For, of Great Britain's gallant train Thus changing still, to nothing fixt, And burn the scribbled leaf. Yet, though thus wayward be the lay, Hope, ever steady, ever gay, Pictures a prospect fair; She homewards paints a wish'd for rest, (By many a social circle blest,) And whispers "Peace is there." THE ASS: AN ODE ON THE MELIORATION OF THE SPECIES. BY DR. TROTTER. POOR ass! it joys me much to see thee glad, And with that saddle new upon thy back; No longer dost thou look demure and sad, For thou hast been of late a fav'rite hack, Yet humbly still thou tread'st the ground, Thy modest front with riband bound, Shaking thy silver bit along: Smooth is thy hide as any down, Not cudgel'd now by lusty clown, Or by a dusky tinker's thong. Poor brute! so lately doom'd to fag, To toil and sweat from day to day; Thy life near Famine's hut to drag, On stones thy wearied trunk to lay. Nor trudging down the dusty street, In pools or dub. Oft have I met thee waddling on the road, Bending beneath thy panniers, stuff'd and tied, Of rags and rusty iron, a monstrous load, Just like two well-fed geese to market Gabbling and gulping down from wooden dish, But cease thou gentle ass to fret and whine, Nor envious be to view the well-fed steed; Though grooms attend him clad in liv'ries fine, And man records with pride his noble breed ; Go turn to Talavera's plain, And see the mighty warrior slain, Cover'd with dust and blood on life's last brink, He calls a Spanish ass to bring him drink. Sour curds and leeks, or mess of stinking Then tell thy kind, their case might still be fish. Yet meek wert thou beneath the load, Gentle as when you bore a God, While all around Hosannas loud did ring, And bade the impious Jews behold their King. But though despis'd of man, and mock'd to scorn, Just like thy master, he of Bethlehem born. Some cause you had to be content. A peaceful drudge thy days were spent. worse, We mortals find while skies are smiling, And beg thy scrip from door to door. Yes, trust me, I delight to see thee gay, And lovely Laura seated on thy back; And while you pace to Laura's song, Erskine himself shall nobly rise, Again a list'ning senate charm, Teach mankind how to syrupathise, And half creation's wrath disarm :* Thou too, shall rise in being's scale, And pity for the ass o'er all the world prevail. Can they, to Him and to themselves unjust, Tempt His dread anger by unmeet distrust? Ah no! If God impel me to the field, Where Virtue's foes Death's flaming falchions wield, PEACE, throbbing heart! repress the rising sigh! Hence, thou big tear-drop, trembling in my eye! Can Christians doubt the goodness of that Pow'r, Whose shield protects them from their natal hour? Alluding to his bill in the peers, to provent cruelty to domestic animals. To fell Despair submits; a willing prey; Is fiercely level'd at the shrinking heart; Where can his soul a ray of light discern, But can we 'gainst conviction veil our eyes? Can we contemplate ocean, earth, and skies, Nor view in all that pow'r whose guardian arm Shields both the monarch and the mite from harmi Сад Can we behold the blessings He bestows, Tho' short our ken, yet e'en on earth we Sorrow oft proves a medicine to the mind: And when this mortal veil, which clouds our sight, Is pierc'd by immortality's clear light, But man, too fond of earth, ne'er looks on high, To read the mystic wonders of the sky; Those fiends accurst, who fain, with sceptic leav'n, Would poison all his confidence in Heav'n. And tho' calm Reason proves this world de sign'd To try, but not to recompence, mankind, Still seek, with earthly balms, to ease thy' pain; Too late thou'lt learn, his conflicts ne'er can cease, Who madly slights the only mean of p peace; Too late thou it find, thy ev'ry hope will fade, If plac'd on human, not celestial, aid. M. STARKE. described by Mr. DAVY, to this learn ed body, on nitrogen, ammonia, and the amalgam from ammonia. In reasoning on the phenomena produced by the ac tion of potassium upon ammonia, the professor suggested, that nitrogen might possibly consist of oxygen and hydrogen, or, that it might be composed from water. He has now made a great number of laborious experiments, in the hope of solving this problem, the results of which, though for the most part negative, he has fully stated, with the hope of elucidating some points of the discussion. The formation of nitrogen has been often asserted to take place in many processes, in which none of its known combinations were concerned; and the discovery of Priestley, on the passage of gases through red-hot tubes of earthen-ware; the accurate researches of Berthollet, and the experiments of Bouillon la Grange, have afforded a complete solution of the problem. One of the most striking cases in which nitrogen has been supposed to appear, without the presence of any other matter but water, which can be conceived to supply its elements, is in the decomposition and recomposition of water by electricity. To ascertain if nitrogen could be generated in this manner, Mr. Davy had an apparatus made, by which a quantity of water could be acted upon by Voltaic electricity, so as to produce oxygen and hydrogen with great rapidity, and in which these gases could be detonated, of the atmosphere. The water used had been most carefully purged of air, and after the first detonation of the oxygen and