صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

ing the magnet to be possessed of only two poles, and the power to be as great as that of Mr. Sanderson's, yet it is possible that it might be so mounted as not to be sufficiently powerful to support a weight of one ounce; for if the armature were placed on the opposite sides of the equator instead of the axis, it would have no attractive power from such mounting, which I believe was the case with Mr. Sanderson's magnet in the first instance; for he observes that it did not cut fair to the poles by a compass, until the arms were bound to it by the copper-hoops, when no doubt they were placed at the poles of the loadstone. The poles of a natural magnet may be easily found, by presenting to the different parts of its surface a small artificial magnet, suspended by a string; that part which attracts the north pole of the artificial magnet will be the south pole of the loadstone, and consequently that part which attracts the south pole will be the contrary pole of the loadstone.

If it happen, from the irregular shape and unequal texture of the stone, that it has more than two poles, the strongest may easily be found by the above method; and the stone may sometimes be so cut as to form two or more maguets one of which is frequently found to possess greater power than before could be produced from the whole stone, which must be attributed to the heterogeneous nature of the original loadstone.

Sheffield, Jan. 20th, 1818.

Yours, &c.

A YORKSHIREMAN.

INFALLIBLE REMEDY FOR THE SMUT IN CORN.

གི༠༥༠་ལ་མ་༽༢༠༥༠་༠ཉིམ་

To the Editors of the Northern Star.

YOUR correspondent M., in the last number of your Star, has found the practice of simply washing his seed-corn to have considerable effect in preventing the infection of smut; what the nature of that disease may be, I cannot affirm, and it becomes of less consequence to investigate, since the remedy is fortunately discovered; if I mistake not, however, both he and the Mr. Greaves alluded to, have yet to learn that a solution of arsenic is an infallible preventative against this destructive disorder.

My method is, to collect as much old wash as will serve for wetting the whole of my seed for the season, to which I add at the rate of two ounces of arsenic to each gallon. It will be necessary to mix it at least three weeks before used, in order that the arsenic may be sufficiently dissolved. The vessel should be well shaken every day, and also at the time of being used. When mixed, the corn should be well turned about, that every grain may be properly wetted. After remaining on the floor half an hour, now add a little sound lime, dry earth, or fine coal-ashes to it, and let it be sown as soon as possible. I would here remark, that farmer's men frequently add too much lime, and neglect to sow it for some hours, from which irregularity it is suffered to heat, and spoil the seed; to avoid which, I prefer fine coal-ashes, since the addition of lime has no other ef

fect than to take up the wash and facilitate the sowing. The above method I have always found to answer the purpose of destroying smut, either in grain that is clean or infected. I have tried several experiments with smutted wheat, having sown a part of a field with seed properly dressed with the solution, and a part without any dressing, and have invariably found that part prepared to be quite clean, when one fifth or sixth of the other was smutted. As this simple but important fact appears to want more general circulation, you will doubtless give it what further publicity your Magazine may afford.

I take this opportunity of expressing a wish that your Numbers may become a respecta ble medium for information of every kind: as the only provincial production of the sort, and as rising within the precincts of my native county, you may always depend on the little interest which it is in my power to exert.

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

YOUR readers are greatly indebted to Euphrastus for his able illustratiou of the early History and Antiquities of Tickhill. From the number and the respectable character of the authorities referred to, it is evident that he either himself possesses, or has access to several of the most approved works of our best antiquarians. If, under these favourable circumstances, he could be induced to turn his attention to a similar elucidation of the ancient history and topography of Doncaster, he would find it to be a field worthy of his labours, and one, which would well repay the toil of investigation and research. The information collected by Miller, in his History of Doncaster, relative to its early state, is altogether insufficient, and scanty in the extreme. Indeed the subject, as far as I know, can scarcely as yet be said to have been attempted. My object, however, for troubling you on the present occasion, is to furnish you with some additional particulars in the life of Dr. Tong, which, if you think them worthy of a place in your Miscellany, may be considered as supplemental to the account already given of that gentleman in your Fifth number, page 325. The particulars are taken from an extract out of Wood's Athen. Oxon. which I find quoted in the CATHOLIC CHURCH HISTORY of EngLAND, from the year 1500 to 1688, vol. iii. page 272, printed at Brussels in the year 1737.

