Tax.

fkins are all covered.

Tawing, eafily as if it were brandy, but goes out the moment the They repeat this operation as often as the skins rife above the water; and when they have done rifing they take them out, lay them on the wooden leg, the fleshy fide outwards, and pass the knife over them to scrape off Having thus cleared them of the bran, they lay the skins in a large bafket, and load them with huge ftones to promote their draining: and when they have drained fufficiently, they give them their feeding; which is performed after the manner following:

the bran.

For 100 of large fheep fkins, and for smaller in proportion, they take eight pounds of alum and three of fea-falt, and melt the whole with water in a veffel over the fire, pouring the folution out, while yet lukewarm, into a kind of trough, in which is twenty pounds of the fineft wheat-flower, with the yolks of eight dozen of eggs; of all which is formed a kind of paste, a little thicker than children's pap; which, when done, is put into another veffel, to be used in the following manner.

They pour a quantity of hot water into the trough in which the pafte was prepared, mixing two spoonfuls of the paste with it; to do which they use a wooden spoon, which contains juft as much as is required for a dozen of skins: and when the whole is well diluted, two dozen of the kins are plunged into it; but they take care that the water be not too hot, which would fpoil the paste and burn the skins.

After they have lain fome time in the trough they take them out, one after another, with the hand, and ftretch them out; this they do twice and after they have given them all their paste, they put them into tubs, and there full them afresh with wooden peftles.

:

T'hen they put them into a vatt, where they are suffered to lie for five or fix days, or more; then they take them out in fair weather, and hang them to dry on cords or racks: and the quicker they are dried the better; for if they be too long a-drying, the falt and alum within them are apt to make them rife in a grain, which is an effential fault in this kind of dreffing.

When the fins are dry, they are made up into bundles, and just dipt in fair water, and taken out and drained: they are then thrown into an empty tub; and after having lain fome time are taken out and trampled under foot.

Then they draw them over a flat iron inftrument, the top of which is round like a battledore, and the bottom fixed into a wooden block, to stretch and open them; and having been opened, they are hung in the air upon cords to dry; and being dry, they are opened a fecond time, by paffing them again over the fame inftrument.

In the last place, they are laid on a table, pulled out, and laid fmooth, and are then fit for fale.

TAX (Taxa, from the Greek rakis, i. e. ordo, tributum), a tribute or impofition laid upon the fubject for the fupport of government. See REVENUE.

It is the ancient indifputable privilege and right of the house of commons, that all grants of fubfidies or parliamentary aids do begin in their house, and are first bellowed by them; although their grants are not effectual to all intents and purposes until they have the affent of the other two branches of the legiflature. See COMMONS. The general reason given for this exclufive privilege of the house of commons is, that the fupplies are raised upon the body of the people, and therefore it is proper that they alone fhould have the right of taxing themselves. This reafon would be unanswerable, if the commons taxed none but themselves: but it is notorious, that a very large share of property is in the

poffeffion of the house of lords; that this property is equal. Tax ly taxable, and taxed, as the property of the commons; and therefore the commons, not being the fole perfons taxed, this cannot be the reafon of their having the fole right of railing and modelling the fupply. The true reason, arifing from the fpirit of our conftitution, feems to be this. The lords being a permanent hereditary body, created at pleafure by the king, are fuppofed more liable to be influenced by the crown, and when once influenced to continue fo, than the commons, who are a temporary elective body, freely nominated by the people. It would therefore be extremely dangerous to give the lords any power of framing new taxes for the fubject; it is fufficient that they have a power of rejecting, if they think the commons too lavifh or improvi dent in their grants. But fo reasonably jealous are the commons of this valuable privilege, that herein they will not suffer the other house to exert any power but that of rejecting. They will not permit the leaft alteration or amendment to be made by the lords to the mode of taxing the people by a money-bill: under which appellation are included all bills by which money is directed to be raised upon the subject, for any purpose or in any shape whatsoever; either for the exigencies of government, and collected from the kingdom in general, as the land-tax; or for private benefit, and collected in any particular diftrict, as by turnpikes, parish-rates, and the like. Yet Sir Matthew Hale mentions one cafe, founded on the practice of parliament in the reign of Henry VI. wherein he thinks the lords may alter a money-bill: and that is, if the commons grant a tax, as that of tonnage and poundage, for four years; and the lords alter it to a lefs time, as for two years: here, he says, the bill need not be fent back to the commons for their concurrence, but may receive the royal affent without farther ceremony; for the alteration of the lords is confift ent with the grant of the commons. But fuch an experiment will hardly be repeated by the lords, under the prefent improved idea of the privilege of the house of commons; and, in any cafe where a money-bill is remanded to the commons, all amendments in the mode of taxation are fure to be rejected.

