402 
month during the feafon: and to all 
thefe Portfea contributes its fupport, and 
yet our affemblies are but thinly atiended. 
If the mufic-mafters of the place contrive 
“once or twice a year to get up a concert ; 
with thefe, and the martial-mufic, of 
which we have a profufion that cofts us 
nothing, we are abundantly content. It 
is true, a concert-room was fome years ago 
ereéted in Portfea; but, from a failure of 
‘fubferibers, it has fallen into difufe, and . 
feems irrevocably doomed to re-echo “¢ the 
concord of {weet foumds”’’ no More*. 
In a literary view, if the fentiments of 
a writer on the projected Naval-pillar are 
to be adopted, Foriimouth is ina worfe 
fituation than triuniphantly fuppofed by 
the author of the Purfuits of Literature. 
It muft be confeffed that Porifmouth is 
not the place tor academic bowers. It 
ill fuits the man of letters or the book- 
worm. Literary fociety is {carce.—We 
have no public-library, nor reading-rooms; 
yet we are not, I truft, mere Goths and 
Vandals, or very obvioufly inferior to 
other places. We are not entirely defi- 
cient in literary men; and, befides two 
weekly papers, which mutt {peak for 
themfelves, we have bookfellers, and cir- 
culating-libraries, and book-focieties, fuf- 
ficient in number to prove, that reading 
and literature are not excluded from the 
catalogue of our purfuits. 
Neither are we without fome ufeful in- 
ftitations. In Portfea is a {chool, efta- 
blithed by a beneficial. fociety, and fup- 
ported by honorary members, which, in 
1755, began with educating fix boys; and 
the number has fince been augmented, 
from the increafe of honorary members, to 
fifty and upwards. Within thefe few 
years, a fchool has alfo been eftablifhed 
in the environs by the Diffenters, at which 
‘about thirty boys are, as in the other 
{chool, taught reading, writing, and arith. 
metic. In Portfmouth is a good founda- 
tion for a grammar-fchool, under the dean 
and canons of Chrift Church College, Ox- 
ford(but which, Iam forry to fay, has been 
fuffered to becomea perfeét finecure); and in 
the Dock isthe national eftablifhment of an 
academy, on a very liberal plan, for the 
education of boys defigned for the navy. 
-If our piety is to be eftimated according 
to the number of our places of divine wor- 
fhip, they will not difcredit us. — Befides 
the two parifh-churches of Portfmouth and 
* Tt turns out that in this conjecture I am 
wrong, as I underftand the room has been 
lately taken, notwithftanding its abject ftate, 
for private concerts, 
State of Society at Portfmouth. 
[June x, 
Portfea, the chapels and meeting-houfes in 
both towns and the environs amount to 
no lefs than fourteen ; and of this number, 
the greater part belongs to different clafles 
of Difflenters, who form here, and parti- 
cularly in Portfea,a very confiderable body. 
‘That we have no Quakers among us, will 
be prefumed. The Jews, however, are 
numerous, and mix more with the inhabi- 
tants than formerly ; but the intercourfe 
is ftill exceedingly limited. They have 
hkewile their fynagogue. They form part 
of our volunteer corps, ard have lately 
been admitted, as it may be confidered, 
into our police. 
The civil government of the place be- 
longs to the mayor, aldermen, and re- 
corder of the borough, who hold a court 
‘every Tuefday, which takes cognizance of 
pleas as well above as below forty hhillings; 
and alfo quarterly feffions fer the trial of 
petty larcenies and mifdemeanours. Since 
a fhare of the magiftracy has pafled into 
new hands, it has evinced much activity. 
Our police has been improved in confe- 
quence : the obfervance of Sunday is ftriét- 
ly enforced: ovr public-houfes are put 
under more wholefome difcipline ; and the 
frequent f{cenes of diffolutenefs and inde- 
cent revelry that our fireets and public- 
walks have exhibited, are no longer tole-. 
rated. 
Should the account I have gwen be 
adapted for your Magazine, and a further 
defcription be not rendered unneceffary 
by being furnifhed by fome more able 
hand, I will, at a future opportunity, con- 
tinue the fubject. W.N. 
Portfimouth, March 45 1801. 
—i . 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, : 
OUR Correfpondent P. may find an 
account of the fog refpeéting which 
he inquires, in a tract of Dr. Franklin’s, 
entitled Meteorological Conje&tures, where 
Cowper, I fancy, acquired fome ideas 
concerning it. The fog prevailed, the 
Doétor obferves, during feveral of the 
fummer months of 1783, over all Europe, 
anda great part of North America; and 
from his remarks I apprehend it may 
have been ftill more general. It was in 
its nature dry ; and the rays of. the fun 
feemed to have little effect towards diffi- 
pating it. They were rendered fo faint 
by it, that when colle&ted by a lens, they 
_would fcarcely kindle brown paper; to 
which caufe Dr. Franklin attributes the 
feverity of the fucceeding winter, He 
fuppcefes it may have been the a 
i2) 
