nade by W. Willurgby, the bowl of which is of cast brass, and is large enough to contain about an ounce and a half of tobacco. The pipe projecting from the lower part of it is bored out of a solid piece of brass, and also those to which each extremity of the leathern tube is affixed. The cover is likewise made of cast brass; from the upper extremity of which projects a neck about an inch and a half in length, the opening or bore of it being about half an inch in diameter. The cover is fixed to the box by means of two notches made on each side of a circular ridge or edge, admitting two ears, that project from the upper part of the box, which by a circular motion lock upon the brim. The nozzle of the bellows is accurately fitted to the neck of the cover, and is about an inch and a half or two inches long; the lower end of the nozzle is rounded and smooth, like the lower extremity of a glyster-pipe, and perforated like a cullender, in order to prevent the ashes of the tobacco from rising into the bellows. The bellows are fastened upon the cover or lid in a manner similar to the preceding; an ear projects from the upper part of the neck, and is admitted into a notch, in a circular rim, upon the nozzle. The pipe, projecting from the lower extremity of the bowl, locks into the cross-pipe to which the leathern tube is affixed, in the manner of a bayonet. By this kind of fastening the whole apparatus may be made ready in the space of a minute, and forms one compact body, free from the hazard of falling in pieces, and thus interrupting the operation; and yet either part may be taken off, when the occasion requires, with the utmost ease and expedition. The bowl is enclosed in a thick case of wood, removable at pleasure, which secures the hand from injury during the whole process. FUMING LIQUOR, in chemistry. The fuming liquors of Boyle and Libavius have been long known. To prepare the first, which is a hydroguretted sulphuret of ammonia, three parts of lime fallen to powder in the air, one of muriate of ammonia, and one of flowers of sulphur, are to be mixed in a mortar, and distilled with a gentle heat. The yellow liquor, that first comes over, emits fetid fumes. It is followed by a deeper colored fluid that is not fuming. The fuming liquor of Libavius is made by amalgamating tin with half its weight of mercury, triturating this amalgam with an equal weight of corrosive muriate of mercury, and distilling by a gentle heat. A colorless fluid at first passes over: after this, a thick vapor is thrown out at one single jet with a sort of explosion, which condenses into a transparent liquor, that emits copious, white, heavy, acrid fumes, on exposure to the air. In a closely stopped bottle, no fumes from it are perceptible; but needle-shaped crystals form against the top of the bottle, so as frequently to close the aperture. Cadet's fuming liquor is prepared by distilling equal parts of acetate of potash and arsenious acid, and receiving the product into glass bodies, kept cool by a mixture of ice and salt. The liquor produced, emits a very dense, heavy, fetid, noxious vapor, and inflames spontaneously in the open air. FUMITER, n. s. A plant. FUNAMBULUS, among the Romans, was what we call a rope dancer, and the Greeks schoenobates. At Rome the funambuli first appeared under the consulate of Sulpicius Paticus and Licinius Stolo, who were the first introducers of the scenic representations. They were first exhibited in the island of the Tyber, and the censors Messala and Cassius afterwards promoted them to the theatre. In the Floralia, or ludi Florales, held under Galba, there were funambulatory elephants, as we are informed by Suetonius. Nero also showed the like, in honor of his mother Agrippina. Vopiscus relates the same of Carinus and Numerianus. FUNCHAL, or FUNCHIAL, the capital of Madeira, is a large and populous town, situated on the south coast of the island, having four forts, and several fine churches. The bay is large and open, affording at no season convenient anchorage; but extremely dangerous in the winter, when heavy gales from the south-west are common. The beach is composed of large burnt stones, rounded by the action of the sea, and has often a surf on it that renders landing impossible; yet it is the most accessible part of the island. The town extends three-quarters of a mile along the beach, and about half a mile inland; its streets are narrow and crooked, paved with the stones from the beach, or with large masses of rugged lava, disagreeable to the feet. Several small streams, descending from the mountains, run through the town into the bay; but, as the inhabitants throw all their ordure into them, they add little to the cleanliness of the streets. only handsome houses are those of the English merchants. But there is a curious chapel of sculls, in which those monuments of mortality are symmetrically disposed, after the manner of a similar chapel at Rome. The population is from 