The commons, when they have voted a fupply to his majefty, and fettled the quantum of that supply, ufually resolve themselves into what is called a committee of ways and means, to confider the ways and means of raising the supply so voted. And in this committee every member (though it is looked upon as the peculiar province of the chancellor of the exchequer) may propofe fuch scheme of taxation as he thinks will be leaft detrimental to the public. The refolutions of this committee (when approved by a vote of the houfe) are in general efteemed to be (as it were) final and conclufive. For though the fupply cannot be actually raifed upon the fubje&t till directed by an act of the whole parliament, yet no monied man will fcruple to advance to the government any quantity of ready cash, on the credit of a bare vote of the house of commons, though no law be yet passed to establish it.

The taxes which are raised upon the subject are either annual or perpetual.

I The ufual annual taxes are thofe upon land and malt. See LAND and MALT.

II. The perpetual are, 1. The cuftoms. 2. The excifeduty. 3. The falt-duty. 4. The poft-office. 5. The ftamp duty. 6. Houfe and window duty. 7. The duty on hackney-coaches and chairs. 8. That on offices and penfions. See the articles CUSTOMS, EXCISE, POST, STAMP, HOUSE, HACKNEY, and OFFICES and Penfions.

As to the application of all these, fee the articles REVENUE, NATIONAL Debt, FUNDS, and Civil List.

4

TAX

TAXATION. See REVENUE, TAX, and FEODAL Syftem. TAXUS, the YEW TREE, in botany: A genus of plants belonging to the clafs of diacia, and order of monodelphia; and in the natural fyftem ranging under the 51ft order, Conifere. The male calyx is triphyllous, gemmaceous, and imbricated: there is no corolla; the ftamina are numerous; the antheræ peltated and octofid. The female calyx refembles the male; there is no corolla nor style, and only one feed with a calycle resembling a berry very entire. There are only two fpecies mentioned by Linnæus, the baccata and nucifera. M. Sonnerat has added a third, called capen. fis; and Sir Charles Thunberg has inferted two more, the macrophylla and verticellata, in his Flora Japonica.

It is

The baccata, or common yew tree, is a native of Britain, France, Switzerland, &c. and of North America. distinguished from the other fpecies by linear leaves which grow very clofe, and by the receptacles of the male flowers being fubglobofe. The wood is reddish, full of veins, and flexible, very hard and smooth, and almost incorruptible. Its hardness renders it very proper for turners and cabinetmakers. It produces berries which are red, mucilaginous, and have a sweet mawkish taste. They are often eaten by birds, and are therefore not poisonous: But it is a common opinion that the leaves are poisonous to cattle, and many facts are mentioned of horfes and cows having died by eating them. Others, however, deny these facts. It is found in feveral parts of the Highlands of Scotland in a wild ftate. At Glenlure, near Glen-Creran, in Upper Lorn, are the remains of an old wood of it. The place takes its name from the trees which grow in it; for Glenlure in the Gaelic language is no other than a corruption of Gleaniuir, "The valley of yew trees." It is of no great height, but the trunk grows to a large fize. Mr Pennant has taken notice of a very remarkable decayed one in Fortingal church-yard, the remains of which measured 56 feet and an half in circumference.

i.

