402 



PUBLIC WELL, Bil.LSTON. 



M uriate of soda Si grs. 



Carbonate of lime, 4. 



Carbonate of magnesia 5 5 



M uriate of lime )i 



Muriate of magnesia, . . . J 

 Oxide of iron, t 



Total, 34i 



Carbonic acid gas 30} cubic inc es. 



ALBANY WATIR. 



Muriate of soda, 59 grs. 



Carbonate of soda, ..... 5 



Carbonate of lime 4 



Carbonate of magnesia, .... H 



Carbonate of iron, I 



Muriate of lime, . . . . J 



Total, 

 Carbonic acid gas, 



71 

 26 cubic inches. 



CONGREVE, WILLIAM ; a celebrated British 

 dramatist, was descended from an ancient English 

 family, in the county of Stafford ; born in 1670. His 

 father held a command in the army. Young Con- 

 greve was educated in Ireland, at the free school of 

 Kilkenny, in the neighbourhood of which his father 

 had been led in the course of service. From Kil- 

 kenny he removed to Trinity college, Dublin, and 

 thence to the Middle Temple, London, to prepare 

 himself for the legal profession. Like many men 

 who are placed in a similar situation, he soon desert- 

 ed the law, and abandoned himself to the pursuits of 

 polite literature. At a very early age, he wrote a 

 novel, entitled the Incognita, which is sprightly, in- 

 tricate, and not natural. This was followed, at the 

 age of twenty-one, by his comedy of the Old Bache- 

 lor, pronounced by Dryden the greatest first play 

 that he had ever beheld. Its success acquired for 

 the author the patronage of lord Halifax, who im- 

 mediately made him a commissioner for licensing 

 hackney-coaches; soon after gave him a place in 

 the pipe office ; and finally conferred on him a very 

 lucrative place in the customs. His next play, the 

 Double Dealer, was not very successful in represen- 

 tation ; but his third, the comedy of Love for Love, 

 proved extremely popular. Not content with his 

 fame in comedy, he now essayed tragedy ; and in 

 1697, produced his Mourning Bride, the reception of 

 which was extremely favourable. The composition 

 of four such plays, before he had attained the age of 

 twenty-eight, is a remarkable proof of early genius 

 in a line of composition demanding great observation 

 and experience. He soon after closed his dramatic 

 career, with the Way of the World, considered by 

 many critics, as the most perfect of his comedies ; 

 but which was, notwithstanding, received so coldly, 

 that he resentfully determined to relinquish a species 

 of writing in which, upon the whole, he had been 

 eminently successful. A masque, entitled the Judg- 

 ment of Paris and Semite, an opera, the latter of 

 which was never represented, close the list of his la- 

 bours for the stage. He, however, continued to 

 write occasional verses on public subjects ; and, in 

 1710, published a collection of his plays and poems, 

 which he dedicated to his early patron, lord Halifax, 

 to whose person and party he remained attached in 

 all fortunes. The remainder of the life of Congreve 

 was spent in polished intercourse and literary lei- 

 sure ; and amidst the fierce party contention which 

 divided almost all the other wits of the day, he pur- 

 sued a dignified neutrality, and was praised and com- 

 Slimented on both sides. Steele dedicated to him 

 is Miscellanies, and Pope his translation of the 

 Iliad. On the return of his friends to power, he re- 

 ceived the additional sinecure of secretary to the 

 island of Jamaica ; and, thus rendered affluent, 

 seemed desirous of dropping the character of a 

 man of letters altogether. When Voltaire, in a 

 visit, a Hue led to his writings, he affected to regard 



them as trifles beneath him, and hinted tliat he only 

 expected to be visited as a gentleman. Voltaire re- 

 plied, that, had he been merely a gentleman, he 

 should never have been desirous of seeing him. His 

 latter years were clouded with sickness and infirmity, 

 and he died in January, 1728-9, in his sixtieth year, 

 in London. Congreve stands high on the list of Brit- 

 ish writers of comedy, for which distinction he is in- 

 debted less to a lively and humorous delineation of 

 natural character, than to a perpetual reciprocation 

 of wit in his dialogue, united to originality of plot. 

 and to new combinations of factitious manners. He 

 drew little from common life ; and if his portraits ot 

 sharpers and coquettes men without principle, and 

 women without delicacy are just portraitures of-the 

 fine gentlemen and ladies of the day, the reign of 

 Charles II. must have operated most dreadfully on 

 the national character. His Love for Love still occa- 

 sionally appears ; but none of the other pieces can 

 be sufficiently pruned of their licentiousness for mo- 

 dern representation. The Mourning Bride is well 

 constructed ; but the florid elevation of the language 

 is in the highest degree unnatural. It has, how- 

 ever, some fine poetic passages. The poetry of Con- 

 greve is below mediocrity, with the exception of a 

 few songs and short effusions of gayety or satire. 



CONGREVE, SIR WILLIAM, bart. ; inventor of 

 the rockets called by his name; was born in the county 

 of Middlesex, England, in 1772 ; and co-operated ac- 

 tively in the improvements introduced into the Bri- 

 tish army by the duke of York. He was a member 

 of parliament, general of artillery, inspector of the 

 royal laboratory, &c. In 1816-17, he accompanied 

 the grand prince Nicholas, now emperor of Russia, 

 on his tour through England. In 1824, a company 

 was formed for lighting the principal cities of Europe 

 with gas, of which Congreve was at the head. He 

 wrote an Elementary Treatise on the Mounting of 

 Naval Ordnance (London, 1812), and a Description of 

 the Hydro-Pneumatic Lock (London, 1815). He died 

 at Toulouse, in France, May 16, 1828. The Con- 

 greve rockets, first used in the attack of Boulogne, 

 1806, are of various dimensions, and are differently 

 armed as they are intended for the field or for bom- 

 bardment. Those of the first sort carry shells or case- 

 shot ; the others are armed with a very combustible 

 material, and are called carcass rockets. Their form 

 is cylindrical, and they are composed of strong me- 

 tallic cases. The sticks employed for regulating 

 their flight are ot different lengths, according to the 

 size of the rocket. The carcass rockets are armed 

 with strong iron, conical heads, pierced with holes, 

 and containing a substance as hard and solid as iron 

 itself, which, when once inflamed, is inextinguish- 

 able, and scatters it burning particles in every direc- 

 tion. When this substance is consumed, the ball ex- 

 plodes like a grenade. The rocket is projected hori- 

 zontally, and whizzes loudly as it flies through the 

 air. The ammunition is divided into three classes 

 heavy, medium, and light ; the heavy including all 

 above forty-two pounds, the medium, those from 

 forty-two to twenty-four pounds, and the light from 

 eighteen to six pounds inclusive. The British have 

 used them in the field at Leipsic, at the passage of 

 the Adour, &c., and for bombardment at the siege of 

 Copenhagen, &c. They were at first considered a 

 very important invention, but experience has shown 

 that they are made to deviate from their direction by 

 the wind and other causes, and that they sometimes 

 recoil upon their employers. In the field, they are 

 much less efficient than the common artillery, and, in 

 sieges, do less injury than red-hot shot and bombs. 

 Their composition is not so entirely a secret as is 

 commonly supposed, since they have been imitated 

 by the Austrian, Saxon, and other artillerists, and 



