1825.} _ 
ceeds to add his belief, that its applica+ 
tion will not be found confined to the 
names of gods, kings or places. He 
adds— 
“ Two demonstratiye articles, ‘ ta’ ‘ pa,’ 
masculine and feminine; Hn, the sign ex- 
pressing of; and Mi, signifying appertain- 
ing to, have already been discovered ; and 
I do not hesitate io say, that with a com- 
plete knowledge of Coptic, and a close ap- 
Plication to the study in Egypt, a’ person 
may be able, in no long time, to decypher 
whole inscriptions.” 
_ Here we join issue with Mr. Salt and 
his colleagues in opinion: we think his 
hope too sanguine; we should hesitate 
greatly in anticipating such a result; 
and we are of opinion that it will not 
be fulfilled. We have before expressed 
our views on this head in detail. A 
knowledge of Coptic may furnish a key 
to the sounds necessary to express 
names according to the Phonetic Sys- 
tem: but how can it avail in the deci- 
phering of images which express ideas 
and not sounds, as hieroglyphics must ? 
To extend the Phonetic System further 
than names, were the same as denying 
the existence of a hieroglyphical lan- 
guage altogether. It would be, in other. 
terms, asserting that the Egyptians had 
really no other than an alphabetical 
language,—and that language of the 
most vague,’confused and complicated 
“deseription — in which sounds were ex- 
pressed, not by invariable representative 
characters, but by various and variable 
symbols. That “any great progress 
can’ only be the result of extreme 
patience and labour,” we believe; and 
we coneur, also, with Mr. Salt’s other 
dictum, That it must be “by close 
oo to the study in Egypt”— 
that is to say, on the spot. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
io Sm: 
WHE last Whitehaven gazette con- 
tains an account of the presenta- 
tion of a silver cup, by a respectable 
party of gentlemen, to a surveyor of the 
turnpike roads in that neighbourhood ; 
who it appears had been displaced 
through the influence of a certain power- 
ful house, to make way, for the great 
colossus of roads, Mr. MacAdam; econ- 
‘trary to general approbation. 
_ A few words used by the superseded 
surveyor on receiving the cup, contains 
more solid reasoning than all the 
lengthy articles I have seen published 
on the subject. “ Road making,” he 
says, “is something like agriculture. 
Macadamization. x 
85 
There is no general rule for either, 
without exceptions :—Different parts of ~ 
the road, like different soils, require dif- 
ferent treatmént; nor will theory alone 
ever find out the most judicious dis- 
tinetions, until matured by practical 
experience.” 
The. value of well-broken ‘stones 
upon ‘a road has long been acknow- 
ledged ; but the limited means possessed 
by many surveyors, has hitherto pre- 
vented their more extensive application. 
It is only to the mode of using them, 
without any other covering, that’ Mr. 
MacAdam ean lay any claim to origi- 
nality : and the obstinate adherence to 
this plan, in every situation, high and 
low, hard and soft, is too much like a 
panacea for every disorder of the human 
frame. After the irregularly broken 
stones have adapted their sides and 
angles to each other, in the most per- 
fect manner their forms will admit of, 
still the mass is not without interstices; 
and those interstices will in time be 
filled, with nud, soil, dung, or such ad- 
yentitious substances as are first pre- 
sented ; and in proportion to the nature 
of the sub-soil, and. frequency of use, 
will this filling up be sooner or later 
effected. If the stones are laid in a low 
situation, on a soft bottom, and the road 
much used, the interstices ‘will soon’ be 
filled up (principally from beneath), 
and the surface covered with a coat of 
mud. On the contrary, if they are laid 
upon a firm foundation, on a rising 
ground, and the road of little traffic, 
there they are not pressed down into 
the substratum, and the small quantity 
of soil deposited upon the surface, to- 
gether with the clayey matter produced 
from the stones by attrition, is gradually 
washed away ; and a portion of the bro- 
ken stones are rolled about, till reduced 
into the form of water-worn pebbles. 
Now a light covering of fine gravel, or 
earthy matter, would prevent the abra~ 
sion of the stones, and bring them much 
sooner to a solid mass; and having 
once become fixed, all superfluous 
matter would’ soon be squeezed out; 
and I think that after two or three 
years’ wear, it would puzzle Mr. Mac- 
Adam himself to point out any defect 
arising from its being so treated. Mr. 
MacAdam is old, and no doubt incorri- 
gible: but some of his pupils, when 
emancipated ° from the control of the 
old general, and his less experienced 
bat not less assuming subalterns, may 
have sense to adapt their proceedings to 
circumstances. Your’s, &c. = 
July 8th 18257 War. 
F 2 
