152 : On Horse-Chesnuts. 
congenial.to the spirit of the labouring 
poor, that they ought to be encouraged 
and promoted m every village, through- 
Out the kingdom, as by their means, the 
poor would be enabled to become inde- 
pendent of seeking relief, in the hour of 
distress, from the parish rates, but be- 
come capable of meeting their calamities 
with composure and resignation, know- 
ing they havea resource, to which they 
can, without fear, or hesitation, apply 
for relief. Every parish ought, in my 
opinion, liberally to subscribe an annual 
sum towards such establishments, and 
the management of the concern be placed 
in the hands of some one person, compe- 
tent to conduct it with caré and impar- 
tiality, and not to pass in rotation, as Is 
now. the case, into the hands of those, 
many of whom can neither read nor 
write, nor are capable of detecting any 
error in the accounts, or have abi-. 
lities to foresee the necessity of, perhaps, 
some salutary amendments in their code 
of Jaws. Hoping to find my observa- 
tions noticed, and my. request complied. 
with, by some friend to the industyious 
poor, Tam, Sir, your's, &c. 
‘ R. RUFFHEAD, 
_ Lidiington, April, 1809. 
—— LS a 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ANSWER fo I. P’s. ENQUIRY on thé USE 
of HORSE-CHESNUTS. 
HE fruit of this tree is eaten by 
-& goats, sheep, deer, oxen, and horses. 
Tt contains much farinaceous matter, 
which by undergoing a proper process, 
so as to divest it of its bitterness and 
acrimony, probably might affprd a kind 
of bread. Starch has been made of it, 
and found to be very good. It appears 
also to be endowed with a saponaceous 
quality, as it is used, particularly in 
France and Switzerland, for the purpose 
of cleaning woollens, and in washing and 
bleaching linens. With a view to its 
errkine power, the Edinburgh college has 
Introduced it into the Materia. Medica. 
As a small portion of the powder, snuffed 
up the nostrils, readily excites sneezing ; 
even the infusion or decoction of the 
fruit, produces this efiect; it has there- 
fore been reconmmended for the purpose 
of producing a discharge from the nose, 
which, in some complaints of the head 
and eyes, is found to be of considerable 
benefit. On the Continent, the bark of 
the horse-chesnut-tree, is sometimes sub- 
stituted for the Peruvian hark, - 
i Your’s, &c. P. 1. 
[Sept. 15 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazines 
SIR, 
bi your Magazine for December, I 
saw a well drawn up account of my 
late worthy friend, Mr. Lindsey. The 
writer gives # little list of other honest 
clergymen who. have sacrificed their 
temporal prospects to conscience, and 
withdrawn themselves from the esta- 
blishment. 
Though a very honourable, it is not a 
very numerous, list. I was therefore 
rather surprised that any one should be 
omitted ; and that I did not see another 
very worthy friend of mine, the late Dr. 
Pike, in the respectable memorial. 
Although be himself was always fond 
of the shade of retirement, and would: 
carefully draw back from public notice, 
yet I believe it is universally known to 
one body of dissenters, at least, that he 
quitted the establishment soon after Mr. 
Lindsey, about the year’1775, because he 
could no longer use its prescribed forins, 
nor agai prescribe to its articles. And 
no man suffered more (of late years at 
least) in the cause of conscience than he 
did, while all the wants of a wife, eight 
children, a mother, and two sisters, 
pressed hard upon him. ; 
Your's, &c. WB, 
Chapter Coffee-house, Jun. 5, 1809. 
a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
Ba your interesting and useful publi- 
cation has been the vehicle, througk 
which the plan and objects of my insti- 
tution for the Cure of Impediments, and 
the Cultivation of English Elocution, 
have been announced to the world, from 
the first public dawnings of my discove- 
ries, [ have felt a natural propensity, 
through the same medium, occasionally 
to announce its progress, and the suc- 
cessive developement of my design. ~ It 
will naturally occur. to: you, Sir, that to 
a professor of the science and practice of 
elocution, a very ample field of enquiry 
and of instruction is, in reality, laid open ; 
and though, in the first instance, I have 
deemed it adviseable to lay the principal | 
stress, in all my public announcements, » 
on that part of my plan which related to 
the removal of impediments, and the 
instruction -of foreigners, as objects, 
though only of particular application, yet 
of the most prominent and serious im- 
portance ; yet, neither in meditation nor - 
In practice, have my views been confined » 
to the mere circumstance of enabling my 
pupils 
