But in his opinion the rate was good with in the ward. The fource was there-the water was collected there-the legiflature had vefted power in the Juftice and Conftable to apportion the rate, and their rate was conclufive; if it was not, the inconvenience would be monftrous. If they act corruptly, they may be punished criminally; but the rate, that muft ftand as an action agaiuft them, was not fupportable. For thefe rea fons, he thought the Water-works were liable to the rate. Mr. Justice Ahurt held a different opinion. The learned judge thought, that ufage, in doubtful cafes, thould have great weight; and particularly in the prefent cafe, where the ufage was general. It was not fufficient to fay, that because thefe Water-works were valuable, they were therefore rateable; it must be ruled, as in the cafe of the poor. The legislature meant to rate certain property not depending on labour; they never meant to rate matters of invention, because the public at large benefit by inventions. The firfi expence in bringing mechanical and other works of invention, fhould always be confidered in eftimating the profits which afterwards enfued. Coals, though rateable, were fo by Statute. To be liable to rate, the profit fhould be certain, not uncertain, as in the prefent cafe; and he was not for extending the Law by new decifions, which would take in any fpecies of property arifing from labour or invention not already rated. Therefore he was of opinion, that the Water-works thould be exempted. The Mr. Juftice Willes concurred with Mr. Justice Buller. He argued, that the uncertainty of profit was not flated in the cafe, therefore not a matter of objection. rule laid down, that the original expence fhould be eftimated in calculating the profits, he thought, fhould not be confidered. Hou fes, &c. were erected by original expence, and yet were rated. Perional property was, in many cafes, rateable; and as to the Water-works having been heretofore exempted, it was no reason that they fhould be exempted hereafter, for they were the fubftratum. He cited Maitland's Hiflory of London, fol. 460, to fhew the origin of the Water-works. Earl of Mansfield faid, that he and his brothers had entertained great doubts, and had taken great pains with the prefent cafe: They had conferred perfonally, and had fubmitted their doubts to each other in writing. The whole turned upon the nature of the thing on which the queftion arofe, and it did not appear that the Plaintiffs had any property in. either the foil or the water, The water was common as the air, unless where a fpecial property was vefted, and there was no property in the foil, where the wheels and pipes, &c. were laid, nor liberty to lay them, but what they had permiffively. Pipes could not, by cultivation, yield pro fit; they were mechanical machines; and, in his Lordthip's opinion, no profits refulting from the ingenuity of head or hards were rateable under the Statute: "That inhabitants fhould be rated according to their abilities," had been urged to prove too much. The conftruction was too general; lawyers, phyficians, &c. were inhabitants. How was their ability to be known? Ability to pay this rate could only be known from vifible local property. The Proprietors of the Water-works could not be confidered as inhabitants. The Statute of Elizabeth, his Lordship thought, thould be explained by continual ufage. Ufage is law in continual execu tion. Here two hundred years exemption is thewn, which was very frong against the rate. The Water-works, his Lordship obferved, had never before been rated, and yet they had exifted notorioufly before the ftatute of Elizabeth; they had exifted in the time of Henry VIII. they had exifted ever fince notorioully-they had always been exempted, and the thares belonging to them, under the fecurity of exemption from rating, had been bought and fold ever fincetbe ftatute. He was afraid of extending the confiruc tion of the ftatute, not but to increase taxes by extending them, and making them ge neral, was wife and politic. The question was, not whether a particular property had been rated, but whether a fecies of property had been rated. His Lordship then inveftigated feveral cafes which had been cited at the bar. Upon thefe feveral cafes he obferved, that lead had been rated, becaufe it was the produce of the land; that rents had always been rated, because they were apparently certain that tolls had been held rateable fince the 22d of Charles II. He had fent to Wickham on this point, and found that the tolls had been rated beyond the memory of man: navigation tolls had been always rated. Springs had been rated, becaufe they were the produce of the land; as were limeftone quarries, marl holes, and falt pits, which