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Blacow's Sentence.-Commercial Report.

REV. RICHARD BLACOW'S SENTENCE. IN our number for January, col. 93, we took an occasion to review a virulent discourse delivered by this gentleman;-a discourse, which has rendered him amenable to the bar of his country, and finally brought upon him the sentence of the law. It contained a daring libel on her late Majesty. For this libel Mr. Blacow

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was tried and found guilty, at the last Lancaster Assizes. On Monday the 26th of November, 1821, he was brought up to receive the sentence of the court,-which was as follows: To pay a fine of £100 to the King, be imprisoned six months, and find security for his good behaviour for five years; himself in £500, and two sufficient sureties in £100 each.

COMMERCIAL REPORT, LIVERPOOL, 24th NOVEMBER, 1821. THE nearer we approach to the end of the year, the more does the course of business usually become dull and uninteresting. Such at least has been the experience of former years. It is true, the manufacturing districts are at this season seldom so full of work, yet we have reason to know that the Cotton trade in its various branches is in a tolerably healthy state; and in Staffordshire, where the trade has been long in a languishing condition, we learn that many eminent houses have orders to execute which will give them full employment until the next spring.

In our own port, the leading articles have reached such a low point, that many, both of our consumers and speculators, have had their attention aroused thereby; the market, in consequence of their operations, has assumed more briskness, and the prices of some descriptions of produce have improved. The reduction which had taken place in the prices of American and other descriptions of Cotton, occasioned, in part, by the late extensive public sales, having made them an object of notice, the trade at the same time being very bare of stock, has brought this week into the market a numerous attendance of dealers and consumers. A very animated inquiry has been experienced for almost every kind of Cotton; and the business done has been considerable, amounting to 11,300 packages since the 17th instant, as follows:- d. d. 4555 Bags of Uplands, from 8d. to 10d.

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1759 575 416

Maranhams, 11 to 11

9 to 11

Mina Geras,
Novas,

9 to 19

10% to 10%

Demeraras,

Barbadoes,

Carthagena,

West India,
Peruvian,
Bengal,

9 to 94 7 to 8

9

101

6 to 71 An advance of ¡d. per lb. has been obtained on the low qualities of boweds; the good qualities have not experienced the same improvement. Brazils have likewise been more in request; but the recent import of this description still proves of an inferior quality, and obliges the spinners to have recourse to the low qualities of Sea Islands. As the stock of Cotton in hand is now rapidly disappearing from the market, several o the holders are confidently looking forward to some further improvement in price; and should the import of the new crop be delayed, this may probably be the case.

Sugars. The demand for British plantation has improved. The holders are very reserved in bringing forward their stocks, which indeed are now at a low ebb-the advance this week has been 1s. per cwt. on the better, and 2s. per cwt. on the lower qualities.

Coffee. The transactions in this article are, on account of the season, necessarily confined to the wants of home consumption. Ordinary quality has fetched 98s. to 102s. good and fine only 103s. to 106s. 6d.; low middling 113s. per cwt.

Rum.-The sales are trifling.

Tobacco. Prices are rather looking up, and the trade purchase freely.

Hides.-The late imports have chiefly got into the hands of the dealers, at 94d. to 11 d. per 1b.; for Buenos Ayres Horse Hides, 7s. to Ss.9d. per piece. German Dry Hides, 111⁄2d. "Horse Hides, at 11s. 6d. to 13s. per piece.

Pot Ashes are in demand for France, at 39s. 6d. per cwt. Pearls at 43s. Montreal Pots at 32s. 6d. to 34s. Pearls 37s. 6d. per cwt. In Dye Woods there has been no occurrence worth notice. Sicily Barilla has fetched £27. per ton. Tar and Turpentine have obtained improving prices; the Distillers are looking for an amendment in Spirits. There is a fair demand for Fish Oils, and all the Newfoundland Cod Oil is sold out of the Importers hands, for exportation to Ireland, at £18. 10s. per tun. Pale Seal Oil £26. per tun. Palm Oil £30. per tun. Tallow

Y. C. still dull at 45s. per cwt.
Hemp is getting scarce, and fetches £44. per ton. Flax is likewise looking up, and both
Foreign and Irish are likely to be dearer. Archangel mats 12s. to 14s. per dozen.