The yew is at prefent almoft peculiar to church-yards; hence fome naturalifts fufpect that it is an exotic. Several reasons have been affigned for its frequency in church-yards. The first is, that before the invention of gunpowder the warrior might never be at a lofs for a bow. This is an opinion for which we have found no hiftorical evidence; and till fome be produced it is confidered merely as a conjecture. There are several laws enacted by our forefathers for encou raging archery, but none of them mention the cultivation of the yew. The bows used in England were indeed made frequently of yew, but it was yew of foreign growth. In the reign of Elizabeth, a bow of the beft foreign yew fold for 6 s. 8 d. while one made of English yew fold only for 2 s. In 12 Edw. IV. it was ordained that every foreign merchant that should convey any goods from any country from which bow-ftaves had formerly been brought to this country, fhould for every ton of goods bring four bow-ftaves. A fimilar law was framed in the time of Richard III. It appears therefore that the church-yards did not fupply the nation with bows.

A fecond opinion concerning the introduction of yew trees into church-yards is, that they were intended to defend the church against storms. But there are many other trees that would have answered this purpose much better for the yew is of so flow a growth, that it would be long before it could be of any fervice at all, and is fo low that it could never be a fufficient fhelter. A third opinion is, that being an evergreen, it is an emblem of immortality. This is a pretty idea; but the misfortune is, that yew is always confidered as a tree of baleful influence. This opinion is as old as Statius, who says, metuenda fucco taxus. A fourth

opinion is, that when anciently it was the custom, as it till is in Catholic countries, to carry palms on Palm-Sunday, the yew was fubftituted on fuch occafions for the palm. Two or three trees, the ufual number growing in churchyards, were fufficient for fuch purposes. This is the only opinion which receives any countenance from hiftory. The following extract from Caxton's Direction for keeping Feafts all the Year, printed in 1483, will probably be confi dered as decisive on this subject. It is taken out of the lecture for Palm-Sunday; where the writer, after giving the fcriptural account of our Saviour's triumphant entrance into Jerufalem, proceeds thus: "Wherefore holy chirche this day makyth folempne proceffyon, in mynd of the proceffyou that Cryft made this day. But for enchefon that we have non olyue that berith grene leef, algate therefore we take ewe in ftede of palme and olyue, and beren about in proceffyon, and fo is thys day callyd Palme Sonday." As à confirmation of this fact, we may add, that the yews in the churchyards of Eaft Kent are at this day called palms.

a

TAY, called by the Romans Tavus or Taus, the largest river in Scotland. It rifes in Braidalbane, on the Frontiers of Lorn; and having in the paffage of a few miles augmented its ftream by the acceffion of feveral fmall rills, spreads itout of which having felf into a lake called Loch Dochart run but a little fpace, it expands itfelf again. Leaving this fecond lake, it rolls fome miles with a confiderable body of water, and then diffules ittelf abroad in the fpacious Loch Tay; which, reckoning from the fources of the river, is 24 miles in length, though, ftrictly speaking, the lake is but 13: almoft as foon as it iTues from hence, it receives the river Lyon, coming out of Loch Lyon, and running through Glen Lyon; which, having travelled in a manner parallel to it, from its fource, for a space of 25 miles, at length joins the Tay as it enters Athol, which it next traverses, and, directing its course in a manner due eaft, receives almost all the waters of that country. Bending then to the south, at the diflance of fix miles, it reaches Dunkeld; which, in the language of our ancestors, fignifies "the hill of hazels,' was the very centre of the old Caledonia, and is at prefent efteemed the heart of the Highlands. The river is very broad here, infomuch that there is a ferry-boat over it at each end of the town. Declining ftill to the fouth-eaft, with a winding courfe, for above 12 miles, the Tay receives a large fupply of waters from the county of Angus; and then running fouth-weft for eight miles more, is joined in that space by feveral rivers, the most considerable of which is the Almond. Turning then to the fouth east, at the diftance of about three miles, this copious river comes with a fwelling ftream to Perth, or St Johnlton's, which is the capi tal of the fhire of that name.