raife a real value. The reafoning, from the words in the ftatute, "inhabitants and ability," his Ldthp faid, he could not fee where to draw the line, the conftruction would run fo general. It did not follow, because the Proprietors of the Water-works were rated by the land-tax, that they should be rated in the prefent cafe; for there were Water-works all over the country (his Lordship ftated the several places), and they were never rated. If the rate applied for was established, the Court would not know where to stop, fo many new cafes would arife. Juftice and policy, his Lordship thought, fhould make taxes general, but they fhould not fall upon labour and mechanifm. The Court being equally divided in opinion, the cafe muft, of course, come before the twelve Judges. MR. URBAN, Lichfield, July 10. N answer to H. L. M. in your Mag. for March laft, p. 226, I fend you an abftra& from the last will and teftament of my late relation," the celebrated Author of the Greenian Philofophy;" having in my poffeffion a faithful copy of that uncommon production. As no one of the colleges has thought proper to comply with the injunctions mentioned in his will, his effects remain in the poffetion of Sidney Suffex College. His nearcft furviving relations, Mr. John Whyle of Tamworth, in the county of Warwick, and his fifter, the relict of Mr. Ed. Hayward, late of Birmingham, have, from motives of delicacy, and fome other confiderations, never yet thought proper to fet up their claim. He, fome little time before his death, which happened at Birmingham, took the degree of D. D.; his departure was on Aug. 16, 1730, and he was buried in St. Mary's church in Cambridge. Yours, &c. RICH. GREENE. "IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN! "I Robert Greene, mafter of arts, and "fellow of Clare-hall of the old foun"dation in the univerfity of Cam"bridge, and a dutyfull tho' an un"worthy prefbyter of the church of England; fon to the most prudent, "devout, and religious Mr. Robert "Greene, formerly a mercer in Tam"worth, in the county of Warwick, " and Mrs Mary Pretty his wife, of Fazely, in the fame county, my most dear, good, and excellent mother, "after due profeffions of my fincere refpect for their memoryes, and my gratitude for their tender and moft "Chriftian education of me, and of moft ardent and exceeding affecmy "tion for my dearest and most loving. "fifters Mrs Mary Greene afterwards "Whyle, Mrs. Rebecca Greene after"wards Collins, Mrs. Efther Greene who dy'd unmarried, Mrs. Eliz. "Greene afterwards Dicken, all wo"men of the most exemplary picty, "humility, and vertue; as allio for "my deaicft brothers, Mr. John and "Mr. Thomas Greene, who departed "this life when children, and for my dear brothers, Mr. Jeremiah Whyle "and Mr. John Collins of Tamworth, and Mr. Ifaac Dicken of Birming ham, in the fame county, the several See his Will. GENT. MAG. August, 1783. "hufbands of my dearest and most lov"ing fifters; and for my moft dear and "honoured uncles, Mr. John Greene "of Litchfield, the Rev. Mr. Thomas "Pretty, rector of Winchfield near "Farnham, and the Rev. Mr. Joha "Pretty, rector of Farley near Win chefter, to the laft of whom, and his "diftinguishing generofity and kind"nefs to me upon the death of my fa"ther, my continuance and advance"ment in this colledge is principally "owing." After enumerating many more relations, he proceeds thus: "All whom I hope, thro' the good"nefs of God, to meet in eterna! blifs, "when they and I, who are ftill liv"ing, thall have changed this vain "and tranfitory world for a more dura"ble and lafting being, in perfect "health and foundnefs of body and "mind, for which I praife the infinite mercy of my Creatour, do make and "declare this my laft will and tefta"ment in manner and form following; "that is to fay, firft, I bequeath my "precious and immortal foul into the "hands of Allmighty God, my most "gracious and heavenly Father, in "full hope and humble affurance of its "being again re-united to my body "when railed from the grave in God's "bleffed time, and being everlaftingly "happy amongst the number of the "elect, thro' the meritts; paffion, and "death of his Son Jefus Chrift, both "God and Man, my only Saviour and "Redeemer. Item, this frail and pe "rishing body, which now continually "cloggs the life and activity of the "mind, weak and infirm at the best in "its conftitution, thin and confump"tive in its frame and completion, "and continually liable to rheums, "catarrhs, and defluxions, I give and "bequeath to the anatomift and phyfi"cians for the inftruction and infor"mation of others, that as my studies "have been employed, as far as I was "able, for the improvement of natural "knowledge, the material and groffer "part of me may