3)0 
Account of a Book Society at Birmingham. 
hot in London. T took a pretty box 
for him in Giles Chalfont, a mile from 
me, of which I gave him notice: and 
intended to have waited on him, and 
seen him well settled in it, but was 
prevented by that imprisonment. But 
now being released and returned home, 
I soon made a visit to him to welcome 
him into the country. After some com¬ 
mon discourses had passed between us, 
lie called for a manuscript of his, which 
being brought he delivered to me, bid¬ 
ding me take it home with me, and 
read it at my leisure, and when I had 
so done, return it to him with my 
judgment thereupon. 
When I came home, and had set my¬ 
self down to read it, I found it was that 
excellent poem, which he entitled 
Paradise Lost. After I had with 
the best attention, read it through, J 
made him another visit, and returned 
him his book, with due acknowledg¬ 
ment of the favour he had done me, in 
communicating it to me. He asked me 
how I liked it, and what I thought of 
it: which I modestly but freely told 
him ; and after some further discourse 
about it, I pleasantly said to him, thou 
hast said much here of Paradise Lost , 
but what hast thou to say of Paradise 
Found ? He made me no answer, but 
sate some time in a muse, then brake 
off that discourse, and fell upon another 
subject. 
After the sickness ivas over, and the 
city well cleansed and become safely 
habitable again, he returned thither, 
and when afterwards I went to wait on 
him there, (which I seldom failed of 
doing, whenever my occasions drew me 
to London) he shewed me his second 
poem, called Paradise Regained ; 
and in a pleasant tone said to me, u this 
is owing to you: for you put it into my 
head, by the question you put to me at 
Chalfont, which before 1 had not thought 
of.” 
Stockton , July 3C )th, 1821. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HAVE ascertained that good fresh 
table beer may be made with sound 
wheat bran, at the rate of 2d. per 
gallon, beer measure, estimating the 
price of bran at 4s. per cwt. and the 
saccharine density of the wort ex¬ 
tracted at 16 lbs. per barrel ; but the 
use of the instrument called saechro- 
mefer, in domestic practice, is not ne¬ 
cessary, the process in brewing with 
wheat bran being sufficiently known 
[Nov. 1 7 
to every good housewife, especially to 
those of labourers in husbandry, as 
well as that for this purpose nothing of 
apparatus is needful, but such as ought 
to be in common use with every cottager 
in the country. A few pounds per 
barrel, of treacle, or the coarsest Mus- 
covada sugar, would be a cheap im¬ 
provement as to strength, which indeed 
might be increased to any degree re¬ 
quired. Thus might be induced large 
consumption o'f colonial produce dur¬ 
ing its unprecedented state of depres¬ 
sion, if tile method here recommended 
were generally adopted by the labouring 
community. Humanitas. 
Oct . 1821. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
K NOWING your predilection for 
literary encouragement and pur¬ 
suits, and also for the no less valuable 
propensity to social intercourse, I send 
you for insertion (if you think fit) a 
short account of a book-society in this 
town, of which I am a member, and 
can therefore speak with the authority 
of long and personal observation. If 
experience is the best ordeal of 
merit, this society can boast an unin¬ 
terrupted succession, in which few, if 
any, similar institutions can rival it e 
Like the venerable pyramids of Egypt, 
(serving at once for illustration and 
contrast) our antiquity is beyond the 
icach of historic record; but I have 
every reason to assert that it has been 
established little, if any thing short of 
a century; and I have a document 
now before me, proving that my father 
belonged to the society fifty-eight 
years ago. The last person who filled 
the office of actuary, held it during a 
period of 30 years, and the present one 
not less than six. The number of mem¬ 
bers is limited to 24, and as a proof of 
the stability and reputation of the so¬ 
ciety, there is no instance on record of 
any vacancy in the list remaining more 
than a month or. two at one time. 
There must of course be some good 
reasons for this continued prosperity, 
so as to render this institution an object 
for enquiry and imitation, and these I 
believe, principally consist in the 
simplicity of its arrangements and 
the economy of its finances, the de¬ 
tail of which may not be altogether 
unacceptable to the public. The 
members are voted in by not less than 
a majority of two thirds, thereby en¬ 
suring the probability of a similarity 
