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PETITION AGAINST TITIES.

WE recommend to the consideration of our readers the following petition, recently presented to parliament by the Society of Friends, praying to be relieved from the necessity of paying for the support of a religious establishment from which they conscientiously dissent. While it is eminently distinguished by the temperate and pacific tone, which characterizes all the proceedings of that Christian body, we think it is not less valuable for the clearness and justness of those statements by which they support their claims. It would be well if all other bodies of Christians, who are similarly aggrieved, would evince as much promptitude, unanimity, and Christian feeling, in adopting the only constitutional means of obtaining redress:

"To the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled.

"We, the undersigned, members of the religious Society of Friends, called Quakers, assembled at our yearly meeting in London, respectfully represent to parliament, that our Society has always objected, on principle, to tithes, and other compulsory

ecclesiastical claims.

"We consider it to be our bounden duty to conform ourselves to the laws, and to obey the government of our country, in all things which do not interfere with the higher claims of conscience towards God; but, whenever there is such an interference, it is our established practice to refuse an active compliance with the law, and patiently to suffer the consequences.

"On this principle, we have always refused the payment of tithes, and other ecclesiastical demands; and, at the same time, have offered no opposition to the distraint of our goods for these purposes. In the earlier periods of the Society, its members were exposed to grievous sufferings and persecutions on this account. Not only were they despoiled of their property, in a vexatious and ruinous manner, but their persons were seized, and they were immured in dungeons, to the injury of their health, and, in many instances, even to the loss of their lives: and, although the laws which render us liable to suits in the ecclesiastical courts, are now but seldom enforced, we still suffer considerable injury from the levying of distraints, and from the exactions with which they are often accompanied.

"Our reasons for refusing these payments are purely of a religious nature; and they are as follows:

"1st. That we regard the interference of the civil government, in matters of religion and private conscience, to be the usurpation of a prerogative which belongs only to God.

"2dly. That we consider the setting apart of tithes for the maintenance of the ministers of religion, to have been an unwarrantable return to the provisions of the Levitical law, and at variance with the nature and character of the gospel.

3dly. That we believe the ministry of the gospel to be free in its nature, according to the command of our Lord and Saviour to his disciples: Freely ye have received, freely give;' and that the contravention of this principle has an unfailing tendency to convert religion into a trade, and grievously to impede the diffusion of vital Christianity.

"We also deem the compulsory support of the ministers of any church, and of an ecclesiastical system connected therewith, to be opposed to that liberty which the gospel confers; and, when claimed from those who conscientiously dissent from that church, to be a violation of the common principles of justice.

"Observing with satisfaction that the subject of tithes and other ecclesiastical demands is likely to come under the deliberate review of the legislature, we consider this to be the proper time for representing to parliament these our Christian principles: and we respectfully beseech the House of Commons not to rest satisfied with any modification of the present system, but to take effectual measures for the entire removal of all such imposts.

"In conclusion, we feel bound to express to parliament our heartfelt prayer, that Almighty God may bless and preserve the government and legislature of our country, and may direct all their counsels for the happiness of the nation, for the welfare of mankind in general, and for his own glory.

[Signed by six hundred and seventynine members of the Society of Friends, from various parts of the United Kingdom.] "London, 3d of 6th Month, 1833."

GLEANINGS.

Clothing, natural and artificial.-The covering of wool and feathers, which nature has provided for the inferior classes of animals, has a property of conducting heat very imperfectly; and hence it has the effect of keeping the body cool in hot weather, and warm in cold weather. The heat which is produced by powers provided in the animal economy within the body, has a tendency, when in a cold atmosphere, to escape faster than it is generated; the covering being a non-conductor, intercepts it, and keeps it confined. Man is endowed with faculties which enable him to fabricate for himself covering similar to that with which nature has provided other animals.

