AND Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Politics, etc. No. 58. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1818. THE IMPERIAL TOURISTS. Tour of Their Imperial Highnesses the conse ACCORDING to the calculations of Mr. Murdoch (who had the superintendence of the apparatus) the establishment contains 630 lights of three openings, and 271 lights in glasses, like those of the Argand lamps; each of the former is equal to four candles, each of the latter to two candles and a half; quently, the light of the whole is equal to that of two thousand five hundred candles.* For the production of this light, there are required 1250 cubic feet of gas per hour: which, reckoning upon an average two hours light daily, makes 2500 cubic feet per diem. This is obtained from 700 measures of coals, each weighing 150lb. The ton of Cannel coal from Wigan costs 22s 6d. For three hundred and thirteen working days in the year, 110 tons of coals are required, which cost 125. sterling. For the heating of the retorts 40 tons are required, which at ten shillings a ton, makes 201. sterling. The whole charges of lighting in this manner amount to 600l. per annum. To obtain the same quantity of light from candles would cost 2000l. reckoning the candles at only a shilling a pound: if light was required for three hours, it would cost with gas only 650l. and with candles 3000l. We returned to Mr. Lee, whom his indisposition had hindered from accompanying us: he very politely offered to explain to us any thing, respecting which we might wish for farther information; we however declined it, that we might not let him perceive that the distrust which we fancied we observed, had struck us. After we had taken our leave, we communicated to each other our remarks on their mysterious conduct, at which, however, we There is some error here: either the sum total should be 3200, or perhaps the 633 lights should be estimated at three candles instead of four, which would reduce the amount to 2500 in round numbers.-ED. + See our last Number. Literally translated, the passage would be," the distrust of his partners or companions." Probably the writer meant simply those who accompanied him.-ED. VOL. II. PRICE 1s. had the less reason to be surprised, as time till 1815, the town has rapidly in- It is calculated, that one million five In the year 1770, Mr. Richard Mea- It may readily be imagined, that a place of such trade must contain a proportionate number of commissioners and factors, and also waggon-masters, who carry on business on a large scale. We were shewn the house of one of the latter, who eighteen years ago possessed hardly any property, and has now an income of 30,000l. sterling. During the last war, he was able to make the Government an offer of 800 horses. Manchester is the principal manufacturing and commercial town of the county of Lancaster, Its situation, in the neighbourhood of several rivers, and canals, particularly that of Bridgwater, has essentially contributed to render its manufactories flourishing. It is pleasing to contemplate the gradual increase of the population and trade of this town. As early as the year 1650, Manchester was noted for its industry: its population amounted to 27,000. In the year 1651, the hospital and the public library were founded. Since the year 1808, its extent has been considerably enlarged. In 1758 the first stage coach drove through Manchester. From that Not including the thermometers!-ED. The introduction of glazing caused a revolution in the whole system of bleaching and dyeing, because more durable colours were required. The printed calicoes began to rival those of London, and this branch is at present highly important to Manchester. Sir John Wilson, in particular, has greatly contributed to improve it, by examining the process of dyeing on chemical principles, and was thus led to several discoveries and useful inventions. From a (Greek) dyer at Smyrna, he obtained the secret of the Turkish red, and thus one improvement succeeded another. Sir Richard Arkwright, whom we have mentioned before, erected his first spinning machine in 1768; in the year 1775 he improved this first machine, and made a second, for the preparation of the cotton, for which he received a second patent. By means of these inventions, the manufactories took an entirely new direction. The spinning machines were introduced. They began to make calicoes in the year 1772, and muslins in 1781. It was by the aid of this invention alone that it was possible for the manufacturers and workmen to execute the large orde s they received for cotton goods. The use of these machines was very limited in the beginning, but they were spee * This seems a misnomer, but we have not the means of correction.-ED. LILL dily so much improved, that by a single | The trade of Manchester extends itself | information on, assuredly, the most inwheel thousands of spindles are turned. now over the whole world. The variety teresting problem of our era, is alike The steam-engines, their improve- of its productions is almost numberless. distinguished for its curious research ment and advantageous applications, An idea may be formed of it from the and important conclusions. Were it have very much extended the mechan-pattern cards. In less than six months, not that the publication to which we ism of the various branches. The great such cards have been shewn which con- allude enjoys that extensive circulaquantity of coals they consume render- tain from 5 to 8000 different patterns. tion which places it in every hand, we ed the latter dearer; but as by these The sewing cotton is a new article. should deem it a duty to extract largely means the labour is greatly accelerated, The progressive improvements of the from the essay in question; but as this the profit increases in proportion, and machines, which is a constant object of would be, to at least nine out of ten of is the foundation of the great success attention, insures the merchants of our