494 
of architefture ought to be’as different as 
the order of religion; and while we meet. 
with but few traces of the pyramid or 
fpire, we have a right to expect a large 
prevalence of the very fymbols that are 
prefented to us: columns, typical of the 
proteting power of the ark, ornamented 
at their capitals with vignettes, the fruit 
and leaves of the vine firit cultivated by 
its founder; united, where fuch union 
was neceflary, with circular or crefcent, 
infead of pointed arches ; and crowned, 
inftead of the fpire, with the dome. The 
fudjec&t is interefting, but I can purfue it 
no farther: yet I hope to fee it refumed 
by fome perfon who may be better qualified 
to do it juftice than myfelf. 
: Joun Mason Goon. 
Caroline-place, Guildford-ir. - 
Nov. 175 1801. 
” <= 
Yo the Editor of the Moxthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
_ {Na work of fuch magnitude as the re- 
building of London-bridge, every pof- 
fible mode fhould be taken into confide- 
ration ; and, among others, I have heard 
it frequently mentioned, rather as a thing 
to be wifhed, than as one capable of being 
put in prattice, to have the intended 
bridge of one fingle arch. . 
Being in company, fome time paft, with 
2 conftructor of iron-bridges, I urged this 
‘to him as a fair opportunity offered of im- 
mortalizing his name, by devifing a me- 
thod of accomplifhing this arch of caft 
materials: but he candidly owned, that 
the elevation neceffary to be given to fuch 
an arch would prove a great obftacle. 
I then fugeetted to that original genius 
Beaz, the fmith of Bath-wick, that he 
would do well to propofe his entire new 
principle, by means of which a great cen- 
tre arch might be got with the mof per- 
fe& fecurity and durability. What he 
has done, I know not; but i have Jately, 
I think, difcovered in your Work ameans 
by which it might be accomplifhed with 
the greateft eafe. What I refer to is your 
account of Mr. Jordan’s plan’of taking off 
lateral preflure, by fufpending bridges to 
a grand areh, and making a draw-bridge 
where the pafflage of mafts is neceflary ; 
for here, where the old bridge exifis as a 
{caffolding, an arch of any diameter may, 
with certainty and fafety, be raifed on its 
own ftirrups, and,the new bridge entirely 
completed before the old one is taken 
down. Neither would any draw-bridge 
be neceflary ; as, although his plan ren- 
ders it pofible to have a flat bridge of any 
On the Cin/truction of Iron Bridges, with one Arch. [Jane 15 
length, yet, at the fame time, it enables 
the artift to give the pafflage over any ‘de- 
gree of curve that fhall be fuitable to the 
public, yet ftill without the fmalich laceral 
preflure; and, in the hands of a man of 
genius, make {uch a bridge the admiration 
of the world, yes 
As you have already publithed- his 
principle in your Magazine, I thall only 
refer your readers and the ~public to the 
work itlelf ; fince it appears to me, that 
if a bridge of ome arch be defired, this 
great, becaufe fmple, invention, is likely 
to be the one that muft ultimately be~ 
adopted. Iam, Sir, your’s, .&c. 
_—E 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
The NOBLE LETTER Of BRUTUS fo CI~ 
CERO :—dedicated to the FIRST CONSUL 
of FRANCE. ; 
6 MARCUS BRUTUS/0 MARCUS TULLIUS 
_ CICERO. 
T TICUS fent me an extra& of your 
Letter to Oétavius. You have 
been fo long my faithful friend, that I 
can receive little zeqw pleafure in reading 
your expreffions of regard for my general © 
welfare, and folicitude for my_perfonal 
fafety. I am fo accuftomed to hear of 
what Cicero has faid, or of what he-has 
done, to ferve my intereft, or exalt my cha- 
racter, that fuchsproofs of friendfhip have 
loft the frefhnefs of novelty, and I am 
come to look on them as things of courfe, 
mere occurrences of the day: I am, on 
this account, the lefs able to bear the pain 
which this part of your letter has given 
me that relates to us.and to our caufe. 
When you exprefs your gratitude to Octa- 
vius in fuch a fulfome detail of adulation, 
(I feel my cheeks redden while I write ; 
the rank and ftation of a republican recoil 
at the idea—recommend our lives to dim! 
—as well commend to him the daggers 
with which we ftabbed hts uncle)—When 
you are thus eager in paying homage, 
and in imploring clemency, do you not, as 
it were, mount the roftrum to declare, 
that it is vain for us to remove the mafter- 
dom, while you are refolved to keep the 
matter; and is not Cicero transformed 
into 2 lifter, who lays down the fafces of 
the empire at the feet of a boy. 
Recolle&t the words that you have - 
written ; and if you dare, deny that they 
pre-fuppofe,on the one part, the impotence 
of the flave; and,.on the other, the feif- 
fufficiency of the tyrant. ‘* One requeft 
(you fay) mutt be made, one fupplications 
that. he will not ule thofe men ill of 
whem 
