He apprized the Admiralty of thefe difcoveries in as ftrong terms as if he had already tout fhips to produce, more than twice the age of any in the navy; with hints of expecting fome advantage from the communication of his effay. He was referred to the navy board, who invited him to fhew his papers; this, however, he declined; but has continued for three years to fend Lord Sandwich, Lord Mulgrave, Lord Hillsborough, and Mr. Stephens, occafional letters, as newspaper intelligence infpired him, without having any farther notice taken of his correfpondence.

It might appear cruel to treat a man ludicrously who has laboured fo long under neglect; but though he may be credited with meaning the welfare of his country as the first confideration, and his private advantage only in fubordination to that grand object; yer as the publication of thefe letters is a direct appeal to the public against our marine minifters, we cannot avoid hinting, that there is fomething throughout, both the matter and ftile of all his addreffes, that feems to counteract the affurances he fo liberally makes of the value and certainty of his discoveries.

Art. 26. An Efay on the Duty and Qualifications of a Sea Officer. Written originally, Anno 17c0, for the Use of two young Officers. By the Rev. James Ramfay, Chaplain in his Majefty's Navy. The third Edition improved. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Robinson. 1780. The first edition of this very ufeful Compendium was published in the Year 1765t, when, as we are now informed, the profits of the impreffion were appropriated by the benevolent author to the Magdalen and British Lying-in hofpitals; as that of the fecond and third editions are, to the Maritime School, or in cafe of its failure, to the Marine Society. Thus, while our author dedicates his time in a twofold capacity to the fervice of the navy, he demonstrates his fincerity by his difinterestedness; and if the performance, which is now corrected and enlarged, is attended to in proportion to its merit, our officers will gain many practical hints not unworthy the notice of the most experienced, and the fecondary views of the writer will be fuitably answered.

WOOLLEN TRADE. Art. 27. An Inquiry into the Nature and Qualities of English Wools, and the Variations of Breed in Sheep: with fome fhort Remarks on the Dean of Gloucefter's Pamphlet on coarfe Wools; and Proposals for relieving the Wool Growers by a Mode which will not prejudice the Manufacturers. By a Gentleman Farmer. 8vo. Is. Evans. Pater Noster Row. 1782.

According to this intelligent writer, there are but two diftinctions of sheep, in which we are envied by foreigners; these are firit, the fheep of Suffolk, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Devonshire, and particularly Herefordshire; all more or lefs remarkable for the fineness of their fleeces; fecondly, thofe of Warwickshire and Lincolnshire, which are not peculiar in the fineness of their Wool, but in the quantity they yield, and in the length of the ftaple. He argues, that thefe are not different in fpecies from the other sheep in the inland, but derive their peculiar qualities from the pasture on which they feed; fo P. 88.

+ See Rev. vol. XXXIII.

Cc3

that

that a breed of heavy fleeced Lincolnshire fheep, conveyed to the mountains of Wales, would foon degenerate to the ftandard of the native mountaineers there. In the fine forts, he obferves, there is little danger of rivalfhip on the continent, Spain excepted; but in the coarse kinds. our only fuperiority is in the quantity of the produce. The preference given abroad to British woollen goods, he attributes to the fuperiority of our workmanship. To this we are not a little indebted for our reputation in the finer articles, but also in the various kinds of coarse stuffs, the exportation of which is the most confiderable part of our woollen trade. Hence he does not apprehend fo much evil in a temporary allowance of exporting coarfe wool, to relieve the grower, as fome do; though he would not recommend fuch an expedient, but as a dernier refort in failure of all other means to carry it off in a manufactured state.

In affigning the caufes of the prefent ftagnation of the woollen manufacture, the author differs materially from Dr. Tucker*; as well as in the remedies he recommends for its relief. Under the former head he obferves, The Dean of Gloucefter fuppofes that the prefent low price of coarse wools entirely arifes from our difufe of the wear of coarfe woollen manufactures at home, and from our war with America; the first he fuppofes to be the principal, the latter only the fecondary cause of the evil. I am forry to be under the necefity of widely differing from so refpectable an authority. Our difufe of coarse woollen goods cannot be denied: it is obvious to every person whò pays the imalleft attention to things, that even women fervants wear fewer stuff gowns than formerly, and men hardly any woollen waistcoats and breeches; all which, with the American war, must be suppofed to have made no fmall diminution in our home confumption. But the Doctor mistakes greatly in fuppofing our home confumption of coarse woollens is, or ever was, "much greater than any exportation which can be fuppofed to a foreign market." On the contrary, had he enquired at thofe manufacturing places where the coarse wools are uted, which are grown in different parts of the kingdom, but particularly in Lincolnshire, from whence the complaints arife, he would have been informed that three-fourths, if not four fifths of them, are used up in the manufacture of stuffs totally defigned for a foreign market, the very names of which I believe are known to new people of the iflard but the manufacturers themfelves; and their appearance is fo fingularly gaudy and xtravagant, that I dare fay they were never yet feen on the back of an Englishman.