There have been four arrivals this week of Smyrna fruit; the quality has proved excellent, yet the buyers hold back, with a view to induce the holders to a competition. The sales effected were for Sultana Raisins, 83s. to 87s. 6d. Red Smyrna at 53s. 6d. Carabourna 57s. Black Smyrna 49s. to 50s. 6d. Pulled Figs 71s. 6d. per cwt.

Of Timber, the arrivals have been very heavy, and the prices have consequently been much depressed. Miramachi Pine sells at 20d. Quebec Pine at 19 d. per foot. Oak at 2s. 8d. Quebec Deals at £12. 10s. per St. Petersburgh hundred.

The business at the Corn Market is quite uninteresting. Stocks accumulate, and prices are lower. The consumers are taking good Irish wheats at 7s. 2d. to 7s. 6d. per 70lb. Fine old Irish will not command above 9s. to 9s. 6d. per 70lb. For bonded wheat of every kind, there is no sale. American Flour out of bond, is of tardy sale, at 36s. to 40s. per barrel. The arrivals of this article from the United States, are anticipated to be very great.

LONDON PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY H. FISHER.

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MEMOIR OF JOHN RAY, A. M. F. R. S.

(With a Portrait.)

THIS truly christian philosopher was the son of a blacksmith, at Black-Notley, near Braintree, in the county of Essex, and born there November 29, 1628. Though his ancestral name was Ray, for some reason or other, of which no account has been given, he continued to spell it Wray till the year 1670, when he resumed the original patronymic, and apprised his learned friend Dr. Martin Lister, of the change, in a Latin letter. The Doctor, however, was not altogether satisfied with the alteration, and observed in reply, "I was pleased with the derivation of your name whilst V was at it, it agreed so well with a virtue so eminent in you, and which, I am confident, you will never lay aside, however you please to alter the writing of your name. You well know what Vray in French means." He received his education at the free-school of Braintree, to which he thus alludes in a letter to Aubrey, "Tho' I do not pretend to have been of the first magnitude for wit or docility, yet I think I may without arrogance say, that in our paltry country school here at Braintree, Ego meis me minoribus condiscipulis ingenio pralexi; but perchance the advantage I had of my contemporaries, may rather be owing to my industry than natural parts; so that I should say, studio or industria excellui."

His progress in learning, however, was such, that at the age of sixteen he was deemed qualified for the university; and accordingly, on the 28th of June, 1644, he was entered a member of Catherine-Hall, Cambridge, from whence, in 1646, he removed to TrinityCollege, for the sake of the sciences which were studied there. His tutor was the celebrated Greek professor, Dr. Duport, who used to boast that he had brought up two of the best scholars of the age, meaning John Ray and Isaac Barrow. Between these excellent persons a most cordial friendship No. 35.-VOL. III.

[1821.

was formed, which continued through life. In 1649, they became fellows of the College together; Mr. Ray having just before taken his bachelor's degree. In 1651, he commenced master of arts, and the same year he was chosen lecturer in Greek; two years afterwards he read the mathematical lecture; and in 1655, that upon humanity, or classical learning, a succession of appointments which fully evinced the high reputation he had acquired in the languages and sciences. In 1657, he was elected to the office of prælector primerius of his college; the next year he served that of junior dean, and twice afterwards he discharged the trust of steward. He had also a number of pupils, his attention to whom, and the other duties which devolved upon him in the college, weakened his constitution so much, that the physician urged the necessity of exercise and an occasional absence from the university. In compliance with this advice, he made many excursions, which led him to the study of botany, a science then in its infancy, and scarcely regarded at all, except for pharmaceutical purposes. His first tour of any length was in the summer of 1658, when he rode to Chester, and from thence into North Wales, where he visited Snowden, and returned to Cambridge by the way of Shrewsbury and Gloucester. In 1660, he published his "Catalogus Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam nascentium," or, "A Catalogue of Plants growing near Cambridge.' This was the first work of the kind.that had appeared in England; and some years afterwards the author enlarged it by an account of plants found in other parts of the kingdom. Soon after this publication, Mr. Ray received both deacon's and priest's orders from the hands of that venerable prelate, Dr. Robert Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln; a circumstance which fully proves that he was an episcopalian, though, on the passing of the act of conformity in 1662, he vacated his fellowship, because he could not assent to the decla4 E

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Memoir of John Ray.

ration against the solemn league and covenant. He remained, however, a lay communicant of the church of England, though he constantly declined every offer of preferment; for which, among other reasons, his ardent pursuit of science may justly be assigned as a principal motive.

