much upon Luther, gives no account of it in any of his writings. The cup is made with great ingenuity in the style of the age to which it belongs. Including the lid, it is about three quarters of an ell (18 inches, English) high, of solid silver, richly gilt within and without, except some smaller ornaments, which, it seems, are purposely left, without gilding, to give them relief. It weighs 842 oths, nearly 45 ounces English, as marked by the artist, under the foot, in the manner represented in the plate. The foot of the cup is a quarter of an ell round, and on the border is inscribed the following inscription :- DIE LÖBLICHE VNIVERSITET DERCHVRF. STATT WITTENBERG VEREHRET DISES BRAVTH GESCHENKE H. D. MARTINO LVTHERN VND SEINER IVN GPRAVW KETHE VON BORE, ANNO 1525. DIE MARTIS POST. FESTVM: IOHANNIS BABTISTE. The body of the cup holds about two pints, is narrower below than above, and so ingeniously contrived, that it is hardly possible to drink it out. The ornamental foliage is in filagree work, and not entirely gilt; but the birds and branches round the upper part are engraved. Above these the lid begins, round the edge of which there are gilt ornaments in filagree work. Inside of the lid is screwed the silver medal, which was coined in 1630, on occasion of the centenary of the confession of Augsber. This medal has doubtless been fixed to the lid to replace another which was originally there, and had been lost; for medals are frequently found fastened to the lids of ancient cups. Upon the lid is a small ornament supporting a vine branch, which last bears a little knob in the shape of an oblong apple, with an opening at the top, in which are seen some sinall grains or seeds. It seems intended to represent a flower or a fruit, but this cannot be positively affirmed, still less what flower or fruit is meant. It is, however, likely, that some fruit or flower was intended, to which a particular symbolical meaning was attached, and that the artist worked after his own fancy, and not from an original of the flower or fruit which he was ordered to make. Now this ornament seems most to resemble a pomegranate; and it is not wholly improbable, that the university, in ordering the artist to introduce it, had in view one of the symbolical meanings given to the pomegranate by an cient writers, and of which several are mentioned in D. Philippi Pinicelli, mundus symbolicus idiomate italico conscriptus, justo volumine vero auctus, et in latinum conscriptus a R. D. Augustino Erath. Colonia Agrippina. MDCLXXXVII. Part I. p. 570-574. It were to be wished, that some person would examine the archives of the University of Wittenberg, and if he found any thing relative to the history of this cup, make it public. OUTLINES OF A PLAN FOR EPPECTING AN ORGANIZED SUPPLY OF THE ME- WATER-CARRIAGE. Collaterally with the establishment of an improved system of hydro-agriculture, and partly farming, proposed to be introduced in order to render provisions and profitable occupation more plentiful, it would certainly be a most desirable addition to our stock of improvement, if appropriate means could be devised of conveying them afterwards more cheaply to market than heretofore. The already vast, and still rapidly increasing state of the population of the metropolis, now estimated to contain a million and a quarter of inhabitants, as taking its immediate vicinity into account, affords satisfactory evidence, according to the course of nature, of the great demand for provisions for their subsistence, which must be constantly existing on the one hand; and, on the other, the calculating commercial characters of London will be at no loss duly to conceive, that if each member of this community be suffered to expend five shillings per week in provisions, the annual returns upon them will be upwards of sixteen millions sterling; and consequently, if on the articles which vary in their respective relations from 5 to 50, and even in some instances 100 per cent. 6 per cent. were saved to them upon the average on this sum in their housekeeping disbursements, by more judicious arrangements than those now in existence being adopted, it would constitute a pecuniary advantage to them of a million sterling per annum in this important department of family economy: besides the further advantage they would reap from it, commercially, in being thus placed more on a footing with their country rivals as to the terms on which business could be done according to their respective rates of living. The actual scale of prices which exist in town, and in various parts of the coup try, forms the best possible criterion to judge by, when the probable expences of conveyance to town are superadded, as to how far this per centage, or any other, may be gained to the London interests generally. Suffice it therefore to say, that whatever the difference may be, according to the distance from town, and the thinness or density of population in their respective neighbourhoods, there is always a radical cause to be found for it in the instances where the articles are driven to market in their live state, in the weight of meat lost upon the road: mutton, for instance, is reckoned to lose 2lb. per quarter on the road between Lincolnshire and London, on the average of seasons; which, as reckoning their mutton at 20lbs. the quarter is 10 per cent. in itself, besides road expences, and the Smithfield salesman's commission on its sale. But where the articles are almost necessarily conveyed by land-carriage, as veal, rabbits, and poultry, the ratio often comes higher fish again becomes an expensive article by this mode of conveyance, both on account of its weight, and its perish ability requiring so much dispatch: nor are the Londoners less unfavourably off in the terms on which they are obliged to purchase their milk, their potatoes, their fruits, and garden stuff, under the present regime. In point of quality there can be but one opinion, that in proportion as meat is killed fresh from the pasture with unvitiated juices, so it is superior to that which has been heated, fatigued and worried in a long pasfrom the pasture to the butcheryin its fat and morbid state. So well furnished as London now is, both by nature and art, with the means of the conveyance of articles by water-carriage, it is somewhat surprising, particularly as the increasing use of steam-boats has lately been so much in vogue amongst them, that no means have hitherto been thought of for availing