The evil which the Doctor complains of has been encreasing for fome time: It is not within this ten or twenty years that all this change of garment at home has taken place, and yet it is no longer ago than the years 1776 and 1777, that wool bore a very high price, not only in Lincolnshire, but in every other part of the kingdom, and our woollen manufactures never flourished more in any period than they did between the years 1770 and 1778; which will likewise prove, that they were not materially affected by the American war.-Some particular branches of manufactures, which were principally confumed at home, and in America, may have been greatly affected; but these

The Dean's tract was mentioned in our Catalogue for March.

were

coneluisu should be drawn, were only partial mis ortune 2 how les trade of this from them, refpecting fo large menu and American kingdom in general. The t confumption, has never marerily alusted this country, it has been quite abforbed in the immerity of our foreigs, ride to Spain, Italy, Turkey, Holland, Germany, and Roffis, which was fo great of late years, that the demand for raw wool has actually increafed fince the commencement of the American war, and long fince the difufe of coarfe woollen cloathing became very general in England.

'The flagnation in our woollen trade may be dated from the comDos of Clencelu, I dare mencement of our war with Spain.

fay, is not ignorant, that not only

at religious, but also many

of the other inhabitants of that country, as well as of their fettlements on the vast continent of South America, are cloathed with British manufactures; the lofs of the Spanish trade was therefore a deadly blow to us, and yet it is not the deprivation of their trade alone which completes the whole misfortune of the Spanith wa; for by their blocking up Gibraltar, and poffeffing the command of the streights, they prevent our woollens going to Italy and Turkey, which are heavy goods, and cannot be tranfported by land, in the manner we now receive the raw filks from Piedmont. The only alternative our manufacturers have, is to fhip their goods for Italy and Turkey in neutral veffels, or fend them by way of Ottend; but thefe conveyances are intolerably expenfive, and afford only a fmall relief, not a cure, for the complaint.

The war which has fince taken place with the Dutch, has completed the ftagnation of our manufactures. Thefe people wore great quantities of both our flight and heavy woollens, which were in great vogue amongst them; it is natural therefore to imagine, that their trade must have been large, especially when one reflects that Holland, for its extent, is the most populous country in Europe. When it is confidered that there only remain Germany and Ruffia, of all thofe places to which we had an open trade for our manufactures, it will not appear furprizing that our wool growers can find no demand for their raw materials.'

Our author points out feveral articles of cultivation adapted to the Lincolnshire foil, that would relieve the farmer from raifing wool which he cannot fell, particularly flax; but it is much easier to convert grafs to arable, than to reitore it to pasture; and what is to become of the manufacturers in the mean while? When the sheep are gone to market, and the manufacturers to other countries, how is Our ftaple manufacture to be recovered? Hence he infers, that a change of agriculture would bring a heavier and more lafting distress upon our artificers, than any which can arise from a temporary exportation of raw wool.'

In the fcheme propofed by Dean Tucker, of introducing our coarfe woollen goods into the Ukraine, he itates, that the Dean writes under mifconceptions; add to which that the coarseit of our woollens are too fine and too dear for the natives of the interior parts of that wild and forlorn country; and that in the impofition of duties on foreign articles, the plan of the Emprefs of Ruffia is to encourage manufactures at home,

We

We now come to our author's propofitions, which are briefly. thefe: He obferves, that our communication up the Mediterranean is now carried on tediously, chargeably, and hazardously by neutral veffels: He therefore propofes, that the trade to Italy and the Levant should be attended with regular convoys. The trade to Turkey with woollen goods he deems an unwrought mine to our manufactures; it being an empire whofe Sovereign will not be at the trouble of forming plans for encouraging home manufacturers in preference to thofe of foreigners.

He also thinks a trade may be cultivated with Sweden and Denmark, by procuring the prohibition of British woollens to be taken. off in thofe countries. This fcheme, however, may be as vifionary as he deems that of Dean Tucker; for though he fuppofes Sweden cannot as yet fupply her own confumption, the very existence of a prohibition argues an effort that may not eafily give way to any ne gotiation to that end.