Clothes are generally composed of some light nonconducting substances, which protect the body from the inclement heat or cold of the exterual air. In summer, clothing keeps the body cool; and in winter, warm. Woollen substances are worse conductors than those composed of cotton or linen. A flannel shirt more effectually intercepts heat than a linen or a cotton one; and whether in warm or in cold climates, attains the end of clothing more effectually.

Damp Beds.-The object of bed-clothes being to check the escape of heat from the body, so as to supply at night that warmth which may be obtained by exercise or labour during the day, this end is not only defeated, but the contrary effect produced, when the clothes by which the body is surrounded contain moisture in them. The heat supplied by the body is immediately absorbed by this moisture, and passes off in vapour; and this effect would continue until the clothes were actually dried by the heat of the body. A damp bed may be frequently detected by the use of a warming-pan. The introduction of the hot metal causes the moisture of the bed-clothes to be immediately converted into steam, which issues into the open space in which the warming-pan is introduced. When the warming-pan is withdrawn, this vapour is again partially condensed, and deposited on the surface of the sheets. If the hand be introduced between the sheets, the dampness will be then distinctly felt, a film of water being in fact deposited on their surface.

Danger of drying Clothes in an inhabited Room.-The danger of leaving clothes to dry in an inhabited apartment, and more especially in a sleeping room, will be readily understood. The evaporation which takes place in the process of drying causes an absorption of heat, and produces a corresponding depression of temperature in the apartment,

Artificial Freezing in India.-A position is selected where the ground is not exposed to the radiation of surrounding objects: a quantity of dry straw being strewed on the ground, water is placed in flat unvarnished earthen pans, so as to expose an extensive surface to the heavens; the straw being a bad conductor of heat, intercepts all supply of heat which the water may receive from the ground; and the porous nature of the pans allowing a portion of the water to penetrate them, produces a rapid evaporation, by which a considerable quantity of the heat of the water is car ried off in the latent state with the vapour. At the same time, the surface of the water radiates heat upwards, while it receives no corresponding supply from any other radiator above it. Thus heat is dismissed by evaporation and radiation; and, at the same time, there is no corresponding supply received either from the earth below or from the heavens above. The temperature of the water contained in the pans is thus rapidly diminished, and at length attains the freezing point. In the morning the water is found frozen in the pans; it is then collected and placed in caves surrounded with straw, which being a bad conductor of heat, prevents any communication of heat from without, by which the ice might be liquefied. In this way ice may be preserved during the hottest seasons, for the purposes of use or luxury.

Coolness of Steel Clothes.-A metal helmet and cuirass, worn by some of our regiments of cavalry, is a cooler dress than might be at first imagined. The polished metal being a nearly perfect reflector of heat, throws off the rays of the sun, and is incapable of being raised to an inconvenient temperature. Its temperature is much less increased by the influence of the sun than that of common clothing.

Nature of Flame.-Flame is gas heated to whiteness, by the heat produced by the combustion of volatile matter. When a candle burns, the tallow or wax of which it is composed is first liquefied, and then drawn upwards through the insterstices of the wick by capillary attraction. As it comes in contact with the source of heat, it is boiled, and converted into vapour; this vapour ascends in a column by reason of its lightness, and is now raised to the temperature which enables it to form a combination with the oxygen of the surrounding air. This combination instantly and copiously develops heat, which, being communicated to the surrounding current of gas, renders it luminous, and produces the white bright light of the flame. It will be apparent from this, that the light from the flame can only exist on its exterior surface, which is in contact with air. The flame of a candle or lamp is, therefore, so far as regards light, hollow; or rather it is a column of gas, the exterior surface of which is luminous, while the interior is non-luminous. As the gas in the interior of the flame ascends, it gets into contact with a fresh portion of the atmosphere, from which it receives a supply of oxygen, by combination with which, heat is evolved, which produces light. As the gas ascends from the centre of the flame, it comes successively iuto contact with the air, and in this manner becomes luminous, until at length the column is reduced to

a point. Thus, the flame of a candle or lamp gradually tapers to a point, until all the gas produced from the boiling matter in the wick receives its due complement of oxygen from the air, and passes off. It speedily loses the temperature necessary to render it luminous, and the flame terminates.

