requisition; but Lubec stood out a It is true the soldiers were to be proved, however, "but a small relief, as the tax instead of quartering was raised accordingly, no class being exempted from the general calamity. All towns and villages were therefore occupied by troops, except Gottingen, on account of its university, and The Harz, on account of its poverty; but the French, disliking the waste and cheerless flats of Westphalia, and other parts, flocked as much as possible to the larger places, which of course`endured the severest hardships, from being occupied by the greater number of soldiers. The remoter parts of the country were, however, not without their share of distress. Contributions in kind were introduced in lieu of those in money. Every peasant was obliged to furnish the magazines with corn and forage; the proportion of his supplies being regulated by the extent of his land. The provision was then duly rated, and the peasant received for the value bonds at five per cent. And, however good the interest might be, the poor peasant was thus deprived of corn, hay, and money, the want of which he could not replace except at a treble cost. Besides, the peasants were obliged, in their turn, to furnish their quota of waggons, horses, and carters, in part for the endless conveyances before-mentioned. Without calculating the wear and tear, consider onAnother burden, no less oppres-ly the loss of time and the interrupsive than the former, was the march- tion of his farming business; espeing of troops backward and for cially when, in addition to extraordiward, with numberless waggons and nary calls, he was liable to be taken heir drivers. This concourse of from his work in any season, and men and horses naturally crowded compelled to drive a few French the small number of houses by the officers to a ball. way in a disproportionate manner, and, from the constant exchange of regiments passing and repassing, the evil rose to an insupportable de gree. Osnaburg, as a frontier province between Hanover and Holland, suffered the most seriously from this grievance. To escape the burden of quartering, many inhabitants sold their houses, and lived in lodgings; which VOL. VI. NO. XXXVIII. Had the soldiery, who are gene rally liberal with their money, been allowed to spend their pay in the country, the poor inhabitants would have experienced some benefit; but the government of France took the most effectual measures to prevent this, by keeping back their pay eight or ten months, and, in fact, till they had passed the Hanoverian frontiers. Besides, the French com 9 200.08% missaries and generals, who amas- which he sincerely lamented." But, t sed the greatest sums, sent all they notwithstanding these assurances, could spare to France, by which it was not till the end of 1803 that Hanover was, in fact, drained of all any diminution took place in the its wealth. number of troops stationed in Hano ver, when seven of the thirty thousand were ordered to France; and another removal took place in the summer of 1805, leaving 20,000 in the country, which were finally reduced to 5000 when the late unfortunate contest demanded their services in another part of Germany. The effects of these measures Men of were too quickly visible. property were obliged to consume their capitals, and those in inferior circumstances to borrow at extravagant interest, as long as money was to be borrowed at any rate; but this resource at length failing to numbers who could not give ample security, they had no alternative but beggary or emigration. Every one retrenched his expences, which was only an aggravation of the universal misery. Those who had lived by the luxuries of the great experienced first the hard ships of poverty, from the want of employment and increase of expences. Of course, those towns in which luxury was most prevalent were the first victims of the extortions of the enemy; but the evil at length reached every class, from the lowest to the highest. Yet perhaps, of this latter class, none were more to be pitied than the civil officers of the state; who, accustomed, from their rank and education, to a commodious way of living, were exposed to greater sacrifices than other people in lower conditions. A cruel retrenchment was made in their salaries, and the remaining allowances were irregularly paid, and frequently altogether neglected. Redress, in such cases, was chimerical, for lawsuits would only have increas ed the evil. Those, therefore, who could not emigrate to England, Russia, or some other place, were compelled to submit to their misfortunes. In consequence of the glaring distress, frequent petitions were addressed to Bonaparte for relief from part of the burden; to which he answered, in his usual cant, "I do not wish the Hanoverian people to be ruined; and I wish the French name to be honoured among them." And on another occasion he declared," he would do whatever he could to spare the land, the situation of Barbou remained in Hanover with It was the fate of Hanover to suf Their transit trade on the Elbe was thus almost totally ruined. The little province of Osnaburg, whose principal occupation and subsistence lay in the manufacture and exportation of linen, which it sent to Spain and America, received a check from the stoppage of the regular navigation. The produce of this trade to the province, in which almost every peasant had his loom, was above a million of dollars yearly