/ 
‘miscellany, conumunicate 
at a convenient time, cla: destinely 
12 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE advantages of an indeleble ink 
to mark linen are too numerous and 
too obvious to need any comment or 
explanation. Buta circumstance. to me 
wholly inexplicable ts, that, in a country 
like this, where chemistry, dying and ca- 
Eco-printing have been carried to such 
pertection, the public should yet be un- 
provided Hath a convenient coniposition 
formarking linen—at least as tar'as J can 
learn; and Ihave, for upwards often years, 
been inquiring 13 every part of London 
for such a composition, but could never 
find it. The digwid inks, however good m 
ather effects; are objectionable On ace 
eount of che very great trouble attending 
them, the difficulty of marking any WB 
articies alike with the pen, and the al- 
most impossibility of making a tolerably 
distinct or lezibie mark upou fine muslin. 
What I wish to see, and would gladly 
purchase even ata considerab! rle reer 
m “price, Is a thick giutinous ink, to be 
aged with stamps, so ‘that every man w ho 
chose to provide himseif either with the 
common metai types, or with a wooden 
stainp expressiy cut for his particular 
use, might be able to impress a uniform 
mark upon a!l his lmen, however fine or 
coarse; a mark, which, in case of his using 
a wooden stamp of his own fashion, 
eould not be easily imitated by any person 
attempting a fraudulent exc hange.* 
Tt any pub! ic-spirited man will, through 
the medium of your widely cireulating 
to the nation a 
recipe for such an ink, he may, [ think, 
confidently rely on the gratitude of thou. 
sands of his fcHew-citizens: or if any 
man, with a view to emolument, chose 
to prepare a good and satisfactory ink of 
the kind for sale, and take care to adver- 
tise It, so that the public may know where 
it cau-be procured, I doubt not that he 
will find his eeaest in it, especially if he 
will sndertake, on yeuaioenae terns, to 
* Yo masters and mistresses, who are ia 
the habit of giving their old linen to their 
servants, I recommend, either that they mark 
the date of the year, or that they alter the po- 
sition of the marks, on each new set of linen; 
and also (if they number the articles) that 
ricyalrer the numbers: i.e. Suppose the nume 
ber of any one article to be twelve, let the se- 
cond set be numbered 13, 14, &c. For want 
ci acheck of this kind, it sometimes happens 
that the old linea is laid by for a season, and, 
palmed 
uoon the master or mistiess in licu of ariicles 
pet hails worn, which again are laid by, and 
jis time substituted ser articles nearly acw. 
‘July 21, 1807. 
Indeleble Mark for Line en. On the Adverb than. rsepes i, 
furnish the purchasers with stamps, cut to 
each man’s particular fancy. 
Your’s, &e. 
Ciconomes. 
ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magaziné. 
SIR, 
OU BTFUL whether the following 
phrase be strictly grammatical, re-- 
specting the adverb than, in a compara- 
tive sense, after the pronoun other, and 
its compounds, otherwise, &c: | beg leave, 
through the medium of your useful Ma- 
vazine, to request the opimion of such of 
your readers as may have made the Eng- 
lish language more particularly their 
study. 
I tind the phrase, indeed, used by John- 
son. and Priestley, in almost every part of 
their works, and by many other respect- 
able authors. Even Murray, the Gram- 
marian, uses the phrase, though he takes 
no notice of its anomalous nature, Eng- 
ish Gramunar, p. 49, edition 7th. Yet, 
as it 1s so contrary to the common rale, 
which requires adjectives z and adverbs of 
comparison only to be followed by the 
word than, I hesitate, till P learn the opi- 
nion of others, to feceive it as. purely 
grammatical, the word other being a-pro- 
noun, not an adjective. ‘There are, it is 
true, ‘peculiarities or idioms in every lan- 
guage, and this, perhaps, may be one in 
ours. An Spe ch or two of this phrase- 
ology I quote as follows :_ 
“Without fee or reward other than 
the pleasure w pS See Monthly Rev. 
vel. 51, p.426, 
“Th ey have ae no other task Rid 
to’ lay ie ier befure them nce,” 
Tdler, No. 
«Pelt no ae desire bile to be 
free, &c.” fbid. No. 86. 
“« Produced no other fruit than the tes- 
timony, &c.” Sir W. Jones. 
The same phraseology is used by John- 
son in various other parts of his writings. 
In the following mstance, however, he 
-departs from it: 
‘“ Has no other claim to notice, but 
that, &c.” Idier, No. 59.—Here the 
anomaly’is avoided by the word but... 
White, in his Bampton Lectures, p. 454, 
Sd edition, says, “ No other kingdom 
- but that of righteousness, Gres? 
The words further and rather are al- 
ways followed by than; “bat this is, agrees 
ably tu the ae rule, as they are “both 
conparatives; the former from the po- 
sitive far, and be latter from ra: hk; now 
obsulcte, Yours, &cs 
ide _ SCRUTATOR. | 
hoe 
P 