hydrogen, there was a residuum of about th of the volume of gases, and after every succeeding detonation this residuum was found to increase, till at length, after about fifty detonations had been made, it equalled more than 4th of the volume of the water. This being examined by the test of nitrous gas, was found to contain no oxygen but that it consisted of 26 of hydrogen, and 3-4 of a gas having the characters of nitrogen. The experiment seemed in favour of the idea of the production of nitrogen from pure water, in these electrical processes. Another experiment was instituted on still more accurate principles, the result of which seemed to shew that nitrogen is not formed during the electrical decomposition and recomposition of water, and that the residual gas is hydrogen, and that the hydrogen should be in excess, was referred to a slight oxidation of the pla tina. The experiments of Mr. Cavendish on the deflagration of mixtures of oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, lead directly to the conclusion, that the nitrous acid, sometimes generated in experiments on the production of water, owes its origin to nitrogen, mixed with the oxygen and hydrogen, and is never produced from these two gases alone; and Mr. Davy refers to facts ascertain ed ed by himself, and described in the Bakerian Lecture for 1806, which like wise seem to shew that the nitrous acid which appears in many processes of the Voltaic electrization of water, cannot be formed unless nitrogen be present. In answer to the objection that both acids and alkalies may be produced from pure water, other very demonstrative experiments were made, viz. one series in a jar filled with oxygen gas, and another in an apparatus, in which glass, water, mercury, and wires of platina, were present. In the first, the result was, that in no instance in which slowly distilled water was employed,, and in which the receiver was filled with pure oxygen from oxymuriate of potash, was any acid or alkali exhibited; even when nitrogen was present, the indications of the production of acid and alkaline matter were very feeble. In the second series of experiments, the oxygen and hydrogen produced from water, were collected under morcury, and the two portions of water communicated directly with each other; and in several trials, it was always found that fixed alkali separated in the glass negatively electrified; and that a very minote quantity of acid was observable in the glass positively electrified: but whether the acid was owing to impurities which rise in the distillation with the the mercury, or to muriatic acid existing in the glass, Mr. Davy does not determine; he says, however, as common salt perfectly dry, is not decomposed by silex, it seems very likely that muriatic acid in its arid state may exist in combination in glass. Mr. Davy next states the results of the investigations which he had made on the production of nitrous acid and ammonia, in various processes carried on by himself, and then proceeds to notice some attempts which he made to decompose nitrogen by agents, which he conceived might act at the same time on oxygen, and on the basis of nitrogen, Potassium sublimes in nitrogen without altering it, or being itself changed, and he suspected that the case might be different, if this powerful agent were made to act upon nitrogen, assisted by the intense heat and decomposing energy of Voltaic electricity. The experiment was tried: the phenomena were very brilliant; as soon as the contact with the potassium was made, there was always a bright light, so intense as to be painful to the eye: the platina used, became white hot; the potassium rose in vapour; and, by increasing the dis. tance of the cup from the wire, the electricity passed through the vapour of the potassium, producing a most brilliant flame, of from half an inch to an inch and a quarter in length, and the vapour seemed to combine with the platina, which was thrown off in small globules, in a state of fusion, producing an appear. ance similar to that produced by the combustion of iron in oxygen gas. In all trials of this kind hydrogen was produced, and in some of them there was a loss of nitrogen. This seemed to lead to the inference that nitrogen is decom. posed, but in other experiments it was certain there was no sensible quantity of nitrogen lost. The largest proportion of nitrogen which disappeared in any experiment was the of the quantity used, and though it cannot be positively inferred that it was not decomposed, yet Mr. Davy thinks it more likely that the loss is owing to its combination with nascent hydrogen; and its being sepa rated with the potassium in the form of pyrophoric sublimate, which is always produced when potassium is electrized and converted into vapour in ammonia. Mr. D. mentions other experiments: but after all, he candidly says, that the general tenor of these enquiries cannot be considered as strengthening in any considerable degree, the suspicion which he had formed of the decomposition of nitrogen. He stated all the strong ob jections that occurred to him against the mode of explaining the phenomena, by supposing nitrogen decomposed in the operation; but, at the same time, ob serving that they must not be considered as decisive on this complicated and ob scure question; and he adds, the opposite view of