before the blockade. Though the navigation to Hamburgh was kept up in part by the way of Tonningen, and that to Bremen by the Jahde, yet the delays, losses, and charges arising from this circuitous mode of conveyance were very injurious to the merchant not to mention that every article passing through rano ver was obliged to have a certificate to specify that it had notp aid English customs, which was another circumstance that enhanced the price of all commodities to the purchaser. Meantime England was carrying on an unmolested trade, by the river Ems, in Emden, Leer, Meppen, and other places. The French at tempted, indeed, to molest the progress of English goods from Meppen to Frankfort, and other parts of Germany, and profited by the supposed arrival of some fire-arms on English account, to occupy the town with soldiers. The fire-arms were, of course, not discovered; but, for the prevention of such an importation, they thought proper to continue there till the king of Prus sia, who was then not so complaisant to the French as he afterwards was, positively insisted on the perfect freedom of the Ems navigation, and on the evacuation of Meppen. The French generals who had the command in Hanover were men of as good character, and of as much humanity, as could be expected from persons in the service of Bonaparte. They kept the strictest discipline in the army to prevent every irregularity, and softened the rigour of the commands they were obliged to issue as much as lay in their power. Mortier being recalled at the end of five months, in consequence of his elevation to the rank of marshal, Dessolles supplied his place till the arrival of Bernadotte. Under the administration of the latter, the country was greatly relieved by the system of economy he introduced into the whole army. The maintenance of the generals in Hanover was reduced one half, by their being obliged to have their food from the royal kitchen, and that of the generals in the provinces one-third. The officers were enjoined, on their ho nour, to have their meals at their own expense, for which they receiv ed additional pay every month. The privates were, in like manner, restricted to their allowance, and not permitted to demand any thing but vegetables, and the preparation of their food. He also kept a strict eye over the commissaries, and lowered their salaries. In all these regulations he appeared to be guided by a consideration for the people's distress; and, in justice to his character, it ought to be stated, that he was friendly to, the poor, and performed many acts of charity from bis own private purse. For the Literary Magazine. GUIACUM. MR. BRANDE has laid before the Royal Society of London some original experiments made on guiacum, from which he infers, that it is a substance very different from those which are denominated resins, and that it is also different from all those which are enumerated amongst balsams, gum-resins, gums, and extracts. Most probably, Mr. Brande says, it is a substance distinct in its nature from any of those above enumerated, in consequence of certain peculiarities in the proportions and chemical combination of its constituent elementary principles. At any rate he regards guiacum as compo sed of a resin modified by the vege table extractive principle, and, as change of the position of the germisuch, it may be denominated an ex-nating seed, and that it might be tracto resin without impropriety. counteracted by the agency of cenMr. Brande has been led to these trifugal force. In a strong rill of conclusions from observing the ac water he constructed a wheel simition of different solvents on guia- lar to those used for grinding corn, cum, whence it appeared, that, al- and to this he adapted another wheel though this substance possesses many eleven inches in diameter, round the properties in common with resinous circumference of which he attached bodies, it nevertheless differs from numerous seeds of the garden bean. them in the following particulars: The radicles of these seeds were 1. By affording a portion of vegeta- made to point in e every direction, ble extract. 2. By the curious alter- some towards the centre of the ations which it undergoes when sub- wheel, and others in an opposite. jected to the action of bodies which direction. The whole was inclosed readily communicate oxygen, such in a box, and secured by a lock, as nitric and oxy-muriatic acids; and a wire grate was placed to pre and the rapidity with which it dis- vent the ingress of any body capa. solves in the former. 3. By being ble of impeding the motion of the converted into a more perfect resin; wheels The water being admitted, in which respect guiacum bears some the wheels performed something resemblance to the grecu resin more than 150 revolutions in a mi which constitutes the colouring mat nute; and the position of the seeds ters of the leaves of trees. 