments? 126. Do the children all inherit aliké any kind of property whatever? what is the refult in the country? 127. Is there any property in mortmain; any legacies left to the church; any foundations? 128. What authority do the parents exercife over their children? and hufbands over their wives? 129. Are the women very luxurious? in what does their luxury confift? 130. What is the education bestowed on the children? what books do they learn? 131. Are there any printing-offices, newspapers, libraries? 132. Do the citizens affemble for converfation and reading ? 133. Is there a great circulation of perfons and commodities in the country? 134. Are there any post-houses and post-horses? 135. What, in fhort, are the establishments, no matter of what kind, peculiar to the country, which merit obfervation on account of their utility? HAV Charge of Plagiarism against Mr. Leflie Confidered. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, B----d, 16th Jan. 1798. AVING confidered the artless charge of plagiarifm, by Mr. W. A. of Newcastle, against Mr. JOHN LESLIE, and the attempt of defence of Mr. LESLIE by the ingenious Mr. JOHN PLAYFAIR, Profeffor of Mathematics in the College of Edinburgh, I must be of opinion, that the charge has not been removed by Mr. PLAYFAIR: and, I believe, few of your readers will entertain a different opinion on the subject, though it should turn out, perhaps, that the plagiarifin originated not from the celebrated M. EULER, but from Mr. VILANT, Profeffor of Mathematics in the Univerfity of St. Andrews'. And Mr. LESLIE's fame would not furely have fuffered any diminution, by a candid and honeft acknowledgement of the fource of his first lights on the fubject. According to information, at different times, from students at the College of Edinburgh, Mr. PLAYFAIR recommend ed always Mr. VILANT's Analysis to his ftudents, when on algebra. Mr. PLAY FAIR, therefore, cannot be fuppofed to be unacquainted with the 19th propofition and corollaries of the Analyfis, where the very method feized on by Mr. LESLIE, is given and applied to many examples of indeterminate equations, and of commenfurate affected equations of different degrees, &c. Mr. PLAYFAIR may not, perhaps, know that the refolution of indeterminate and affected equations, &c. according to this propofition and corollaries, had always been given very fully from the year 1765, in the fecond mathematical clafs, St. Andrews; as I learned from notes I took in this clafs in the year 1779, when I attended the fame, along with Mr. JOHN LESLIE, whofe attention I called in a particular manner to indeterminate equations, when the fame was entered upon: and which notes I copied from a memorandum book in Mr. VILANT's writing, containing rules and examples for all equations, approximations, logarithms, &c. and dated at the beginning with the year 1765. If, therefore, Mr. LESLIE had pretended only to fome little attempt at improvement in point of form, he would not have expofed himself fo plainly to a charge of plagiarifm: and if Mr. PLAYFAIR'S memory had not failed him fo completely, and if he had not been impofed on by his more artful newly acquired difciple, common candour would not have allowed him to commit himself fo far, as to fpeak of 95 Mr. LESLIE as an inventor. What Mr.. PLAYFAIR has ftated about putting M. EULER'S Algebra at first into Mr. LES. LIE's hands, requires fome explanation. Upon Mr. LESLIE's leaving St. Andrew's, in 1782 or 1783, he carried with him fome examples of indeterminate equations, &c. as there refolved, and thewed the fame to Mr. PLAYFAIR; and it was then, and then only, that Mr. PLAYFAIR first put into his hands the algebra of the celebrated EULER, and the first copy, probably, of that work imported into Scotland; a point of time this, long prior to that of drawing up the paper in the Edinburgh Philofophical Tranfactions," so juftly animadverted on by your correfpondent Mr. W. A. of Newcastle. And though the method in the Analyfis be general for every species of indeterminate equations, &c. and for all equations that may by fubftitutions be brought or reduced to the form prefcribed; as no examples of indeterminate equations inVolving rational fquares, cubes, &c. are there given, this fmall treatife being but an abridgement of part of a comprehenfive Syftem of the Elements of Mathematical Analyfis, fome merit, it may be faid, is due to Mr. LESLIE, for giving examples of thofe indeterminate equations; and this would be granted, as here ftated, if the celebrated EULER, by preoccuping the ground, had not, as already mentioned, cut off Mr. LESLIE from every pretence to originality, even in this of adding to the examples. But too much, perhaps, has been faid on a fubject, fo eafy and obvious in its principles and application, as can attach but little merit to the difcuffion thereof. And if Mr. PLAYFAIR had not been induced to come forward rather incautiously, and with more appearance of oftentation, &c. than is natural to his character and difpofitions; and, if gratitude to an old master, who, with too much art and too little candour, has been kept entirely out of view by