1799+]. 
DERSFIELD and OLDHAM is made to 
penetrate through the hills, by means of 
atuonel. In digging this tunnel, under 
the mountain Strane Edge, a very curivus 
mineralogical /u/us natura was diicovered. 
The mountain, in general, confitts of 
fhale, or a common foft argillaccous 
fchiftus; but it is interfeéted, near the 
middle, by a perpendicular vein of 
Jimeftone, on both fides of which were 
met with a vait quantity of balls, of 
various fizes, from eleven cwt. to an 
eunce: they appear to be formed of a 
black calcareous iron ftone, witha thin 
coat of pyrites round their furface. They 
are not exactly {pherical, but rather of 
the fhape of a turnip: round the furtace, 
like fo many parallels ot lacitude, are the 
marks, as it were, of the tool with which 
they might feem to have been wrought 
in a lathe. Several of them have been 
fawn in two, and polifhed; others, on 
being broken, exhibit curious fpecimens 
of the cornu-ammunis, the! cavities beau- 
tifully incrufted with cry ftals ; others are 
impreffed with marks of the fame fhell on 
the ourfide*. 
The ingenious friend who favoured 
me with one of thefe ftones, at the fame 
time gave me a fpecimen of a mineral 
fubftance, feveral tons of which were 
lately bought at Liverpool for pumbayo, 
to which it bears fome rele:nblance, and, 
like it, anfwers very well the purpofe of 
lubricating the iron work of imachinery ; 
that mimeral, however, has a deeper 
colour, and foils the Gngers with a dark. 
dead Main; whereas the fiain of this has 
fomewhat of an argentine appearance: 
it alfo differs from it in being perfedily 
unalterable in the hotteft open furnace. 
It moft refembles molyédena; but it dif- 
fers from itin this, that no acids, either 
cold or hot, have the flightcit effeét upon 
it. “From fome late experiments, he 
fuppoles it to be iron very highly 
oxydated ; but it will, doubtlefs, receiye 
farther inveftigation : with the refult of 
which the public, it 1s hoped, will be 
favoured. Vaio 
{This intercfing Tour will be concluded in 
our next Number.) 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SER, : 
ja your Mag. for July, PHILALETHES, 
after making one or two defultory ob- 
fervations on Mr. Burke’s’ ‘* Vindication 
of Natural Society,’ expreffes a with to 



* A fhort account of thefe {tones may be 
found in the lait volume of the Philofophica, 
Mr. Burke's Vindication of Natural Society. 179 
know, if any of your correfpondents 
“ can fet the defign of the author in any 
fairer light than he has been able to fee 
it in?’? What impretlion Mr. B. intend- 
ed to ftamp on the mind, from the pic- 
ture which he drew of civil fociety, wilt 
always be queftionable ; becaufe there 
are people who will think it unfair to ar- 
tribute other motives for publication than 
fuch as an author avows. 
confideration, however, will not, through 
an idle complaifance, yield implicit cre~ 
dit to the declaration of an author, where 
the internal evidence of his; work is an 
impeachment of its veracity. Mr. Burke 
has fhown, that political fociety is charge- 
able with a de(ftruétion of the human 
fpecies, enormous beyend any pofiible 
previous conception: on a moft mode- 
rate calculation, he has found it neceflary 
to multiply thirty-fix millions by a thou- 
fand, in order to form an eftimate—ecyen 
then. an imadequate cftimate—of thot 
who have been aétually flain in battles, 
or perifhed in a no lefs miferable man- 
ner by the dreadful confequences of war, 
in the four quarters of the globe, from 
the beginning of the world to the time 
in which his book was written, 1756. 
As to the blood which has reddened the 
face of Europe fince that period, it ts 
unneccflary to norice that, in the caleula- 
tion, the number of men exifting on 
the earth, Mr. B. computes at five hun- 
dred millions; the conclufion to te 
drawn, therefore, is, that the flaughter 
ct mankind amounts to upwards of fe- 
venty times the number of fouls that 
now dwell upan the globe! Ic fhould 
be remembered, that this is no random 
guefs of Mr. Burke’s: the work, which 
is the fubject of the prefent obfervations, 
bears the moft evident and unequivocad 
marks of ftudy and of thought; in or- 
der to eftimate the defolating carnage 
with which civil focicty has feourg-. 
ed the creation, Mr. B. has ranfacked 
the records of remoteft hiftory : there is 
fearcely a conqueror of any eminence in 
atrocity, whofe name is not mentioned in 
this bloody calendar; there is {carcely 
a kingdm in the four quarters of 
the globe, which is not dpecified ag 
the theatre of fome dreadful drama !— 
That a fearch for fcenes of defolation, 
anda fucceisful fearch too—thould nor 
leave on the mind a deep imprelfion of 
the evil nature of that ftate of fociety 
which produced them, will hardly be 
contended; and onthis ground it is, thar-— 
I cannot help futpeéting, that whatever 
irony might be mingled with the firft 
A mah of: 

Fr pantaene: pages of Mr, Burke’s. Vindication ‘of, 
‘ ..  dNatural 
i 
