advantages to Great Britain. 
1300. ] 
but allo gums, dyer’s wood, and all other 
produions of hot climates, which are 
cultivated in the plantations feated on 
‘the banks of the Surinam, Commarine, 
Cothica, Perion, and other rivers. The 
number of plantations, which in the year 
1775 did not exceed 430, has now rifen to 
500, and each of them contains a diftriét 
of 8 to goo acres. By an authentic ac- 
count, the produ&s of Surinam in the 
year 1785, was as follows : 
24,320,000 lbs. raw fugary 
which was fold in Holland Guilders 
for | - - 694,450 
15,387,000 lbs. coffee fold for 715,078 
970,000lbs. cotton-wool, fold 
for Sw - - (197,688 
790,354.1bs. cocoa, fold for 51,364 
152,844lbs. dyer’s wood, fold 
BKIZ +) ut) = = - 15232 
Thefe commodities fetched —————— 
therefore in the whole 1,659,812 
And their importation into the ports of 
the Batavian Republic gave employment 
to 7o veflels. In addition to thefe com- 
modities, Surinam produced 560,000 gal- 
lons of fyrup, and 166,000 gallons of 
rum, which were not exported for Europe, 
but fent with other goods to America. 
The produce of the colony has been of 
late years confiderably increafed by a fuc- 
cefsful cultivation of tobacco; but’ the 
refults of this branch of the colonial cul- 
ture are not yet known from authentic 
accounts. 
The induftry of the planters of Surinam, 
in point of commerce,is,like that of all other 
American colonies, confined to the trade 
with their own commodities, the principal 
depot of which is the capital, Paramaribe, 
whofe excellent ‘port is five leagues diftant 
from the fea, But the commercial purfuits 
of the colonifts, both in Europe and the 
Wett India iflands, were reduced of late 
years to a ftate of total ftagnation, in con- 
fequence of the prefent revolutionary war, 
‘Their navigation was intercepted, their 
activity paralized, and the owners of 
plantations found no opportunity of dif- 
pofing of their commodities, which, at the 
appearance of the Englifh, lay ftowed up 
in immenfe warehoules, containing the 
colonial produce of feveral years. The 
victorious trident of Great Britain has 
put a period to that calamitous ftate of 
affairs. Proteéted by Britith fleets, Su- 
yinam may now fend her precious commo- 
dities to Europe, and gather wealth un- 
molefted, while, at the fame time, the ac- 
quifition of that colony holds out fignal 
If fitteen 
years ago the commodities exported from 
On Guttural Sounds. 
235 
Surinam produced in Holland upwards of 
1,600,000 guilders ; how rich a fource of 
wealth is the increafed produce of that 
colony fikely to prove for the enterprifing 
mind of the Britifh merchant ! 
oo ——a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
Y 7 OCAL language is in its nature lit- 
tle fufceptible of written illuttra- 
tion, and therefore feems to have been al. 
moft overlooked, among the many curious 
fubjeéts which intereft the inquifitive. 
The anatomy of fpeech has indeed been 
repeatedly inveftigated; the alphabet has 
been criticifed, and founds arranged ac- 
cording to their organical origin: but I 
am not aware that any elaborate inquiry 
has ever been made concerning the hiftory 
of the fpoken language in this country ; 
hence I know no better way of relieving 
my own. ignorance than by addreffing a 
few queries to your learned correfpondents. 
Every one knows the {pirited, if not juft, 
critique on the European tongues by the 
Emperor Charles V. who faid, he would 
fpeak French to his friend, Italian to his 
miftrefs, Exglifh to birds, Spani/h to God, 
and High Dutch to his horie. Probably 
this imperial jadgment has ferved more 
than any thing elfe to fpread the notion 
that the German language is harfh and 
immelodious — a quality which, as faras 
it is confirmed by general opinion in other 
countries, is fuppofed to arife from the 
frequency of its guttural words. I wifh 
to draw the attention of your readers to 
the guttural found, by fuggefting that it 
once had no rare occurrence in our own 
language, though now difufed in England. 
In Scotland it is ftill retained, and the 
Welfh tongue has many kindred founds. 
Though perfeétly fimple, it is not marked 
by any one letter; I fhall diftinguith it by 
gh, which I fufpeét originally expreffed it 
in thofe Englith words where the g is filent. 
‘This found is an incipient g or &, or rather 
aneutral found between that of thofe letters 
and the firong afperate. Theg and fare 
formed by fuddenly withdrawing the tongue 
from the palate, and at the fame breathing. 
When the found of g/ is produced, we 
make the afperate, ftill keeping the tongue 
againft the palate, and it may. be indefi- 
nitely extended like the t/, v, 2, and 
French j: ' 
The prefumption that this found was 
once familiar in the language, arifes from 
the filent confonants, .an abfurdity in or- | 
thography which could not have been fuf- 
fered when the words were originally form - 
sLh 2 ed 




SSS 
= eos 
pes pe 
Sa 





Pea ee 