themselves of their natural and artificial advantages in this respect; where all the fundamental principles of an advantageous intercourse between the metropolis and the surrounding country are in existence, and only want calling into action under a few judicious regulations. Through this mean there certainly ought, with the great mass of capital now looking out for objects on which it may be more beneficially employed than the present low rate of interest will afford, to be reason to calculate, according to the natural course of things, will prefer national speculations for effecting permanent im sage provement at home upon honest terrafirma, to entering into more hazardous and varying political ones connected with foreign governments, whenever they are satisfied there are rational principles to act upon; which they no doubt will feel sufficient interest to enquire into as relates to the present subject. Northerly, the Grand Junction Canal is now so complete as to extend quite across the country to Liverpool; a parallel one to join the Cam and the Stort together has been some time in contemplation, by which a direct aquatic communication between Llynn and London, through or near Cambridge, will be opened; and such are the numerous cuts and navigations of the fen countries, that but little is wanting to render the aquatic communication from Lincoln to Cambridge, and consequently to London complete, on its projected navigation to join the Stort being finished. How this concern speeds we are at present umacquainted; but if it be not yet begun, it may be a useful hint to observe a short cut from the Soham Lode to the Lark River, which runs to Bury St. Edmonds, would be attended with less expense and more certainty of its answering, especially if it were made a consolidated concern on their parts, and at the same time would be the means of promoting the interest of the new navigation, by pouring into its lap the territorial treasures of this fertile district likewise. It is in the north-eastern counties of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, where the greatest deficiency of water-carriage exists; upon which it will be a material part of our present purpose to advert. The Rumford districts of the county of Essex have lately determined, in full convocation, that it is expedient to their interest to reap the local advantages of their situation so near the metropolis, and have therefore determined upon the expediency of forming a canal from town in that direction, by the aid of which they may be enabled to convey manure from it upon sufficiently cheap terms, to enable them to raise two crops of potatoes within the year, as well as their more fortunately circumstanced neighhours, beside the river Lee navigation. Nothing more is necessary than to extend the rational plan they have so judiciously formed, by enlarging their line of navigation after they have finished it, so as to carry it forwards to Malden, in order to make it productive of doubled and trebled revenues to its proprietary, a general benefit to the improvement of the territorial property of the county, and an important acquisition to the interests of the metropolis itself. This may soon be explained. Malden is the nearest sea-port which we have-it is an intermediate sea-port between the metropolis and the North Seas, from whence both coal and fish are brought to the London market; which will probably afford the means to vessels to make three voyages thither to two, with the disadvantages, as well of the greater distance, as of getting up the river to encounter; and consequently the navigation expences upon articles imported there may be computed as being one-third less on that account; nor does the duty on coals, which is payable on their importation into the port of London attach there. Fish again, is a perishable article, and therefore to be able to land it a day or two sooner must ever be an object of consideration; for here there is not only the extra distance, but the ever uncertain state of the wind, concerned in the question. Besides which, all inlets from the sea, whether natural or artificial, of course supposes a tide concomitant with it; and the existence of a tide gives the means of employing it, secundem artem, in working corn and other mills less expensively than by the steam power which is so much in use about town. Should this plan ever be put in execution there will then be four distinct communications with the sea; a circumstance of no mean account, as converting grain into flour is concerned, as well as upon other considerations, as affects the interests of the soil, the means of employing sea-water for irrigation purposes from one end of the canal, and bringing back manure from the other end as back-carriage, instead of its being made the prime object as lately purposed. And again, of furnishing a cheap supply of bran, pollard, malt coombs, and pos sibly oil-cake, also, to the intermediate parts of the country supposed to be occupied as milk and poultry farms. The advantageous means then of grinding the corn imported by inland and marine navigation into flour-of disposing of its refuse the cheaper supply of fuel, together with the lower rents and wages of labor incident to country residences, all concur to point out the elegibility of the situation as a bakery also; particularly as by continuing this canal in a straight line to Thetford in the manner proposed, by that station being constituted the principal butchery of this district, the means of obtaining both the meat and the fruits, which are contemNEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 63. plated to be so largely used for pastry purposes, as being at once an agreeable and convenient mean of their transportation to town from the interior of the country, will be had, and as such, they will come all the cheaper on that account. As to the eligibility of subsequently continuing this navigation to Thetford, the recommendations in favour of this measure are substantial: the line of communication between them will not only be as straight as an arrow, but it will comprehend Bury St. Edmund's, likewise as another station, which again is situated so near the termination of the Stowmarket and Ipswich navigation, that by this hiatus being filled up the whole of that course of country might enjoy the benefit of aquatic communication and conveyance. It would also pass through the unnavigable part of the river Stour, so that