readers, a mere repetition of what of the manufactories. The number of Manchester advantages over all others. they were already acquainted with, we spindles which are at work in the dif- There are in the town twelve shall limit ourselves to the briefest posferent manufactories in Manchester, is churches and three chapels of the es- sible introduction of what we humbly calculated to be 1,515,500. The power tablished religion; the Dissenters have submit as a rather interesting suppleof one horse is suflicient to turn a a chapel, the Catholics two, the Inde- ment to the accounts of Greenland, and thousand spindles. A manufacturer, pendents two, the Methodists two; the of the navigation of those seas through whose steam-engine is of ten-horse Quakers, the Unitarians, the Anabap- which it is hoped the Expeditions may power, requires (including fuel) daily a tists, the Swedenborgians (the New Je-issue in completing the grand discovery ton weight of coals, which amounts to rusalem) have all their own chapels. of the North-west Passage. the consumption of 47,070 tons. These worked up. In the year 1781, 5,101,920b. cotton, value 2,000,0007. sterling. In the year 1787, 22,600,000 lb. cotton, value 7,500,0001. sterling. At that time (1787) it was calculated that these spinning manufactories, in which there were employed 159,000 men, 90,000 women, and 101,000 children, total 350,000 persons, could manufacture as much yarn as 1,000,000 labourers could do without these mamachines. There are manufactories which have 30 to 70,000 spindles, and make weekly 500,000 yards. Of late years the manufacture has been very active, for which reason the goods are now sold so cheap. Of the numerous hospitals and chaIt is known that within these three ritable institutions, we will mention years the immense bodies of ice which only two: the Lying-in Hospital, in have shut up the East coast of Greenwhich not only poor women are re-land for centuries, have from some ceived, but assistance is also given to natural cause been removed from their those mothers in indigent circumstances station, and are drifting towards the who lie in at their own houses; and the South; and that, generally speaking, the Society of Friends of Foreigners. Its Arctic seas have been freer from ice object is to assist poor foreigners, and than they have ever before been in the this is done without respect to differ-memory of man. The former phenoence of religion. It was founded by the Methodists, in 1791. menon allows the expectation, that a country, colonized from Denmark and Norway, maintaining for centuries an intercourse with the mother countries, Manchester has a Bible Society, a Missionary Society founded by the Methodists, a Literary and Philosophi-established with churches, laws, and cal, and an Agricultural Society. There other civilized forms, but round which is also an establishment in which fe- nature has so long thrown an impenemale works of all kinds are deposited. trable barier, may again be visited and They are exposed to sale at the prices explored: the latter fact encourages the annexed to them, and a penny in a still more important hope, that a course shilling is deducted from the produce, may be discovered either directly over for the expenses of the establishment. the North pole, or through the Sea of There is no description of the manu-Baffin, and thence by Behring's Straits, factories of Manchester; and such are from the great Atlantic, into the North in general wanting in England, where Pacific Ocean. As a matter for the on the other hand, there are such volu- imagination to dwell upon, we can conminous works upon every thing relat-ceive nothing more attractive than the ing to architecture and antiquities. [We have reuson to expect the sequel of this Tour, which is not only curious in itself, but interesting from the rank and station of the parties from whom the narrative emanates. Whenever we receive it, we shall resume our translation.] idea of examining a region circumstanced as the Last of Greenland has been. The tombs of Pompeii, nor the ruins of ferculaneum, present nothing which can more deeply affect the human mind; but when we link to this view, the consideration of philosophical and meteorological effects likely to ensue from the disruption of an icy continent, and its gradual dissolution, our whole faculThe Number of the Quarterly Review ties are absorbed in extraordinary spejust published, contains one of the culations. It is impossible to anticiablest tracts upon this subject, that it pate the result on every climate in the was ever the good fortune of any pe- Northern world, and on no climate more riodical work to produce. The intelli-essentially than on that of Britain, gence it conveys is evidently derived situated so nearly as we are to the latifrom official sources, and the mass of tudes principally affected. The Quar. EXPEDITIONS TO THE NORTH terly Review ad se Zephyrum vocat, and promise us again the western breezes, the flowers, the vines possessed by our ancestors: we know not how this may be; but without entering into the poetic vein, which we trust is here inspiration, conceive it to be highly probable that our seasons will be considerably ameliorated by the changes which have taken place. coast. “I only wish that there was less sand in Berlin, and more summer and green herbs. I am really freezing when I think of 520, for I am cold here under the 38th degree, where the Great Bear dips his tail in the ocean. Ad vocem bear: we have had here the diversion of seeing a combat between a bull and a bear. I shall bring the skin of the latter with me. They fetch living bears from the forest here in a noose." GREENLAND. Extracts from a Journal kept in Green- | Kotzebue's Sound to the length of Norton | the river Columbia, and the Russian KusSound, from the back of which we were koff (of the American Company) built, five not far distant: here a chain of original years ago, a few miles from here (St. Franland surrounded us. On the