an 
= 
1803] 
~our kings’and nobles give drafts upon 
‘the Jews, whenever they wanted money, 
‘from the earliest periods. 
It is evident from what Professor Beck- 
mann says of ‘bills of exchange, that the 
formule of them are purely mercantile 
‘regulations; and they do not precisely 
‘assimilate those of bankers, whiclr in 
1847 were scaled with the seal of the 
party. See Du Cange v. Precatorium. 
Another absurdity of Origny, is of the 
most ‘glaring kind. ‘le says, iron-wire 
was called Fil d’ Archal, from one 
‘Richard Archal, the probable inventor. 
So -honest Bailey, onder the word Gre- 
_gorian, thinks not of the Pontiff, with 
the chant and calendur, but of one Mr, 
‘Gregory, abarber in the Strand ; and, ia 
defining thunder calls it “a noise weil- 
known to persons not deaf.” So also Old 
Dictionary “ antidote, see untedate. The 
truth is, that as Menage says, “ Jit 
d’ArchalisFilum de Aurichalsco, and Cot- 
grave accordingly renders it yellow wire, 
inade of copper or latten. It is deci- 
fively clear, then, that Origny did not 
know, not only not Menage, but even the 
_ edmnion dictionaries of /his own tongue! 
And Savary copies it (Dictionnaire de 
Commerce.) though, observe, reader, the 
sole authority is an opinion of the unin- 
structed workmen, that one Richard Ar- 
chal was the inventor! It is to be-feared, 
that other French Dictionaries are bad. 
It would be unnecessary to say more. 
These harsh remarks would be exceed- 
ingly illiberal, were they directed to the 
lapses ofan industrious writer, but as this 
. author may distress the really learned, by 
having his errors brought up triunphantly 
against them, and is perpetually quoved ; 
ashe isin fact a man of straw, the ‘re- 
mark of the respectable Professor Beck~ 
mann, that he is the worst writer of the 
kind, cannot be too publicly exposed. A 
writer without authorities, among the 
learned, is somewhat like'the jack-daw, 
who intruded himself, ézc. @&c. as in the 
ble-—This too in a ‘country, where 
Barthelemy, in theclassical-branch, aided 
the useful collections of Montfaucon, 
and where the Glossary of Du Cange, is 
_awork, which confers immortality vpon 
the literature of a country, exceedingly 
ingenious, but insufferably vain, 
F, 
‘Your's, &e. 
a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
SER, 
N Dr. Jones's letter, (No. 171, p. 146) 
‘on-transmitting ‘the sounds of words 
to posterity by the cries of animals, itis 
Observations onthe Song of the Cuckoo, Ke. 
425 
confidently asserted that “all animals 
vary their tone and compass of voice 
‘with the season; and, as an instanee,"he 
bas adduced the song of the cuckow. J 
have been very attentiveto the singing 
of cuckows, and have found, by compar- 
ing their tones with thuse of a musical-ine 
‘strument, that they all sing exuctly, or 
very nearly in the same pitch,and with 
the same kind of tone, throushout their 
vocal season. Their two sounds corre. 
Spond with D-and P sharp of the modern 
scale.* IJ have heard a few of them bé- 
gin ‘their song with the acuter sound, 
‘more than a major third-above D: but, 
in-a-very short time, it would deseend:-to 
Pb sharp, as they colitinued singing. 
Whether the voices of aniinals vary or 
not, is of no consequence to the plein of 
Mr. tl. for it is evident, from singing and 
the groat variety of tone and ‘pitch in 
humat voices; that any among the 
humerous Varieties of tone, may Cu-exist 
with any among the innumerable varieti¢s 
of syllable.” Mitford, on Language, p. ds. 
I believe the Doctor would find it di£ 
ficult to prove, that “the human vuice is 
not perfeetly imitable.” Tis vowelt 
sounds ‘and accents have already ‘been 
imitated with great accuracy, SeeStecle’s 
Prosodia Rationalis, and vol. 1, p. 124, 
of the Edinburgh Encyclopedia. 
October 15, 1808. Your's, &c. 
A. Merrick, jun, 
; ae 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ACCOUNT Of WILLIAM KENNEDY, @ Blind 
MECHANIC, 
i Ri privation of the sight is perhaps 
_@ more-easily endured and less pre- 
jndicial than that of most of the other 
seiises. Poets, the foremost im renown, 
have been ineapable of the perception of 
external objects. The two finest lieroie 
poems, the diiad-and the Paradise ‘Lost, 
are the immortal production of the blind, 
Phe eyes ef Homer and of Milton “tolled 
in Vain and found no dawn;” yet in the 
forceful -expression ‘of the latter, were 
their “minds “ only inadiated, and thew 
have sung of things invisible to mortal 
* In concert-pitch. “‘* The opera-piteh fs 
tuned above most others.” .Dr. Buspy. 
‘¢Dansles Eglises il y a Je Ton du Cheur pour 
le:plain-chant, Il y a pour Ja Musique, Tom de 
Chapelle et Yon d’ Opera. Ce dernier n'g 
rien de fixe; mais en France il est-ordinairé- 
ment plus dds que l'autre.” J.J, RovssEav. 
“The pitch of Lombardy, or Venice, is some 
thing morethan half’a tene higher thin at 
Romie.” Gabtrard, Ste Sith’ Harinerics, 
page R98, e 
sight.” 
a 
