1824.] Cruelty to Animals. 



valne in money, except for the King's 



ships. 



Tlie Quarterly Reviewer, i. e. Mr. 

 K., says, I liave stumbled over this 

 Act of Parliament, but that it has longr 

 since been repealed ; but, as he does 

 not state when, so I cannot tell where. 

 It is great nonsense to talk of an 

 Act permitting a thing to be done 

 under such penalties,— the forfeiture 

 of the oak, or double the value. 



Again, I am charged with self-con- 

 tradiction, by asserting, tliat I say 

 "Tannin is a strong Preservative for 

 Timber ;" now I never meant, and 

 iKJVer have said or written, any such 

 ridiculous stuff; but I repeat that "Sap 

 is Tannin, and Tannin is a strong pre- 

 servative." 



The gentlemen at Lloyd's will 

 prove that their colliers do not en- 

 dure fifty years, as they used to do ; 

 and the dock officers will prove 

 that dry rot is not yet quietly dead 

 and buried ; but tiic Quarterly Review 

 asserts both, and labours hard to im- 

 jjosc its Naval Fables for truth, upon 

 its innocent readers, who I am sure 

 will have no cause to repent, if they 

 vote for calling such Naval Governors 

 to give a strict account. 



Mr. Bowden's is a very sensible 

 Treatise on the Dry Rot, with two 

 exceptions; one of which is erroneous 

 in ex|K;riments, as to the weight; and 

 the other fallacious, as to the quality 

 of oak, when barked in spring and 

 felled in winter, which is little or no 

 better than if hewn at bark-harvest. 



I am charged with private specula- 

 tion or private views ; and yet I do 

 not see what a man can do more 

 than publish his researches. 



Legislatures, I am told, are gene- 

 rally fifty years' march behind popular 

 knowledge or examples ; but this 

 cannot apply to the British Parlia- 

 ment, respecting the Dry Rot, after 

 the successive experience of many 

 ages ; though I admit, that many 

 hungry, idle, and some ingenious, 

 l)rojeclors have struggled hard, but 

 iwno more than Naval Ministers, to 

 mislead and deceive; for it is avowed 

 that water-soaking hurts timber, but 

 cures the Dry Rot. 



The last JJeports of the Commis- 

 sioners of Naval Inquiry, not printed, 

 contain, I suspect, many important 

 details respecting naval dry rot, 8tc. 

 which have not created any alteration 

 in our naval system, except a viola- 



291 



tion of the standing rule of the navy- 

 boards, to advertise for tenders for 

 all the articles required for the service, 

 as, since those celebrated Reports, 

 Messrs. Morrice have been employed 

 as the agents of the Navy Boards, 

 to supply all English oak, to the ex- 

 clusion of the usual competition, and 

 nobody can tell at what price, although 

 the Navy Boards condescend to favour 

 the new and sole contractors with 

 Imprests to execute the same. 



I declare that I have no interest, 

 whatever, in the tanning trade, which 

 is the main spring of Dry Rot, and it 

 was solely with a view to prevent 

 Dry Rot, that I was necessitated to 

 examine the leather trade. 



I cannot see why my name is to 

 be coupled with projectors, who had 

 patents for various schemes. I have 

 no patent to prevent Naval Dry Rot, 

 and I certainly never intend to tan 

 any more leather, for the reasons de- 

 tailed in my little book. 



I challenge fair enquiry, and I re- 

 peat the fact, that the usual allowances 

 were made at Portsmouth for winter 

 oak, with the bark on, till 1789 or 

 1790, and that no allowances whatever 

 have been made since 1792; conse- 

 quently that no timber, hewn accord- 

 ing to law, has, for thirty-four years 

 past, been received in dock yards. 



The decline of British Ship-builders 

 is monstrously alarming. In the year 

 1818, there were 1059 ships built, of 

 104,366 tons register; and in the 

 year 1822, only 723 ships were built, 

 of 62,534 tons register; or not much 

 above one-half the tonnage that was 

 actually built four years before ; yet 

 it is singular, that the number of 

 merchantmen, and tonnage, remains 

 much the same, on average, now as 

 then ; consequently these deficiencies 

 must be Isupplied from colonial ship- 

 builders, who may follow America's 

 example. John Burridge. 



To tJie Editor of the Monthly Magazitie. 



SIR, 



AS the uniform and enlightened 

 advocate of humanity to the brute 

 creation, I trust no apology is neces- 

 sary for requesting you to insert in 

 your valuable miscellany the following 

 short detail of a wanton act of barba- 

 rity, which occurred in the vicinity of 

 New Bridge Street, on Monday last. 



The scenes, indeed, that arc .some- 

 times acted in Smithlicld and the 

 neighbourhood, 