Mr. LESLIE, had not roufed my feelings, &c. your correfpondent Mr. W. A. of Newcaffle, as fully able, would have been left to fubftantiate his charge completely on the part of Mr. EULER, without any interference, from, Sir, Your very humble fervant, BENONI: P. S. It fhould be obferved, that at St. Andrew's, indeterminate equations were refolved two ways. (1.) By converting the the equations into analogies. (2.) By expreffing both fides as fractions, as in the Analyfis: and that, as easy and plain examples were given, fo, for complex cafes, particular reference was made to De Moivre and Dodson, and perhaps to other authors. It should also have been stated, when Mr. LESLIE announced to Mr. PLAYFAIR the discovery of his method of refolving indeterminate equations, that reference was immediately made by a gentleman prefent, to the Analyfis, 19th propofition; True, that's true, fays Mr. PLAYFAIR, recollecting himself; but Mr LESLIE rejoining, he never faw the book! nothing more was then said on the Analyfis. B. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, UNDER NDERSTANDING from your notice in laft Month's Magazine, that it is your intention to prefent your readers with periodical accounts of the State of Literature, &c. in Spain; and conceiving that any communication relative to the manners of that country, cannot fail of proving interefting and acceptable, I am induced to tranfmit you the following extracts from "Langle's Travels in Spain," of which a fifth edition has very lately appeared in Paris, in 270 pages octavo, embellifhed with feveral engravings, &c. Speaking of the profound homage and veneration which the Spaniards are accuftomed to pay to the Virgin Mary, the ingenious author obferves: "Not a fingle ftreet or houfe is to be found in all Madrid, which is not decorated with a portrait or buft of the Bleffed Virgin. Incredible is the annual confumption of flowers made ufe of in Spain for crowning the Virgin's image; incre dible the number of hands which are con ftantly employed from morning till night in dreffing her 'caps, turning her petticoats, and embroidering her ruffles. Every Spaniard regards the Virgin in the light of his friend, his confidante, his mistress, whofe whole attention is directed to himfelf, and who is perpetually watching over his happiness. Hence the name of Mary hangs inceffantly upon his lips, nixes in all his compliments, and forms a part of all his wifhes. In fpeaking, in writing, his appeal is always to the Virgin, who is the guarantee of all his pro The first edition of this work, publifhed in 1785, was, in purfuance of a parliamentary decree, publickly burnt in Paris by the hands of the common hangman. mifes; the witnefs of all his tranfactions. It is in the name of the holy Bleffed Virgin, that the ladies intrigue with their gal lants, write billets-doux, fend their portraits, and appoint nocturnal affignations. The Spanish wool is univerfally acknowledged to be incomparably fuperior to any in Europe. But this wool is not of equal quality in every province of the kingdom; there are various forts, which are diftinguished by the names of the different manufactories. The firft in repute is that known by the denomination of the Segovies Léonèfes; to this clafs belongs the ' wool which bears the name of l'Infantado de l'Afturie, that of the Trois Convents de l'Efcurial, of Don Bernardin Sanchez, and of Don Jofeph de Vittoria. On an average, the Spaniards vend annually about 4000 arobes of wool, each arobe weighing 25 pounds. Next to the Léonefe, the Segovian, stands in highest repute. This is not quite fo fine as the former, and bears a variety of names, according to the diftricts and mamufactories where it is prepared. The finest of this fort is called les Cavelieres. The provinces which produce the best and fuperior fort of wool are, Arragon and Valencia, Upper and Lower Andalufia, Caftile and Navarre. It is a common prejudice, that the fineness and incomparable whiteness of the Spanish wool are the refult of the climate; but this is an absolute error; the true caufe of the perfection of the Spanish wool is to be found in the manner in which the Spaniards rear their theep. The other nations of Europe have cultivated all the arts and fciences with fuccefs, except the art of rearing sheepthe Spaniards, on the contrary, have neglected almost every branch of science except this art. In Spain are still to be found veftiges of that fimple, paftoral life, which, in the earlier ages of the world, was deemed fo honourable, and which rendered those who devoted themfelves to the rearing of sheep, fo fuperlatively happy. The Spaniards pay little or no regard to the wife precept of Mofes, to refrain from burying their dead for the space of three days. In Madrid, Valladolid, Salamanca, and, indeed, in almost every part of Spain, it is dangerous to indulge too much a natural propenfity to long fleep; a perfon, who overileeps his cultomary hour, incurs the rifque of being interred alive. Among other inftances of culpable precipitation in this refpect, indeed it july deferves the name of homicide, the fate of a young, amiable, and uncommonly |