i) 
a8 
would fometimes even cut a hole in his 
poor wallet, fo that he had not even a~ 
{crap to dittribute. He publithed a book 
ventitled ‘* The Chriftian World unmafked, 
Pray come, and peep.” 
John Berridge feems to have been an- 
other Holcroft in Cambridgefhire, Bed- 
fordfhire, and Huntingdonfhire, preaching 
in houfes, barns, of any hovel, into which 
he could put his head. He was generally 
confidered by the Univerfity as a whimf- 
cal, low-fpirited, but, at the fame time, 
aw:ll-meaning and honeft man. : 
About 1768 there was a fociety of Me- 
thodifts, compofed of gownfmen, the moft 
active of whom was Mr. Rowland Hill, 
a preacher now at the-head of a large 
fociety in the neighbourhood of the me- 
tropolis: thefe gentlemen ufed to expound 
the Scriptures in private houfes, occa- 
fionally preached in the villages about 
Cambridge, and had prayer-meetings in 
their own rooms, which, if not ftridtly 
unftatuteable, were at leaft confidered as 
irregular praétices. | 
This laft paragraph is introduced as a 
compliment to almamater, for fhe certainly 
difcovered in this inftance liberality towards 
thefe young gentlemen; much more at leatt 
than our auat of Oxford, who actually 
expelled fix young men from Edmund- 
hall for the fame praétices, about the fame 
time: on this laft occafion many pamphlets 
flew about. the. country, and one entitled : 
*¢ The Shaver,” cut the Dogtors of Ox- 
ford very clofe. 
P. S. Milton’s Greek lines, quoted in our 
Jaft Month's Cantabrigiana, were inaccurate- 
ly printed. 
printed thus : ’ 
Tedate ¢avre ducpspenua Cwyeapod 
No one, of courfe, will miftake thofe er- 
rors for the imperfections alluded to. 
. Bie dne 
Pout —— re 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
DO not in the leaft with to depreciate 
the Telegraph of Sir H. Popham, but 
from a principle of jultice I muft remind 
the Lover of Merit, who wrote in your 
Magazine for Augult, that a vocabulary 
of the fame fort as that which he mentions 
Is defcribed in a paper prefented by Mr. 
Edgeworth to the Royal Irith Academy 
jn 1796, and re-publifhed in Nicholfon’s 
Journal, (2d vol. quarto, page 319). 
The application of the telegraph to 
the fea fervice was recommended by Mr. 
Edgeworth to Captain Beaufort of the 
Navy in 1798. 
Tbeg the Lover of Merit not to fuppofe | 
Invention of the Telegraph. 
The laft line fhould have been | 
[Oa ts 
that the writer of this letter charges Sir 
H. Popham with borrowing from Mr. 
Edgeworth or from any other perfon. 
The inventions of twenty different peoples 
who have no knowledge of each other, 
and no means of copying from each other, 
may be fimilar; but the public will always 
tallow the claim of priority when it can 
be eftablithed by fufficient evidence. 
Mr. Edgeworth’s ** Effay on the Art 
of conveying fecret and fwift Intelligence” 
concludes with thele words :* | 
«© Though I have beftowed much atten= 
~ tion and labour upon this fubject, I do not 
pretend to fay, that the means of Tele- 
graphic communications, which I have 
invented, are the beft that can be deviled. - 
Imitations without end may be attempt- 
ed; pointers of various fhapes and mate- 
rials may be employed; real improve- 
ments may probably be made and perhaps 
new principics may be adopted. ‘The va- 
rieties of art are infinite, and none but per- 
fons of narrow underftanding, who feela 
want of refources in their own invention, 
are jealous of competition, and difpofed to 
monopolize difcoveries. The thing itfelf 
muft, fooner or later, prevail, for utility 
convinces and governs mankind; and 
however inattention or timidity may for a 
time impede its progrefs, I will venture 
to predict that telegraphy will at fome fu- 
ture period be generally practifed, not 
only in thefe iflands, but, that itwill in 
time become a means of communication ° 
between the moft diftant parts of the 
world, wherever arts and {ciences have ci- 
vilized mankind.” 
A LovER OF JUSTICE. 
Aug. 10, 1803. 
nr ERE YT me 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
THOUGHTS on the probable DURATION 
of the REPUBLIC of the UNITED 
STATES of NORTH AMERICA. 
HE foundation of this Republic af- 
fords a f{plendid fpectacle to the eye 
of the univerfe. Its increafing ftrength 
may place it in the foremoit rank of na- 
tions ; and, if the Americans continue 
united, and know where to place a proper 
bound to their love of dominion, there is 
a great probability that it will be as du- 
rable as any empire the world has witneff- 
ed ; but, if they difunite, or diminifh their 
internal ftrength by too great an extenfion 
of their poffeffions, they will become petty 
ftates, perpetually ftruggling with each 
other, and a prey to faéious defigning 
men. All the advantages attending the 
® Vide 6th vol. Tranf. Royal Irifh Acad. 
monarchies 
