doubt more than double the quantity would be consumed, were it not for the monopoly of the East India Company. It has been demonstrated, that this enhances the price of tea threefold more here than its price at New York, in America, and at Hamburgh, in Germany; levying an annual tax on the people of this country, in addition to forcing them to consume a bad article when a good one might be procured, of two millions two hundred thousand pounds sterling. In Holland we know, from experience, that the tea is excellent; and at every tavern and public-house in that country, where carriages or track-boats are liable to stop, tea is kept always ready made. We believe, if the commodity were as cheap as it might be, this also would be the case in our country. It may, however, be thought, that it is good policy to lay restrictions on its use; and that no trouble ought to be spared, no expense grumbled at, and no measures be called obnoxious which have a tendency to discourage the use of foreign productions. We do not mean to enter into the consideration of this question; but we know that, under the influence of the ancient theories of political economy and of trade, the situation of this country, in the points we have mentioned, those of draw ing a portion of its subsistence and of the materials of its labour from foreign countries, would be spoken of as pregnant with misery and danger. Juster notions of the mutual relations of nations, and a conviction that the interest of the producer, as well as that of the consumer, would be equally injured by the suppression of foreign traffic, teach us not to regard this part of our situation as making us in any manner dependent on foreigners, more than they are on us; and that the interest of both would suffer by the cessation of this trade, is the best security either can have against the wanton and destructive ambition of the other. As these mutual commercial relations, or, if the reader will, mutual

dependencies of bodies of men politically grouped into nations, grow more extensive, the interest of all to maintain peace and good-will with one another becomes more apparent and binding; and, perhaps, we are indebted for much of the political hostility_which now exists between the French and English people, who by their proximity, and yet living in different climates, nature intended to be the best of friends, to those anti-commercial regulations, which, it is well known, have forbidden almost all trading intercourse betwixt them. The increased consumption or use of foreign products, seeing too that they must always be paid for by the products of our own industry, is therefore, politically speaking, only a security which the peaceable, industrious citizens of a community have, that their wealth and prosperity will not be checked by the wanton ambition and wars of their rulers. thought it right to couple the statement of the number of persons employed in the cotton trade with these few observations, that we might not beget any alarm in our readers for the continuance of that prosperity, on which the welfare of so many persons depends. We shall now proceed to the proper business of this Article, which is the first of a series of Articles, in which we intend to describe the growth and culture of this foreign plant, manufacturing, conveying, and selling which employs, perhaps, at least one million and a half of our people.

We

The cultivation of cotton is not confined to one country, but is pursued more or less in many parts of the world situated within thirty-five degrees of the equator. Beyond this latitude it would appear the cotton-tree cannot be successfully cultivated. The principal places, however, where it is cultivated are the East and West Indies, the southern states of the republic of North America, the islands in the Mediterranean, and the dominions of the Grand Signior. It may be of some satisfac

tion to the political part of our readers to know that cotton is produced by a considerable number of the colonies belonging to Great Britain. Great quantities are grown in our possessions in India; but owing to the great distance, only a small quantity is imported from thence into Britain. North America and the West India Islands supply about one third of our consumption, Brazil another third, the remaining third being supplied by other and different countries. There is little or no chance, therefore, of the supply from them all being interrupted at the same moment; and in either country where it is now produced, it might be cultivated to almost any extent, if the demand required it. The different sorts of cotton imported are, 1st. Smyrna wool, formerly the only cotton known in England, though now only met with in very small quantities. It is soft and silky in its appearance, but weak and short in its fibre ; not well fitted to undergo the fatigue of the manufacture, and producing cloth neither beautiful nor durable. 2d. West India cotton is in general coarse, long in the fibre, and well adapted for stout and coarse cloth, but not fit for light and fine goods. 3d. East India cotton is of various qualities; that known by the name of Bourbon is very superior, both for strength and fineness, and is the principal cotton used for yarn of the finest kinds. A coarser kind is imported, which is hardly capable of being spun. 4th. South American cotton is chiefly distinguished by the names of Pernambuco and Maranham, from the two districts of Brazil where it is chiefly cultivated. The latter of these is inferior, both in strength and cleanness, to the former, which is equal to any cotton imported. 5th. The Demerara, Berbice, and Surinam cottons resemble in general the West India cotton; though that imported from Demerara, on account of the attention paid by the Dutch to cleanse it, fetches a higher price than the others in the market. 6th. The cotton from

Georgia and South Carolina is of two kinds, called Sea Island and Bowed; the former being superior to any cotton known except the Bourbon, and the latter being even inferior to the West India cotton. This enumeration must satisfy our readers, we should suppose, that there is no danger of our supply of cotton being limited. In fact, the inhabitants of both the Brazils and of the southern states of the republic of America are in a great measure dependent for their supply of European commodities, without which life has for them little value, on the sale of their cotton in our markets; and for them to cut off our supply would be a greater injury to them than to us. We could get cotton elsewhere; but without they soid their produce, it would be as impossible for them to procure their supplies of other commodities as it lately was for our farmers to pay their rent, because they could not sell their produce.

