1799: ] 
the expence leffened ; or that our leather 
is much better than it was twenty years 
ago. To this general remark, there 
may, perhaps, be two exceptions. An 
ingenious man has obtained a patent, and 
erected, a manvtactory near Weitmintter- 
bridge, where leather is tanned on the 
principles of Monfieur Seguin, a French 
chemiit of much celebri: -y- By this mode, 
leather of the fame kind and quality is 
manufaétured in fourteen days, which in 
the ordinary way requires as many 
months. Whether the expence attending 
this procefs be greater or lefs, I am not 
competent to decide. 
The other exception to which I have 
alluded, is the dilcovery and ule of elm- 
bark, for which alfo a patent is obtained. 
As this difcovery is not generally known, 
and it feems to be-of great importance, I 
fhall lay before your readers the relult of 
many experiments made, under the direc- 
tion of the patentee, by {ome eminent ma- 
nufacturers in Southwark, and which have 
been fubmitted to the examination of the 
lords of the committee of privy-council, 
as well as to a committee of the houfe of 
commons. From this evidence it appears 
that a confiderable quantity of leather had 
been manutaétured with e/m-bark—that 
it was firm and durable—that its quality 
and weight were nearly equal to that 
tanned with oak-bark—and that the fhoe- 
makers who worked it up confefled that 
they fearcely knew the difference. 
As it would, be unintereiting to your 
readers to enter into a detail ot the expe- 
riments, with a precife ftatement of the 
weight of the bark expended and of the 
leather produced, I fhall only fay that the 
comparative advantage of that which was 
tanned with oak, over that tanned with 
. elm-bark appears to be about ove in twenty ; 
and as the price of the latter is not above 
half the price of the former, this advan- 
tage is more than counterbalanced. 
Tf the ufe of elm bark fhould become. 
general (as it probably will when preju- 
dice fubfides) it will confiderably increafe 
the materials of tanning; will leffen the 
confumption of oak timber; will aug- 
ment our commerce and revenue; and 
will ultimately tend to benefit the pub- 
lic by reducing the price of one of the 
neceffary and indilpenfible articles of life. 
Should this letter be deemed worthy a 
place in your valuable mifcellany, I may 
perhaps on a future occafion trouble you 
with fome further remarks. 
Iam, Sir, your obedient fervant, 
1 eh 
Bark-Place, Feb. p2, 1799: 
Eccleftaftical Ai fiona of Spain. 
125 
To the Editor of the Month! ty MESH. 
MR. EDITOR, 
N the 13th volume of the works of 
Louis de Saint-Simon, printed at 
Strafburg in 1791, I find fome curious 
remarks on the ecclefiaftical difcipline of 
Spain, and on the authority of the In- 
quifition, which I flatter my/elf will not 
be unacceptable to your readers. 
*¢ One day,”” fays the duke, ** the Arch- 
bifhop of Toledo took meafide, and with the 
the moft lively emotions, fvid to me: for 
Heaven’s fake, Sir, let your bithops in 
France beware of following the example of 
their brethren herein Spain. For, by little 
and little, Rome has brought us under her 
yoke, and reduced us to mére cyphers in our 
own diocefes. Mere priefts of the inquifition 
are become our teachers and our mafters, and 
are in poffeijion of our authority; and we are 
daily indebted to our very fervants for the 
information, that a decree on doétrinal points 
is affixed to the doors of our cathedrals, of 
which we had no previous knowledge, but 
to which we muft fubmit without reply. 
‘The corre€tion of vice and che regulation of 
the manners of the people belongs alfo to the 
ingullfition. In the concerns of the bifhop’s 
court, whoever pleafes may difregard the 
proper officers and go to the tribunal of the 
nuncio, where, if diffatished with his offi- 
cers too, he has only to appeal from their de- 
cifion to that of the nuncio, So that, de- 
prived as we are of all authority, we have 
only the powers of ordination and of con- 
firmation left us: in truth, we are no longer 
the bifhops of our own diocefes. The pope 
is the immediate bifhiop of every diocefe here, 
and we are no more than his vicars, confe« 
crated indeed, and mitred, but for the fole 
purpofe ordaining priefts, and of performing 
a few other manual operations, without 
daring to intermeddle with, otherwife than 
by blindly fubmitting to, the inquifition, the 
nunciature, and whatever is fent us from 
Rome: and fhould a bifhop happen to dif 
pleate them in the fmalleft tittle, he is in- 
ftantly punifhed, without being allowed te 
offer any thing in his own defence; becaufe 
nothing lefs than the fubmiffion of deaf and 
dumb animals is expected from him. It fel- 
dom indeed happens now, that any one is fent 
to the prifon of the inquifition, or to Rome, 
‘bound and gagged, becaufe thefe inftances, 
in paft times, have been too frequent, and 
becaufe they wifh to run norifk; yet we are 
not entirely without fuch en gneee and 
theie very recent. es 
“¢ Judgethen, Sir, what weight aoe 
rity the conftitution can derive from ace 
ceptance of bithops thus enflaved, as we in | 
italy, Portugal, and Spainare ; ain from the . 
univerfities, ie doétors, and the feculary, 
regular, and monattic bodies of the clergy in 
the fame countries. But this is not, all: 
Do you imagine that a fingle individual 
" among 
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