producing revenue: but, in a national view, it is still more so as a nursery for seamen.-By being continually in the practice of naval evolutions. they acquire an adroitness known to scarcely any other nations: and they increase their natural bravery by being continually exposed to danger. Mr. Anderson has given the imports and exports of each year from the beginning of the eighteenth century. The following amount of them every tenth year is sufficient to give the reader an idea of their increase. (1788.) A bill was brought forward, this year, at the desire of the English woollen manufacturers," for amending the existing laws against "the private exportation of wool."-It was grounded on the prejudice done them by the smuggling of wool to France: to prove which, it was asserted that 13,000 packs of wool were annually exported to that kingdom. -It was warmly opposed by the friends of the wool-growers, as a hardship done them, by depriving them of such an advantage, and subjecting them to vexatious restraints with respect to the sale of their wool. But the bill was passed by a majority of 112 to 47,° (1790.) The British trade and manufactures never were in so flourishing a state as at this period.-Of this we may form a judgment from the premier's statement: that the exports of the last year were £.18,513,000; surpassing by £3,000,000 the average of six years before the American war. To this we may add a considerable increase of the home consumption. (1792.) An attempt was made, this year, to inlarge our trade to China, by some commercial arrangements with that country, With that view lord Macartney was sent on an embassy to do honour to the emperor. But the jealousy which that monarch entertained of the Europeans rendered his mission fruitless. (1798.) The inconvenience which commercial men began already to feel, and the still greater which they apprehended, from the war with France, was in some degree compensated by a commercial treaty at this time concluded with Russia, which promised great profit to this country. The new act passed about the same time for renewing the charter of the East India company, and for regulating the government and trade in India, afforded much satisfaction to those who were interested in the company's concerns." PUBLIC WORKS, CHARITABLE AND BENEFICENT FOUNDATIONS, &c. (1756.) The Marine Society, an establishment of great public utility, was founded this year.-A number of public spirited merchants of the city of London, and others, formed themselves into a very laudable association, under the name of the Marine Society, and contributed considerable sums of money for equipping such orphans, friendless, and forlorn boys, as were willing to engage in the service of the navy. In consequence of this excellent plan, which was executed with equal zeal and discretion, many thousands were rescued from misery, and rendered useful members of that society, of which they must have been the bane and the reproach, without this humane interposition." (1756.) This year the governors of the hospital established some years since for the maintenance and education of foundlings, or exposed or deserted children, were enabled by an act of parliament to receive all such children as should be brought to the hospital within the compass of one year. (1758.) This year the asylum and Magdalen hospitals were established in the city of London, by a fund arising from charitable subscriptions. (1758.) Milford Haven being the most spacious and commodious harbour in the kingdom, it was proposed to make it fit for the reception of the royal navy.-Ten thousand pounds was now voted to begin the works for fortifying and securing it, and for purchasing the necessary lands. Further sums were afterwards granted for the same purpose. But although the harbour was excellent in itself, it was found to be inconveniently situated: and therefore the intended improvements never were completed. (1758.) A charitable marine society was, about this time, established at Glascow, to provide for such seamen as shall become old or disabled in the service of the merchants of that city, and also to afford relief, to their widows and children.* (1760.)-(Canal Navigation.)-It is somewhat extraordinary, that, notwithstanding Lewis the Fourteenth had long since shewn the practicability of canal navigation under very difficult circumstances, by his grand work to connect the Garonne and the British Channel with the Mediterranean, his example had not been followed by the English till about this time.The vast expence attending the execution of canals, and our insular situation, which facilitates the conveyance of goods from one part of the kingdom to another by sea, probably retarded this species of adventure. But the utility of inland navigation became more and more evident when a great number of new manufactures were established, the materials of which were to be conveyed from distant parts, when an increased population and the consequent increased consumption and high price of corn induced the proprietors of land to clear it of brakes and hedge-rows, and when, in consequence, coal became yearly more necessary to supply the place of wood.