The Tay, continuing ftill a fouth-eaft course, receives, a few miles below Perth, the river Erne; which, issuing from a loch of the fame name, traverses the county of Strathern, and paffes by Abernethy, once the capital of the Pictish kingdom; fwelled by the waters of this laft river, the Tay, running next directly eaft, enlarges itfelf till it becomes. about three miles broad; but contracts again before the town of Dundee; foon after which it opens into the German ocean. At the entrance of the frith, there are fands both on the north and on the fouth fide; the former styled Goa, the latter Aterlay and Drumlan; and before these, in the very mouth of the frith, thofe which are called the Cros Sands. At Buttonnels, which is the northern promontory, there are two light houfes. The space between the north and the south fands may be near a mile, with about three. fathoms water; but being within the frith, it grows deeper, and in the road of Dundee is full fix fathoms. The frith

of

}

firft genius and profeffional abilities." Though he was emi- Taylor nent in the culture and practice both of music and drawing in his early youth, his whole attention was not occupied by thefe fafcinating arts. His claffical education was conduct

Taylor. of Tay is not indeed fo large or fo commodious as that of Forth, but from Buttonnefs to Perth it is not lefs than 40 miles; and the whole may be, without any great improprie ty, ftyled a harbour, which has Fife on one fide, and the hires of Perth and Angus on the other, both very fertile and pleafant countries.

TAYLOR (Dr Jeremy), bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland, was the fon of a barber at Cambridge, and there had his education. Upon entering into orders, he became divinity lecturer of St Paul's in London; and was, by the intereft of archbishop Land, elected fellow of All foul's college, Cambridge, in 1636. Two years after he became one of the chaplains of the archbishop, who bestowed on him the rectory of Uppingham in Rutlandthire. In 1642 he was chaplain to the king; and a frequent preacher before him and the court at Oxford. He afterward attended in the king's army in the condition of a chaplain. Upon the declining of his majefty's caufe, he retired into Wales, where he was permitted to officiate as minister, and to keep a school, in order to maintain himself and his children. In this retirement he wrote feveral of his works. Having fpent feveral years there, his family was vifited with fickness; and he loft three fons of great hopes within the space of two or three months. This affliction touched him to fenfibly, that it made him defirous to leave the country; and, going to London, he for a time officiated in a private congregation of loyalists to his great hazard. At length meeting with Edward lord Conway, that nobleman carried him over with him into Ireland, and fettled him at Portmore, where he wrote his Ductor Dubitantium. Upon the Reftoration he returned to England; foon after, he was advanced to the bishopric of Down and Connor in Ireland; and had the administration of the fee of Dromore granted to him. He was likewife made privy-counsellor and vice chancellor of the university of Dublin; which place he held till his death. He died of a fever at Lifnegarvy in 1667, and was interred in a chapel which he himfelf had built on the ruins of the old cathedral of Dromore.

TAYLOR (Dr Prook), was born at Edmonton, Auguft 18th 1685. He was the son of John Taylor, Efq; of Bifron's-houfe in Kent, by Olivia, daughter of Sir Nicholas Tempeít, of Durham, Baronet. His grandfather, Nathaniel Taylor, was one of thofe puritans whom "Cromwell thought fit to elect by a letter, dated June 14th 1653, to reprefent the county of Bedford in parliament." The cha The cha racter of his father partook in no fmall degree of the aufte rity that had been transmitted to him in the line of his ancettors, and by the spirit of the times in which they lived; and to this caufe may be afcribed the difaffection which fometimes fubfifted between the father and even fuch a fon as is the fubje&c of this article. The old gentleman's morofe temper, however, yielded to the powers of mufic; and the most eminent profeffors of the art in that period were hofpitably welcomed in his house. His fon Brook was in duced, by his natural genius, and by the difpofition of his father, which he wished by all the means in his power to conciliate, to direct his particular attention to mufic; and he ́became in very early life a diftinguifhed proficient in it. "In a large family piece, he is reprefented at the age of 13 fitting in the centre of his brothers and fifters; the two elder of whom, Olivia and Mary, crown him with laurel, bearing the infignia of harmony."