The father of Dr. Tong is there stated to have been minister of Holtby, in Yorkshire. His engagement as preacher and minister at Tickhill, may probably have been prior to his appointment to Holtby. His son Ezrael

Tong was sent to University college, Oxford, in the beginning of the year 1639; and upon the commencement of the rebellion, being puritanically inclined, he chose rather to leave college than stay with the other scholars, and bear arms for the King within the garrison of Oxford. Afterwards, on his submission to the visitors appointed by Parliament, he was constituted Fellow of his college. He presently vacated his Fellowship, holding it only one year, by marrying Jane Simson, daughter of one Dr. Simson, who held the living of Pluckley, in Kent, and which he resigned in favour of his son-in-law. He then took his degrees, says Wood, in this University. He did not continue long at Pluckley, which he resigned, being much vexed with factious parishioners and quakers. After his labours as a teacher, first at Durham, and afterwards at Islington, (vide No. 5, p. 324, of the Northern Star,) Dr. Tong having, says the historian of Oxford, a restless and freakish head, accompanied Colonel Harley to Dunkirk, where he remained in quality of chaplain till the sale of that town to France, by the needy and profligate Charles, in the year 1662. On his return to England, he was settled by his friend Colonel Hartley in the vicarage of Lentwarden, in Herefordshire. Disliking this preferment, he soon resigned it; and by the favour of Dr. Henchman, then bishop of London, succeeded in obtaining the cure of St. Mary Stayning, in London. His church was one of those which perished in the great fire in 1666. Being rendered destitute of subsistence by this calamity, he went out as chaplain to Tangiers, in Africa, then garrisoned by the English; there he remained till the church of St. Michael, in Wood-street, was re-built, and the parish of St. Mary united with it. Dr. Tong was then sent for home, and made rector of that church, which, with a lectureship, he kept, says Wood, to his dying day. In person, he describes him as having been cynical and hirsute.

The following are given as the works of this busy and extraordinary character:

1. A short Compendium of Grammar,

2. Observations concerning the Motion of Sap in Trees. No. 57. Phil. Transactions. 3. Inquiries relating to the Bleeding of Walnuts, No. 58. Phil. Trans.

4. A Letter on retarding the Ascent of Sap in Vegetables, No. 68. Phil. Trans.

5. The Royal Martyr, refused to be licensed by Sir Roger L'Estrange, 1678.

6. The Jesuit Unmasked, a seasonable Discourse at this time, 4to. 1678. 7. New Design of the Papists detected, London, 2 sheets, folio, 1679.

8. An Answer concerning the Earl of Danby being accused of the murder of Sir Edmonbury Godfrey, one sheet folio, 1679. Common fame gave it to Dr. Tong.

9. An account of the Romish Doctrine in case of Conspiracy and Religion, 4to. 1679. 10. The Jesuits' Assassins, or the Popish Plot further declared, &c. folio, 1680. 11. The Northern Star, or the British Monarchy, &c, being a collection of many choice ancient and modern prophecies. Wherein also the fates of the Roman, French, and Spanish Monarchies are occasionally set out, folio, 1680.

12. Chronicon, written by Dr. Edward Simson, (father-in-law of Dr. Tong,) published by Dr. Tong, folio, Ox. 1652.

13. Popish Mercy and Justice, a translation from the French, 4to. 1679.

14. Jesuitical Aphorisms, or an Account of the Doctrine of the Jesuits, a translation from the French, 4to. 1678.

15. The Jesuits' Morals, a translation from the French, folio, 1680.

16. Abridgment of Controversy, translated from the French of Charles Drelincourt. 17. Combat Romain, also from Drelincourt.

18. A Treatise of Alchimy, MSS. in two vols.

19. Several Theological Tracts, MSS.

Doncaster, Jan. 9, 1818.

P. I.

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SAMUEL DISNEY, LL.B. Late Vicar of Halstead, Essex, and formerly Curate of Ripley, Yorkshire.

[ocr errors]

TO preserve the character of a pious and virtuous man, to reverence his memory, and exhibit his excellences to posterity, as examples worthy of imitation, is a delightful and necessary employment; a source of pleasure no less than a point of duty. The superior efficacy of example compared with precept is universally acknowledged, and, if it be a duty incumbent on mankind to promote the interests of virtue and morality, it naturally follows that the exhibition of a character possessing the qualifications we are desirous to recommend, is the best method of accomplishing our intention.

Influenced by these considerations, we have been induced to select Mr. DISNEY as a judicious subject for memoir, his general character being universally acknowledged to be worthy the imitation not only of his brethren among the clergy, but of the world at large.

