encourage and sustain us even least chequered and unclouded c

“I have the honour to be, Sir grateful respect, your very oli servant,

E, KI “ To Right Hon. Sir J. Siuclair.

Mr. URBAN,

Dec. 'AL enactinent of the recen!

fined to a specific purpose, bey which they cannot in propriety tend. It is probable, however, i. much good would result to the tion by removing one cause of se tion, distress, and to the inhabitan of the manufaclaring districts by c minishing the poor's rates.

The improvidence of the Poor i proverbial; and they pour such oumbers of the population into particular tracks of employ, that the master cannot extend his capital to meol the daily increasing demand for work.

It has been stated (but the writer of this has no means of referring to documents) that the total number of adult males in the kingdom amounts only lo ihree millions. Of this much too large a proportion is devoted to the weavers in the silk, cloth, and cotton manufactories.

In the two departinents of the silk and cotton branches, we perpetually hear of distress. The Spitalfields beavers, the stocking weavers, and the cotton weavers, are almost ibe only brauches of employ by which we are periodically reminded (let the times be in other respects what they may), that there is a stagnation of trade, through which they are thrown out of bread. All trades fluctuate ; but the weavers, being far too uumerouş, suffer excessively.

The constitutions of persons in this line of employ are so eu feebled, that they are not capable of husbandry work, at least for continuance. They have a squallid aspect, and a tendency to asthma and phthisis.

It is well known that, during the Jast harvest, men could not be ob. tained in sufficient numbers, in the agricultural counties, to get in the crops as fast as they were ready; and it is equally certain, that the workhouses contain no able-bodied nuen. It is too prelty clear 'that country carpenters are never io want of work, unless througb personal misconduct.

May it pot then be inferred, that

VIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

iginat History of the City of consisted of jejune and dry details,
, almost wholly compiled from '. mere chronological indexes. To
ials : supplying the numerous show the correctness of this state-
es, und correcting the Errors of ment we have only to bring forward.
Accounts ; including also the
pers of the late Ralph Big, which is copious, illustrative, and

in comparison, the present work,
Garter Principal King of novel. If the catalogues of the county
y the Rev. Thomas Dudley
M. A. F. A. S. Author of parisbes, monastic estates, and mem-
of the County, British Mo. bers of parliament be excluded, for-
fol. & 4to. Nichols and Sou.

mer works do not contain so much

inalter as the General History of the umental and Gepealo: present book. Add to this, various ollections of the late valuable and curious reprints, such ', Esq. are malters of as the whole of that exceedingly-rare in the inhabitaots of Tract, Dorney's Journal of the -, and, under circum. Siege;" all the paragraphs in the

important benefit to newspapers published during the Ciare sincerely glad to vil War ; Corbell's Military Governto bring them to a

ment (so far as concerns the City);' usly commenced; and numerous Biographical notices, and that-a county su en

Archæological disquisitions, of high opulent as that of curiosity and interest, which now for i pot permit the de- the first time are presented to the

want of due eucou- publick. The Work is written upoir not these Collections, a new plau, thus explained by the pious and sacred me

Author: ancestors, which they “ Topographical works consisting of ften at very consider. matters of reading, and matters of reand is any mode of ference, and being heavy from a com.. ally durable with the mixture, as absurd as would be making

a continuous narrative of.the paragraphs f History?

and the Advertisements of a newspaper, fore us is the first the Author determined to throw all uneuded Continuation, manageable details (in the manner of adt important deside- vertisements) into an Appendix, at the

this antient City, end of the chapter. Antiquarian science ory required. This can only be made a subject of general , a proper archævlo- interest, by removing such incumbravces; 1 of its interesting, re

nor does it so well avail to pick out Topó. eding accounts had graphy with the History of England, as tation, or exhibited with Archæological Dissertatiou, always etween that and the curious, and to Philosophers always imto notice had been portant. Besides, such a History.of-Eng

land construction is much like depriving ace of the British and

an old portrait of the beard and cosa ings, or of a castle, tuines; its leading features of interest the Norman Con.