Influence of Accident in Directing Pursuits.-It was the accident of the roof of his father's cottage coming down, while he was a child, that first turned Ferguson's attention to mechanical contrivance. The late eminent engineer, John Rennie, used to trace his first notions in regard to the powers of machinery, to his having been obliged, when a boy, in consequence of the breaking down of a bridge, to go one winter, every morning to school, by a circuitous road, which carried him past a place where a thrashing machine was generally at work. It was the appearance of the celebrated comet of 1744, which first attracted the imagination of Lalande, then a boy of twelve years of age, to astronomy. The great Linnæus was probably made a botanist, by the cir cumstance of his father having a few rather uncommon plants in his garden. Harrison is said to have been originally inspired with the idea of devoting himself to the constructing of marine time-pieces, by his residence in view of the sea. It was a voyage in view of the Mediterranean, which first gave to Vernet his enthusiasm for marine-painting.-Library of Entertaining Knowledge, No. IV.

Heat and Light.-Innumerable operations of nature proceed as regularly and as effectually in the absence of light, as when it is present. The want of that sense which it is designed to affect in the animal economy in no degree impairs the other powers of the body, nor in man does such a defect interfere in any way with the faculties of the mind. Light is. so to speak, an article rather of luxury than of positive necessity. Nature supplies it, therefore, not in an unlimited abundance, nor at all times and places. but rather with that thrift and economy which she is wont to observe in dispensing the objects of our pleasures, compared with those which are necessary to our being. But heat, on the contrary, she has yielded in the most unbounded plenteousness. Heat is every where present. Every object that exists contains it in quantity without known limit. The most inert and rude masses are pregnant with it. Whatever we see, hear, smell, taste, or feel, is full of it. To its influence is due that endless variety of forms which are spread over and beautify the surface of the globe. Laud, water, air, could not for a single instant exist as they do, in its absence; all would suddenly fall into one rude formless mass-solid and impenetrable. The air of heaven, hardening into a crust, would envelope the globe, and crush within an everlasting tomb all that it contains. Heat is the parent and the nurse of the endless beauties of organization; the mineral, the vegetable, the animal kingdom, are its offspring. Every natural structure is either immediately produced by its agency, maintained by its influence, or intimately dependent on it Withdraw heat, and instantly all life, motion, form, and beauty, will cease to exist, and it may be literally said, "Chaos has come again."

Curious Fact.-If we would preserve ice from melting, the most effectual means would be to wrap it in blankets, which would retard for a long time the approach of heat to it from any external source.

Ice-houses.-In the construction of an ice-house, the walls, roof, and floor, should be surrounded with some substance which conducts heat imperfectly. A lining of straw matting, or of woollen blankets, will answer this purpose. Air being a bad conductor of heat, the building is sometimes constructed with double walls, having a space between them. The ice is thus surrounded by a wall of air, as it were, which is, in a great degree, impenetrable by heat, provided LO source of radiation be present. Furnaces intended to heat apartments should be surrounded with nonconducting substances, to prevent the waste of heat.

Summer and Winter Clothing.—If several pieces of cloth, of the same size and quality, but of different colours, black, blue, green, yellow, and white, be thrown on the surface of snow in clear day-light, but especially in sunshine, it will be found that the black cloth will quickly melt the snow heneath it, and sink downwards. The blue will do the same, but less rapidly; the green still less so; the yellow slightly; and the white not at all. We see, therefore, that the warmth or coolness of clothing depends as well on its colour as its quality. A white dress, or one of a light colour, will always be cooler than one of the same quality of a dark colour, and especially so in clear weather, when there is much sunshine. A white and light colour reflects heat copiously, and absorbs little; while a black and dark colour absorbs copiously, and reflects little. From this we see that experience has supplied the place of science in directing the choice of clothing. The use of light colours always prevails in summer, and that of dark colours in winter.

