not of neceffity. In a word, if the fame of, and refpect due to, arms merit efforts for that attainment, Pruffia, by gaining these, found a recompenfe for the fecond war fhe had undertaken : but this was all the found. Yet did this vapour inspire new envy.'

The third volume of the original is in reality a continuation of the fame fubject, though it appears to be a very different work. It is entitled the Hiftory of the Seven Years War.. In the preface, which is dated at Potfdam, the 3d of March, 1764, the king states his reafons for undertaking this fecond work. He fays, (we now tranflate from the original), he has had in view two principal objects: the one to demonstrate to pofterity that he could not poffibly avoid this war, and that the honour and welfare of his kingdom prevented him from confenting to peace, upon any other conditions than those which were obtained at its conclufion; the other, to detail all the military operations with as much perfpicuity and precifion as poffible, in order to leave an authentic account of the advantageous and difadvantageous fituations that occur in the provinces and kingdoms into which the war must be carried, whenever the houfe of Brandenbourg fhall happen to be embroiled with that of Auftria,' With regard to this fecond object the king had in view, we fufpect, that this publication will be of full as much fervice to the Auftrians as to the Pruffians, unless the latter could confine to themselves the perufal of it. The preface contains likewife fome general obfervations relative to encampments. That they are excellent in their kind no one will doubt.

The first chapter of this part of the work before us, contains an account of the internal government of Pruffia and Auftria during the peace which was concluded in 1746. After a very handfome eulogium on the virtues and legislative abilities of his chancellor Cocceij, the king informs us that he employed himself during this tranquil interval in forming a new code of laws, which was promulgated after it bad been approved by the ftates;' in reforming the courts of judicature; in draining marshes; in building two hundred and eighty new villages; in encouraging manufactures, and the breed of filk-worms; in fhort, in purfuing every measure to promote and increafe the population of the kingdom. What great good may be brought about by the efforts of one man poffeffed of kingly power, great abilities, and patriotic virtues, appears by the following extract: As it is certain, that the riches of a state confift in the number of its fubjects, Pruffia might at this time be reckoned doubly as powerful as he was

in

in the last years of Frederick-William, father of the king," We are next prefented with a particular detail of the new regulations introduced into the Pruffian and Auftrian armies, by the perufal of which military men will be much entertained and improved.

The fecond chapter opens with a short account of the continuation of the war by the Austrians and English on one fide, and the French and Spaniards on the other, which was put an end to by the peace of Aix la Chapelle, in 1748. Next follows a history of the fuccefsful negociations and intrigues of the empress of Germany during the peace, by which the formed the powerful confederacy of the Auftrians, the French, the Ruffians, and the Swedes against the Pruffians. Her grand object was to recover Silefia, which he had given up to the king of Pruffia, with fo much regret, by the late peace of Dresden.

We come now to the third chapter, which brings down the history to the declaration of war in 1756. The author attributes the rupture between France and England to the fecret machinations of the late duke of Cumberland, who, he fays, wifhed to plunge the nation into a war, in hopes that fome finifter accident would occur to render the duke of Newcastle unpopular, and open the way to the promotion of Mr. Fox. He adds, that previous to the breaking out of the war, all the unjuftifiable proceedings were on the fide of the English.' We must here again observe, that through all these volumes, the king manifefts a very strong partiality for the French. This bias may, in fome measure, be accounted for, by his predilection for their language and literature, and his warm attachment through life to feveral individuals of that nation.But it is not eafy to proceed farther, without engaging in our author's particular account of the war: we shall, therefore, refume the volume in another Number.

FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

WE

E fhall now perform the promise in our Appendix, by giving fome account of the different meteorological obfervations, a fubject which the extreme cold of aft winter, and the numerous publications which it has occafioned, renders interest ing. We hall bring together the different facts which we have been able to collect from various fources, either publications which cannot from their place make in any other respect a part of our Journal, or more private communications, which would not probably have otherwife appeared. But, as we find fome mifcellaneous memoirs on fimilar fubjects, which we have not

yet

yet introduced, we fhall follow, in fome degree, the order of their appearance.