It is rather a remarkable circumstance in the history of cotton, although it was known from the earliest ages, that it has only come extensively into use in Europe within the last fifty years. In the year 1765, cotton, as an article of commerce, was scarcely known in this country. In 1767, Richard Hargreaves invented the Jenny; and from that time to the present, the increase in the manufacture of cotton in this country has been rapid beyond example. This is one of those circumstances which deserves to be borne in mind, as showing the connexion which exists between the various arts and manufactures. Moreover, it may serve to teach us confidence in the order of nature, and justify a hope that, however difficult the situation of mankind may appear; however limited in space, or checked in their progress of prosperity or happiness, there are always resources in store, which are opened up at the time of the greatest need, and just as the current scems about to stagnate, another flood of human prosperity and improvement sets in. By the mechanical inventions

of Britons, of which the spinning Jenny was, in this particular pranch, one of the first, cotton came of a sudden to form, perhaps, a half of the clothing of all the people of Europe. Not only by this was Great Britain enriched, and enabled to nourish a continual increase of people, which, without this, must have been still more checked, producing, in an increased degree, all those miseries by which population is kept under in all countries; but foreign lands, ⚫ which would have remained sterile and unprofitable, came into useful employment, and a great increase also took place in the number of people who cultivate cotton. The fields of Europe, which must otherwise have been employed to provide clothing for its people, were appropriated to the cultivation of food. As it increases in population, this effect will be carried to a greater extent; and it may be asserted, though Richard Hargreaves could foresee none of the consequences of his invention, that it has already contributed perhaps to double the population of our own country, and will contribute to multiply the population of the whole world. As two heads are wiser than one, and as it is an established fact, that as men multiply so they increase in know

ledge, it would therefore appear, that the invention of an illiterate man, who lived in obscurity and died in poverty, suggested also, it is said, by an accident, and named, apparently in ridicule, a Jenny, has been a cause of improvements too great for au individual to calculate.

(To be continued.)

TO CORRESPONDENTS. G.S..ll will readily believe that we did not cease to give an outline of Mr. Phillips's Lectures, which was begun, supposing they would be of interest to many of our readers, and of which he requests the amplified continuance, without good reason. The fact is, that Mr. Phillips's Lectures at the Mechanics' Institution being gratuitous, and he having expressed to the Editor his wish not to have them noticed, as he intended to publish them himself, we felt ourselves bound instantly to accede to his wish.

A constant Reader, F. E., will find what he requires in our next.

The communications sent by A Chemist are in the hands of the Printer and Engraver; and if one of them does not appear in the present Number, it will be owing to the Plate not being prepared. His other communication in No. XI.

ANALYSIS OF FULMINAT

ING SILVER.

(Continued from p. 155.)

THE two chemists whose paper we are now translating, found by their analyses, that fulminating silver does not contain oxygen enough to convert all its carbon into carbonic acid; but they found it difficult to ascertain what quantity more would be required. They endeavoured to obtain the products which result from detonating fulminating silver, and made some experiments for this purpose; but there was so much danger in this mode of operating, the vessels bursting with the smallest quantity of fulminating silver, that they were obliged to desist. They found it easy, however, to determine the products of its decomposition, by mixing it with substances which did not supply it with oxygen. At first, glass reduced to an impalpable powder was employed; but detonation was the consequence, and they were obliged to desist. Chloride of potassium and sulphat of potass were then alternately employed; and the decomposition effected with them confirmed the opinion previously formed, that there was no hydrogen in fulminating silver.

As the fulminating silver gave two different portions of gases, one with the oxide of copper, and the other with the sulphat of potass, another experiment was undertaken to ascertain the nature of each. To obtain the first portions of the gas pure, a vacuum was produced in the apparatus. To the tube containing the mixture, a brass tube, c, Fig. 1, was adapted, and it was connected with a glass tube, dh, to receive the gases, which was somewhat more than a yard long, and plunged into a mercurial trough, m. Towards the middle of the brass tube there rose another at right angles, e, having a stopcock, and communicating with a pneumatic machine, p, by means of a leaden pipe, i. In producing a vacuum in the apparatus, the mercury could not rise above h, about

equal to 29 inches, and then turning the stop-cock, all communication between the air-pump and the apparatus is cut off. By making use of this contrivance, it was found that the gas produced during the decomposition of the fulminating silver with sulphat of potass, consisted of two parts in volume of carbonic acid gas and one of azot; and that obtained by distilling the remainder with the oxide of copper, contained 100 parts of the former gas, and 37.4 of the second.

As the result of all their experiments, these chemists state it as their opinion, that all the fulminates are sub-salts, the acid of which does not contain any metal as essential to its composition, and is composed of oxygen and cyanogen. The fulminating principle, therefore, common to the fulminates of all the metals, is composed of oxygen and cyanogen, or rather of oxygen, carbon, and azot. The fulminates are all supposed to form a particular species of salts, the acid in which is the cyanic.

These chemists then made some attempts to form fulminates of the other metals; and they treated copper in the same manner as silver or mercury. They did not succeed, however, in forming fulminating copper; but in saturating the acid liquid with potass, a precipitate was formed of a beautiful green, which did not detonate, and which is completely dissolved in an excess of acid, the solution taking a blue colour, like a solution of copper in ammonia. This proves that the oxide of copper is combined with some particular substance. These chemists were unsuccessful in their endeavours to obtain the fulminating acid separate from the base, though they found that the hydrochloric, hydroiodic, and hydrosulphuric acids decomposed fulminating silver at the common temperature of the atmosphere. With hydrochloric acid much hydrocyanic acid was disengaged, and a peculiar acid formed, containing chlorine, carbon, and azot. This acid was obtained