122 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On two MEANS proposed for BETTERING 
the condition of the PooR, and at the 
same time promoting PUBLIC SECURITY, 
and the PRESERVATION Qf PROPERTY 
and LIFE. 
ALLUDE to two proposals in the 
Monthly Magazine for April, 
signed “Common Sense.” Of the prac- 
ticability of the first proposal of build- 
ing inland cottages along the road, I 
own, IF doubt. I think thatit would carry 
the poor too far from any labour but 
that on the roads, in most instances, and 
too far from their neighbours; but that 
of marine cottages for maimed or de- 
crepid seamen, or their families, seems 
to be almost,wholly clear of diticulty or 
objection, and to present great and pe- 
cular advantages of every kind. Add to 
it the plan of Lord Nelson, for a register 
of seamen, and an annual new-year’s 
donation to each, after a certain number | 
of years service, as recorded in his Life 
by Mr. M‘Arthar: and [ think all pre- 
fence would be done away, for the un- 
constitutional practice of impressing, 
and the comforts and increase of this so 
highly valuable class of society, together 
with the public benefit, happiness, and 
security, would be exceedingly pro- 
moted. | 
me: ~ 
On ROTATORY, as zmplying PROGRESSIVE 
MOTION. 
Some time (I believe two or three 
years back) I sent you.a theorem, 
which T think was nearly thus: “‘ Whether 
on revolving bodies, rotatory did not imi- 
ply progressive motion ; at which the 
converse is, Whether progressive motion 
‘being ascertained, rotatory be not im- 
Oth ate this was not thought worthy 
of insertion; yet it is evidently of the 
most extensive application to primary 
and secondary planets, to comets, to the 
sun himself, and probably to all the 
fixed stars, since in many of these both 
the motions are ascertained: in others, 
she F : ee 
ifa principle can be deduced, a@ priori, 
from the laws of motion, one being 
found, the other will be inferred. 
I did not then know that the great 
astronomer of France, lately deceased, 
Lalande, had, in terms, argued from this 
‘principle of the rotatory motion of the 
sun, as ascertained by his spots, to 
2 progressive motion. OF that vast lumi- 
But having lately become pos- 
nary. 
erai volumes of the Journal 
sessed of sev 
On Rotatory, as wnplying Progressive Motion. [Sept. 1, 
Encyclopédique, through the attention 
of a friend, 1 have had the gratification 
of finding this idea confirmed from the 
history of the Royal Academy of Scien- 
ces at Paris, for the year 1776, with Me- 
moirs of Mathematics and Natural His- 
tory, for the same year. 
Memoir on the Spols of the Sun, and his 
Rotation. By M. pe Lavawpe. 
I give his words.—‘‘ Le mouvement 
de rotation, consideré comme l’effet 
physique d’une cause quelcongue, est, 
dit-il, produit par une impulsion coms 
muniguée hors du centre. Jean Bers 
nouilli calcule pour chaque planete le 
point ou cette force doit étre appliquée 
& proportion de la vitesse de sa rotation; 
mais une force quelconque imprimée & 
un corps et capable a ie faire tourner 
autour de son centre, ne peut manquer 
aussi de deplacer le centre: et l’on ne 
sgauroit concevoir l’un sans Vantre.. Ih 
paroit donc trés-vraisemblable que. le 
soleil a un mouvement réel dans I’ espace 
alsolu”.. y r 
“The motion in rotation, considered 
as a physical effect of any cause whatever, 
is produced by an impulse our of: the 
centre. John Bernouiili has calculated 
for each planet the point of application 
of such impulse, in proportion to its ro. 
tatory velocity: but any force what- 
ever, impressed on a body, and capable 
of causing it to tura on its centre, cannot 
fail at the same time to displace the cen- 
tre, (that as, relatively.to.absolute space, 
or to give it a progressive, motion.) It 
appears, therefore, highly probable, that 
the sun has a real motion in absolute 
space.” ee | 
He then proceeds to shew, that. as 
the sun would draw with it the planets 
and comets, we could not be sensible of 
this: his progressive. motion, otherwise 
than by approach or recess, with respect 
to any of the fixed stars. And from their 
astonishing distance, this must be very 
nearly invisible, unless on a great length 
of time, — gb viata. 0 Teams 
Dr. Herschel has proved this, inves- 
tigation, and has greatly strengthened 
the proof by the evidence of accumula- 
tive observations and results, most cares 
fully classed and compared. __ i‘. 
La Lande, in the same memoir, notices 
that a progressive motion of Arcturus 
of oniy 4’ 5” or 245" in a century, would 
give a real central motion of eighty mil- 
lions of leagues in each year. 
et 
* Journ. Encycl, t fi. aano- 17805 
ptie. ii. pe 403. afi if 
Reng 
