1807.] 
different decanters. It will be found 
that their motions are very uncertain, 
and that even fometimes each will afford 
a different indication. No dependance, 
therefore, can be placed in them; and 
thefe living barometers can deferve to be 
confidered as little better than playthings 
for children. - 
It may not be improper, at the conclu- 
fion of this article, to deteribe the fpecific 
ditference which exiits between the me- 
dicinal leech, and the horfe-leech, tince, 
from the circumttance of their mhabiting 
the fame waters, and being nearly of the 
fame fize, they are frequently confounded 
by ignorant people. 
The medicinal leech is of a blackifh 
brown colour, marked along its. upper 
part with feveral lines of yellow dots, 
extending from one end of the body Eo 
the other. “The under part of the body. 
is ufually fomewhat lighter, and marked 
with yellowifh {pots. Vhe principal 
characteriftic, however, contifts in the 
dotted lines. 
The horfe-leech is nearly of an uniform 
black colour , except on the under part, 
which is of. a cinereous green, and 
ufually marked with black fpots. 
February, 1807. W. Brncrey. 
Ee 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
PARTICULARS Of the PRESENT STATE 
of POLAND, by an ENGLISH GENTLE- 
MAN, recently returned from that 
COUNLRY, after @ RESIDENCE tn it of 
TWO YEARS 
hag price of provifions in Poland 
has more than doubled fince the’ 
partition; but as money has increafed in 
proportion, no complaints are made of 
dearth. ‘The ordinary price of the beft 
fhambles-meat is about three-pence a 
pound, Englih money; whereas betore 
the two laft divilions, it was often ata 
penny, and never exceeded three half 
pence. The moft intelligible ftatement, 
I could probably give yelative to this to- 
pic is the following :—The Count Za- 
moylki, when in England, three or four 
years ago, took over with hin feveral 
Englifh mechanics, and among the reft 
a porter-brewer of fome_ refpectability. 
Happening to fee the laft of thefe per- 
fons, when he had kept hou/fe in the coun- 
try about six months, I enquired of him 
what were the average expences of his 
living? He faid, it was difficult if not im- 
poffible to live fo well in Poland as m 
England, though there fhould be no want 
of the means; but that, as nearly ashe 
4 
Particulars of the prefent State of Poland. 
323 
could eftimate, he could live for one half 
of the fum.. Still, Lam of opinion, that 
houfehold expenditare may be more ac- 
curately rated at a third only of what it 
is in England: for new fettlers can 
fcarcely be fuppofed to have become fa- 
miliar, in fo fhort a time, with all the 
ways and means of getting things at the 
cheapeft rate; particularly in “Poland, 
where they muft be continually liable 
to the extortion of the Jews. Betides, 
from iny own obferyation, I mutt rate 
domettic expences lower. At refpectable 
hotels in Warfaw, no more than about a 
fhilling is paid for a dinner, though no- 
thing be expected to be drunk afterwards. 
I fpeak now of a common table, itis true ; 
but itis well and abundantly furnithed, 
is attended by people of refpeétability, 
and a billiard-table ttands in an antiroom. 
What I conjectured, or rather what 
‘I ftated witha full conviétion in my fe- 
cond paper relative to the dithculty of 
maintaining large armies in Poland, has 
been recently verified by a ftatement in 
one of the French bulletins, which affirms 
that beef ishalf acrowna pound at Ware 
faw; that is, it is rifen to 3 times its 
cultomary price. 
‘The manufactures of Poland are very 
few and inconfiderable, confifting chiefly: 
of the coarfe linen cloth worn by A 
peafants. The late King eftablithed, 
1776, at Grodno, the principal of rie 
of Lithuania, manufactories of cloth, 
camlets, linens, cotton, filks, ftuffs, &c. 
Of the tate of thefe efiablifhments I can 
give no dittinct account: for, of Ruffian 
Poland, | know abfolutely nothing from 
obfervation, and very little from report. 
There is, in Galicia, one manufactory 
of earthenware and of porcelain; and 
the china it produces is lutficiently neat, 
though there is no approach to elegance. 
Thefe are perhaps the only manufactories 
m Poland of any articles above what 
may Le conlidered as abfolutely necef- 
fary in every country, that has the fiall- 
eft claim to the epithet of civilized. 
Hence the price of all manufactured ar- 
ticles is extremely high. A hat of the 
value of a guinea in England will cott 
an equivalent to a guinea and half in Po- 
land. ‘he fame proportion takes place 
in the two countries, In the price of a 
yard of cambric, for wiich I have alfo 
paid a guinea aud half. A coat, of which 
the cloth may be bought feparately, and 
made by a dirty Jew in an infignificant 
Polith town, will cott little lefs than five 
cuineas. Other articles of dress are in 
proportion, 
The 