12,000 to 15,000. The Funchal is defended, as we have said, by four forts, viz. 1. St. Jago, at the east extremity of the bay, immediately under a steep hill; 2. St. Lorenzo, in which is the government house; 3. Peak Castle, on a hill north-west of the town, half a mile from the shore, and of difficult access on the south, but commanded by another hill; this is, however, the chief fortification, the walls being very high, but without a ditch, and not mounting above twelve guns; 4. The Loo Rock, on which is a fort with numerous cannon, en barbette, and surrounded by a weak parapet. This rock, the name of which is properly Ilheo, the island, is distant from a rocky point of the bay 120 fathoms, and this narrow channel is 768 fathoms deep; the small craft belonging to the island, in winter, lie under this rock, with a rope fast to it; but, on the first appearance of bad weather, the people quit them and leave them to their fate. 200 paces west of the town is a work 100 paces long, with three small bastions, and a redoubt towards the sea, washed by the waves. The beach is also defended by a long low wall with cannon at intervals, but which could be of very little effect in preventing the landing of troops, did not the surf assist it. The plantations in the neighbourhood are adorned with a great number of country houses, churches, and monasteries, which, from their elevated site, and in contrast with the white houses of the town, produce a striking and pleasing effect. The trade of this port consists almost entirely in exporting the wine of the island, which is principally consumed in the British dominions and dependencies; and they export the Madeira not only to Britain, but to the East and West Indies. Ships touching here may obtain water, wine, fruits, and vegetables; but fresh meat and poultry are high, and cannot be obtained without permission of the governor. FUNCTION, n. s. Lat. functio, is properly the act of discharging, or completing, an office, or business, from Lat. fungor, viz. finem and ago, to put an end to, or bring to a conclusion. It is, in general acceptation, extended to the office it self, or to the thing undertaken. Thus it is not only the single act of an office, but the trade and occupation which the office implies: it signifies, likewise, power and faculty, as applied to any particular part of the body and the office it performs, as well as to the intellectual powers and their operations. Follow your function; go, and batten on cold bits. Shakspeare. You have paid the heavens your function, and the prisoner the very debt of your calling. Id. Measure for Measure. Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit. Id. Hamlet. Nor was it any policy or obstinacy, or partiality of affection either to the men or their function, which King Charles. fixed me. Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head, As the mind opeus, and its functions spread, Imagination plies her dangerous art, And pours it all upon the peccant part. There is hardly a greater difference between two Pope. things than there is between a representing com- In full exertion of the functions, which Byron. The Two Foscari. FUNCTION, in the animal economy, is by physicians divided into vital, animal, and natural. FUNCTIONS, ANIMAL. The animal functions perform the motion of the body by the action of the muscles; and this action consists chiefly in the shortening the fleshy fibres, which is called contraction, the principal agents of which are the arteries and nerves distributed in the fleshy fibres. All parts of the body have their own functions, or actions, peculiar to themselves. Life consists in the exercise of these functions, and health in the free and ready exercise of them. FUNCTIONS, NATURAL, are such as the creature cannot subsist any considerable time without; as the digestion of the aliment, and its conversion into blood. FUNCTIONS, VITAL, are those necessary to life, and without which the individual cannot subsist; as the motion of the heart, lungs, &c. FUND, n. s. & v. a. Fr. fond; Lat. funda, a bag. Stock; capital; that by which any expense is supported. Bank of money. To fund is to place money in the funds, either of a company, a corporation, or the public. He touches the passions more delicately than Ovid, and performs all this out of his own fund, without diving into the arts and sciences for a supply. Dryden. Part must be left, a fund when foes invade, Id. And part employed to roll the wat'ry tide. As my estate has been hitherto either tost upon seas, or fluctuating in funds, it is now fixed in substantial acres. Addison. In preaching, no men succeed better than those who trust entirely to the stock or fund of their own reason, advanced indeed, but not overlaid by commerce with books. Swift. They have been at a vast expense of time, and pains, and patience, to heap together, and to confirm themselves in a set of wrong notions, which they lay up in their minds as a