to posterity. A local history is not a equal in quantity to machine, carriage, or engine, of which of interesting general the merit depends upon a particular 'n totally veglected. mode of action, but a museum or cabinet ; cations of Mr. Fos- and accordingly, the antient quotations

line had appeared and extracts are given in their native cripts in the British form.” Preface. sort, the whole re- If it be judicious to separate paed to the Chronicle ragraphs and advertisements, in those ester (once in the sweetmeats af luxury-reading News), and a few of the papers, we think this distinction be th very rare excep- tween matters of reading and mat. of the City History ters' of reference to be equally proDecember, 1819.

per

mere

per in Topography. Besides, through will be found equally worthy their the plan adopted, the work resembles perusal, and add perhaps consideran interesting magazine, which inay ably to their knowledge. be taken up or laid down at option, The Plates, XXXVII in number, and is thus exceedingly convenient. are good, and of conservative cba

It would far exceed our limits to racter as to subjects. give even a small portion of the various matters, which this luminous

92. The History of Birmingham.

By book contains. It is enlivened all

William Hutton, F. A.S. S. Continued through with dissertational explana

to the present time by Catherine Hutton. tions, and occasionally with valuable

The Fourth Edition. pp. 471. . Nichols reflections.

and Son; and Baldwin and Co. From the Civil-war matters we

THE celebrity of the late Mr. Hutbave derived much instructive infor.

ton as an entertaining Topographer mation, very applicable to the pre- and Tourist, and bis well-known insent times : with the solitary excep. tegrity and industry, have frequently tion, that our Republicans are not

been noticed in our former volumes ! godly ones. Both sets are and his “ History of Birmingham” is party-men: one only canting hypo- particularly valuable. crites. It is not possible to make

The present Edition is presented all mankind act upon religious prin- to the publick by his amiable and wor. ciples; and as a solitary mode of qni: thy Daughter, the companion of many versal reform, the experiment will ofhis Tours, on whom the literary manfail. Education is the only general tle of her Father has gracefully fallen; method, in union with Religion. and who thus uvaffectedly introduces

“ Governments,” says Mr. Fosbrooke, the much-inproved and handsome " are not simple abstract Things, as Pro. volume. jectors suppose. In general they are iin.

• Various circumstances delayed the mensely complex machines, in the forma.

publication of the present edition of the tion of which, plain scientific rules do not

History of Birmingham, till it was become form the basis, but the subsidence of various discordani interests in one place. The necessary to make some additions to the

work of the author. Almost all the inforinterests of the Nobility, Gentry, Clergy, Commercial persons, the Army, the Navy,

mation prior to the year 1814 has been and others are of a various kind ; yet,

supplied by himself; all subsequent to from convenience, like people who crowd

that period has been added, to the best of a street, and know, that they cannot pro.

her power, though not to the extent of her ceed on their business, if the mob, jostle,

wishes, by his daughter,

CATHERINE HUTTON. or quarrel, they adjust some plan of peace

; Bennett's Hill, Jan. 1, 1819." able travelling. In the same manner Government is considered by each, as a As it would be endless to specify plan for accommodating their several in- the multifarious contents of this inierests, in their various directions, or else, teresting History, we shall only enu. theoretical perfection is no recommenda

merate various “ Trades" for which tion.". p. 117.

Birmingham is more particularly faWe heartily wish, that we could mous; ihose of buttons, buckles, guais, instil these judicious remarks into leather, steel, brass-workers, nails, the minds of those detestable Promul- bellows, thread, printing, brass-foungators of Blasphemy and Sedition- dering, brewers, backney - coaches; that army of locusts, who might, and last, not least, the bankers ; we think, with as much propri- which latter respectable body of ety be styled Christians as Refor. traders are thus noticed: mers. They are genuine anarchists ;

“ Perhaps a public bank is as necessary puppies of the chaotic breed, who to the healih of the commercial body, as retain their blindness through the exercise to the natural. The circulation whole of their dog-hood; and they of the blood and spirits is promoted by hunt in pack with only one cry, one, as that of cash and bills by the other; “Havock, and spoil, and ruin are my gain."

and a stagnation is equally detrimental

to both. Few places are without : yet As Mr. Fosbrooke i: well known for works of learned entertainment' fic, could boast no such claim

Birmingham, famous in the annals of iraf. and recondite research, we

medy this defect, about every lenih trader our Readers, that the present volume was a banker, or a retailer of cash. At

the

To re

assure

1819.)
Review of New Publieations.

