S* Report of the Weather in London Jor 1822 and 1823. 



first part of May ; frequently very 

 w arm during the remainder part, with 

 the addition of clear and beautiful 

 ■weather. Grass astonishingly forward. 

 Some days were cool, and then follow- 

 ed very hot, — frequently thunder and 

 lightning. A few refreshing showers 

 to the middle of June, and from thence 

 conlinuod beautifully fine and dry till 

 the beginning of Ausjust, which pro- 

 duced some very licavy showers ; and 

 a succession of clearness again follow- 

 ed for the harvest, which had com- 

 menced with the month, and full three 

 weeks or more earlier than for years 

 past. September, with the character 

 of a dry and agreeable month through- 

 out, closed this charming season ; 

 and for general productiveness tlierc 

 is not remembered a greater ; it was 

 the most abundant apple-season for 

 years, also grapes were very plentiful — 

 (1821 was the greatest general fruit 

 year, tliough a dreary wet one). With 

 the w eather, as with all otlier things, 

 one extreme produces another ; so 

 October commenced a scene the re- 

 verse of the above, by an almost un- 

 ceasing rain, though warm and higlily 

 beneficial after the drought; but 

 which continued down to the first 

 week in December, and then began a 

 series of sharp frost ; whici) broke for 

 a week, but set-in again with renewed 

 vigor. Thermometer fell to about 17° 

 or 18° below freezing point (out of 

 doors) ; and snow fell two separate THE 

 times very deep. It continued thus 

 to the 27th of January, 1823, when a 

 rapid thaw began. Gangs of poor 

 sent from the workliouses, and by the 

 Houseless Poor Society, to clear away 

 and pile the snow along the streets, to 

 two and three feet deep,— a dreary 

 spectacle indeed. Rain fell, accom- 

 panied witli bleak easterly winds. The 

 first fortnight in February, there was 

 one day a deep snow, the next a tliaw, 

 succeeded by warm, rainy, miser- 

 able, weather. Thermoniefer about 

 60°. Rest of February, and all March, 

 Variable and winterty, sometimes 

 stormy : wind still east. The consti- 

 tution breaking, as it were, with the 

 frost: mortality begyn, — botli young 

 and old were seized, and all more or 

 Icps afl'ected. So unhealthy a time is 

 hardly known : continued througli 

 April and May,— weather dryish, up 

 to which time wind eiusterly. Tiie 

 spring was thus kejit back full a 

 month. A great and destructive blight 

 then folloMcd, covering whole fruit- 



[Feb. I, 



trees with thick web, and on others It 

 bung in ropes : had it not been for a 

 cherishing rain in June, that made all 

 nature smile, fruit there would have 

 been none. The rain continued till 

 about the last week in August, now 

 and then very heavy, but generally 

 gentle, warm, and refreshing; at times 

 cool, and some days dry. — Though it 

 may be called a wet summer, and for 

 pleasure very bad, it was such a one 

 as seemed ultimately to have suited 

 almost every thing, although more as 

 to quantity than quality. 'J'he harvest, 

 forwhicli there were great fears, turn- 

 ed out abundant, and was enabled to 

 be M til got in, September proviJig so 

 fine, so clear, and so temperate : the 

 last day, with the first fortnight in 

 October, was wet and winterly, with 

 heavy dews, foggy nights and morn- 

 ings, and cold, — then fine and dry, 

 — finisiicd wet. November began wet, 

 with two stormy days, (great falls of 

 snow in the north, with heavy floods) ; 

 ren)ainder of the month rather diy, 

 but damp, — fogs night and morn, — 

 day-time hazy : thermometer usually a 

 little below temperate, 'i'iie three 

 first weeks in December continued the 

 same haziness as in November, but 

 more frosty, with a little rain ; and 

 finished wet and warm. N. 



Hoxtmi ; Jan. 1824. 



For the Mmtthhj Magazive. 

 PHILOSOPHY OF CONTEM- 

 PORARY CRITICISM. 



NO. XXXV. 



The Edinburs;h Review, No. 72. 

 Ociuber 1823. 



THE first articlcinihe prescntNum- 

 ber is upon the Finavce Accomits 

 of the United Kingdom for the Year ctidcd 

 5th January., 1823, printed by order of 

 the House of Commons, ^c. and contains 

 that sort of ingenious admixture of 

 popular truisms and disingenuous so- 

 phistry natural enough in those who 

 write for the purposes of a party rather 

 than the discovery of truth. 'J'hat the 

 question of the comparative advan- 

 tages or disadvantages of raising the 

 funds for the [)rosccution of a war by 

 immediate taxation, and of supplying 

 the exigencies of the year by loans, 

 for which the interest only is to be 

 immediately provided, should at this 

 time be particularly agitated by poli- 

 tical economists, is to be expected. 

 Having, by a line of conduct equally 

 short-sighted and Jesuitical, thrown 

 ourselves open to attack upon our 

 1 most 



