That the House may the better be enabled to form some idea of the importance of these inquiries, and also of the grounds on which, in addition to the suggestions contained in the former reports, the following resolutions are founded, your com mmittee have annexed, 1, An account of the number of wheel carriages in England and Scotland respectively, and the progressive increase thereof. 2, An account of the number of horses paying duty, distinguishing the va rious classes in so far as the same can be ascertained; and 3, Some va Juable communications connected with the peculiar subject of this report.

On the whole, your committee have come to the following resolutions : Number one....Resolutions relative to certain duties incumbent on the occupiers of land adjoining to the Highways.

1, Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that with a view to the preservation of the highways of that part of the kingdom called England, it is expedient that the periods within which certain of the du ties to be performed by the occupiers of land adjoining to the highways (in the cutting, pruning and plashing the hedges, topping and lopping the trees, and in the opening, cleansing and Scouring of ditches, and the removal of the soil arising therefrom) are to be completed, should be fixed by law. 2, Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that for the per formance of such periodical duties, general notice affixed on the doors of the church of each parish, someTime in the months of January and September, or either of them as the case may require, should be sufficient notice to the occupiers of land within such parish to compel the perform ance thereof within the months of February or October and November respectively."

3, Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that the penalties BELFAST MAG. NO XVII. '

enacted by the general highway act, for non-performance of such duties on receiving particular and personal notice, should immediately attach on occupiers' of land, it after such ge. neral notice the said duties are not! completed within the periods which' shall be so fixed by law.

4. Resolved, That it is the opinion' of this committee, that certain penalties shall attach upon each and every surveyor of the highways, and upon every surveyor of a turnpike, usually residing and acting within the parish or district confined to his charge, at the times fixed for giving such general notices, if the same shall not be affixed on the church doors within the period limited for that purpose.

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5, Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that upon the neglect of the occupiers of land, the surveyors of the highways shall be authorized and required forthwith to éxecute or cause to be executed "such of the said 'duties as shall not have been completed, and to charge the persons who ought of right to have completed the same, with the expense of the said completion, over and above all penalties for the non-performance of the same.

6, Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that if any occupier of land shail at any other period of the year after receiving particular notice from the surveyor of any highway of the omission of any such duty 'respecting the opening, cleansing or scouring of any ditches, drains or water-courses, or the removal of any annoyance or obstruction, or the cutting, pruning or plashing of any hedge, or the topping of any trees, or the removal of any other nuisance, omit to pefforin the same for eight days after such notice, the surveyor shall be forthwith empowered to execute the same and to charge the expense of such execution to the person who ought of right to have done the same, over and above all penalties enacted by the general highway laws for similar omissions.

7, Resolved, That it is the opinion of this cominittee, that the surveyor of the highway, or any other person or persons shall be empowered without lii

previous notice to remove any hay, straw, stubble or other matter which shall be laid on any highway for the making of manure, or on any other pretence whatever not tolerated by the highway or general turnpike laws, and to convert the same to his or their own use; and that a penalty not exceeding five shillings shall immediately attach on every person who shall wilfully have laid the same on any highway for such purposes, for every su perficial land-yard or perch of the said highway which shall have been so wilfully covered by the said hay, straw, stubble or other matter.

8, Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that double the amount of the penalties attaching upon occupiers of land or other persons offend ing against these provisions, and against the provisions of the general highway and turnpike laws, shall attach upon the surveyors of the highways and of turnpikes, who after having received notice from any individual of the nonperformance of such duties, or of the commission of any offences against these provisions or the provisions of the aforesaid acts, shall omit to proceed in the performance of such duties or the corrections of such offences for double the number of days allowed in each case to other indi yiduals. The notice to be given to the surveyor to describe in a particular manner the duty omitted or the offence committed,

9, Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that for the bet ter enabling the surveyors of highways and of turnpikes to remove all annoyances and obstructions, they should be empowered to convey or deposite the matters occasioning the same, whether arising from the scrapings of the road, or other matter in any of the adjoining lands, paying or tendering payment of such sums for the damage done thereby, as may be adjudged reasonable in all cases where the occupiers of such Jands are not by law obliged to remove the same.

10, Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that the surveyors of all highways, and of all turnpike goads, do make returns to the ma

at their petty sessions, at th meetings in the months of D and March respectively, that riodical duties described in of these resolutions are actua effectually performed, and of required by the magistrates particular case, under a pen exceeding ten pounds, nor forty shillings.

11, Resolved, That it is the of this committee, that in of roads passing over comm occupation of which is und in two or more persons, the ors of the highways or of t pike road, as the case may cleanse and Scour the dit drains, and remove the so therefrom, and charge the e performing the same in their a but if it shall hereafter hap the said commons shall be so that the several parts the be distinctly and separately by one or more persons, th tion of performing these du attach on the occupier or of each separate allotment as in the case of all other held in severalty.

