"and thirty vessels, in the best possible condition, and manned with the "best seamen in Europe. The fleets of France, Spain, and Holland were "but in a small degree superior to those of Great Britain in numbers, "and very far inferior to them in construction and equipment. The "sailors, those of Holland excepted, were chiefly composed of landsmen "unaccustomed and very averse to the element on which they served. "France, with all its exertions, did not reckon more than two hundred " and sixty-four vessels of all rates; Spain not more than an hundred and "twenty-four, and Holland but sixty. The residue of the European "marine in actual commission, among those powers which formed the "armed neutrality, amounted to no more than eighty-four ships of all Of these twenty-nine belonged to Russia, thirty to Sweden, and twenty-five to Denmark."

"sorts.

h

ARMY.

Zimmermann, who wrote in 1785, states the peace establishment of Great Britain to be 40,000 men. Of these were seventy-three regiments of infantry, beside three regiments of foot guards.

According to that author, the whole of the army in the preceding war, including the foreign troops in English pay, amounted to about 135,000 men. Twelve regiments of cavalry and twenty of infantry are usually in Ireland, and are maintained in that kingdom.

The force employed during the late war was far war was far greater.-It appears from a statement of the secretary at war in 1800, that the number of effective men, including invalids, militia, and foreign corps, as well as the fencible troops, serving in the pay of Great Britain on the twenty-fourth of december in that year, was 168,082.*

SCIENCES.

The sciences have been cultivated with great success in Great Britain. from the close of the sixteenth century to the present time. They derived every possible assistance from the royal academy instituted in the reign

of Charles the Second: and they flourished under the auspices of the immortal Boyle, Newton, and that constellation of philosophers in the seventeenth century, whose example and celebrity excited emulation in their contemporaries.-They are now in so prosperous a state that they need little more than protection from the government: and where encouragement, in particular branches, promises to forward their advancement, it is given them.

The first act of the state to promote the arts and sciences in the course of this period, was that of 1753 for the purchase of the museum of sir Hans Sloane, and of the Harleian collection of manuscripts; and for providing one general repository for the better reception and more convenient use of the said collections; and also of the Cottonian library; and of the additions which may be made to them.-For these purposes a number of trustees were incorporated, of which were the archbishop of Canterbury, the lord chancellor, and other chief officers of state for the time being, together with the speaker of the house of commons. The sum of £.300,000 was raised by a lottery, for the purposes of the beforementioned and other purchases; and also to provide a fund for the payment of the salaries to the keeper of the museum and other officers. -In consequence of this institution, the palace of the late duke of Montagu was purchased by the trustees for the reception of the several collections.1

Longitude.An act was passed, in the same year, † for the further encouragement of the discovery of the longitude at sea.-An act had been passed in the twelfth of queen Anne, appointing commissioners who should judge of the merit of any methods which might be proposed to them. Upon their representation of the probability of a discovery, the commissioners of the navy were empowered to make out a bill for any sum not exceeding £.2000.-Moreover, as the ultimate reward for the discoverer of the longitude, £.10,000 was offered to any one who should determine it to one degree; .15,000 to him who should determine it to two thirds, and £.20,000 to him who should determine it to half a degree. -The

+ 1753

Anderson. 3. 296.

-The commissioners having disbursed £.1250 to Mr. Harrison for a trial of his time-piece, and £.500 to Mr. Whiston for his survey of the longitude and latitude of the ports of the kingdom, out of the above £.2000, the same commissioners were enabled, by a subsequent act, to raise a further sum of £.2000 for the same purposes."

Mr. John Harrison made trial of his father's time-piece in two voyages, one to Jamaica and the other to Barbadoes: and the instrument was found to have determined the longitude with an accuracy exceeding that which entitled the discoverer to the greatest reward. The claim was thereupon made, and the merits of the discovery were examined by the commissioners. And, upon an application to parliament, a bill was passed, in 1765, "for granting Mr. Harrison £.10,000 upon the discovery of the principles " of his time-keeper, and £.10,000 more when such other time-keepers "shall have been made and tried as shall give satisfaction to the commis"sioners of longitude."-After some difficulties were removed which arose from Mr. Harrison's unwillingness to make the discoveries required of him, the first sum of £.10,000 was paid him."-Although Mr. Harrison was, strictly speaking, entitled to the premium, yet much doubt was entertained respecting the general utility of his time-keeper. However, we are informed, in his life, "that the inventor, at different times, though not " without infinite trouble, received the proposed reward of £.20,000."