4. By relative to the earth was, of course, yielding oxalic acid. 5. By the quan- as often perfectly inverted, within tity of charcoal and lime which are the same period of time, by which obtained from it when subjected to it was imagined the influence of destructive distillation. gravitation must have been wholly suspended. In a few days the seeds began to germinate: the radicles; in whatever direction they were protruded from the position of the seed, turned their points outwards from the circumference of the wheel, and receded nearly at right angles from its axis. The germens, on the contrary, took the opposite direction, and in a few days their points all met in the centre of the wheel. Three of these plants were suffered to remain on the wheel, and the stems soon extended beyond the centre of the wheel, but their points returned and met again at its centre. For the Literary Magazine. ON VEGETATION. AN interesting paper on the direction of the radicle and germen during the vegetation of seeds, was lately presented to the Royal Society, by T. A. Knight, Esq. It is known that in whatever position a seed is placed to germinate, its radicle invariably makes an effort to descend towards the centre of the earth, whilst the elongated germen takes precisely an opposite direction. By some these effects have been accounted for by gravitation; to ascertain this, Mr. Knight commenced a course of experiments; he concluded that if gravitation were the cause, it could only produce these effects while the seed remained at rest, and in the same position relative to the attraction of the earth, and that its operation would become suspended by constant and rapid Mr. Knight then instituted another experiment, and from them both concludes, that the radicles of germinating seeds are made to descend, and their germens to ascend, by some external cause, and not by any power inherent in vegetable life: and doubts not that gravitation is the principal, if not the only agent employed, in this case, by nature. He next endeavours to point out the means by which the same agent may produce effects so diametrically opposite to each other. The radicle of a germinating seed is increased in length only by new parts successively added to its apex, and not by any general extension of parts already formed: and the new matter which is thus successively added descends in a fluid state from the cotyledons. On this fluid, and on the vegetable fibres and vessels whilst soft and flexible, and whilst the matter which composes them is changing from a fluid to a solid state, gravitation would operate sufficient ly to give an inclination downwards to the point of the radicle. As the radicle is increased in length only by parts successively added to its point, the germen, on the contrary, elongates by a general extension of its parts previously organized; and its vessels and fibres appear to extend themselves in proportion to the quantity of nutriment they receive. If the motion and consequent distribution of the true sap be influenced by gravitation, it follows, that when the germen, at its first emission, or subsequently, deviates from a perpendicular direction, the sap must accumulate on its under side: and, in a great variety of experiments on the seeds of a horse chesnut, the bean, and other plants, when vegetating at rest, the vessels and fibres on the under side of the germen invariably elongate much more rapidly than those on its upper side: and thence it follows that the point of the germen must always turn upwards. And it has been proved that a similar increase of growth takes place on the exter nal side of the germen when the sap is impelled there by centrifugal force, as it is attracted by gravita tion to its under side when the seed germinates at rest. This increased elongation of the fibres and vessels of the under side is not confined to the germens, nor even to the annual shoots of trees, but occurs and produces the most extensive effects in the subsequent growth of their trunks and branches. The immediate effect of gravitation A is certainly to occasion the further depression of every branch which extends horizontally from the trunk of the tree; and when a young tree inclines to either side, to increase that inclination: but it, at the same time, attracts the sap to the under side, and thus occasions an increased longitudinal extension of the substance of the new wood on that side. The depression of the lateral branch is thus prevented, and it is even enabled to raise itself above its natural level when the branches above it are removed; and the young tree, by the same means, becomes more upright in direct opposition to the immediate action of gravitation: nature, as usual, executing the most important operations by the most simple means. To this doctrine the most important objection is, that few branches rise perpendicularly upwards, and that roots always spread horizontally to this it may be answered, that the luxuriant shoots of trees which abound in sap, in whatever direction they are first obtruded, almost uniformly turn upwards, and endeavour to acquire a particular direction: and to this their points will immediately return, if they are bent downwards during any period of their growth; their curvature upwards being occasioned by an increased extension of the fibres and vessels of their under sides, as in elongated germens of seeds. The more feeble and slender shoots of the same trees will, on the contrary, grow in almost every direction, probably because their fibres, being more dry, and their vessels less amply supplied with sap, they are less affected by gravitation. Their points, however, generally show aninclination to turn upwards, but the operation of light, in this case, has been proved to be very considerable. The radicle tapers rapidly as it descends into the earth, and its tower part is much compressed by the greater solidity of the mould into which it penetrates. The true sap also continues to descend from the |