To mufic he added another accomplishment, in which he equally excelled. "His drawings and paintings, of which fome are still preserved, require not thofe allowances for error or imperfection with which we fean the performances of even the superior dilettanti :-they will bear the test of fcrutiny and criticism from artifts themselves, and thofe of the

ed at home under a private tutor; anti his proficiency in the ordinary branches of the languages and the mathematics was fo great, that he was deemed qualified for the university at the early age of 15.

.

In 1701 he was entered a Fellow Commoner of St John's College, Cambridge. At that period mathematics engaged more particularly the attention of the univerfity; and the examples of eminence in the learned world, derived from that branch of science, attracted the notice and roused the emulation of every youth poffeffed of talents and of application. We may prefume, that Brook Taylor, from the very hour of his admiflion at college, adopted the course of study which a Machin, a Keil, and, above all, a Newton, had opened to the mind of man, as leading to difcoveries of the celeflial fyftem. That he applied early to these ftudies, and without remiffion, is to be inferred from the early notice and kind attention with which he was honoured by thofe teminent persons, and from the extraordinary progrefs which he made in their favourite science."'

In 1708 he wrote his treatife On the Centre of Oscillation, which was not publifhed in the Philofophical Tranf actions till fome years afterwards. In 1709, he took his degree of Bachelor of Laws. In 1712, he was chofen á Fellow of the Royal Society. During the interval between thefe two periods, he correfponded with Profeffor Keil on feveral of the most abftruse subjects of mathematical disquifition. Sir William Young informs us, that he has in his poffeffion a letter, dated in 1712, addreffed to Mr Machin, which contains at length a folution of Kepler's problem, and marking the ufe to be derived from that solution. this year he prefented 'to the Royal Society three different papers: one On the Afcent of Water between two Glaís Planes; a fecond, On the Centre of Ofcillation; and a third, 'On the Motion of a ftretched String. It appears from his correspondence with Keil, that in 1713 he prefented a pa per on his favourite fubject of Mufic: but this is not preferved in the Tranfactions.

In

His diftinguished proficiency in thofe branches of fcience, which engaged the particular attention of the Royal Society at this period, and which embroiled them in contes with foreign academies, recommended him to the notice of its mott illuftrious members; and in 1714 he was elected to the offiee of fecretary. In this year he took at Cambridge his degree of Doctor of Laws; and at this time he transmitted, in a letter to Sir Hans Sloane, An Account of some curious Experiments relative to Magnetism; which, however, was not delivered to the Society ever, was not delivered to the Society till many years afterward, when it was printed in the Tranfactions. His application to those studies to which his genius inclined was indefatigable: for we find that in 1715 he published in Latin his Methodus Incrementorum; alfo a curious effay preserved in the Philofophical Tranfactions, entitled An Account of an Experiment for the Discovery of the Laws of Magnetic Attraction; likewife a treatife well known to mathematicians, and highly valued by the best judges, On the Principles of Linear Perfpective. In the fame year (fuch were his admirable talents, and fo capable were they of being di ́rected to various fubjects), he conducted a controverfial correfpondence with the Count Raymond de Montmort, on the Tenets of Malebranche; which occafioned his being particularly noticed in the eulogium pronounced by the French academy on the deceafe of that eminent metaphyfician.

The new philofophy of Newton (as it was then called)

en.