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12, Resolved, That it is th of this committee, that for pose of removing any pecting the extent of the required by law from the of lands adjoining to the it should be declared and that the said occupiers are all times to cleanse, scour open as well all the drains and watercourses running the lands in their occupatio road side, so far as the lan occupation shall extend, a drains as shall enter into the lands in their occupatio the water shall have a fr as well by the road side, a across their several lands; said several occupiers shou thorized and empowered to their own use and bene arising from such drains, water-courses, and should b to remove the same within after the same shall have be out, under adequate penal

in all

jury shall be done to the road by such clearing, scouring and removal, saving also all mauorial rights.

13, Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that the penalty for not removing any nuisance, or

obstruction within eight days after particular notice, as in the sixth resolution, shall be ten shillings, unless the penalty of one penny per foot shall exceed ten shillings.

To be Continued.

ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THE LATE ALEXANDER GEDDES, L.L.D.

We have been induced to select for the information of our Readers, the following well written, sketch. It appeared in the London Monthly Magazine in the year 1802, im mediately after the Doctor's death,

R. GEDDES was born at Arra

and in the parish of Ruthven, September 4, 1737, old style. His father's name was Alexander Geddes, the second of four brothers. His mother's maiden name was Janet Mitchel; she was born in Nether Dalachy, in the parish of Belay. They were respectable, but not opulent farmers; such as farmers are in that part of the country, subject to grievous oppressions from their landlords. In that station, however, they maintained an excellent reputation, and laboured incessantly to give an education to their children far above their rank. In their religious sentiments they were liberal Roman Catholics, in whose library, we are told, the principal book was an English edition of the Bible, which they taught their son to read with reverence and attention at a very early period: in his infancy, the principal facts contained in that book were familiar to his mind, and, before he ha attained his eleventh year, knew all its history by heart.* His first schoolmistress was a Mrs. Sellar, whose distinction of him, Dr. Geddes was accustomed to say, was the earliest mental pleasure he re'membered to have felt.

* See Dr. Geddes general answer to queries, &c. &c. a work to which, perhaps, without being formally noticed, we shall have occasion oftep to refer.

young persons were brought up who had been devoted to the priesthood, and who were destined to finish their studies at a foreign university. At this seminary, we have reason to believe, young Geddes laid the foundation of that superior skill in the learned languages for which he was afterwards so eminently distinguished. In October 1758, he was sent from Scalan to the Scotch College in Paris, where he arrived about the end of December, after having nar rowly escaped shipwreck in his pas sage from Aberdeen to Camphire. Mr. Gordon was then principal of the College. In a few days after his arrival, he began to attend the lectures in the College of Navarre, and en tered immediately into Rhetoric. He soon got at the head of the class, although there were two veterans in it. Vicaire was then professor, and contracted a friendship for him, which lasted all his life.

At the beginning of the next schoolyear, he should have entered into course of philosophy, but was persuaded to study philosophy at home at intervals, and to enter in divinity. He attended the lectures of M.M. Bure and De Saurent at the College of Navarre, and of Ladvocat,† for

+ Professeur de la Chaire D'Orleans: Hebrew professorship founded by Louis Due D'Orleans, son of the Duke of

the Hebrew, at the Sorbonne. Ladvocat was particularly attentive him, and wished much to have him remain at Paris-but other counsels prevailed; and he returned to Scotland in the year 1764. On his arrival at Edinburgh, he was sent to Dundee, to officiate as priest to the Catholics in the county of Angus. But he did not remain long in that station; being removed, in May 1765, to Traquare, where he resided nearly three fears as domestic chaplain to the Earl of Traquaire. Of this commertion he was accustomed to speak with satisfaction and gratitude, having afforded him much leisure for fiterary pursuits, and the use of a well furnished library, admirably ádé apted to assist him in his favourite studies.

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He left Traquaire in the Autumn of 1768; and, after a few weeks stay m Angus, returned to Paris, where he remained the following winter; during which he was mostly in the King' and other libraries, and made several extracts from rare books, particularly Hebrew ones.