Some meteorological obfervations made by M. de Prielong, at Goree, in the year 1787, are the firit in our lift: he obferves, that from the 15th of May to the beginning of December, the thermometer flood constantly above 24° (we fuppofe of Reaumur) equal to 86° of Fahrenheit, except on the days of rain, or of hurricanes, when it generally funk eight or nine degrees *: the time of obfervation was generally about the middle of the day. In the year 1787, there were fixteen or eighteen hurri canes; our author feems not to have been able to measure the quantity of rain, but he affures his correfpondent, M. de Romé de l'Ifle, that there must have been more than 50 inches, two and a half times as much as at Paris: yet the inhabitants told him that this had been one of their drieft feafons. The greater part of thefe hurricanes raised the barometer from the one-twelfth to the fixth part of an inch, a fact not a little fingular; others have funk it as much; and fome did not at all affect it. During the whole of the rainy feafon there was fcarcely any vapour or dew. The 27th of September was the hottest day of the whole year; the thermometer was at 97°, and continued there more than an hour. In fome years it is faid to rife from 104 to 1060; but about 100° appears to be the mean heat of five or fix years, for Senegal as well as Goree. This illand is indeed more foutherly than Senegal, but it is higher and lefs fandy. M. Moneron has affured our author, that at Maufulipatam, the thermometer has rifen to 118°; and, at Podor, about fifty or fixty leagues from the Ifland of St. Louis, on the river Senegal, an officer, who refided there more than a year, has feen it, in a northerly fituation, and in the fhade, at 131°! The heat is faid to have refembled that at the mouth of a hot oven; the troops ftationed there were greatly reduced in numbers; and thofe who returned from it were generally affected with violent fevers or extreme debility. The poft is now abandoned; but it was faid that the heat of Senegal was nearly a mean between the heats of Podor and of France: Senegal is a little hotter than Cayenne, where the heat is faid to be between feventy, and ninety-two, nearly. The measures of heat taken at Goree are in a northerly fituation, and in the fhade, for in the fun it is at least fourteen degrees higher, and in the fand as much above the heat of the fun. The hurricanes come from between the north-east and the fouth-east: the first and most violent come from the fouth-east, turn a little towards the fouth, and even pass that point near their conclu fion. About the end of September, or the beginning of October, two or three come from the north-east; and these are

*We fhall tranflate the degrees as we go on to those of Fahrenheit, without employing Dr. Martine's correction, as the thermometers now employed by the French are generally mercurial ones, and the correction relates to the strength of fpirit.

very violent. Neither rain nor forms come from any other quarter of the heavens, and it must be remarked, that the direction is wholly from the inland parts. The earth perhaps, highly charged with electrical matter, meets with conductors in the clouds, and explodes with violence. The explofion is communicated to the other clouds, and makes a furious and fudden decompofition, accompanied with the ufual winds.

M. Reynier, who has paffed much time on the Alps, has offered us fome meteorological obfervations, which we shall introduce in this place. In the morning, the vapours, condenfed by the coldness of the night, rife along the mountains, in proportion as the fun rifes above the horizon. When the weather will be fine, they glide uniformly on the brink of the mountain, and rise over it by a regular motion, fomewhat flow. When rain impends, the motion is irregular, they are alternately attracted and repelled by the mountain, and rife like elaftic bodies rebounding. In a ftormy feafon, particularly, when there will be hail, the motions are fill more rapid and irregular. This obfervation may be confirmed in the mountainous countries of Great Britain: we have feen it among the mountains of Cumberland, particularly in the neighbourhood of Kefwick. M. Reynier obferves, and the obfervation is sufficiently near the furface not to be overlooked, that the appearance is electrical.