fund of valuable knowledge. Mason. The FUNDS. Upon this extensive topic, after the various statistical tables, and other elementary matter relating to it, which will be found by our readers in the articles BANK, ENGLAND, and GREAT BRITAIN, we do not propose to enter at much length. It is a topic for entire volumes, even of more ample extent than ours. principles on which our funding system is constructed and upheld, particularly by what is called the sinking fund; the principal periods of and the relative advantages and disadvantages of the accumulation of our immense national debt; that part of our public policy which has originated and increased it, at the best mode of providing for the national expenditure, are the chief subjects of our enquiry. These will be introduced with some propriety by a definit.on of the principal terms of the discussion. As the term funds will describe any sum or sums of money appropriated to a particular purpose, it includes, in popular language, both the national debt and revenue; the stocks and every thing relating to their management; the measures of Downing Street and Threadneedle Street, as well as those of Capel Court. Technically, the public debt and revenue are thus divided: the capitals of the several sums which the government has borrowed of contractors and other individuals, from time to time, is called stock; and the portions of the revenue appropriated to pay the interest and management of the debt only, are called the funds: and, by this appropriation of revenue, the debt is said to be funded. The different funds were established on different occasions, and are not all committed to the same managers; nor is the interest, or, in the technical language, the dividends, payable in all of them at the same time. But the only material circumstance in which they differ from each other, is the rate of interest on their capitals or stock; and, in this view, we have different funds, denominated the 3 per cents., the 4 per cents., &c.; from the respective rates of their yearly interests. The creditor is also, in some cases, recompensed by a temporary annuity, in addition to the interest of his stock; and his title to the annuity, like his title to the stock, is authenticated by a record, transferable at pleasure; and each annuity, whether it is for life, or for a certain number of years, may be considered as equivalent to a certain quantity of stock. The interest or dividend on the stock is paid half-yearly; and the purchaser has the benefit of the interest due on the stock he buys, from the last term to the time of purchase. Therefore, the prices of the stocks rise gradually, cæteris paribus, from term to term, and fall at the term when the interest is paid. In comparing the prices of the different stocks, it is necessary to advert to the term when the last interest was paid; and, allowance being made for this circumstance, the prices of all the government stocks, which bear interest at the same rate, must be nearly the same, as they all depend on the same security. When a loan is proposed, such terms must be offered to the lenders as may render the transaction beneficial; and this is now regulated by the prices of the old stocks. If the stocks which bear interest at 4 per cent. sell at par, or rather above, the government may expect to borrow money at that rate; but, if these stocks are under par, the government must either grant a higher interest, or some other advantage to the lenders, in compensation for the difference. Lotteries have formerly been employed to facilitate the loan, by entitling the subscribers to a certain number of tickets, for which no higher price was charged than the exact value distributed in prizes. Sometimes an abatement of a certain proportion of the capital has been granted, and a lender entitled to hold £100 stock, though, in reality, he advanced no more, perhaps, than £95. It belongs to the chancellor of the exchequer to propose the terms of the loan in parliament; and he generally makes a previous agreement with some wealthy bankers or merchants, who are willing to advance the money on the terms proposed. The subscribers to the loan deposit a certain part of the sum subscribed, and are bound to pay the rest by instalments or stated proportions, on appointed days, under pain of forfeiting what they have deposited. For this they are entitled, perhaps, not only to hold their share in the capital, but to an annuity as we have stated; but happily the right of receiving a certain number of lottery-tickets is abolished. They may sell their capital to one person, their annuity to a second, at their own option. The value of all these interests together is called omnium; and, in order to obtain a ready subscription, it ought to amount to £102, or upwards, on b100 of capital. This difference is called the fonus to the subscribers. The capital advanced to the public, in the form of transferable stocks, and bearing interest from taxes apportioned for that purpose, is called, as we have said, the funded debt. Besides, there is generally a considerable sum due by government which is not disposed of in that manner; and, therefore, is distinguished by the appellation of the unfunded debt. This may arise from any sort of national expense, for which no provision has been made, or for which the provision has proved insufficient. The chief branches are, 1st, exchequer-bills: these are issued from the exchequer, generally by appointment of parliament, and sometimes without such appointment, when exigencies require. They bear interest from the time when issued, and are taken in by the bank of England, which promotes their circulation. 