Heating Houses by Hot Water.-A method of warming buildings by water has been contrived, on the principle that hot water will ascend through cold by its superior lightness. A boiler is constructed in the lowest part of the building, completely closed at the top, but terminating in a tube or pipe, which is conducted upwards, and carried through the different apartments which it is intended to warm. This pipe terminates in a funnel at the top of the building, the boiler and pipe being filled with water up to the funnel. When fire is applied under the boiler, the water, becoming heated, ascends, and the colder water descends; and these contrary currents continue until every particle of water contained in the pipes carried through the building is raised to whatever temperature under 212 may be desired.

Effect of changing the Earth's Distance from the Sun. -These considerations will lead us to perceive what would be the effect if the earth's distance from the sun were to undergo considerable change, either by increase or diminution, other circumstances being supposed to remain the same. If its proximity to the sun were increased, the increased influence of solar heat would render it impossible for many substances now commonly liquid on the surface of the earth to exist in any other state than that of air; and at the same time, many solid bodies would be incapable of maintaining the solid form, and would become permanently liquid. It would be possible, under such circumstances, that the water which now constitutes the ocean would be changed into an atmosphere, aud that many of the metals which now exist in the solid form, distributed through the earth, would become liquid, and fill the beds of the sea. If, on other hand, the distance from the sun were considerably increased, the solar heat would undergo a corresponding diminution, and many of the substances which now assume the liquid form would then become solid. The sea, which surrounds the globe, would take the form of a mass of solid crystal. Sub stances now in the gaseous state might be reduced to the form of a liquid; nay, that the atmosphere should be converted into a sea by a sufficient diminution of temperature, is an effect not only within the bounds of possibility, but probable upon the clearest and best founded analogy.

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To cool Wine.-When ice cannot be obtained, wine may be cooled in various ways by the process of evaporation. If a moist towel be wrapped round a decauter of wine, and exposed to the sun, the towel in the process of drying will cool the wine; for the wine must supply a part of the latent heat carried off by the vapour in the process of drying the towel. Wine coolers constructed of porous earthenware act on a similar principle. The evaporation of water from the porous material reduces the temperature of the liquid immediately surrounding the wine. Travellers in the Arabian deserts keep the water cool by wrapping the jars with linen cloths, which are kept constantly moist. Historians mention, that the Egyp tians applied the same principle to cool water for domestic purposes. Pitchers containing the water were kept constantly wet on the exterior surface during the night, and in the morning were surrounded by straw, to intercept the communication of heat from the external air. In India, the curtains which surround beds are spinkled with water, by the evaporation of which the air within the curtains is cooled.

Cold from damp Clothes.-If the clothes which cover the body are dainp, the moisture which they contain has a tendency to evaporate by the heat communicated to it by the body. The heat absorbed in the evaporation of the moisture contained in clothes must be, in part, supplied by the body, and will have a tendency to reduce the temperature of the body in au undue degree, and thereby to produce cold. The effect of violent labour or exercise is to cause the body to generate heat much faster than it would do in a state of rest. Hence we see why, when the clothes have been rendered wet by rain or by perspiration, the taking of cold may be avoided, by keeping the body in a state of exercise or labour until the clothes can be changed, or till they dry on the person; for in this case, the heat carried off by the moisture in evaporating is amply supplied by the redundant heat generated by labour or exercise.

American Divorce.-A short time since, in an adjoining town, a happy pair were joined in wedlock by a facetious township squire, whose fees totally exhausted the funds of the bridegroom. Not many days, it appears, had elapsed, before the parties who had been joined till death should them part, became mutually dissatisfied with their lot, and returned to the esquire, with their many tales of woe, beseeching him with all their eloquence to unmarry them, which he agreed to do, provided he was previously paid three dollars, double the fee of the first ceremony.