the subject may be easily de fended. The professor next treats of the decomposition of aminonia; and, in refe rence to former experiments, be says, the production of an amalgam from ammonia, which regenerated volatile alkali, appa rently by oxidation, confirmed the notion of the existence of oxygen in this sub stance, at the same time it led to the suspicion, that of the two gases sepa rated by electricity, one, or perhaps both, might contain metall matter united to oxygen; and the results of the distillation of the fusible substance from potassium and aminonia, may probably be explained on such supposition. Ile has made a number of of experiments upon the decomposition of considerable quantities of ammonia, in which nothing was present but the gas, the metals for conveying the electricity, and the glass'; and every possible precaution used to prevent error; and in all instances it was found, that there was no loss of weight of the apparatus, or any deposition of moisture during or after the electrization, but the wires used were uniformly tarnished; and, in one instance in which surfaces of brass were used, a small quantity of olive-coloured matter formed on the metal; but though in this case nearly eight cubical inches of ammonia were decomposed, the weight of the oxidated matter was so minute as to be scarcely sensible. In these experiments the increase of gas was uniformly from 100 to 185, and the hydrogen was to the nitrogen in the average proportions of from 7974 to 27-26; and assuming the common estimations of the specific gravity of ammonia, of hydrogen, and nitrogen, Mr. Davy's former conclusions are supported by these new experiments: as they were also when the relative specific gravities of these gases were taken with the utmost degree of precision possible, by means of the delicate balance belonging to the Royal Institution. The specific gravities thus taken are, Nitrogen, 100 cubical inches Hydrogen Ammonia 29.8 grains 2.27 18.4 matter existing in the amalgam of ammo. mia? and what is the metallic basis of the volatile alkali? These are questions not easily solved; but Mr. D. says, that, in his former communication on the amalgam of ammonia, he stated, that, under all the common circumstances of its production, it seems to preserve a quan tity of water adhering to it, which may be conceived to be sufficient to oxidate the metal, and to re-produce the am monia. He is even unable to form it from ammonia in a dry state; neither the amalgams of potassium, sodium, or barium, produce it in ammoniacal gas; and when they are heated with muriate of ammonia, unless the salt is moist, there is no metallization of the alkali. The amalgam, which he has reason to be lieve can be made most free from ad. hering moisture, is that of potassium, mercury, and ammonium in a solid state: this decomposes very slowly, even ia contact with water, and when it has been carefully wiped with bibulous paper, bears a considérable heat without alte ration. The ratio between the hydrogen and ammonia produced from the amalgam; is taken as one to two; and if this be accurate, then it will foliow, that ammonia, supposing it to be an oxyde, must contain 48 per cent. of oxygen, which will agree with the relations of the attractions of this alkali for acids to those of other salifiable bases. If bydrogen be a simple body, and nitrogen an oxyde, then on the hypothesis above stated, nitrogen would consist of nearly 48 of oxygen and 34 of base: but if hy drogen and nitrogen are both oxydes of the same metal, then the quantity of oxygen in nitrogen must be less. These views are the most obvious on the antiphlogistic hypothesis of the nature of metallic substances; but if the facts concerning ammonia were reasoned upon, independently of other chemical phenomena, they might be more readily explained on the notion of nitrogen being a base, which became alkaline by combining with one portion of hydrogen, and metallic by combining with a greater proportion. The lately-discovered facts in chemis try, says Mr. Davy, concerning the important modifications which bodies may undergo by slight additions or subtractions of new matter, ought to render us cautious in deciding upon the nature of the process of the electrical decomposition of ammonia. It is possible, he adds, that the minute quantity of oxygen which appears to be separated, is not accidental, but a result of the decom position, and if hydrogen and nitrogen be both oxydes of the same base, the possibility of the production of different proportions of water, in different operations, might account for the variations observed: but on the whole, the idea that ammonia is decomposed into bydrogen and nitrogen alone by electricity, and that the loss of weight is no more than is to be expected in processes of so delicate a kind, is in his opinion, the most defensible view of the subject. But it will be asked, If ammonia be ca pable of decomposition into nitrogen and hydrogen? What is the nature of the The solution of the question concerning the quantity of matter added to the mercury in the formation of the amalgam depends on this discussion: for if the phlogistic view of the subject be adopted, the amalgain must be supposed to con tain nearly twice as much matter as it is conceived to contain on the hypothesis of deoxygenation, Mr. D. did formerly rate |