the spirits of virtuous Welchmen made perfect are transplanted thither in the shape of mites! Blackstone's was the age of shallow law. Monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, as such, exclude each the other; but if the elements are to interpenetrate, how absurd to call a lump of sugar hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon! -nay, to take three lumps, and call the first hydrogen, the second oxygen, and the third carbon! Ibid., p. 8. The real government of this country unquestionably is, or has been, a commixture or combination of the three elements of the constitution in the Commons' House of Parliament, as the arena of Government. Never! at no period. Ibid., p. 9. To contrast them with the instances in which the forms of the accredited constitution have been scrupulously preserved. More truly, nonsensically blaired. Ibid., p. 11. We shall be told, in the language of Paley, that the balance of power in the constitution consists in this: that there is no power possessed by one part of the legislature, the abuse or excess of which is not checked by some antagonist power residing in another part; and that the power of the two Houses of Parliament to frame laws is checked by the King's negative; and yet we should find so accomplished a constitutional writer as Mr. Hallam, describing that exercise of prerogative as one "which no ordinary circumstances can reconcile either with prudence or with a constitutional administration of government."-Hallam's Constit. Hist., iii. 202. Nevertheless the royal veto is and remains an essential part of the constitution. That, in the spirit of compromise, characteristic of England, it acts virtually and by prevention, does not evacuate the power itself. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. NOTES ON A NEW METHOD OF CHEMISTRY.* Page 43. Note. Bidding him, therefore, take a piece of a leaden spout fastened to the wall of the room, and melt it, the chemist threw in a little yellow powder; then pouring the whole upon the ground, the lead was all gold. What became of this gold? Did the gold weigh six drachms? Was it assayed? It is verily a lame testimony. Had Frederick III. no political design. in spreading the belief of the chryso-poietic powers? Ibid., p. 56. O Gold. > Silver. Copper. Iron, &c. &c. Platinum might be marked ♂ Gold + Iron, or rather Gold + (+ Iron); i. e., Iron acting positively, where(Iron) would signify, Iron acting privatively, by diminution of specific gravity. * A New Method of Chemistry; including the Theory and Practice of that Art. By H. Boerhäave. Translated from the printed Edition, collated with the best Manuscript Copies. By P. Shaw, M.D., and E. Chambers, gent. 4to. London. 1727. |