In the Spring of 1769, he returned to Britain; and undertook the charge of a considerable Roman Catholic congregation, at Auchinhalrig, in Banff Shire; where, in the summer of 1770 he projected and built a new chapel on the same spot where the old one stood; and soon after made the old house at Auchirhairig one of the most neat and convenient belonging to the Roman Catholic clergy in Scotland. This, and other unavoidable expeiices encumbered him with debt; from which he was however relieved by the generosity of the late Duke of Norfolk. He then thought, that a little farm would help him to live more comfortably; but the consequence was quite the reverse; he was figed to borrow money to stock it, and the failure of turee successive crops plunged him deeper and deeper. Another chapel too, which he built at Fochabers, added considerably to the burthen. The publication of his Satires that year brought him in some

Orleans, regent of France, and one of The indst nious and learned princes of

money, but not enough. Stil ever he bad spirit and hope he was not, in the end, disa ed. In 1779, he left Auchin after having continued dur years in the assiduous disch the various duties belonging pastoral office; and when he it was with the most sincere feigned regret of all those whom he had ministered. tention which he paid 'to struction of the young ha been surpassed, and but rarel Ted, by any of his predeces

His great fearning, whic now to be universally know the literati of the North, for him, in the year 1780, a creating him Doctor of La the university of Aberdee was an honour that had ne the reformation, been cont that body or a Roman Ca

About this period Dr came to London, and offic few months as priest in the Ambassador's chapel, till it pressed at the end of the y by an order from the Emper the second.

?' 'Dr. Geddes afterwards occasionally at the chapel street, Lincoln's fan fields, 1782, when it is believed 'declined the exercise of a functions.

It was at a much earlier p

that he formed a desig a few translation of the w About the year 1760 he read with this view: he w quainted with only two that book, the vulgar La vulgar English; in favo latter he had been much

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in the early part of his when he had acquired of the Latin language s enable him to compare translations, he gave a ference to the Vulgate. appeared to him rugged, and often obscure, where was smooth, easy, and The former seemed to translation, the latter like

time was my opinion; and I confess, that whatever I have since read, has served only to confirm me in it. Let this be called prejudice; I have no objection: but, certainly, it has not been slightly formed, nor blindly followed."

In the year 1762, he began to read the originals, with these versions constantly before him, when he quickly discovered that the great object of the English translators had been to give a strictly literal version, at the expence of almost every other consideration; while the author of the Vulgate had endeavoured to render the original equivalently, into such language as was current in his age. Struck with the advantages of the latter method, Dr. Geddes immediately resolved to follow the same plan if he should ever translate, the Bible. His original ideas, in this respect, though frequently reviewed by him, underwent but few alterations. The unwearied attention which he paid to the ancient versions in the Polyglot confirmed him in the opinion, that a strictly literal version was not the most proper to convey its mean ing, and display its beauties, since even those translators, who had the text to, render, not into a different language, but only into different dialects of the same language, had not attempted a strictly literal version; and that those of them who were the Jeast literal, had the most forcibly and intelligibly rendered their text.

But (says Dr. Geddes) when from the ancient I turned to modern versions, my opinion was soon strengthened into conviction. There were seyen modern versions to which I had then access-the French, the Italian, the, Dutch, and in Latinthose of Munster, Castalio, Junius, and Pagninus. Of these seven, the -one which I opened with prejudice, was the one which I read through with the greatest pleasure.

"I had been taught to consider Castalio's translation as a profane burlesque of holy writ. What was my surprise to find, that he had seized the very spirit of the original, and transfused it into elegant Latin! I saw, indeed, and was sorry, to see, that, through his excessive reline

ment, a part of the simplicity of his original bad evaporated in the operation; and, in this respect, his version is inferior to the Vulgate: but still the spirit of the original is there; whereas,, that of his contrast Pagninus appears like an alinost breathless body, dragging along its Jimbs in. the most awkward and clumsy manner; yet this Pagninus has been the general model of vernacular versions."

We have been thus particular in describing the rise of Dr. Geddeş' grand work, the translation of the Bible, because it was an undertaking sufficient to immortalize any man, more particularly, one who adhered to the general doctrines of a church which absolutely prohibits the use of the scriptures to the laity in their native language.

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That Dr. Geddes should have had, among the members of his own church, an host of opposers, will not afford matter of astonishment to any one he seems to have anticipated obloquy from the rich and the low vulgar, as the principal reward of an almost more than Herculean labour. But he was contented to go through evil as well as good report. knew he had not, a mercenary soul;" the public knows, and posterity will confess, that he possessed one expanded with the best principles of liberality and disinterestedness. expect not (says he) excessive profits from excessive exertions. I trust I shall never want meat, and clouths, and fire; to a philosophic and contented mind, what more is necessary?"

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It appears that Dr. Geddes had been engaged several years, in this great undertaking before he saw any prospect of mecting with encouragement sufficient to make it public, if it were completed, and ready for the press. He had, in addition to difficulties common to situatious of this kind, to con end with others peculiar to himself. He had a mind ardently intense in the pursuit, and investigation of truth. He could not brook error in any person, however exalted, nor would he hear it advanced and maintamed, without showing the indignation of a high and noble spirit. The The sentiment contained in the pre