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nications were so well received, that the president and fellows returned him their thanks, with a request that he would continue his favours. During the year 1674, and part of the next, he was employed in preparing Mr. Willoughby's" Observations about Birds" for the press; which work, however, was not published till 1678. These two learned men and diligent observers, finding the history of nature very imperfect, formed the resolution, before their journey abroad, to reduce the several tribes of animals and vegetables into systematic order, with accurate descriptions of the several species. As the genius of Mr. Willoughby lay chiefly to the study of animated nature, he undertook the classification of the birds, beasts, fishes, and insects, while Mr. Ray devoted his chief attention to the vegetable world. Old Lady Willoughby dying, and Mr. Ray's pupils being removed from under his tuition, he left Middleton-Hall about 1676, and

On leaving Trinity-College, Mr. Ray accompanied his friends Mr. Francis Willoughby, Mr. Philip Skippon, and Mr. Nathaniel Bacon, in a tour thro' Europe, which journey took up two years, and the particulars of it were published by Mr. Ray in the year 1673. În 1667, he became a fellow of the Royal Society, at the earnest entreaty of the members of that learned body, particularly Bishop Wilkins; at whose desire he translated into Latin his lordship's great work, entituled the "Real Character, or Philosophical Language;" but the version was never published. In 1672, died Mr. Willoughby, aged only thirty-seven, at Middleton-Hall, his seat in Warwick-retired with his wife to Sutton-Coldshire, "to the infinite and unspeak- field, about four miles from the former able loss and grief," says Mr. Ray, place; but soon after he went to reside "of myself, his friends, and all good at Falborne-hall, in Essex; and lastly, men." This gentleman had been fellow took up his abode in his native village collegian with Mr. Ray, and having a of Black Notley. The first fruit of his similar turn for the study of natural leisure and retirement here, was his history, the closest intimacy was “Methodus Plantarum Nova," pubformed between them; the sincerity lished in an octavo volume, in 1682. of which was manifested in Mr. Wil- The system of which he gave an outline loughby's bequeathing to his friend an in this compendium, was first applied annuity of sixty pounds a year, and by the author practically in the "Hisappointing him one of the executors of toria Plantarum," the first volume of his will, with the particular care of his which, in folio, appeared in 1686; the two sons. The eldest of these children second in 1687, and the third in 1704. not being four years old, Mr. Ray, as a This immense compilation is still held faithful trustee, undertook the instruc-in deserved esteem as a book of retion of him, as he did afterwards of his brother, composing for their use his "Nomenclator Classicus," which is uncommonly exact, especially in the names of natural objects. Francis, the eldest of these youths, dying before he was of age, the younger became Lord Middleton. The same year which deprived Mr. Ray of his dear friend Mr. Willoughby, also took away the great and good Bishop Wilkins. Being thus, as it were, left without society, Mr. Ray turned his thoughts to a matrimonial connection; and in 1673, he espoused the daughter of Mr. Oakeley, a country gentleman in Oxfordshire. By this lady he had four daughters, three of whom survived him.

He now resumed his correspondence with the Royal Society, and his commu

ference, but chiefly on account of the several valuable and expensive works which are condensed and inserted in it, as the" Hortus Malabaricus," and other rare collections, now hardly to be found even in public libraries. While thus diligent in arranging his own observations, Mr. Ray was not unmindful of the trust reposed in him by his friend. Having therefore favoured the world with the Ornithology of Mr. Willoughby, he now prepared for the press, and published in 1685, that gentleman's "History of Fishes." In 1688, came out our author's “Fasciculus Stirpium Britannicarum"; and in 1690, the "Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum." Of the last performance, Sir James Smith, the president of the Linnean Society, says, "that if the

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