likewife in fome "measure contribute its facultyes and 66 powers to the fame purpose and end; "and that as the reft of my endeavours "have been to benefit and do good to "mankind, fo I may not be wanting "in my laft and uttermoft office which "I can pay to them, by refigning my "body to be diffected for the ute and fervice of thofe who furvive me, "" which "which I defire may be done in the "moft accurate and critical manner, 46 and by the ableft and most skill "full in thofe fciences; and if any ob"fervations occurr which may be of "advantage to the world, which I heartily with, it is my will and plea"fure, that they fhould be communi"cated to it in the Philofophical Tranf "actions, or any other way the most "extenfive, it being my inward defire, "that not only every thought of my "mind, but every part of my body, "may be productive of fome bencfit "and advantage to my fellow crea"tures. to thofe who are of the fame fpecies with me:-And my further will is, that this diffection fhould be "performed in my own chamber where "I write this, and that, excepting my "bones, all the fcattered fragments of "my carcafs fhould be collected toge"ther, and decently interred in All "Saints, Cambridge, as near the Com"munion table as poffible, having formerly officiated 3 yeares in that "church for the reverend and worthy "Doctor Grigg, master of our colledge, and for which and the parish "thereto belonging. I cannot but ftill "retain a moft tender and affectionate "regard; but if before my death a new chappel fhould be raised in Clare "Hall, which I carneftly long to ice, and thould be bleffed with confecra"tion, which I hope will fome time be, "my will and picafure then is, that my "remaines fhould be interred there, as near to the Communion table as pof"fible, where for fo many yeares I "have officiated as dean of the faid chappell, and which therefore de"mands my first preference and ef 66 teem. As to my bones, it is my will and pleasure, for the reafon given a"bove for my diffcction, that they "should be formed into a skelleton, "and placed in or next to the clafs which I fhall afterwards bequeath to "the library; and that a fair tranfcript "of this my last will in parchment, as "allfo the bookes which have been or fhall be published in my name, and written by me, together with my "Encyclopedia corrected, fhould be laid by the fide of it; and that this fkelleton fhould be called by the name of Mr. Greene's." He then directs, that a plain unornamented marble ftone fhould be fixed to the wall near the place of his interment, with a diffufe Latin infcription; and a like ftone and infcription fet up in the chapels of Clare-Hall (when rebuilt) and King's College, alfo in St. Mary's church, and in the northern chancel of the church of Tamworth. He then directs a fermon to be preached at St. Mary's the third Sunday after his funeral, from Corinthians, ch. 1. ver. 19, 20, 21. either by Dr. Stanhope, Dr. Mofs, Dr. Jenkin, Dr. Waterland, or his dear friend and pupil Mr. Archer. He then bequeaths his houfe in Tamworth to his fifter, wife to Mr. Ifaac Dicken, mercer and cutler in Birmingham, defiring her twice a year to invite a certain number of his relations to dinner, to remember with piety and folemnity all their relations who are departed; and in cafe of her decease he gives the aforefaid house to his two nephews and niece, Mr. Robert, Mr. John, and Mrs. Mary Whyte, for their lives, to be divided fhare alike; in cafe of their decease, to his mother-in-law Mrs. Cath. Greene; after her death to his brother-in-law and his fifter, Mr. Timothy and Mrs. Ruth Greene; and at their deccafe to the Mafter, Fellows, and Scholars of Clare-Hall, the revenue to be applied with 200l. ftock in the Bank of England, the intereft to be laid out in two filver plates or tankards every year, not exceeding the value of 61. cach, to be given to the two beft and most celebrated fcholars, the one for Piety, the other for Learning: a diftinction to be made in the ornamental part of them, the most costly and beft finished to the candidate for Piety: the donations to be received from the Mafter and Society by the candidates on their knees, who are ever after to be called Mr. Greene's Scholars. Copies of his works, whether published during his life or after his death, to be prefented, neatly and fairly bound, to the Public Libraries, and to thofe of each of the Colleges in Cambridge and Oxford. His gowns, caflocks, and wearing apparel, he difpofes of to the poorer scholars of the college. If the Master, &c. of ClareHall do not accept his benefaction, and comply with the conditions above-mentioned, he makes the fame offer to St. John's, Trinity, and Jefus Colleges; and, on the refusal of cach of the above focieties, to