This sum the bridegroom had earned by a week's labour on the esquire's farm. Then came the ceremony of parting.' The esquire placed a block on the floor, on which was put a live cat-one pulled the head and the other the tail, while the esquire, with an axe, severed the cat in twain, at the same time exclaiming," Death has parted you." ." The couple departed, with a firm belief that the performance was strictly legal, and have not lived together since.Mackenzie's Sketches of Canada and the United Stater.

[For many of the preceding paragraphs we acknowledge ourselves indebted to Dr. Lardner's admirable Treatise on Heat" forming Vol. XXXIX., Cabinet Cyclopedia.

Literary Notices.

Just Published.

No. I. of British Ecclesiastical History, to be completed in Ten Monthly Numbers. By Thomas Timpson; author of a Companion to the Bible,' &c. A New Edition of Cruden's Concordance; with a Sketch of his Life. By W. Youngman.

Burkitt's Explanatory Notes and Practical Observations on the New Testament. 2 vols. 8vo.

Part XXX. of the History of Lancashire. By Edward Baines.

Part VII, of the Lakes; or, Westmorland, Cumberland. Durham, and Northumberland Illustrated.

Part 52 of the National Portrait Gallery :-containing Portraits and Memoirs of Lord Mulgrave, Viscount Combermere; and James Brindley.

Part III. of a New Edition of the National Portrait Gallery :-containing Portraits and Memoirs of the Duke of Sussex, Marquis Cornwallis, and Mr. Curran.

Montague; or, Is this Religion? By Chas. Tayler, M. A. author of Records of a Good Man's Life,' &c. The Voyage; a Poem. By H. Christmas. 2d edit. Piozziana or, Recollections of the late Mrs. Piozzi: with Remarks. By a Friend.

Memoir of the Rev. William Lavers, late of Hopiton, Devon. By John S. Elliot.

In the Press.

Preparing for Publication, by Subscription, the Life of Samuel Drew, M. A., Author of "Treatises on the Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul,&c." and late Editor of the "Imperial Magazine; with Selections from his Correspondence and unpublished papers. By a Member of his Family.

The talented Author of Selwyn' has a new volume in the press, entitled, Olympia Morata; her Times, Life, and Writings.

The Van Diemen's Land Almanack for the Current Year has just reached this Country, and will be pubIlished in a few days.

Mr. James Baillie Fraser, the Author of the Kuzzilbash, the Highland Smugglers, &c. has contri. buted a Volume to the Library of Romance.

Mr. Agassiz's Journey to Switzerland. and Pedestrian Tours in that Country, will appear early this Month.

Friendship's Offering will appear this season in its usual elegant style.

The Comic Offering. Edited by Miss Sheridan, will be published at the same time.

Mrs. Bray is now preparing a uniform edition of her popular Historical, and Legendary Romances, to be published in Monthly Vols.

The Rev. Charles Tayler has commenced a Series of Narratives, in the same style and on the same subjects as Miss Martineau's Political Works, to be Pub. lished Quarterly, under the Title of Social Evils and their Remedy.' The first Number, entitled "The Mechanic," will appear on the first of September.

The History of Joseph, Spiritually and Practically Improved. By W. Mason, 18mo. with a Memoir of the Author.

A New Edition of Elisha Cole's Practical Discourse on God's Sovereignty. 12mo.

Theory of Pneumatology; in Reply to the Question, "What ought to be Believed or Disbelieved con. cerning Presentiments, Visions, and Apparitions. By Dr. John Heinrich. Small 8vo.

On the Nature of the Malignant Cholera; and on the Treatment of it by small and frequently repeated Doses of Calomel. By Dr. Ayre, of Hull."

A Memoir of Baron Cuvier; by Mrs. Lee, late Mrs. Bowdich; with a Portrait. 1 vol. 8vo.

Lectures on Painting: delivered at the Royal Aca demy. By T. Phillips, Esq., R. A. 1 vol. 8vo.

LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY H. fisher, son, AND CO.

[graphic]

H. Kirchhoffer, R.H.A.

POUL-A-PHUCA WATERFALL, CO WICKLOW.

FISHER SON & CO LONDON, 1833.

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