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fully, though perhaps not fairly; for the workman whom I employed, in order to make it work more easily, added to it oil of turpentine, which certainly diminished its durability by rendering it more miscible with water. I am however inclined to believe that no substance of this kind, used by itself, will become sufficiently dry and hard to resist the influence of the weather.

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As animal oils are considerably cheaper than those expressed from vegetables, attempts have been made to communicate to them a drying quality. This has been effected by dissolving in them while hot various substances capable of being melted, in such a portion that the whole mass would become dry and hard when co cold, Bees' wax, resin, and brimstone, are found to have this property. Some of them, when united with drying oil, have long been employed for making boots and shoes water-proof, or impervious to moisture *. But they will also succeed when mixed with train oil, tained from the blubber of the whale,

Volume of the Memoirs of this Society,

which is ob

In the second

printed in the "Melt twelve

year 1783, there is the following receipt. ounces of resin in an iron pot or kettle; add three gallons of train oil and three or four rolls of brimstone; and when the resin and brimstone are melted and be

For this purpose there is the following receipt by Mr. Barker' in Sir John Hawkins's edition of that entertaining work Isaac Wal ton's Complete Angler, 4th edition, page 223. "Take a pint of linseed-oil, with half a pound of mutton suet, six or eight ounces of bees' waz, and half a penny worth of resin. Boil all this in a pipkin together; so let it cool till it be milk-warm. Then take a little hair-brush, and lay it on your new boots; but it is best that this stuff be laid on before the boot-maker makes the boots; then brush them once over (with it) after they come from him. As for old boots, you must lay it on when your boots be dry." I 2

come

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come thin, add as much Spanish brown, or red or yel low-oker, or any colour you want, first ground fine with some of the oil, as will give the whole as deep a shade as you like. Then lay it on with a brush as hot and thin as you can. Some days after the first coat is dried, give it a second. It will preserve plank for ages, and keep the weather from driving through brick-work." Page

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114.

This composition I tried about 18 years ago on some elm paling, substituting for the colouring matter one or two coats of common white paint for the sake of the appearance. This paling appears to me to be in every part of it which was so covered, as sound as when it was first put up.

As compositions of the resinous kind are apt to crack and become powdery, like the varnish of carriages, by exposure to weather, it is not improbable that this effect may be in some measure counteracted by the mixture of a small portion of bees' wax, Such a compound I have used, but in the quantity of eight ounces to the gallon found it too slow in drying, and capable of being easily scraped off with the nail. Wax is also at this time very scarce and dear *.

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*For the information of those who may be inclined to make a trial of these compositions, I have enquired the wholesale prices of the different ingredients of Messrs. Cave and Co. Bristol, from whom I learn that they are very fluctuating, train oil being from 2s. 3d. toi 3s. 2d. per gallon; resin from 12 to 21 shillings per cwt.; roll brim-s stone from 34 to 58 shillings per cwt.; and bees' wax from 3s. 3d. to 3s. 6d. per lb.; the lowest of these prices being about what these ⚫ articles at present bear.

TO BE CONTINUED IN OUR NEXT.

Intelligence

Intelligence relating to Arts, Manufactures, &c.

(Authentic Communications for this Department of our Work will be thankfully received.)

Report from the Committee on the re-committed Report
respecting the Rate of Duty payable on Malt made from
Barley of the Growth of England, and from Barley and
Bigg of the Growth of Scotland.

Ordered to be printed by the HOUSE OF COMMONS,
July 15, 1804.)

THE Committee having proceeded to the considera

tion of the matter referred to them, were led to direct their principal attention to the following points:-1. The origin and progress of the duty on malt, and the rates now payable on that article in the two countries; 2. The different sorts of grain liable to the payment thereof; and 3. The rate of duty that ought to be imposed on malt made from barley of the growth of England, and from barley and bigg of the growth of Scotland, respectively.

I. On the Origin and Progress of the Duty on Malt in the two Countries.

Sect. 1. Malt tax in England.-The Committee find that a tax on malt was originally established in England during the troubles in the reign of Charles I.; but it is unnecessary upon the present occasion to trace it farther back than to the year 1697, when by an Act (8 and 9 Will. III. ch. 22.), a duty of sixpence per bushel was imposed on malt, and proportional sums on certain

liquors,

liquors, as cyder and perry, which might otherwise prevent the consumption of that article. It was at first given for two years and a quarter, but for many years past, it has only been granted from year to year; and hence it is known by the name of "the annual malt tax."

The exigencies of the state, however, soon rendered it necessary to impose heavier duties upon so extensive an article of consumption, and in later times these additional taxes, instead of being temporary, were made permanent, for the purpose of defraying the interest of various loans. The first permanent duty was imposed in 1760 at the rate of three-pence per bushel; a further tax of 15 per cent. was granted in 1779; and an additional permanent duty of sixpence farthing two-tenths per bushel was imposed in 1780. As it became difficult. however to collect these permanent taxes, and to keep the accounts separate, whilst they consisted of such minute fractions, they were consolidated in the year 1787, and one permanent tax to the amount of 92d per bushel was imposed. But the nature of this tax was changed, when the plan for redeeming the land-tax was adopted; for as it became necessary to substitute a sure and productive revenue in lieu of that branch, the above-mentioned permanent tax on malt was among others selected, and ever since it has likewise been annually granted, as a substitute for the annual land-tax. In the year 1802,*an addition was made to the former duties on malt to the amount of 18. Old. per bushel, which was of a permanent nature; and in 1803 a further tax at the rate of 2s. per bushel was imposed to continue during the present war, and for six months after its conclusion.

The

The following then are the taxes on malt now payable

in England, per bushel :

1. Old annual malt tax

2. Annual malt-tax in lieu of land-tax

3. Permanent malt-tax, 1802

4. Temporary malt-tax, 1803, to continue during the war

£. S. d.

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Total duties on malt in England 0 4

Sect. 2. Malt-tax in Scotland.-It appears to the Committee from a detail given in the appendix, and from the information which Defoe furnishes in his History of the Union, that the Scottish Commissioners, when the treaty was negociating, struggled earnestly to be totally exempted from any tax on malt. But the difference between the two countries in regard to this important particular, was at last compromised in the following manner; that Scotland should be exempted from the malt-tax during the continuance of the war which then subsisted, after which any further exemption was referred to the Parliament of Great Britain, with this express declaration in the words of the 14th article of the Union:" that it cannot be supposed the Parliament of Great Britain will ever lay any burden, but for the good of the whole, and with due regard to the abilities and circumstances of every part of the United Kingdom."

In 1713, the annual malt-tax, of sixpence per bushel, was first extended to Scotland; but after a trial of twelve years it was thought adviseable in 1725 to reduce it to cone-half that sum; and during the whole period, from - 1725 to 1802, the malt made in Scotland was only charged one-half of the rates imposed in England. The

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