1810.] 
selling, they need officers possessing not 
only the strictest honour, but the great- 
est ability and acuteness.. It is seldom 
that these talents can be united. Men 
of high spirit, and nice feelings, like most 
English officers, civil or military, are lit- 
tle fitted -to encounter the tricking’ and 
plausible arts of professed mercantile spe- 
culators, In the year 1804, Mr. C ) 
a most respectable young man, was dis- 
patched from Malta by the civil com- 
missioner there, to purchase corn in the 
Black Sea, for the supply of the Island. 
ile arrived at Odessa, as ignorant of the 
language as he was of the country, and 
of its inhabitants; and not one jot better 
acquainted with the corn-trade, than 
with either. The consequences may 
easily be guessed. A sct of interested 
factors got about him.” They purchased 
corn of a bad quality. The measure 
was short. The voyage was long. The 
weather tempestuous, 
became worse, 
Mr. C was appomnted public se- 
cretary of the Island. The giurati, a 
timid set of people, were afraid to re- 
monstrate against his purchases.. The 
corn was therefore stored ‘in granariesy 
where it soon became quite offensive, 
It was attempted to be sold at a low 
price to the poor, but the poor wisely 
refused to eat it; a great part was then 
given to the hogs, the remainder was ac- 
tually thrown into the sea; and the only 
satisfaction which the government had, 
was to displace all the giurati, for a 
fault, in which they certainly were not 
most to blame, Had the. same quantity 
of corn been imported by private mer- 
chants, on their own account, it would 
have been well chosen, of a good nutri- 
tive quality, capable of preservation; and 
after all, would have ytelded them a 
profit of seventy or eighty thousand 
pounds, But the civil commissioner 
wished to put all this profit into the pub- 
dic purse; forgetting, that private indivi. 
duals are universally more attentive to 
their interests, than public bodies can 
be; and overlooking the obvious fact, 
that the profits of the urivate merchant, 
go to increase the aggregate riches of the 
state. 
meen Pena 
Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, : i 
“Y SHALL be thankful to any of your 
i correspondents, who can inferm me 
at what period the consecration of burial- 
grounds was first practised. 
Your’s, &c. 
Aug. 16, 1809. AN ENQUIRER, 
ONTHLY Mae, 1953, 
On the Sounds produced by Inferior Animals. 
The bad corn. 
On arriving at Malta, . 
569 
Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
OBSERVED what was said about a 
year ago, by the Rev. Mr. Hall, by 
Dr. Jones, and your dashing correspon 
dent, Sigma, respecting the sounds of the 
inferior animals, and the scheme pro- 
posed by means of these sounds, to hand 
down to posterity the way in’ which the 
various languages, now in use, are pro- 
nounced. Finding myself neither dis- 
posed, nor adequate to the task, I do not 
mean to enterthe lists, nor contend with 
any of the gentlemen who have written 
you on the subject; yet I must say, that 
the more I consider Mr. Flail’s plan, the 
more I think it deservesattention. Not- 
withstanding the revolution in France, 
with the tumults and confusion necessa- 
nily attending it, the French nation have 
not lost sight of literature, nor have the 
been either inattentive to the hints for 
improvement, or the plans that ingeni- 
ous individaals, among themselves, have 
presented to them. Jt is otherwise with - 
Jobn Bull, naturally not very quick of 
apprehension himself, and many of his 
sons not being more ingenious than their 
father; he and they, except when money 
is to be made, allow other nations to 
pursue ingenious hints, and make of them 
what they please. - S 
If Sigma isa man of reading, and has 
even a smattering of knowledge, he must 
be satisfied that all the nations, whose 
history has come to our knowledge, the 
polished as well as the unpolished, when 
speaking of the sounds uttered by ani- 
mals, nay, even by inanimate nature, 
when acting, or acted upon, in certain 
Situations, often use words to denote 
these sounds; which words, not only 
serve to cail up the idea, denoted by 
such, but the very sound of which pro- 
duces an effect on the ear, similar to the ‘ 
sound, or action, they are intended to 
denote, Thus, who that reflects for a 
moment, but will perceive that the word 
snore, in English, and siffle, 1 French, 
were intredaced into'these languages, not 
only to denote the idea held cut by 
these words, but also to represent the 
sound of the action it denotes? Whiie 
the sound proceeding from hum, calls up 
to the mind the noise made by a bee, as 
it passes, does it not, at the same time, 
in fact, resemble the very sound, or effect, 
produced on the organ of hearing, by the 
bee as it passes? ~=When on pronouncing 
the word hiss, which, strictly speaking, 
denotes. the sound produced by a scr- 
pent on certain occasions, who can 
deny, that ever heard a ser; entdiss, but ©’ 
4D that, 