Sidney Suffex College. He appoints Dr. Grigg, mafter of Clare-Hall, Dr. Jenkin, mafter of St. John's, Dr. Bentley, matter of Trinity, Dr. Afhton, mafter of Jefus, Dr. Fisher, matter mafter of Sidney College, or the mafter of these several colleges for the time being, together with the Rev. Mr. Henry Archer, Mr. Robt. Seagrave of Deptford, and his uncle the Rev. Mr. John Pretty, rector of Farley near Winchester, executors of his laft will. No other expence at his funeral than a bier or pall, and fome rosemary. Life and Writings of Mr. PYLE*. TH HE Rev. THOMAS PYLE, M. A. whofe Sermons have been lately publifhed in three volumes, was the fon of a clergyman, and was born at Stodey, near Holt, Norfolk, in 1674- He was educated at Caius College, Cambridge. He ferved the town of King's Lynn in the capacities of curate, lecturer, and minifter, from his admithion into orders till his deceafe in 1756; discharging the feveral duties of his office with unremitted induftry and perfect integrity. His fole aim was to amend or improve his auditors. For this purpofe he addreffed himself, not to their paffions, but to their understandings and confciences. He judicioufly preferred at plainnefs, united with a force of expreffion, to all affectation of elegance or rhetorical fublimity. Befide which, he fpoke his difcourfes with fo juft and animated a tone of voice, as never failed to gain univerfal attention. He diftinguished himself early in life, by engaging in the Bangorian Contro verfy, which he did fo much to the fatisfaction of the late Bishop Hoadly, that the faid Bishop not only gave him a prebend, and procured him a refidentiary hip in the church of Sarum, but made two of his fons prebendaries of Winchester. Mr. Pyle afterwards published his Paraphrafe on the Acts, and all the Epifiles, in the manner of Dr. Clarke; a work which has paffed through many editions, and is exceedingly well adapted to the ufe and inftruction of Chriftian families; as it contains in a plain fhort compafs, the fubftance of what had been written by preceding commentators. The fame character is due to his Paraphrafe on the Revelation of St John, and on the Hiftorical Books of the Old Teftament. All admirably conduce to the valuable end for which they were intended, to render the true meaning of Scripture more eafy and familiar to the apprehenfion of all readers. That he had no defign of committing * See more of this in p. 692. to the prefs those fermons which are now made public, feems very probable from the following remarkable circumftance, which proves them to be the genuine offspring of his own extraordinary genius, namely, that he compofed them with the greateft facility and expedition, amidst the interruptions of a numerous furrounding family. To be celebrated as a preacher, was the natural confequence of his nervous language and fpirited delivery. And it may be added, that he was no lefs juftly admired as a faithful friend, as an agreeable companion, as a man of the moft liberal fentiments, and fo free from all pride and conceit of his own abilities, that he was apt to pay a defe. rence to the opinions of many perfons much inferior to himself. What he esteemed one principal advantage and happiness of his life was, that he lived not only in friendship, but in familiar correspondence, with feveral of the moft excellent Divines of his time, particularly, Bishop Hoadly, Dr. Samuel Clarke, and Dr. Sykes. Now as that worthy Prelate, in his uncommon modefty, declared to the world, that he wished to be diftinguished after death by no higher title, than "The Friend of Dr. Clarke," we may furety afcribe it as no fmall honour to the late Mr. Pyle, that he was the friend of both thofe eminent men. Upon the whole, then, it is paying no more than a fair tribute to his memory as a clergyman and an author, if we rank him among thofe contemporary luminaries of the church of England who appeared in the beginning of the prefent century; and who, with a manly indifference to all ufeless notions, and a rational zeal for what is truly important, ftudied to fet forth the Chriftian Religion in its fimple native dignity, and to give it its due influence upon the hearts and lives of all men. Eaf Barnet, July 30, 1783. MR. URBAN, Canterbury, July 9. A S your ingenious correfpondent G. E. p. 494, feems defirous to know the thoughts of others on the phænomenon which he defcribes as obferved at Castleton in Derbyshire, I have ventured to communicate mine, but mus beg leave to differ in opinion from him as to the caufe of that phænomenon, and I think that by confidering what follows he will be convinced that it cannot arife from the preceffion of the equinoxes. equinoxes. In this refpect it matters not to what part of the heavens