Taylor. engaged the attention of mathematicians and philofophers both at home and abroad. At Paris it was in high eftimation; and the men of fcience in that city were defrous of obtaining a personal acquaintance with the learned fecretary of the Royal Society, whofe reputation was fo general ly acknowledged, and who had particularly diftinguished himself in the Leibnitzian or German controverfy, as we may denominate it, of that period. In confequence of many urgent invitations, he determined to vifit his friends at Faris in the year 1716. He was received with every pol fible taken of affection and refpect; and had an opportunity of displaying many traits of character, which mark the general fcholar and accomplished gentleman, as well as the profound mathematician. His company was courted by all" who had temper to enjoy, or talents to improve, the charms of focial intercourfe." Befides the mathematicians, to whom he had always free accefs, he was here introduced to Lord Polingbroke, the Count de Caylus, and Bishop Boffuet. "He infpired partiality on his firft addrefs; he gained imperceptibly on acquaintance; and the favourable impreffions which he made from genius and accomplishments, he fixed in further intimacy by the fundamental qualities of benevolence and integrity.

Among the ladies who honoured Dr Brook Taylor with a particular regard, we may mention the names of Marcilly de Villette, and of Mifs Brunton, the beautiful and accomplished niece of Sir Ifaac Newton.

Early in 1717 he returned to London, and compofed three treaties, which were prefented to the Royal Society, and published in the 30th volume of the Tranfactions. A. bout this time his intenfe application had impaired his health to a confiderable degree; and he was under the neceflity of repairing, for relaxation and relief, to Aix-la-Chapelle. Having likewife a defire of directing his attention to subjects. of moral and religious fpeculation, he refigned his office of fecretary to the Royal Society in 1718.

After his return to England in 1719, he applied to fubjects of a very different kind from those that had employed the thoughts and labours of his more early life. Among his papers of this date, Sir William Young has found de tached parts of A Treatife on the Jewish Sacrifices, and a differtation of confiderable length On the Lawfulness of eating Blood. He did not, however, wholly neglect his former fubjects of study, but employed his leifure hours in combining fcience and art; with this view he revised and improved his treatife on Linear Perfpective. Drawing continued to be his favourite amusement to his latest hour; and it is not improbable, that his valuable lire was fhortened by the fedentary habits which this amufement, fucceeding his feverer ftudies, occafioned.

"He drew figures with extraordinary precifion and beauty of pencil. Landscape was yet his favourite branch of defign. His original landscapes are moftly painted in wa ter colours, but with all the richness and ftrength of oils. They have a force of colour, a freedom of touch, a varied difpofition of planes of distance, and a learned use of aerial as well as linear perspective, which all profeffional men who have seen thefe paintings have admired. Some pieces are compofitions; fome are drawn from nature; and the gene ral characteristic of their effect may be exemplified, in fuppofing the bold fore-grounds of Salvator Rofa to be backed by the fucceffion of diftances, and mellowed by the fober harmony, which diftinguish the productions of Gafpar Pouf fin. The fmall figures interfperfed in the landfcapes would not have difgraced the pencil of the correct and claffic Ni

cholas."

The work of Dr Brook Taylor in lineat perspective was cenfured by Bernoulli, in a treatife published in the Ads

of Leipfic, as " abftrufe to all, and as unintelligible to a Taylor. tifts for whom it was more especially written." It must be acknowledged that this excellent work, for fo it deferves to be called, was not level to the apprehenfions of practitioners in the art of drawing and defign; but it was much esteemed by mathematicians. Three editions of it have been publifhed; and as it is now fearce, a republication of it in its moit improved and perfect ftate would be very acceptable. Mr Kirby, however, has made it more plain and popular, in his treatife entitled "Brook Taylor's Perspective made eafy;" and this book, detailing and illuftrating the principles of the original work, has been the vade mecum of artits. Dr Brook Taylor was incenfed by the invidious attacks of Bernoulli; and he published An Apology against J. Bernoulli's Objections, which may be feen in the 30th volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions. Bernoulli, with his usual envy of British mathematicians, had difputed our author's right to his own work. We have no reason to doubt Dr Taylor's claims to the undecided difcovery of the me thod which he defcribes, though he is not an original inventor. This method was long before publifhed by Guido Ubaldi, in his Perspective, printed at Pelaro in 1600; where it is delivered very clearly, and confirmed by moft elegant demonftrations; and where it is actually applied to the art of delineating the fcenes of a theatre.