south side of cesco, in California) a fort, from which the the entrance, we however left one inlet sea-otter is hunted along the whole Spanish into the low land unexplored, which, as is said by the natives, leads, in nine days of their navigation, into the open sea. According to our experience, it may be hoped that it would be possible to penetrate into the Icy Sea without doubling the Icy Cape, which consequently (like the Terra del With regard to the North-west pas- Fuego) would be separated from the main sage, we confess we are not so san- land. Then, depending on the accounts guine. Should it even be accomplished, of Mackenzie and Hearne, we might peneit is evident that the navigation must for trate through Repulse Bay into Hudson's ever be of limited duration in point of Bay. This would be highly interesting to time, uncertain, and dangerous. In- geography and the knowledge of the earth, deed we tremble for the Expedition But as the intrepid adventurer who should but not open any new road to navigation. about to sail on this voyage. We dread undertake it, would find the sea open for its being locked up in ice, and pe- two months at the most, he must be prerishing. But should it happily re-pared to winter several times in these high turn, the same apprehensions must accompany every vessel which should hereafter attempt the same perilous course, and we do not think that it can ever become an object of importance in a commercial light. We have, how-culations. ever, said all that we consider necessary to introduce to our readers two papers illustrative of the subject so adinirably handled in the Review we have quoted: the first is a Letter from the companion of Kotzebue, respecting whose exertions the Reviewer expresses a wish that they may not anticipate the honour he looks for to the British voyagers; and the second is from a publication by Egede, also referred to by the Reviewer, and, by a singular coincidence, now first made public. latitudes. Besides, the fogs which hang "The mould is here about one foot deep. It is addressed to a friend in Berlin, and The difference in the depth found by Cook and by us, is altogether too great to be ascribed to this gradual filling up; but Cook only saw the American coast at a distance, and marked it as uninterrupted on his map; whereas the lower land is broken by many creeks, and in the 63° of north latitude we penetrated into the testimony of the Russian navigators, "The coast of California affords, in the from the Danish into German by G. Fries. By an agreeable coincidence of circumstances, it has happened that just at this moment, when the English are preparing a great and promising expedition to explore the Polar Regions, the venerable Egede publishes some extracts of his Journal kept during his mission in Greenland, as if he had a mind to give the general eager expectation a foretaste of what we hope to receive from that country. In 23 chapters he gives his readers many interesting accounts of the nature of the country, of the manners of the inhabitants, of remarkable events in his own life, and of great scenes of nature. The total absence of plan, and the want of connexion between the several parts, give pleasure here, because every thing bears man leads his readers from one fine scene the stamp of truth. Thus the good clergyof nature, or of human life, to another; and, without aiming at description, draws a most lively picture of his life among these Polar Tribes, with whose manners, pleasures; and sufferings, we become intimately acquainted. M. Fries, the translator, has made very valuable additions in his preface, or rather introduction, and in the remarks interspersed. Among other things, he makes it to appear probable that the East coast of Greenland, and perhaps also the South point, were peopled by Nor-mans from Iceland; that the Isestiord, in Disko Bay, and the great inlet discovered on the East side of Greenland by Volkart Beon, in 1761, may be connected by a strait, and Greenland therefore be an island, and not a peninsula, as it is generally supposed to be. The little map annexed, gives a view of the Greenland settlements hitherto known along the coast of Baffin's Bay, and points out the situation of the East coast of Greenland, which has been inaccessible for so many years. According to the oldest as well as the most recent accounts, the interior appears to be wholly uninhabited, though not uninhabitable. We subjoin some extracts. The Greenlanders live very amicably together. If one is greatly offended, he challenges his adversary to a contest, not with the fist, but in singing. He composes a song, in which his adversary is pretty severely treated, and sings it, supported by his friends, in a large assembly. The adversary answers by a song. He who is defeated is laughed at. The victor has a right to appropriate to himself some article belonging to the vanquished. see thee again!'-and he went away un- 6 66 pause. In Greenland virgin modesty requires that a girl be carried off by her suitor; nay, even dragged by the hair, and when she is really in his hut, she runs away from him again several times, and at length perhaps compels him to give a proof of his affection by cutting the soles of her feet in several places, that she may be obliged to sit still. Those who are baptized, now leave the Greenland, we all know, is not a very matter to the priest. The suitor explains agreeable abode; but the native, with old his wish to him, and the girl is called. Roman pride, says, 'I am a Greenlander!' After some indifferent questions, the clergyand if he wishes to pay a stranger a very man says, "It will soon be time for you to flattering compliment, he says, You are a marry.' I will not marry.' "That is a Greenlander! Many of them have had our pity, for I have a suitor for you." Whom? European happiness exhibited to them in The clergyman names him. He is good glowing colours; many have been well for nothing; I will not have him.' Why treated in Denmark; yet they always longed not? He is young, a good seal-hunter," &c. to be at home, and the most they could I will not marry; I will not have him.' ever be brought to allow was, The Danes "Very well, I will not force you; I have are as happy as the Greenlanders.' At Co- besides another match for him."