bite

The man that mocks at it, and fets it light.

To this fanciful effufion Bolingbroke impatiently replies, as above, in a manner perfectly natural to the unhappy for it requires leifure to grow wife; nor is this ever effected by our becoming better able to bear misfortune, but by our feeling it lefs, from ufe and habit.

The prefence ftrew'd,' in this laft quotation, alludes to the cuftom, in former times, of firewing the prefence-chamber, in our royal palaces, with rushes, as related by Hentzner, in his account of the prefence-chamber in the palace at Greenwich, in 1598.

admonitions of a dying perfon are apt The weight of perfuafion which the to imprefs upon the mind are well expreffed in this paffage. The circumstances of the time imprefs us with an awe, which imprints the advice more ftrongly on our memory, and gives it additional authority. Indeed, the laft words of our dying friends, if the impreffion (which is but too often the cafe) be not merely momentary, are of inconceivable importance; an importance, which is thus finely expreffed by Dr. Young:

His rafh fierce blaze of riot cannot last ; For violent fires foon burn out themselves; Small showers laft long, but fudden forms are short;

He tires betimes that fpurs too faft be

times : With eager feeding, food doth choke the feeder :

Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
Confuming means, foon preys upon itself.
This royal throne of kings, this fcepter'd
inle,

This earth of majefty, this feat of Mars,
This other Eden, demy paradife;
This fortrefs, built by nature for herself,
Against infection and the hand of war;
This happy breed of men, this little world;
This precious stone fet in the filver sea,
Which ferves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defenfive to a house,
Against the envy of lefs happier lands;
This bleffed plot, this earth, this realm,
this England;

This nurfe, this teeming womb of royal kings,

Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth,

Renowned for their deeds as far from home (For Chriftian fervice and true chivalry) As is the fepulchre, in ftubborn Jewry, Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's fon;

This land of fuch dear fouls, this dear dear land,

Dear for her reputation through the world, Is now leas'd out (I die pronouncing it) Like to a tenement or pelting (paltry)

farm:

earth,

And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change.

Rich men look fad, and ruffians dance and leap

The one, in fear to lofe what they enjoy ;
The other, to enjoy by rage or war:
Thele figns forerun the death or fall of
kings.

This enumeration of prodigies is in the highest degree poetical and friking. Some of thefe are found in Hollinihed: In this yeare, in a manner throughout all the realme of England, old baie trees withered, &c.'— Of the three lines in Italic a wretched exemplification may now be found in no very diftant country.

Vanity of Regal Pomp and Power.
King Richard.

Within the

hollow crown, That rounds the mortal temples of a king, Keeps Death his court; and there the antic fits,

Scoffing his ftate, and grinning at his

in the whole of the fpeech, has not only exhibited the frequent infelicity of princes, and the vanity of all terretrial power, but he has likewife perfonified death, and its operations, in a manner fingularly fanciful.

Confolation rejected.

King Richard. Befhrew thee, couûn, which did lead me forth Of that sweet way I was in to despair! What fay you now? What comfort have we now?

By heaven, I'll hate him everlaftingly,
That bids me be of comfort any more.

This fentiment is drawn from nature. Nothing is more offenfive to a mind, convinced that its diftrefs is without a remedy, and preparing to fubmit quietly to irrefiftible calamity, than thofe petty and conjectured comforts, which unskilful officiousness thinks it virtue to adminifter.

Vicious Connections.

King Richard. The love of wicked friends converts to fear; That fear to hate; and hate turns one of both

To worthy danger, and deserved death.

Those who recollect the momentary triumph, and ultimate deftruction, of fome of the principal perfons who have figured among the reigning factions in a neighbouring country, will perceive a very friking propriety in this paffage. May Britons long be fenfible of their happinefs, and long enjoy what no fanciful theoretical perfection can enfure, the solid bleffings of kind equal rule, the government of laws.'

LETTER VI.

Glafgew, Aug. 30, 1792. Are with FTER having with much plea

and abundant proofs of the flourishing ftate of this city, in the beauty, fplendour and convenience of its streets,

and its public and private buildings, I was anxious to take a view of the

Clyde; the grand and original fource fide of the wom of its profperity. This river, which

of

rifes in Annandale, and taking a long north westerly courfe through Clydeldale, and paffing by Lanerk, Hamil

ton

ton and Glafgow, falls into the Firth of Clyde between Greenock and the Ifle of Bute, and thence meeting the fea in the north channel of Ireland, communicates with the German Ocean and the Atlantic. The fream at Glafgow is of confiderable breadth; its channel indeed being too wide for the quantity of water flowing through it. Its navigation too was formerly much incommoded by a number of fhoals. The acceffory waters, brought up even by the fpring tides, do not add above three feet, nor thofe by the neap-tides above one, to the periodical depths of the fream. Great inconveniences were experienced from this fhallowness of the river; and lighters in feasons of drought, were, many weeks together, detained at a distance from the quays of Glafgow. An able engineer fome years ago undertock to deepen the channel at Broomy-law quay; fo as to command feven feet of water, even at the neaptides. The removal of fome of the fhoals was another object of this important undertaking; and veffels of feventy tons can, at prefent, approach

the town.

Two bridges, an ancient one of eight arches, and a modern one of feven, crofs the Clyde, and open a communication between the city, the county of Renfrew, and all the coft on the left fhore of the Firth. The

new bridge appears from its fcite to have been a project of anticipation with regard to its ufe, or neceffity; as we can hardly fuppofe, its main object at the time of building it, to have been the convenience of the village of Anderton. This bridge is the work of Milne. It has, between each of its feven arches, but fomewhat higher, a circular aperture to carry off an extraordinary rife of the waters in great floods. Inftead of baluftrades on its two fides are parapet walls, pierced with an open work in fmall fquares, not unlike the pigeon holes of a dove-cot. This fancy is meant to given an appearance of lightnefs to the upper part of the bridge, and the

idea feems at leaft original. At a diftance the effect is perhaps not bad; but it fuggefis, at all points of view, rather an idea of caprice than of beauty. We were not furprised to have feen no imitation of it elsewhere. Under the circumftances, which have been mentioned, nineteen thoufand pounds expended on the conftruction of this bridge, was furely a very confiderable fum for the confiderate inhabitants of Glafgow. This bridge and Jamaica-ftreet, though the latter did not exist at the building of the former, lend to each other an effect of perfpective mutually advantageous.

In our walk from this bridge weftward, between the river and the town, we paffed the great glafs-works, the ropery, and others of thofe vast and numerous eftablishments of manufactures, which, by means of the Clyde, make their way into every part of the world, and are returned to the citizens of Glafgow in all the various forms of wealth. At no great diftance from the water are fituated their tanneries, their fadleries, and every fort of leather manufacture. Thefe furnish great exports to America and the Well Indies. Their fugar refineries, their potteries, which rival thofe of Staffordshire, their ftone and iron manufactories, not to mention their woollen looms, their fabrics of cotton, linen, lawn, and can.bric, are distributed in various quarters of the lower town. The letter foundry, for prin ing types, deferves particular notice; a fpecies of manufacture at Glafgow, allowed to be executed with fuperior neatnefs and intelligence.

The active inhabitants of Glasgow partake alfo in the fisheries of North Britain; but their concern in this branch is chiefly carried on at Port Glafgow, about twenty miles diftant, at the head of the Firth of Clyde.

The firft benefit, which this town derived from the union, was the large fhare it took, with England, in the Virginia tobacco trade. Since the American revolution, this article of commerce and manufacture has greatly

declined