Toward the end of the year 1720, Dr Brook Taylor accepted the invitation of Lord Bolingbroke to spend fome time at La Source, a country-feat near Orleans, which he held in right of his wife, the widow of the Marquis de Villette, nephew of Madame de Maintenon. During his refidence at this beautiful fpot, he fixed and cemented a friendship with its noble owners which terminated only with life.

In the next year he returned to England, and published the laft paper which appears with his name in the Philofophical Tranfa&tions, entitled, An Experiment made to af certain the Proportion of Expansion of Liquor in the Thermometer, with regard to the degree of Heat.

In 1721, Dr Brook Taylor married Mils Bridges of Wallington in the county of Surry, a young lady of good family, but of fmall fortune; and this marriage occafioned a rupture with his father, whofe confent he had never obtained. The death of this lady in 1725, and that of an infant fon, whom the parents regarded as the prefage and pledgeof reconciliation with the father, and who actually proved fuch, deeply afected the fenfibility of Dr Taylor. How ever, during the two fucceeding years he refided with his father at Bifrons, where "the mufical parties, fo agreeable to his taste and early proficiency, and the affectionate attentions of a numerous family welcoming an amiable brother, fo long eftranged by paternal refentment, not only foothed: his forrows, but ultimately engaged him to a fcene of country retirement, and domefticated and fixed liis habits of life. He could no more recur to the defultory refourees and cold folace of fociety, which cafual vifits, flight acquaintance, andi diltant friendships, afford the man who hath move to make, and cheer a conftart home.”

In 1725 he formed a new connection; and with the full approbation of his father and family, married Sabetta, daughter of John Sawbridge, Efq; of Olantigh, in Kent. In 1729, on the death of his father, he fucceeded to the family eftate of Bifrons. In the following year he loft his wife in child bed. The daughter whofe birth occafioned this melancholy event lurvived, and became the mother of Sir William Young, to whom we owe thefe memoirs of his grandfather.

In the interval that elapfed between the years 1721 and 1730, no production by Brook Taylor appears in the Phi lofophical

3.

Tea.

Taylor, lofophical Tranfactions; nor did he publish in the course of that time any work. His biographer has found no traces of his learned labour, excepting a Treatife of Logarithms, which was committed to his friend Lord Paifley (afterward Abercorn), in order to be prepared for the prefs; but which probably was never printed. His health was now much impaired; relaxation became neceffary, and he was diverted by new connections from the habit of fevere ftudy, which had diftinguished the early period of his life, and which had contributed to contract the duration of it. Hapin the focial circle of domeftic enjoyment, and devoting his attention to business or amusement as they occurred, his application and his literary emulation feem to have declined. He did not long furvive the lofs of his fecond wife ; and his remaining days were days of increafing imbecillity and forrow.

PY

"The effay entitled Contemplatio Philofophica, published by Sir William Young, 1793, appears to have been written about this time, and probably with a view to abstract his mind from painful recollections and regret. It was the ef. fort of a strong mind, and is a moft remarkable example of the clofe logic of the mathematician applied to metaphyfics. But the blow was too deep at heart for ftudy to afford more than temporary relief. The very resource was hurtful, and intense study but accelerated the decline of his health. His friends offered every comfort; in particular Lord Bolingbroke preffed his confolation, and fought to call his mind from regret of domeftic endearments to focial friendship at Dawley.

The attention and kindnefs of his friends, however, could not ward off the approaches of diffolution. Having furvived his fecond wife little more than a year, Dr Brook Taylor died of a decline in the 46th year of his age, December the 29th 1731, and was buried in the church-yard of St Ann's, Soho. I am fpared (says his descendant) the neceffity of closing this biographical sketch with a prolix detail of his character: in the best acceptation of duties relative to each fituation of life in which he was engaged, his own writings, and the writings of those who best knew him, prove him to have been the finished Chriftian, gentleman,

and scholar."