-These appear to have been the principal circumstances which led to the formation of canals.-But there is one advantage arising from them, in a national light, which deserves to be noticed-that it will render it less necessary for farmers to keep horses in the neighbourhood of canals; and that when horses shall be rendered unnecessary to draw their corn to market, the consequence will, probably, be, that oxen will be more generally used for tillage, and that thus a larger and more regular supply will be provided for the grazier. The subsistence of oxen for the tillage of any given number of acres being produced from a much smaller quantity of land than that of horses for ▾ Anderson. 3. 305. x Annual Register. 95. for the same, the saving of corn, or rather of subsistence in the aggregate, by that mean will be another public benefit arising from inland navigation; to which we may add the still greater saving in the consumption of those horses which would otherwise be employed for the conveyance of coal and other articles from one part of the kingdom to another. These observations may serve to remove the unpleasant feelings of those who are hurt at seeing so great a quantity of land apparently wasted in the formation of canals. The first canal deserving of notice in Great Britain, was that undertaken, in the year 1760, by the duke of Bridgewater, for the conveyance of coal from his estate at Worsley to Manchester, from which it was distant about seven miles. Though the extent was so small, great difficulties presented themselves in forming the canal, from natural obstructions. But these gave way to the ingenuity and indefatigable industry of James Brindley, the duke's engineer, who left a most honourable memorial of his genius in the aqueducts and the works of various kinds constructed by him in the progress of the undertaking.-This canal was afterwards carried to the Mersey,+ and, by its junction with that river, made a navigable communication between Manchester and Liverpool.-After that, it was extended southward, through Staffordshire, to the Trent. This canal is called the grand trunk; from the number of ramifications which, it was supposed, would be branched out from it. It is seventy miles in extent, and has a tunnel of 2,880 yards under Harecastle Hill.-The first of these branches was carried to Birmingham, and thence, through Warwickshire and Oxfordshire to the Isis: another was carried eastward to Grantham in Lincolnshire. Another through Northamptonshire, Bucks, and Hertfordshire, to the Thames at Uxbridge, called, from its effect in making a communication between the northern and southern counties, the grand junction. In the mean-time, other canals had been formed in different parts. The chief of these are that to connect the Severn and the Isis: that between Leeds and Liverpool: || several which form communications between the different manufacturing towns in the north; one of which extends, through almost the whole county of Lancashire, to Kendall in Westmoreland.Another, of great public utility, is completed between the Clyde and the Firth of Forth.t-In 1792 an act was passed for a canal to connect the Avon The act passed in 1768. In 1762. 1766 to 1777. The act passed in 1770. --- 1 Avon at Bath with the Kennet at Newbury; and, soon after, another to connect the same river, by a branch from that canal, with the Isis at Abingdon. These, when finished, will complete the navigable communication between the north and south and the east and west, as far as Bristol. Whilst these works had been carried on in Great Britain, the Irish nation had been actuated by the same spirit of adventure. So early as the year 1762, a work upon a grand scale was undertaken to form a communication between Dublin and the Shannon, by that means to avoid the dangerous passage by sea from that city to the north-western parts of Ireland. (1765.) Much inconvenience having been experienced by the citizens of London from the distance between Westminster and London bridges, an act was passed about this time for building one about the midway between them. A very elegant structure was, in consequence, erected, which forms a communication between fleet-street and the opposite side of the Thames. Y (1774.) Among public works, and the measures of government relative to them, may not improperly be introduced an act passed at this time to remedy the inconveniences arising from the slightness of the buildings in the metropolis. This act prescribes the different thickness of the walls of buildings of different descriptions; each story being ordered to be built of a certain thickness, according to the height and extent of the building. It also made regulations of various kinds to prevent nuisances and danger from carrying on certain trades and manufactures in the city; and prescribed the manner in which redress of grievances should be obtained and the offenders against the act punished." |