but a moderate expense would be necessary to open its communication with Harwich, the most convenient port we have for intercourse with the more northern continentalists. It fortunately so happens, by a remarkable coincidence, that the proprietary near Diss have just announced their intention of making their river navigable in this part; so that upon the whole it may be said that the instances are very rare, if indeed they ever occurred, where the natural and artificial advantages of so large a track of country would be combined at so small a comparative expense, compared with the advantages derived from them. It is a still more remote consideration as to the propriety of continuing this navigation from Thetford to Norwich, and thence to Cromar, where already a respectable fishery is established, from which the neighbouring parts of the country down as low as Cambridge are supplied: but this is a most convenient rendezvous for receiving supplies of fish from the great Dogger Bank, would reuder the whole complete as far as regards this district, where nature has already done so much, and art so little. As a general answer to the often urged objection, that butcher's meat is a perishable article which can only be conveyed to considerable distances at particular periods of the year, it is to be observed, that a patriotic character, long experienced in curing herrings, has communicated the information to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, that a pickle composed of twenty-eight parts salt, of seventy-two parts water, will preserve VOL. XI. 2 F all kinds of animal substances for a considerable length of time. But the proposed system does not confine itself to sending meat to town in its raw state entirely; but on the contrary, contem plates the metropolis being furnished with it from professional manufactories, in a cured, potted, and cellared state, also, as well as being enveloped in pastry in the walled pies so fitted for popular use; so that families who may wish occasionally to save themselves the trouble of cooking, may always have the means of doing it. Before quitting the northern part of the map, it is to be observed, that Uxbridge stands in as favourable a relation for receiving inland supplies, and preparing them for the use of the west end of the town, as Mallen does for the eastern district of it: being already a sort of depôt for corn and flour, and having the means, by its aquatic connection with the northern collieries, of purchasing its coal at the best hand: and as such, it will be eligible as the home provision factory of this district. The aquatic roads of both these stations ought, in order to further improve their acquired artificial advantages, and accommodate the town at the same time, to be constituted into a milky way, with a constellation of ewes, asses, and goats, marking the course of the galaxy. Roots and green food might be brought from the remoter parts of the country for their maintenance, if the valuable land of these districts could be turned to like account as garden situations and poultry farms: but at all events, these supplies would tend to swell the returns of the poultry farms, and enrich their lands at the same time: while milk boats substituted in the place of milk maids, and carrying loads of this heavy article in combination infinitely beyond any human corporeal powers, night deposit their rich supplies of this useful, agreeable, and nutritious beverage, periodically, at stated hours, at a general lactarium to be provided for the purpose; from whence the milk women might continue their present functions in distributing it amongst their customers. Stoney Stratford seems to be the most eligible spot to fix upon for the out station, and butchery depôt: inasmuch as it is in the heart of a merely agricultural district: and again, is conveniently situated for receiving supplies of Welch cattle, which might then pursue their way to Smithfield whenever their owners were dissatisfied with the market prices of this intermediate one, and might be disposed to think they could do better there. For the grazier to have thus not only two strings to his bow; but what, most likely, he will value still more highly, the means of selling his own cattle, instead of being obliged, by present circumstances, to consign them to the professional drover, and the Smithfield salesman, to be sold at hap hazard, according to the fluctuating state of the market of the day: this must necessarily be so much more agreeable to his feelings, as a man of business, there is little doubt but that, backward as people usually are in changing old habits even for better ones, the conveniency of this establishment will be so manifest to them, they will hail it with pleasure, and countenance and support it accordingly. The territorial proprietary to the south west of the metropolis will naturally be desirous of having their share of the advantages of supplying London with provisions by aquatic communication: for this their situation affords a double advantage; it is locally well adapted to the purpose as to vicinity, and it can boast of a finer climate than the more northerly aspects; which will turn to good account, both as to the fertility of the soil, and as forming agreeable residences in that part of the country. From an attentive consideration of circumstances, it appears to us, that Dorking will form the most proper situation for the home depôt of these parts; for it is not only central for this part of the country, but from thence too it is a remarkable straight line of communication throughout the whole intervening country, by Whitchurch, Warminster and Frome, to Bridgewater Bay; where a most convenient and profitable connection with Ireland might, in due process of time, be opened, as taking a full view of the subject: but in the mean time it would pass through an improveable part of the country, at present very thinly populated, and therefore affording the greater advantages to the redundant part of our fast increasing population to settle there. To shew the immediate prospect which exists in present circumstances, of this redundancy of population, we need only to advert to the astonishing fact of our population having been actually found to have increased during the last ten years, which the last census comprehended from eleven and a half to fifteen millions: if such were the immediate fruits of the introduction and practice of the vaccination system |