ee ey? Fe OES S HACIROLES (07 UF GU NOIR AGRE 6). 4 Gpers ~ OOO 
As a pyetty ftrong ixterzal prefumption 
too, of the juftice of my claim, I may 
add, that the political principles of the 
old Britifh Whigs may be diftin€lly traced 
in both woyks*, In thofe principles I 
was educated ; and I mean to hold them, 
till I can difcover in fome other fyftem 
(what has never yet appeared) a better 
medium between the extremes of anarchy 
and defpotifm ; a fet of principles better 
calculated to+reconcile the neceflary vi- 
gour of the executive government, with 
the facred and indubitable rights and pri- 
vileges of a free people. 
What were Mr. Wadftrom’s political © 
principles, docs not very clearly appear in 
the Effay on Colenization; for I make no- 
thing of an ingenious quibble foilted into 
the Jaft fheet, after I had finifhed the 
whole work, by a certain able and elegant 
writer, who almott.immediately, quoted it 
back againinto a performance of his own. 
But that Mr. Waditrom’s principles were 
not thofe of a Britifli Whig, either of the 
old fchool or the new, might be proved irre- 
fragably from his pamphlets. And whe- 
ther or not, they were fuch as became an 
«* eftimable citizen” of France, as Mifs 
Williams ftyles him, may be gathered from 
his ‘* Plan for a Free Community,”’ &c. 
printed in the year 1792. ‘* Asyet (fays 
he, p.9-) there doth not appear the 
Jeaft profpe& of true civil liberty ; nor 
does it feem at all probable, that when it 
fhall appear, it will for a long time make 
any contiderable progrefs in Europe.”— 
«© But, on the contrary, it is evident that 
flavery is now much greater than it has 
ever yet been.”—At p. 44. the Britifh 
are ftyled ‘¢ an illuftrious people ;’—** a 
magnanimous nation ;”—‘* the FREEST, 
the mo/t illuminated,confequentlythe grand- 
eff, the mof? NOBLE people in Europe!” 
On the preceding page, Mr. Wadftrom 
gives to Great Britain, under the name of 
the *¢ firft nation in Europe,”’ all the ho- 
nour of “* undertaking to abolifi the vile 
traffic in human flefh,’’? without one par- 
ticle of the notorious infamy of pufhing 
that fame traffic toa greater extent than all 
Europe befide!! Doss not all this ‘mell 
fomewhat of the courtier? Mifs Williams 
has ‘* heard him mention,” and fo have I, 
many times, ‘* his having had frequent 
perfonal intercourfe with the late King of 
Sweden ;’ and I once faw him in the drefs 

* Letters on Slavery, Introd. p. g. and p. 
§3, 91, 147; and Effay on Colonization, 
Part I. p. 170, 176, 1943 and no doubt the 
fame fentiments appear in feveral other parts 
of both performances. 
MONTHLY MAG, NO, LII, 
~~ 
ee 
Pm 
a 
of that court. In common witn other per- 
fons of far greater knowledge of the world, 
T have experienced his courtly addrefs. & 
could mention a notable inftance—but,— 
tranfeat. . 
The fubject fuggefts to my mind fome 
reflections, which might perhaps be not 
improperly fubjoined ; but I fear I have al- 
ready tref{paffed the limits, which youallow 
to articles.of this kind. I am, Sir, 
Your moft obedient fervant, 
WILLm DICKSON, 
No..41, Great Titchfield-ftreet, 
November 5, 1799 
— 
Eee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magamine. 
SIR, - 
FIND from your laf number, that 
paper has lately been made in Ger- 
many from the conxferva. - In the prefent 
{carcity of the ufual materials, and confe- 
guent advanced price of paper, it gives 
me much fatisfaétion to learn that a fair 
trial is likely to be made of converting a 
whole genus of vegetables hitherto applied 
to no ufe, into an article of fuch intrinfic 
value and of fuch vaft confumption. 
Without withing to deny the merit of 
difcovery to the German profeflor, it’ is 
but juftice however to obferve that this 
very manufactory is one of the artes de- 
perdite of our own ifland. In Lightfoot’s 
Flora, Scotica, the following account is 
given of the ules of the conferva bullofa, 
or craw filk. 
<¢ It is of a foft fubitance, and in pure 
water, where the threads grow long, refem- 
bles tow. But in muddy waters, where 
they are fhort, it is not unlike cotton ; 
which being carefully collected and dried, 
turns whitifh, and has fometimes been 
ufed inftead of it, either as wadding to 
ftuff garments with, or to make towels 
and napkins. /e have alfo feen a tearfe 
kind of paper made of it at Edinburgh.” 
Other writers alfo have mentioned the 
filky texture of the fibres of this’ plant, 
and of its having been ufed to’ fluff beds 
with, and {pun into fine thread as a fubiti- 
tute for filk and cotton. See Dzllenius, 
Weis, Haller, and Bomare. \ 
If any of your readers, who are not bota- 
nifts, fhould wifh to make experiments on 
this fubftance, it may be of ufe to them to 
know that it may be met with in great, 
abundance in almoft every ditch and pool, 
e{pecially old clay-pits, and in moft flow’ 
fireams. In cold weather, it is always 
below the furface of the water, and forms 
a mafs of yellowifh-green fibres, very fines 
and interlacing each other in every direc- 
5 Se fiend. 
t 

