302 Account of the late Thunder-storm in Somersetshire. [Nov. ty 
dom with which public topics and the 
ublic conduct of public men ought to be 
discussed, can be no friends either to the 
liberty of the press, or to liberty in any 
shape; and whatever may be their out- 
ward professions, they cannot but be 
eovertly engaged in attempting to bring 
that glorious privilege into contempt! 
Nothing is so odious amoung the good and 
wise as slander on private character; 
hence the enemies of free discussien al- 
ways endeavour to confound private 
slander with public discussion, and af- 
fect to maintain, that if the latter is to- 
derated the former must be endured. If 
the public could be made to believe that 
the publication of slander on private 
character was a necessary consequence 
of allowing unrestrained discussion on 
public and abstract topics, we should 
have a censor of the press called for with’ 
irresistible yoice. But the distinction 
is so plain, that, in spite of the studied 
perversions of crown lawyers, and of the 
doctrines maintained by the agents of cor- 
ruption (in whatever disguise they may 
appear), the sensible part of the people of 
England will, I trust, continue to abhor 
private libellers, at the same time that 
they will distinctly insist upon, and main- 
tain, the liberty of the press, as far as 
respects the pablic actions of public men, 
and the unrestrained freedom of discus- 
sion on all scientific, religious, and ab- 
stract, topics. 
Such have always been the doctrines 
of the conscientious and consistent friends 
of public liberty ; and I might excuse the 
mistake of those who have lately main- 
tained very opposite doctrines, if I did 
not know something of their general 
characters, if I did not know that they 
have for this occasion become the ap- 
arent friends of liberty and toleration ; 
in short, if I did not believe them to be 
wolves in sheeps’ clothing ! 
In regard to other subjects ofan ana- 
logous nature, which have lately been 
forced in various shapes before the 
public, such as the question, Whether 
anonymous Reviews are entitled to re- 
spect or credit 2—I confess [ think this a 
question which chiefly agitates booksel- 
lers’ apprentices, small wits, and petits- 
muitres in literature! No man of ordi- 
nary sense, or vbservation, can for a mo- 
ment lend his judgment to the dictums of 
anonymous critics, when he duly consi- 
ders the Protean shapes which are as- 
sumed by the needy, profligate, and ma- 
Jevolent, when personal responsibility is 
mota necessary qualification. The trade 
of anonymous reviewing is, however, on 
the decline ; and at the ‘present moinent 
not more than two of the Reviews pay 
the expence of their fabrication, Charity 
to the parties: interested, as well as re- 
spect for the good intelligence of your 
readers, renders it therefore unnecessary 
for me to enlarge on so beaten a topic. 
Tam, Sir, 
Your old Correspondent, 
Common SENs®. 
London, Oct. 2, 1808. 
ae 
account of the tremendous THUNDER-= 
storm, which fell in SOMERSETSHIRE, 
on the 15th of JULY, 1808, with RE- 
MARKS; in which the best MEANS in 
general of avoiding the DANGERS of 
LIGHTNING to ANIMAL LIFE, and the 
MEANS Of SAFETY, are pointed out. 
By mr, crocker, of FROME. 
F all the phenomena of nature 
which we distinguish as occasional 
or extraordinary, that of the storm of 
lightning with thunder seems to be at 
once the most splendid and the most 
sublime. Nothing appears to be so fore 
cibly and so directly calculated to awe 
the mind of man, by exhibiting, in the 
same instant, the Creator’s power of ac- 
tion- and of controul—his omnipotence 
to destroy, with his benignity to preserve, 
On this island, these occurrences of 
nature are much less formidable than im 
some. other countries ; yet here some have 
been noticed as worthy of recording, for 
the information of posterity, particularly 
two in the year 1697. The tirst, as Dr. 
Halley and others relate, fell in Cheshire 
and Lancashire, on the 29th of April; 
it was estimated to be two miles in 
breadth, and to have passed over the 
country sixty miles in length, by which 
small animals were killed, trees were 
split, horses and men struck down, and 
other calamitous consequences ensued. 
Some of the hail-stones of that storm are 
said to have been five or six inéhes in 
circumference, and to have weighed five 
Or more ounces. Some were round, 
others half round; some smooth, others 
embossed and crenated; the icy sub- 
stance very transparent and hard, witha 
snowy kernel in the middle. 
The other storm fell in Hertfordshire, 
five days after; of which it is stated that 
the thunder and lightning was succeeded 
by a shower of hail, by which some per- 
sons were killed, and their bodies beaten 
black-and blue; vast oaks were split, and 
fields of rye cut down as with a oC. 
e 