the pole of our earth is directed, so that it does but preferve the fame angle with the pole of the ecliptic. For the length of fhadows at all times, in any given latitude, muft depend on the fun's declination, and this depends on the angle which the poles of the carth make with the poles of the ecliptic; fo that allowing all that Dr Keill, Mr. Moxon (and indeed every one who is at all verfed in aftronomy), fay, concerning the preceffion of the equinoxes, to be exactly true, it can be of no confequence in this affair; for while the pole of the earth is found to be in that leffer circle defcribed by Dr. Keill, at 23° 30' from the pole of the ecliptic, the length of all fhadows in the fame latitudes muft remain the fame; as may cafily be feen, if we only fufpend a terrefitial globe on a thread, faftened to the brazen meridian, at 231 from the north pole, which by its twifting or untwifting will caufe the pole of the earth to revolve around the pole of the ecliptic, the latter of which is, in this cafe, reprefented by the thread; and by this means we may alfo fee what alteration in the courfe of nature can arife op this account, which is, that 12,960 years hence, the time in which the pole of the carth makes half a revolution through the leffer circle above-mentioned, its northern regions will enjoy fummer in the fame parts of its orbit where it now has winter; or, in other words, that the fun, in the fame part of the heavens where he is now over the earthly tropic of Capricorn, and makes the thorteft days and longeft nights in the no.thern liemisphere, will then be over the earthly tropic of Cancer, and make the long days and fhoiteft fights; and confequently this muft likewife produce a confiderable alteration in the latitude, declination, and rifing and fetting of the fixed ftars, but none at all in the rifing, fetting, or declination of the fun. For notwithftanding that by half a revolution of the poles of the earth round the poles of the ecliptic, they will stand in a different direction to what they do now, yet if we conceive the earth to be placed in the oppofite point to any given part of its orbit, they will then fland, with refpect to the fun, exactly the fame as they do now; but, with refpect to the fixed stars, their diftances are fo great, that the whole orbit of the earth would appear but as a fingle point if viewed from them, and its axis being then in a direction 470 diftant from its former pofition, the prefent pole ftar will apparently defcribe a circle of 94° in diameter, and tranfit our meridian at 89 30 fouth of our zenith, and defcend fo low as to be within ° 30' of the horizon; The feafons of the year, as before obferved, will be diametrically oppofite, and the fun enter Capricorn on the longeft day, the vernal and autumnal equinoxes interchange their days, the conftellations within 23° 30' of the fouthern pole of the ecliptic on one part will be visible above our horizon; on the other hand, many stars of the firft magnitude will entirely difappear from our view, as Sirius and Rigel, likewife Orion's belt, though now they form the moft glorious conftellations that adorn our northern hemifphere. I have been the more explicit on this fubject, because I find many perfons entertain very confufed ideas concerning it. In the British Palladium for 1772, p. 67, is a query concerning the declination of churches from the true caft and weft points of the horizon. The caufe of which the Querift there, and his Anfwerer in p. 54 of the Palladium for 1773, feem both to think, arifes from the preccifion of the equi noxes, by allowing the declination t● increafe at the rate of one degree in 7 years; but this likewife will evidently appear to be a mistake to any one who confiders, that, while the poles of the earth are confined to the fame points of its furface, a wall built on any of its meridians must always remain on those meridians, and confequently a wall built caft and weft, or north and fouth, muft always face the fame points it did at firft. Again, if we examine the fituation of churches, we shall find some decline one way and fome another, which could not have been the case, had the variation been occafioned by the caufe affigned. Mr. Cha. Leadbetter, the author of an excellent book of aftronomy, likewife fays, in his Mechanical Dialling, p: 142, in a note, that "if we repair to fome old dial, and according to the distance of the fubftile from the meridian, find the declination, which the wall it is fixed. on had when the dial was first made, and then take the declination of the plane by the fun, we shall find thefe two declinations to differ according to the age of the dial; fo that one, which stood full fouth 60 years ago, fhall now decline fome de greep |