2d, navy-bills: the sums annually granted for the navy have always fallen short of what that service required. To supply that deficiency, the admiralty issues bills in payment of victuals, stores, and the like, which bear interest six months after the time issued. The debt of the navy, thus contracted, is dischargo, from time to time, by parliament. The interest on all the public debts was formerly paid at the exchequer; but, the bank being found a much more convenient place for this purpose, nearly the whole is now payable there, the company receiving a certain allowance from government for managing all business relative to the public funds. See our article BANK. The nature of the sinking fund may be thus explained :-By 3 Geo. I. c. 7, the surpluses of the three great national funds, the aggregate, general, and South Sea funds, over and above the interest and annuities charged upon them, are directed to be carried together, and to attend the disposition of parliament; and were denominated a sinking fund, because originally destined to sink and lower the national debt. To this have been since added many other entire duties granted in subsequent years; an 1 the annual interest of the sums borrowed on their respective credits is charged on, and payable out of, the produce of the sinking fund. However, the nett surpluses and savings, after all deductions paid, amount annually to a very considerable sum. For, as the interest on the national debt has been at several times reduced by the consent of the proprietors, who had their option either to lower their interest or be paid their principal, the savings from the appropriated revenues have been large. But, be fore any part of the aggregate fund (the surpluses whereof were one of the chief ingredients that formed the sinking fund) could be applied to diminish the principal of the public debt, it was mortgaged by parliament to raise an annual sum for the maintenance of the king's household and the civil list. For this purpose, in the late reigns, the produce of certain branches of the excise and customs, the post-office, the duty on winelicenses, the revenues of the remaining crownlands, the profits arising from the courts of justice (which articles include all the hereditary revenues of the crown), and also a clear annuity of £120,000 in money, were settled on the king for life, for the support of his majesty's household, and the honor and dignity of the crown. And, as the amount of these several branches was uncertain (though in the reign of Geo. II. they were computed to have sometimes raised almost a million), if they did not arise annually to £800,000, the parliament engaged to make up the deficiency. But Geo. III. having, soon after his accession, spontaneously signified his consent, that his own hereditary revenues might be so disposed of as might best conduce to the utility and satisfaction of the public, and having graciously accepted a limited sum, the said hereditary and other revenues are now carried into, and made a part of, the aggregate fund; and the aggregate fund is charged with the payment of the whole annuity to the crown. The limited annuity accepted by his late majesty was at first £800,000, but it has been since augmented to £900,000. The expenses themselves, being put under the same care and management as the other branches of the public patrimony, produce more, and are better collected than heretofore; and the public is a gainer of upwards of £100,000 per annum by this transaction. The sinking fund, though often called the last resource of the nation, long, however, proved very inadequate to the purpose for which it was established. Ministers found pretences for diverting it into other channels; and the diminution of the national debt proceeded slowly during the intervals of peace, whilst each succeeding war increased it with great rapidity. To remedy this evil, and restore the public credit, to which the American war had given a considerable shock, Mr. Pitt conceived a plan for diminishing the debt by a fund which should be rendered unalienable to any other purpose. In the session of 1786 he moved that the annual surplus of the revenue above the expenditure should be raised, by additional taxes, from £900,000 to £1,000,000 sterling, and that certain commissioners should be vested with the full power of disposing of this sum in the purchase of stock for the public, in their own names. These commissioners should receive the annual million by quarterly payments of £250,000, to be issued out of the exchequer before any other money, except the interest of the national debt itself; by these provisions, the fund would be secured, and no deficiencies in the national revenues could affect it, but such must be separately provided for by parliament. The accumulated compound interest on a million yearly, together with the annuities that would fall into that fund, would, he said, in twenty-eight years, amount to such a sum as would leave a surplus of £4,000,000 annually, to be applied, if necessary, to the exigencies of the state. In appointing the commissioners, he should, he said, endeavour to choose persons of such weight and character as corresponded with the importance of the commission they were to execute. The speaker of the house of commons, the chancellor of the exchequer, the master of the rolls, the governor and deputy governor of the bank of England, and the accountant-general of the high court of chancery, were persons, who, from their several situations, he should think highly prope: to be of the number. To the principle of this bill no objection was made, though several specious, but ill-founded ones were urged against the sufficiency of the mode which the chancellor of the exchequer had adopted for the accomplish.nent of so great and so desirable an end. He had made it a clause in his bill, that the accumulating million should never be applied but to the purchase of stock. To this clause Mr. Fox objected, and moved that the commissioners therein named should be im powered to accept so much of any future loan as they should have cash belonging to the public to pay for. This, he said, would relieve that distress the country would otherwise be under, when, on account of a war, it might be necessary to raise a new loan: whenever that should be the case, his opinion was, that the minister should not only raise taxes sufficiently productive to pay the interest of the loan, but also sufficient to make good to the sinking fund whatsoever had been taken from it. If, therefore, for instance, at any future period a loan of £6,000,000 was proposed, and there was at that time £1,000,000 in the hands of the commissioners, in such case they should take £1,000,000 of the loan, and the bonus or douceur thereupon should be received by them for the public. Thus government would only have £5,000,000 to borrow instead of £6,000,000, and from such a mode of proceeding, he said, it was evident great benefit would arise to the public. This clause was received by Mr. Pitt with the strongest marks of approbation, as was likewise another moved by Mr. Pulteney, enabling the commissioners named in the bill to continue purchasing stock for the public when it was above par, unless otherwise directed by parliament. With these additional clauses the bill was read a third time on the 15th of May, and carried up to the lords, where it also passed without meeting with any material opposition, and afterwards received the royal assent. The operation of this bill surpassed perhaps the minister's most sanguine expectation. The fund was ably managed, and judiciously applied; and in 1793 the commissioners had extinguished some millions of the public debt. The war, however, in which the nation was that year involved, made it necessary to borrow immense additional sums. The income of the whole sinking fund, on the 1st of February, 1802, was £5,809,330. The whole sum which had been paid for the purchase of stock, up to that period, was £38,110,795, In 1792, we should perhaps have observed, it was further provided, that whenever any new debt might be contracted, a sinking fund of one per cent, upon the capital stock created, should be appropriated to it, unless other provision should have been made by parliament for redeeming it within forty-five years; and such a sinking fund of one per cent. was, in conformity to this act, provided for almost every future loan of the war; but in two or three instances parliament availed itself of the alternative allowed of finding other means of repayment within forty-five years. In 1802, particularly, no immediate sinking fund was assigned for £87,000,000 of stock provided for in that year, and which consisted partly of the loan of the year, and partly of a sum of £56,000,000, previously raised at different times on the credit of the income tax, which was then repealed; but the ultiinate redemption of that debt was secured by a continuation of the several sinking funds provided for antecedent loans, and which for that purpose were continued and formed into what was called the consolidated sinking fund. This arrangement was, by calculation, amply sufficient to effect the redemption of the debt