-A penhagen they found there was too little-The girl sighs-a tear comes into her Heaven, and no reasonable degree of cold; eye-and, at last, she whispers, As you and, quite contrary to their custom, that will, priest.' "No, as you will; I do not the rich do not assist the poor. If they wish to persuade you." Here follows a heard any body scold his servant, they deep sigh, then a half audible Yes,' and said, 'You treat men like dogs.' No Euro- the affair is settled. peans have such rigid ideas of the rights of "The following is an amusing example property as these people. If one of them of presence of mind :-A Greenlander was finds at a distance from home a piece of driving a merchant in a sledge across the wood driven on shore, which he could make sea upon the ice. On a sudden a storm use of, but which he cannot immediately broke the ice in pieces. In such cases the carry with him, he has but to lay a couple Greenlanders abandon the sledge, and save of stones upon it, and is quite certain that themselves by leaping from one piece of nobody will take it away. They are, how-ice to another; but as the Europeans are ever, sensible of their own worth, and with not able to leap in this manner, the driver justice; for once when a Greenlander was said very coolly to the merchant, You are to receive a reproof, he boldly answered not to be saved, but you have pencil and the Dane, First correct your country- paper in your book; tear a piece off, and men, who are much worse than we. When (saying this he stooped down) write here you have amended them, call me to ac- upon my back that you are drowned, othercount.' wise your people might think I had killed "Those Greenlanders who are still you.' The merchant had of course no mind Heathens have several wives. One of them, either to write or to be drowned, and begged a very worthy man, who had enjoyed for him, for God's sake, not to forsake him. two years the instructions of the mission-Very well,' said the Greenlander, if you ary, said to him one day, Will you baptize me, priest?' Answer: "Willingly; but you have two wives." How! cannot I then become a believer? "No." You grieve me, priest. Can I turn away my wife? abandon my children?' Take care of your wife as you have hitherto done, only do not live with her as your wife." That is difficult! Will God reject me because I will not reject her?' The governors in my country have forbidden me to baptize you.' Priest, do not you think that the great Governor in Heaven is more benevolent than the governors in your country? I wish to become a believer, and I dare not,' said he, greatly affected; but I will nevertheless continue to obey God and avoid evil, and I hope that he will not reject me when I die.' The missionary, deeply moved, took his hand, and said, "Thy Father and my Father, and the Father of us all, be gracious to thee, for Jesus Christ's sake, now and for ever!" Farewell, priest' answered he in tears; before the great God in Heaven I shall 66 die I can die likewise;' and he staid with "A dark side of the character of this This interesting little pamphlet will doubtless make the public eager for the extensive work of M. Gieseke, of which we have given an account in our 54th Number. REVIEW OF NEW BOCKS. 4 Biographical and Critical Dictionary utmost utility, and of great magnitude. One more wanted, and more ably executed, it is not possible to specify. About fifty years have elapsed since and though Mr. Fuseli has considerably Pilkington's Dictionary was produced : added to, and improved the last editions, the imperfections and omissions of that publication are too obvious to require animadversion. Mr. Bryan has enlarged the plan, by introducing the history of Engravers; a material and necessary addition, if, as ought to be the case in such a work, it is intended to submit a general view of the art even of painting alone, for painting is essentially illustrated and perpetuated by the labours of the graver. His notices are also far more full and particular; and the whole performance contains about thrice the quantity of matter which is to be found in Pilkington. To review a Dictionary is a task very different from that of rv ewing a work of any other kind. We can merely say it is good, or it is indifferent; it is copious and accurate, or limited and imperfect. Into Mr. Bryan's production we have looked minutely, and in justice have to state, that we discover nothing wanting. The industry with which he must have travailed is prodigious; and it might be boasted of his Dictionary of Painters, as of our great lexicographer's Dictionary of the language, that one individual has performed that in England, and performed it better, which numerous societies of learned and scien tific men have hardly been equal to in foreign countries. The author, for he deserves that name as an honourable addition to that of compiler, seems to us to have been also eminently qualified for the labour which he undertook, by his knowledge of the art, and intimate acquaintance with all that is known of the ancient masters, as well as with the modern schools. Where we can venture to put our opinion into the scale with his judgment, we find ourselves disposed almost entirely to agree with what he says; and where there is a difference, it is of the slightest shade, and never in essentials. But what is the greatest recommendation of this estimable book-what raises it far above the standard of most publications of the same sort is the originality of its matter. Mr. Bryan has not been contented with pouring out of many phials, merely to make one large retort of his own. There is much of mind and observation in his performance. The biographies of many of th |