A third more certain method of encouraging our manufactures, is defcribed to be by granting a bounty of ten per cent, on the exporta tion of our coarse woollen cloths to thofe places where the trade continues open, to bring our woollens more upon a level with thofe made in Saxony; and to be paid at leaft during the war with Spain and Holland.

Such are briefly the contents of this well-written Inquiry; for the detail of reafoning, the more interested reader on this subject will naturally with to confult the pamphlet at large.

Art. 28. A Short View of the Proceedings of the feveral Committees and Meetings held in confequence of the intended Petition to Parlia ment, from the County of Lincoln, for a limited exportation of Woel; together with Mr. R. Glover's Letter on that Subject. To which is added, a Lift of the Pamphlets on Wool lately published, with fome Extracts. 8vo. 6d. Stockdale..

From this collective view of the fentiments of the manufacturers and merchants in feveral parts of the kingdom, the exportation of raw wool under any qualification whatever, appears to be a very unpopular expedient. It remains, therefore, to find out means to fend it off worked up into proper articles ready for ufe: the difficulty is, thofe who may want them moft, appear to be the least able to become purchafers. This little tract is to be confidered as a collection of im portant matter, the refult of meetings all over the country; which might have been buried in oblivion, had they not been given to the public in the comprehenfive view now before us.

POETICA L.

Art. 29. An Epistle from Ly W

W

y to Sir Rd y, Bart. 4to. 15. Wright.

If Lady W. poffeffes any remains of that modefty which conflitutes the mott amiable diftinction of her fex, the will feel herself feverely chaftifed for any patt misdemeanors, in the licentious and obfcene trafh which hath come recommended in her name to the Public, fince the late judicial investigation of her conduct.-The Authors of fuch

See account of the trial between Sir R. W. and Capt. Biffet, for Crum. Con. Rev. March, p. 239.

things

things as the prefent Epiftle, may be confidered as the beadles and hangmen of Parnaffus; who adminifter the punishments due to criminals whom other laws and other executioners cannot reach.

DRAMATIC.

Art. 30. Retaliation, a Farce, in two Acts, as it is performed, with univerfal Applaufe, at the Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden. By Leonard Mac Nally, Efq. 8vo. Is. Blyth, &c. 1782. "What is the plot good for (fays Bayes), but to bring in good things?" This feems to have been the idea of the author of Retaliation, who has, however, unlike the original Bayes, really produced the good things he intended. The fable is thin, hacknied, and improbable; the characters, Præcipe excepted, are not very ftrongly marked; but the dialogue abounds with ftrokes of wit, and is feafoned, perhaps, rather too highly with temporary allufions, the common falt of the modern drama. The character of the Attorney bears the ftamp of an able practitioner, as may appear by the following fpecimen :

Enter PRECIPE and FRANK.

(PRÆCIPE in an old-fashioned naval uniform and hat, a fword, flick, and black patch on one eye.)

Frank. This uniform fits you exactly, Sir, I borrowed it from an old fea officer in the neighbourhood-You really look as brave, and fea-man-like, as if you were one of the Admirals in Weftminster Abbey, defcended from his monument.

Precipe. I wish fome of them had defcended, they have been wanting Matter Frank-But I object to this black patch on my eye; it brings me under ftatute ninth of George the First, chapter twentyfecond, which makes it felony without clergy to go with the face difguised.

Frank. That a&t must have loft its force, Sir, or what would become of the painted beauties of London ?

Præcipe. Then, as a body may fay, I am only a feaman by fiction; but the law fays, fictions are beneficial-But then, fays the law again, no fiction fhall work an injury. Very well; there can be no injury in my marrying a woman of fortune.

Frank. True, Sir.

Præcipe. Let us moot the cafe-In fiction fubfifts equity and juftice, fay the books-then will I marry Miss Fairport in the equity of fiction, and afterwards be happy.

-Frank. In reality, Sir?

Præcipe. If not happy, we can feparate by fiction-I'll ftate you a cafe in point A brings his action of crim. con. against B; now though the cause of action had been tranfacted in the most loving manner between B, and the wife of A, yet must A state in his declaration, that the faid B did wickedly and maliciously, with force and arms, that is to fay, with fticks, clubs, ftaves, fwords, guns, and other offenfive weapons, feduce and-et cætera, the wife of the faid A--Do you underland me?

Frank. Perfecly.

Precipe. But this is not all-for though A and wife had lived together like cat and dog, as the faying is, yet muft A ver, that B deprived him of all worldly comfort.-Oh, Mafter Frank, many a

good