within fortyfive years, and even within a shorter period than it could otherwise have oeen brought about; but it would, if literally carried into execution, be liable to produce inconveniences, which it is one of the principal objects of the present plan to obviate. Some of the principal provisions of the act of 1802 were repealed by an act of Mr. Vansittart in 1813, and an additional sum of £870,000 per annum appropriated by it to the sinking fund, to make good the usual proportion of one per cent. on the capital stock provided for in that year, and for the redemption of which another mode had then been substituted, as has been above-mentioned. Enough at present has thus been said, to give the reader a general view of the technical terms of our subject. But, as Mr. Vansittart's alteration of the sinking fund in 1813 was the last and most important interference with its machinery that has been attempted, we may be allowed to illustrate it somewhat further. When, in 1792, Mr. Pitt proposed to add £200,000 per annum to the sinking fund, he observed, When the sum of £4,000,000 was originally fixed as the limit for the sinking fund, it was not in contemplation to issue more annually for the surplus revenue than £1,000,000; consequently, the fund would not rise to £4,000,000 till a proportion of debt was paid off, the interest of which, together with the annuities which might fall in, in the interval, should amount to £3,000,000. But as, on the present supposition, additional sums beyond the original £1,000,000 are to be annually issued from the revenue, and applied to the aid of the sinking fund, the consequence would be, that, if that fund, with these additions carried to it, were still to be limited to £4,000,000, it would reach that amount, and cease to accumulate, before as great a portion of the debt is reduced as was originally in contemplation.' In order to avoid this consequence, which would, as far as it went,' he continued, be a relaxation in our system, I should propose, that whatever may be the additional annual sums applied to the reduction of the debt, the fund should not cease to accumulate till the interest of the capital discharged, and the amount of the expired annuities should, together with the annual £1,000,000 only, and exclusive of any additional sums, amount to £4,000,000.' We have stated that, in 1792, a provision was made for attaching a sinking fund of 1 per cent. to each loan separately, which was to be exclusively employed in the discharge of the debt contracted by that loan, but that no part of these 1 per cents. was to be employed in the reduction of the original debt of £238,000,000, and that the act of 1802 consolidated all these sinking funds; so that the public were not to be exempted from the payment of the sinking fund itself, nor of the dividends on the stock to be purchased by the commissioners, till the whole debt existing in 1802 was paid off. Mr. Vansittart proposed to repeal the act of 1802, and to restore the spirit of Mr. Pitt's act of 1792. He acknowledged, that it would be a breach of faith to the national creditor if the fair construction of that act, the act of 1792, were not adhered to; but it was, in Mr. Vansittart's opinion, no breach of faith to do away the conditions of the act of 1802. It was declared by the new act, that, as the sinking fund, consolidated in 1802, had redeemed £238,350,143 18s. Id. exceeding the amount of the debt in 1786 by £118,895 12s. 104d., a sum of capital stock equal to the total capital of the public debt, existing on the 5th January 1786, viz. £238,231,248 5s. 2 d. had been satisfied and discharged; and that, in like manner, an amount of public debt equal to the capital and charge of every loan contracted since the said 5th January 1786, shall successively, and in its proper order, be deemed and declared to be wholly satisfied and discharged, when, and as soon as a further amount of capital stock, not less than the capital of such loan, and producing an interest equal to the dividends thereupon, shall be so redeemed or transferred.' It was also resolved, that, after such declaration as aforesaid, the capital stock purchased by the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, shall from time to time be cancelled; at such times, and in such proportions, as shall be directed by any act of parliament to be passed for such purpose, in order to make provision for the charge of any loan or loans thereafter to be contracted.' It was further resolved, that, in order to carry into effect the provisions of the acts of the 32d and 42d of the king, for redeeming every part of the national debt within the period of forty-five years from the time of its creation, it is also expedient that, in future, whenever the amount of the sum to be raised by loan, or by any other addition to the public funded debt, shall in any year exceed the sum estimated, to be applicable in the same year to the reduction of the public |