TAYLOR (Dr John), a learned diffenting minifter, born in Lancashire. He fettled first at Kirkstead in Lincolnfhire, where he preached to a small congregation, and taught a grammar-school for near 20 years. Afterward he removed to Norwich, where he preached many years in great repute, until he was invited to fuperintend the academy formed at Warrington in Lancashire: but a few idle différences on formal punctilios and uncertain doctrines kindled into fuch a flame there, as fubjected him to much fcurrility and ill treatment, and endangered the very being of the academy. He died in 1761; and among feveral other ju dicious performances, his Hebrew and English Concordance, 2 vols folio, will remain a monument of his critical skill and indefatigable industry.

TAYLOR-Bird. See MOTACILLA.

TEA, the dried leaves of the tea plant. A commodity with which we are fo well acquainted, which affords a beverage fo generally ufed and fo generally agreeable, and which forms fo confiderable an article of commerce, must excite the curiofity of the public at large to know fomething of its hiftory, and of the nature of the

plant from which it is obtained. We are forry that we can neither gratify their curiofity nor our own completely. We have confulted all the botanical books to which we had accefs, and we believe we have had accefs to the beft, yet we have not been able to discover with certainty whether there be various species of the tea plant; or whether all the different kinds of tea, fo unlike to one another in their flavour, and ftrength, and colour, be derived from one fingle fpecies. As an apology for this imperfection in botanical knowledge, it is proper to obferve, that the country of which the tea plant is a native is hidden from the exploring eye of the philofopher; that it is jealous of Europeans, and feldom gives them an opportunity of ftudying its produc tions. While we apologize for the ignorance of Europeans in this point, and fincerely regret it, we fhall be careful to felect every important fact, that we may prefent our readers with as accurate and complete an account as our materials can fupply.

Sir

The tea plant is a native of Japan, China, and Tonquin, and has not, as far as we can learn, been found growing fpontaneously in any other parts of the world. Linnæus arranged it under the clafs of polyandria, and order of monogynia. We are told he was led into this mistake from having no specimens of the flower to examine but fuch as were dried. If Linnæus has in this arrangement fallen into error, it is furprifing that he has not been corrected by one who had the best opportunity of examining the matter. Charles Thunberg, one of the moft diftinguished pupils of that illuftrious botanift, who refided 16 months in Batavia and Japan, has given a full botanical, defcription of the tea plant; and having claffed it in the fame manner as his ma fter, fays exprefsly that it has only one ftyle. Several of the British botanists, on the other hand, refer it to the order of trigynia; deriving their authority from a plant in the Duke of Northumberland's garden at Sion-house, which had three ftyles.

Linnæus fays that there are two fpecies of the tea plant; the bohea, the corolla of which has fix petals; and the vi ridis or green tea, which has nine petals. Thunberg makes only one fpecies, the bohea, confifting of two varieties ; the one with broad and the other with narrow leaves. This botanit's authority is decifive refpe&ing the Japanese tea plants; but as China has not yet been explored, we cannot determine what number of species there are in that country. Of the bohea plant we have been favoured with a beautiful drawing, and an accurate botanical description, by a learned gentleman, which we shall here present to our readers.

Calyx. K, fig. 1, 2, 3, 10. a perianthium quinquepartite, very small, flat, the fegments round, obtuse, permanent. Fig. 1. K.

Corolla. C, fig. 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8. the petals fix, roundish, concave; two exterior (fig. 4, 7.) CC; lefs, unequal, inclofing the flower before fully blown (fig. 3.) C; four interior (fig. 5, 6.) CCCC; large, equal, before they fall off recurvate (fig. 8.) CC; (4).

Stamens.f, fig. 6, 9, 10, 11. the filaments numerous (B) fig. 6, 9. fa; about 200; filiform, white, fhorter than the corolla, and inferted in the receptacle; a, the antheras cordate; and didymous (fig. 10, 11.) *, magnified (c).

Pilillum. Fig. 1, 10, 12. * magnified; g, the germen, three globular bodies joined in a triangular form; s, the ftyles, three, connected at their base (fig. 12.); fubulate,