110 
able fact; Livy being a Roman, and 
Dionysius a Greek. Nor does it appear 
how the Roman pride, which is what 
Mr. G. probably meaus, could be flat- 
tered by such an acknowledgment of 
national inferiority in the attainments 
of seienee and aris of civilization. 
Reflections of this nafure, affecting to 
assign motives, areat the best arbitrary 
and irrelevant to the matter of fact; 
or, if at all admissible, they must be 
grounded upon the acknowledged fact. 
Herodotus and Thucydides, and the 
Athenian monuments, or at least the 
mutilated fragments of them now re- 
maining, are confessedly silent upen 
the subject of this deputation: and 
where is the wonder? Yet the Greek 
historians had, very possibly, heard 
that a certain tribe of “ the barbarians 
of Hesperia’ called Romansyand known 
only, if known at all, by their conten- 
tions with the A®qui, the Volsci, the 
Aurunci, the Sabines, and the Veientes, 
had sent persens to Athens to be in- 
structed in the Athenian laws and cus- 
toms. But was this an event which 
could appear to them of such celebrity 
as to merit a formal insertion in their 
immortal works? Or was it an occur- 
rence to be inscribed on the Athenian 
monuments, at a period when Athens 
was at the height of its renown; and 
had by a series of victories lumbled the 
pride and power of Persia? The name 
of Rome was little known to the Greeks, 
as we are told, and truly, by Mr. G., be- 
fore the age of Alexander; he might 
have said before that of Pyrrhus. On 
what foundation, then, rests the assump- 
tion that an embassy from an obscure 
and barbarous people of Italy, for the 
purpose stated by Livy, would have 
attracted any considerable or lasting 
notice? Intent upon his grand theme, 
* the decline of the Roman empire,”’ 
Mr. G. seems to have retained but a 
faint recollection of the rise of the 
infant republic. 
Mr. G. might have spared his allusion 
to Josephus. Jn controverting the ar- 
gument of Apion against the antiquity 
of the Jews, from the silence of the 
Greek historians, Josephus shews that 
they were not silent ; “* but if they were, 
Rome itself,’ says he, “is not men- 
tioned by Heredotus, or Thucydides, 
nor by any one of their contemporaries ; 
and it was very late, aud with great 
difficulty, that the Romans became 
known tothe Greeks.” The inference 
from this passage is obvious; if Rome, 
half a century after the establishment 
fs Remarks on Gibbon. - {March 1, 
of the republic, sent a a deputation toe 
Athens to request information and in- 
struction, though the ambassadors 
would doubtless be received with Attic 
courtesy and urbanity, the embassy 
itself would be regarded as a matter of 
light and trivial import. 
“It is not,’? in the presuming lan- 
guage of Mr. G., * eredible that the 
Patricians of Rome should undertake 
a long and perilous navigation, to copy 
the purest model of a democracy.” 
But this is a false representation, cal- 
culated only to mislead. By a com- 
promise of parties, Patricians only were 
indeed selected, both for the embassy 
and commission; but they were per- 
sons most distinguished for popularity 5 
“ Appius Clandius being, as Livy in- 
forms us, through the favour of the 
Commons, placed at the head of the 
business: for he had assumed a beha- 
viour so entirely new, that from a 
harsh opporent, he had become a zea- 
lous promoter of their interests, and an 
eager candidate for popular applause,” 
It certainly was not the object of this 
embassy “to copy the purest model of 
a democracy ;”’ or, indeed, to make any 
change whatever in the structure of the 
existing constitution; the professed 
purpose was to effect a melioration and 
reform of the legislative code: in con- 
templation of which, zt ts pexfectly 
credible that information should be 
sought at the most renowned seat of 
wisdom and science. As to the “ long 
and perilous navigation,” Mr. G. him- 
self fells us (Vol. x. ec. 54) that the 
space between Brundusium and Du- 
razzo was no more than a hundred 
miles; at the last stage of Otranto, 
contracted to fifty.” M. M. 
———j>__ 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N your Magazine for October, 1821, I 
noticed an extract from Mackenzie’s' 
1000 Experiments respecting Bread. I 
conceive the quantity of alum said to_be 
used by bakers, much over-rated, (say 
half) still that quantity, according to the 
calculation ten grains to each meal, 
(the dose uf alum being ten grains to 
twenty) must certainly be injurious to 
the constitution, unless it undergoes 
some chemical change of which Iam 
not aware. It is certainly a matter 
that deserves investigation, and the 
serious attention of those persons whose 
habits are sedentary, and whose con- 
stitution has a tendency toconstipation. 
It is a fact very well known, that per- 
sons 
