426 
a preposterous doctrine, that any should 
have the rights of British subjects 
without owing subjection to the British 
legislature. And thus I have expressed 
to you clearly my sentiments of that 
work. 
I think myself. very much obliged to 
your lordship for introducing me to the 
Earl of Dartmouth, who seems to me 
to be as worthy a nobleman, and to 
have as just and true notions of ‘his 
business as a minister, as any man of 
his rank with whom I have had the ho- 
nour to converse. I wish he may con- 
tinue long enough at that board to 
become fully master of all that belongs 
to its department; which is certainly 
one of the most considerahle in this 
nation, and would long ago have ap- 
peared in its proper light, if it had not 
been for the very quick transition of 
the first lord, and indeed of the other 
members who compose it, from thence 
to other posts of government. This I 
have ever considered, and I believe shall 
ever consider, not only as an error, but 
as a capital error, in our policy; for 
this, of all others, ought to be a perma- 
nent board, that the subjects might 
have the benefit, not of the abilities only, 
but of the experience, of those who sit 
there, and who ought to be gratified 
for the great pains they take, not by 
remoyal, but by an addition of other 
places, compatible with the time which 
they are obliged to spend at the board ; 
since, till something of this sort takes 
place, the commerce of Great Britain 
will never enjoy that protection, or 
those benefits, which it may justly 
expect, and which would be cer- 
tainly derived from such a permanent 
board. 
I have now, my lord, another favour 
to beg of you. I have reason to be- 
lieve, that Major Rogers, in his pro- 
posal of the discovery of the north- 
west passage, named me ashisagent. I 
am very well inclined to be useful, but 
I would by no means be thought offi- 
cious or troublesome. What I wish to 
know is, whether that proposition will 
be proceeded upon, and whether it is 
expected I should present any memo- 
rials relating thereto ; which I would 
not be backward in doing, if L thought 
it would be acceptable. But my time 
is too valuable, at least to me, to engage 
in a thing of this kind to no purpose ; 
and if your lordship can procure any 
lights in this matter, it will add to the 
many. civilities. and kindnesses_ by 
Stephensiana, No. /"IIL. 
[June I> 
which I am already bound to be, with 
much truth and respect, 
Your lordship’s 
Very faithful, obliged, and 
obedient servant, 
JOHN CAMPBELL. 
Queen-square, Ormond-street, 
Nov. 20, 1765. 
COSSACKS. 
The name of Cossack is taken from 
the Sclavonic word Koss (scythe). 
Formerly the Russian peasants used 
to go to war, for want of arms, with 
their scythes, from which they were 
named Cossacks,—scythemen. 
THE ABBE FELICE FONTANA, 
Among other useful discoveries, made 6 
very important one relative to the ab- 
sorption of air. In an experiment, 
which succeeded well, he found that a 
coal, red from the fire, in the act of 
cooling, absorbed eight times its vo- 
lume of air. The Abbé himself and 
others attempted to employ this prin- 
ciple in the construction of a machine 
for the formation of a vacuum; and 
Ingenhouz, taking advantage of what 
he had suggested, at last succeeded in 
it. The process is described by the 
latter in his “ Nouvelle Maniére de 
Produire,” &c. He admits that the 
vacuum is not so perfect as in the 
pheumatic pump, but hopes (with 
something more than a gratuitous sup- 
position,) that facts in the womb. of 
futurity may render it superior, 
The most simple experiments have 
sometimes led to useful and important 
discoveries. By friction applied to a 
bit of amber or electium, that substance 
acquires the power, first of attracting, 
then of repelling light bodies, such as 
straw, &c. Hereby the. philosopher 
has advanced to the knowledge of some 
of the most formidable phenomena of 
nature. Thunder and lightning. are 
now manufactured on the one hand, 
and their ravages repressed on. the 
other. Formerly, this terrible meteor 
was deemed incomprehensible by the 
faculties of frail and weak man, and 
only intelligible to creatures of a 
higher nature; it was considered as 
the indication and consequence of Di- 
vinity irritated at the crimes of man- 
kind. Salmoneus, the precursor of 
Franklin, experienced the. fate of the 
professor at Petersburgh; or, as the 
ancients have delivered their. senti- 
ments in accordance with their scanty 
and erroneous creeds, he was thus .pu- 
nished for affecting divine honours, 
GEORGE 