He was the only surviving son of the Rev. Samuel Disney,* of Wakefield, in this county, a clergyman of considerable talents and acquire

* The Rev. Samuel Disney was the fourth son of the Rev. John Disney, vicar of St.Mary's, Nottingham, and Mary daughter of WilliamWoolhouse, M.D. of North-Muskham in the county of Nottingham, and, in fine, sole heir of her brother. He was born at Lincoln, June 9, 1705, and educated at Brigg in Lincolnshire, under the Rev. Thos. Waterworth, master of the school there, and a gentleman of distinguished learning. Afterwards, he was admitted of Corpus Christi college in Cambridge, under the tuition of the Rev. Samuel Kerrich, and took the degree of B. A. 1727, and was ordained deacon at Peterborough, September 22, 1728, by Dr. White Kennet, then bishop of that diocese.

July 5, 1729, he was unanimously pre-elected fellow of Corpus Christi college, in the place of the Rev. Edmund Castle, public orator of the university, who had accepted of a living in the diocese of Ely. Which fellowship, becoming vacant November 15, he was on December 4, personally admitted by Dr. Mawson, master of the college. December 22, the same year, Mr. Disney was ordained priest, at Buckden, by Dr. Richard Reynolds, bishop of Lincoln, upon the title of his fellowship, when he returned to Nottingham to assist his father, then in a very declining state of health, and who died February 3, 1729-30.

In 1731, he proceeded M. A :--and on January 21, 1731-2, after a competition with the Rev. Lewis Fenton, was elected, by the company of Mercers in London, to the Lady Campden's Lectureship at Wakefield.

ments; concerning whom it is worthy of remark that, by his own desire, with the intention of removing a common prejudice, he was buried on the north-side of the church-yard, convinced that the position of the body after death has very little influence on the future condition of the soul.

Mr. Disney was born at Wakefield, January 5, 1738, six years after his father had been elected, by the company of Mercers in London, to the Lady Campden's lectureship in that town; but he sustained an irreparable misfortune in the loss of this excellent and affectionate parent during the earliest years of his infancy; and the superintendence of his education, during his youthful days, devolved upon his amiable mother. To her maternal care he was indebted for his early attachment to religion and morality, and, in a great measure, for that eminent degree of reputation as a scholar which he afterwards acquired. He always mentioned his mother in terms of the most devoted gratitude and sincere affection, and to the last day of his life retained a particular sense of the obligations he had received from her hands during the helpless years of childhood. "I cannot," says he, speaking of her in a letter to a friend, I cannot but mention her great kindness in sending me early to school; and a thousand other favours and compliances, which amply deserve this grateful recital, and any other return of acknowledgment I can make."

The foundation of his great classic acquirements was laid in the grammar-school of Bradford, in this county, which was at that time conducted by the Rev. Benjamin Butler, M. A.; in grateful testimony of whose careful attention, he afterwards promoted a subscription among his cotemporary scholars, and presented him with a silver cup, of the value of more than fifty pounds.*

He married in September, 1732, Margery, youngest daughter of Francis Procter, of Thorpe, near Wakefield, Esq., by whom he had four children; three of them died in their infancy; Samuel, his second son, only surviving him. He died at Wakefield, July 22, 1741. Over his grave was erected a tomb with the following inscription:"Here lies the body of the truly pious and worthy, the Rev. Samuel Disney, who departed this life, (in hopes of a blessed resurrection through the merits of Christ,) the 22d day of July, A. D. 1741, universally and deservedly lamented. What he was, the last day will show, when every private virtue will receive a public reward.-Aged 36 years."

* This handsome present bore the following inscription :

BENJAMINI BUTLER, A. M.

APUD BRADFORDIAM

PLUS QUINQUAGINTA ANNOS LUDIMAGISTRO

HOC POCULUM

ALUMNI SUI DICANT VOLENTES.

The subscribers were

The cup weighed upwards of 112 oz. and cost £55 3s. 3d. Dr. William Richardson, William Rookes Esq., Mr. Edmund Lodge, Rev. John Scott, Thomas Arthington, Esq.; Rev. Dr. Joseph Milner, Henry Wickham, Esq., Rev. Henry Elmsall, Charles Booth Swain Sharp Esq. Rev. Samuel Disney, William Serjeantson Esq. Rev. Sandford Hardcastle, Mr. Smithson, Captain More, Mr. Richard Green, Mr. Eamonson, Mr. Barlow, Walter Spencer Stanhope, Esq. and Richard Henry Beaumont Esq.

« السابقةمتابعة »