There were two other methods brought forward at this time, which were judged to have a considerable degree of merit; one was Mr. Irvin's marine chair for observing the occultation and emersion of jupiter's satellites; the other by taking the distance of the moon from the fixed stars with Hadley's quadrant.-The tedious calculation attending the lunar method being objected to it, Mr. Witchell presented to the board a method by which that calculation may be reduced to a single proportion by logarithms, and consequently may be rendered as simple as can be desired. In consequence of the investigation of the merits of these methods, £.500 was granted to Mr. Irvin, and .200 to Mr. Witchell. P (1783.) About this time, a royal society for the encouragement of arts and sciences was established at Edinburgh.

Voyages.- -Among the measures of government to promote science may be ranged the voyages made for the purpose of discoveries, or for the ascertainment of geological and geographical questions.—It is here intended only to give the objects of the several voyages and their general results; in order to make the reader acquainted with the means employed by the several states for the advancement of these branches of knowledge. For such further information as is incompatible with the nature of this work the reader is referred to the particular accounts of the several expeditions.

Voyages of discovery in the Pacific Ocean had been made, by order of his Britannic majesty, by commodore Byron in the years 1764, 65 and 66 and by captains Wallis and Carteret, the former in the dolphin, and the latter in the swallow sloop, in the years 1767-8 and 9: and some interesting discoveries had been made by them, chiefly on the south of the equator.

But the most memorable, and in their results the most important, voyages of discovery in these and in the north-eastern seas were performed by captain James Cook. Having recommended himself to the admiralty by his services as a naval officer and his skill in the science. of navigation, he was appointed in 1768 to conduct an expedition to the South Seas, accompanied by Mr. Green as astronomer and Mr. Solander and sir Joseph Banks as naturalists, for the purpose of observing the transit of venus which was to take place in the month of june in the ensuing year, and prosecuting discoveries in that quarter of the globe. And no man could be better qualified for the commission with which he was honoured. His understanding was vigorous, his frame and constitution robust, his disposition enterprising, his temper patient and persevering; and he had that ardent fondness for his profession which, when united with talents, may not improperly be called a genius for it.

Leaving England in the ship endeavour august twenty-sixth 1768, he took a south-westerly course; and, having doubled Cape Horn, he steered for Otaheite, where their observations were made.-After that he visited the neighbouring islands of Huaheine, Ulietea, Otaha, and Bolabola, to which he gave the name of Society Islands. Then sailing to New Zealand, in the same hemisphere, he made a survey of the two islands, and

discovered

discovered the straits between them, afterwards called by his name. When he had explored the eastern coast of New Holland, before unknown, he steered for England, by the Cape of Good Hope, and reached it june the twelfth 1771.

He sailed upon his second voyage in july 1772, and took a southwesterly course.-After visiting Otaheite and the Friendly Islands, he proceeded to latitude 71, where he was stopped by a barrier of ice. In traversing these southern regions, he discovered Palliser Islands, and New Caledonia, the island which he named Georgia, in honour of his sovereign, and an unknown coast called by him Sandwich Land, the thule of the southern hemisphere. He returned from this voyage in july 1775; having, among other objects of it, ascertained the important question of a southern continent: for he had traversed that hemisphere, between the degrees of 40 and 70 in such a manner as not to leave a possibility of its existence, unless near the Pole, and out of the reach of navigation.

--

He sailed the ensuing year on his third and last voyage, the chief object of which was the discovery of a north-east passage.-On this voyage, after making some discoveries in the southern hemisphere, he steered for the western coast of America; which he traced till he came to a strait which divides it from Asia. Having made such an accurate survey of the coasts of each as to demonstrate the impracticability of a northern passage, he sailed to the Sandwich Islands, where, unfortunately for his country, he was killed in the month of february 1779, in a skirmish with the savages of O-Why-ee. Whilst we are relating the enterprises of this celebrated navigator, which were such as added essentially to the science of geography, we ought not to be inattentive to another part of his merit, noticed by his companion and biographer, captain James King, which will give pleasure to every humane person-" that was the method which he "discovered, and so successfully pursued, for preserving the health of seamen; which forms a new era in navigation, and will transmit his name to future ages among the friends and benefactors of mankind." That no doubt might be left on the minds of men respecting the existence of a passage to the East Indies by the north-east, commodore Phipps and captain Lutwich were sent out, before Cook's last voyage, to carry on the discoveries which had been made by the Russians and others