523
the head of these were marshalled the The same may be said of many of
whole train of drapers and grocers, till the the Tours occasionally noticed by Mr.
year 1765, when a regular bank was es- Pye in his “ Excursions round the
tablished by Messrs. Taylor and Lloyd, Town."
two opulent tradesmen, whose credit be-

Speaking of the village of Handsing equal to that of the Bank of England, worth in Staffordshire, Mr. Pye says, quickly collected the shining rays of sterling property into its focus. Wherever

“ The only objects deserving of notice, the earth produces grass, an animal will

are two monumeots; one in the inside, be found to eat it. Success produced a

and the other on the out. The one erect

ed to comm second bank, by Robert Coales, esq. now

norate the late Matthew Wooley, Moillet and Gordon; and a third

Boulton, esq. is the work of the celebrated by Spooner and Atwoods, now Atwoods, Flaxman, and adds another wreath of lau

The other

rel to the brow of that classical artist, Spooner, and Goddington.

It bankers besides these, are Freer, Rotion,

is of white and blue marble, and is surand Lloyds, Galtons and James, Smith,

mounted by a bust, which is the best re. Gray and Goode."

presentation extant of that enterprising “ It would give satisfaction to the cu

and deserving uan, to whose memory it

is sacred. The other is an humble tombe 'rious calculator, could any mode be found of discovering the returns of trade, made

stone, remarkable as being one of the last by the united inhabitants.

But the ques

works, cut by his own hand, with his name tion is complicated. It only admits of

at the top of it, of that celebrated Typosurmise. From comparing many in

grapher, Baskerville, but this, being neg

lected by the relations of the deceased, stances in various ranks among us, I have

has been mutilated, although the inscripbeen led to suppose, that the weekly returns exceed the annual rent of the build

tion is still perfect, but so much overings. And as these rents were nearly as

grown with moss and weeds, that it rea certained in 1781, perhaps we may con

quires more discrimination than falls to clude, that those relurns were then about

the lot of many passing travellers to dis100,0001. a week, and, allowing for boli

cover the situation of this neglected gern. days, about 4,000,0001. a year.”

To those who are curious, it will be found close to the wall, immediately under the

chancel window. This precious relic of 93. A Description of Modern Birming

that eminent man is deserving of being ham; whereunto are annexed, Observa.

removed, at the expeose of the parish, tions made during an Excursion round the Town, in the Summer of 1818, in

and preserved with the greatest care, with

inside the Church. Mr. Baskerville was cluding Warwick and Leamington: By originally a stone-cutter, and afterwards Charles Pye; who compiled a Dictionary kept a school in Birmingham. There is of Antient Geography. 12mo. pp. 184. J. M. Richardson, and Sherwood & Co.

only one inore of his cutting known to be

in existence, and that has lately been THIS brief but satisfactory De- removed and placed withinside the Church, scription of Modern Birminghanı, at Edgbaston." which the Author emphatically calls “ The stone being of a flaky nature, “the Toy-shop of Europe,” embraces the inscription is not quite perfect, but somewhat of every thing which the whoever takes delight in louking at wellinquisitive Visilor of that busy place formed letters, may here be bighly grali.

fied : it was erected to the memory of would wish to exanıine.

Edward Richards, an idiot, who died 21st Mr. Pye pretends not to assume the diguity of a regular Topographical September 1728, with the following in

scriprion :Historian. That task has been ably

“ If innocents are the favourites of Heaperformed by his predecessor Mr.

ven, Hutton, whose more extended work,

[given,

And God but litile asks where little's however; by no means precludes the use or the merit of the present little My great Creator has for me in sicre

Eternal joys; what wise man can have voluine.

more?" The Account here given of the Town of Birmingham, its Churches, Chapels, 94. Italy, its Agriculture, &c. from the and other public buildings, of ils French of Mons. Chaleauvreux; being various manufactures, and its numer