Before we proceed to the colds obferved during last winter, we fhall give an account of fome anonymous obfervations on froft, cold, lightning, and thunder. This author's firft principle is undoubtedly erroneous, for he thinks that, as heat proceeds from igneous partic.es, fo cold is produced by particles of a different and oppofite nature. His obfervations are, however, minute, and generally correct. It does not appear, indeed, that clouds are owing to excefs of humidity; at least, in M. Sauffure's language, during thick clouds the hydrometrical affinity of the water is often very inconfiderable. The harmattan alfo, the drieft wind that we are acquainted with, is generally attended with a cloudy fky. Our author does not properly diftinguish between clouds and fogs: of the caufe of fogs his account is juft. In his obfervations on froft, he remarks, that in December of last year it penetrated to caverns and wells, where the water was never frozen before. The particular matter of cold is, he thinks, the electrical fluid; but the only proofs are, that in cold air electricity is very confpicuous: we know that ice is not a conductor. Electricity, he allows, is equally apparent in ftorms, and from a fimilar caufe, fince dry air conducts very imperfectly. Our author is obliged at last to admit, that the electrical fluid, combined with fubtilized inflammable substances, forms alfo the matter of thunder this fluid plays very different and oppofite parts; indeed it has ferved very effectually every fyftem-builder, fince the firft discoveries of Dr. Franklin.

"Father Cotte, from whom we have at times received very

important meteorological remarks, has defcribed in a very correct and elaborate memoir, the cold of the winter 1788 and 1789, compared with the fevere winters of the last fourteen years. He begins with examining the temperature of the fummer and autumn of 1788, and points out, as the first fact of importance, the violent hail which fell in July, while the heat was fuffocating. From this event he argues, that the cold above nuit have been very confiderable; and he even fufpects that it may have been the caufe of the apparent heat of the autumn, as the heat must have been attracted from the earth to restore the equilibrium, and would be for a time confined near it by the density of the inferior ftrata. The cold commenced, he fays, pretty fmartly on the 25th of November, and it froze every day except on the 25th of December, when a thaw came on and lafted twenty-four hours. This thaw was very general and extenfive; we have received accounts of it through more than 15° of longitude, and it probably extended much farther, as well as confiderably in latitude. What can be the cause of an alteration fo general, fo extenfive, and fo fudden? On the 26th of November it fnowed; and the quantity, for France, was very great. On November 28th, December 2d, 6th, 16th, 19th, 21, 24th, 26th, 27th, and 31ft;-January 1ft, 6th, 9th, 11th, and 13th the cold increafed in its intenfity, feeming ly by stars. The coldeft day by the thermometer, in France, was the 31st of December; but feemingly the most infupportable cold occurred the oth of January, by means of a very fharp northcait wind.. A wind from the fouth blew on the 31st of December, and fucceeded the north wind, which blew away towards noon the icey vapours that the fouth wind brought back again. The fame obfervation occurred in 1709, and on the same day of the year 1783. The fky, our author obferves, was ufually clear; the prevailing winds were the north and north-eaff. When it occafionally blew from the fouth, it became cloudy, and fnow followed; but the wind returned to the north, and the cold came with its former feverity.

The thaw commenced the 13th of January at noon, and pro. ceeded flowly though it did not freeze after that time, the weather continued very cold till the 23d of January. February, March, and a part of April, were very wet. The froft return. ed the 4th of March, and continued very nearly to the end of the month. The melting of the fnow was completed only about the 8th or Icth of February; it furnished, in father Cotte's udometer, 31 inches of water; and if, as our author calculates, fnow is reduced in melting feven-eighths, we fhall find that there fell twenty-eight inches of fnow *. The ice melted very flowly in pits, wells, and rivers; it is faid to have been from 24 to 30 inches in thickness. Some ponds were wholly frozen, and the fish destroyed: where they were preserved it was chiefly owing

* It does not really amount to quite fo much, but father Cotte wrote half a line, and calculated half an inch; we have preferved the half inch. The difference is not above one-fixth,

to