1823.] Mr. Tdtem on the Ulility of a Meteorological Sockdj. 

 the office they undertake ; and that it skilled in or attached to it 



is only the clergy of the establishment 

 who are subjected to the mortifications 

 and inconveniences of asserting their 

 legitimate rights, and of collecting 

 their indisputable dues." Tiie remedy 

 for this is easy. Are the sectarian 

 ministers, tlien, better circumstanced 

 than those of the establishment? Who, 

 then, has placed the latter in a worse 

 situation than the former? Was it not 

 themselves ? Cannot they, whenever 

 they please, place themselves on an 

 equal footing with those the Doctor 

 appears to imagine dwell in a happier 

 clime? Let them, then, do so ; or, at 

 least, let them not complain of the 

 shackles they have forged and rivetted 

 with their own hands, but wliicli most 

 of them (I shrewdly suspect,) prefer 

 to this apparently envied liberty. 



I would be understood not to have 

 the least hostility against tiie establish- 

 ed clergy, distinct from the mode in 

 which they are paid ; on the contrary, 

 I have no doubt there are many very 

 worthy characters in tiiat body, and 

 cannot, therefore, but feel the greater 

 regret that their virtues should, under 

 the induence of a forced maintenance, 

 be rendered less operative than they 

 would be in other and more favour- 

 able circumstances. 



H. F. COTTERELL. 



Bath; Feh. 17, 1823. 

 To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



AMONG ihe numerous societies 

 . established in London for the 

 encouragement of the arts, the im- 

 provement ot the sciences, and the 

 dillusion of knowledge, it had often 

 excited my surprise, that a Meteorolo- 

 gical Society had not been formed ; it 

 was therefore with very great pleasure 

 I found that you luid experienced 

 similar feelings.* Allow me, there- 

 fore, to call the attention of the meteo- 

 rologists of the metro[);»lis, and its 

 vicinity, to tlie propriety ol' forming 

 such a society, which I have no douht 

 migiit be easily cllected, and would 

 be ably sujjported. Of the increased 

 interest which meteorological subjects 

 have lately obtained, the latter inim- 

 bers of your Miscellany are sullicient 

 evidencf;; and the improvement of the 

 science would be tiie necessary result 

 of the association of persons either 



• Vi'ie Monthly Mag, vol, Iv. p. 70. 

 1 



2or 



Placed 

 under the management of an active 

 committee, and patronized, as it would 

 most probably be, by some of the first 

 characters in the country for rank and 

 talent, the society must flourish ; and 

 there can scarcely be a town or large 

 village in the kingdom which would 

 not alford a correspondent, who would 

 be willing to transmit his observations 

 to tiie society ; and thus many pheno- 

 mena, which had been observed by 

 some retired meteorologist, would be- 

 come publicly known, and receive the 

 attention which might be due to them. 

 Through the numerous tables which 

 would be obtained by these means, the 

 temperature, dryness, or humidity, of 

 different places, would be more accu- 

 rately known, and the observations 

 would be rendered of more value, if 

 made (under the recommendation of 

 the society,) with instruments of the 

 same construction, and under circum- 

 stances as nearly similar as possible. 

 From registers thus formed, the me- 

 teorologist would receive information 

 and pleasure, the man of science 

 amusement, and the valetudinarian 

 benefit, by being able to select a resi- 

 dence where the climate suited his 

 constitution,^ — a thing of no sm;ill con- 

 sequence, and no little difficulty in the 

 variable temperature of onr native 

 isle. James G. Tatem. 



Harpenden, near St. Albans; 

 Feb. 20, 1823. 



For the Monthly Magazine. 

 AN enquiry how far the punishment 



of DEATH fm- MUIinEK is RECONCI- 

 LABLE %vith the CHRISTIAN LAW and 

 SOUND REASON. 



TH E text which appears to give tlie 

 fullest sanction to this practice 

 is the one we find in Genesis i\. verse 

 6, where the Almighty, in eiijoining 

 certain observances, says, " Wl.oso 

 sheddetli man's blooji, by man shall 

 his blood be shed." The time in 

 which this injunction was made, and 

 the circumstances alteiiding it, are 

 worthy of consideration, and neces- 

 sary to the right understanding of how 

 far tiie same maybe ajiplicable to ns. 

 It w as given at a period not cuily prior 

 to the introduction of Christianity, but 

 even before the establishment of the 

 Mosaic law ; iiiuler (since such divi- 

 sions have been made by theologians) 

 the Patriarchal dis])eiisati()ii, when only 

 one family dwell upon the cnitli, and no 

 written 