Letlers written by him in Italy, in the ous charitable institutioos, are an years 1812 anii 1813. Translated by honourable testimony to the opu

Edward Rigby, Esq. M. D. F. L. and lence and the liberality of the inha

H. S. 840. pp. 358. Hunier. bitants ; and are sufficiently explicit IT was a common recommenda. to excite, and, generally speaking, tion of Oxford tulors to the candidaies to gratify curiosily.

for the Uviversity Prize Essays, that

they

they should not wrile without ideas, have noticed a common fact in their i. e, that they should pot make their histories, that, if we examine the compositions, mere prosing upon words which they use in the relation truisms. “ Fine writing consists,” says of events, they are not only precise, Addisop,“ of thoughts which are but also depict the incident, often by

, just, but not obvious.'

a single word, metaphorically used In the course of our Reviewing la. in the most complete dovetail work ; bours, we never met with a work the work pot of carpenters in history, which better answered the character or wheel-wrights in annals, and other of good writing

than the one now mechanicks, but of join and cabibefore us. It abounds with interest. net-makers, and men of nice work. ing facts, and deductions, which, con- From the vast mass of interesting trary to the truismal and prosing and luininous matter which this work style, cannot be anticipated; nor does contains, we shall be copious in our the work incur the danger incident extracts. to writing upon the plan of ideas,

“ An agricultural system principally that of paradox. The following re

directed to the production of fuod has the mark will show the nature of the serious (not grave as Dr. Rigby has transwork, viz. that the Author is not a lated it, like a school-boy] inconvenience mere man of turnips, but a philo- of keeping the whole class of rich proprisopher, who considers agriculture not etors in such a state of independence as proonly as an affair of trade, but as it motes, instead of their true interest, that bears upon character, morals, and

indolence and moral paralysis, which are the superior distinctions of them ;

so justly imputed to the Italians; at the

same time it renders the whole class of not merely, à l’Anglois, as he is a

farmers too indifferent to the public inbipedal wheelbarrow or plough, from

terest with which they are not connected whom no more is reasonably to be

by property : ever sure of a demand for required, than that he should be a

the labour of their hands, which constidonkey upon the week-days, and show

tute their only, capital, they never trouble. himself a human being upon Sundays, themselves about circumstances which can by attending a place of worship. never affect them. Always destilate of

“ The suppression of convents, whilst the means of acquiring capital, they must it assigns to mothers the education of their remain stationary in their situation ; the children, has called forth in the instinct of result is a torpor which nothing but the maternal affection, that attention to pro

want of food can overcome."

pp. 45, 46, priety, which is gradually banishing the licentiousness of manners, so disgraceful how far civilization and moral im

Now we leave our Readers to judge to the women of Italy, and the immora. lity of which no influence can sanction, provement are assisted by the landed but that of long-established habit. A do proprietors, and farmers, and peasantry mestic spirit will thus, perhaps, eventu.

of our own nation. We believe, that ally prevail in Italy," p. 6.

the one looks only for plenty of cash,

the other for plenty of profit, and These are remarks founded upon the third for plenty of drink, as their life, and they are only a very few of respective objects of pursuit ; bolding many original and interesting. The religion and morals as mere things of Author had a fine field before him,

which the state of civilized society Italy, except in the articles of sing; compels a limited observation. ing and painting, has been associated

We recommend to travellers the with the Pope, and made a bugbear. exquisite prospect from the summit The fact is, that it is a country, form

of the Apennines, taking the new cared by nature to be the Vauxhall and riage road from Parnia to Pontrethe University of Europe. It abounds

moli. See p. 62. in the sublime, the beautiful, and the

We have the following description useful. The climate, with the ex.

of a night scene in this country: ception of some spots, is delicious ; and in the minds of the inhabit.

“ It now became quite dark, Perfumes, tants there is that subtlety and

the names of which I was unacquaioted acuteness, that delicacy of manner,

with, exhaled from every plant, which

grew on the road.side ; nightingales conand perfection of taste, which is the

cealed in the shade of the trees, and in grand characteristic of their earliest

the obscurity of the night, sung as ancestors the Greeks. Perhaps not passed along ; thousands of shining inall Readers of the Roman Classics

a

we