
1796.) 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
[PX the infancy of commerce, when the 
defective ftate of navigation rendered 
the intercourfe between diftant countries 
more difficult and dangerous than at pre- 
fent, and when the infurance of veffels 
and their cargoes, by which the merchant, 
in a great meafure, fecures himfelf from 
rifk, was not fo generally praétifed, the 
eftablithment of joint-ftock companies, 
with exclufive privileges, was certainly 
attended with beneficial effects, by en- 
couraging thofe’ branches of trade which 
would have been deemed too hazardous 
for individuals to engage in, or required 
a greater capital than our merchants in 
general then poffeffed. 
But whatever may have been their 
original utility, it has evidently been gra- 
dually declining; the accumulation of 
capital, and the increafing {pirit of mer- 
cantile adventure, have qualified indivi- 
duals for undertaking concerns of the 
greateft magnitude ; and fuch focieties, of 
the above defeription, as ftill exift, have 
been, for fome time, generally confidered 
both unjuf in principle, and as obftacles 
to the full expanfion of commerce. Our 
Eaft-India Company, which is the chief 
fociety of this kind now remaining, has 
long enjoyed great, and deferved, cele- 
brity, in their mercantile capacity. They 
appear to have carried the commerce of 
the Haft nearly to its utmoft extent; and 
their conduct, as merchanis, having, in 
general, been fuch as refteéts upon them 
much credit, and fhows a ju regard to 
the interefts of their country, it appears 
furprifing that they fhould lately have 
adopted a meafure which appears to have 
a very contrary tendency: among other 
regulations for preventing the company 
from monopolizing any article of which 
they are the fole importers, it was pro- 
vided, that they fhould fell all goods with- 
in twelve months after importation, and 
in lots of a limited value ; and if their 
charter contains no exprefs prohibition 
from engaging in the home manufaétures 
of thisscountry, it is undoubtedly becaufe 
-the framers of it had not the moft diftant 
idea that ‘Phe United Company of Mer- 
chants of England, trading to the Eaft- 
Indies,’’ would ever attempt any thing of 
‘the kind. The meafures recently adopted 
by the Company, of working a conlide- 
rable part of theirimport of Bengal raw- 
fiik into organzine, ought to be viewed 
by manufaccurers of all defcriptions with 
the moft jealous attention, as, from their 
tenacious. adherence to the undertaking, 
Montuty Mac. No, XI. 
India Company. ... Lime. 
S51 
notwithftanding the ftrong objections that 
have been made to it, there appears but 
too much reafon to fufpect that 1t may be 
only part of amuch more extenfive plan. 
The company, at prefent, import indigo, 
fugar, cotton, hemp, flax, &c. and if the 
principle is once eftablithed, it may be 
eafy to invent fome plaufible reafon for 
extending it to the preparatory branches 
of other manufaétures. It cannot, in 
_ the leaft, be apprehended, thatthe money 
to be raifed by the intended increafe of 
the Vompany’s capital is to be employed 
in any way beiides their regular commer- 
cial concerns ; neither can it be fuppofed 
that they have at prefent the moft remote 
intention of {pinning the cotton, or print= 
ing the callicoes they import ; yet only 
five or fix years ago, it appeared at leait 
equally improbable, that the Company 
fhould engage in throwing organzine 
it may therefore be the intereft, as well as 
the duty, of perfons engaged in the va- 
rious manufactures of the country, to. 
confider well the tendency of the above 
meature before it is fully eftablifhed, and 
to oppofe a dangerous precedent before 
they feel its confequences. 
fick: Ge 
Nov. 9, 1796. 
SEE 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SER 
iC is very probable, that Lime, from its 
cauftic quality, may have fome bene- 
ficial effeét, when combined with other 
fubftances, for the purpofe of manure : 
as, however, this effect can be but of thort 
duration, lime foon lofing its caufticity 
by being expofed to the atmofphere, its 
permanent advantage does not appear to be 
accounted for. 
When particles of lime are faturated 
with moifture and fixed air, they become 
precifely what they were before calcina- 
tion, excepting that they were then in 
maffes, and are now detached: and a3 
the faturation is foon effecied, that. cir- 
cumftance does not explain the caufe of its 
utility, which is apparent for feveral 
years. 
Fixed air, in order to affift vegetation, 
muft be brought into contaét with, and 
abforbed by, the vegetable, into the cir- 
calation ‘of which it enters, and is again 
emitted, after having undergone fome 
change of chara€ter, in the form of pure 
air. But 1 do not confider it in the power 
of a plant to detach from the particles of 
lime contiguous thereto, any part of the 
fixed air which may have been combined 
with thole particles, that combination 
5,0. being 


