puty, the two chief and other ten burgeffes, or any three, or four of them, (whereof the faid dean, high fteward or his deputy, or one of the chief burgeffes, to be at all times one) are impowered to hear, examine, determine and punish according to the laws of the kingdom, or laudable and lawful custom of the city of London, all matters of incontinencies, common fcolds, inmates and common nuifances; and to commit all perfons to prison that shall be guilty of a breach of the peace, of which they are to give notice to a juftice or justices of the peace for the county of Middlefex, within the space of twenty-four hours. The liberties or fuburbs of Westminster, being greatly increased both in number of houfes and inhabitants, it was judged neceffary to increase both the number of burgeffes and affiftants from twelve to fixteen each; which burgeffes, with their affiftants, are by the faid act of parliament impowered to act in all refpects as the aldermen's deputies of the city of London. HIGH STEWARD. The high fteward of Westminster attended by the burgeffes, acts as fheriff, by prefiding at the Court Leet, and as chairman at the Quarter Seffions. But this officer feldom officiating, leaves the management of affairs to his deputy, who, being a perfon well verfed in the laws of the kingdom, is appointed by him, and confirmed by the dean, and generally holds his office during life, or the government of his patron. HIGH BAILIFF. The next officer in dignity is the high bailiff, who is likewife chofen by the dean for life. This officer in some measure alfo represents a fheriff; for he fummon juries, manages elections for members of parliament, has the feveral bailiffs of Weftminster fubordinate to him; and all fines and forfeitures, OTHER OFFICERS. The remaining officers are the chief burgeffes, burgeffes and their affiftants; the town-clerk, afferer and crier. ARMS. The arms of Westminster, granted ift of October, 1601, are; in a fhield azure a portcullis, or, on a chief of the fecond, the arms of Edward the Confeffor, between the united rofes of Lancafler and York. SOUTHWARK. This borough, which forms another great divifion of the metropolis, is already defcribed in Vol. I. p. 101. THE THAMES. In confidering the local particulars which diftinguish the British metropolis, it is of the highest importance to notice this noble river; the glory and pride of the empire, the wonder and envy of foreigners. The Thames has its career nearly weft for about feventy-two miles between the counties of Kent and Effex, and Surry and Middlesex. The first twenty miles is by an exceeding wide eftuary; the next twenty-one miles is ftil! an estuary of confiderable width; the remaining thirty-one miles is crooked, and gradually diminishing: the tide flows very powerfully through its whole length. At Eaft Merfey it connects with the Colne river; at Weft Merfey with Blackwater river; at Foulnefs eaft point with Crouch river; at Whitstable and Sheerness with the Medway river; at Gravefend with the Thames and Medway canal; oppofite to Purfleet with the Darent river, or Dartfort-creek; at Bow-creek with the Lea river; at Blackwall and at Limehouse-hole with the Ifle of Dogs canal (a new fidecut for fhortening the navigation of this river); at Greenlanddock, and at Wilkinfon's gun wharf, Rotherhithe, with the Grand Surry canal; and at Limehoufe with the Limehoufe canal. Large fhips of war can come up to Deptford, and merchants' fhips of 7 to 800 tons burthen frequently lie at the quays close to London bridge. The port of London, or part wherein the fhips lie, generally called the pool, extends almost four miles, nearly to Deptford, in which space more than 1000 veffels have been seen moored at one time. The rapidly increafing trade of this grand emporium of commerce, the reguJations which have of late been made, for mooring the fhips at more convenient diftances, for a paffage up and down the river, and the contiguity of the West India and East India docks to Blackwall, are expected ere long, to extend the tiers of fhips as far as that place. It was ftated in 1800, that the trade of the port of London had increased in the last or eighteenth century, by 6547 veffels and 1,327,763 tons annually; and that (including repeated voyages), 13,144 fhips and veffels were then employed in this trade, to foreign countries, the colonies, and coaftwife, befides 2288 lighters, barges, and punts, employed in the middle part of the Thames, and on the Lea river; and 3336 of the like kinds of veffels ufed below bridge, in the lading and difcharging of veffels, together with 83 boats, fioops, cutters, and hoys, 3000 watermans' wherries, 155 bumboats, and 194 peter-boats, the total number (exclusive of fhips of war, tranfports, and navy and victualling, and ordnance hoys), being 22,500 veffels of various fizes and dimenfions, either trading to, or ftationed within the pool or port of London: the total value of the goods imported and exported annually by them exceeding 67,000,000/ The corporation of the city of London, as confervators of the Thames, have executed confiderable works for the improvement of the river: feveral mooring chains in the pool have been purchafed of lord Gwydir and others, and a harbour mafter, mafter, approved by the Trinity-house, is appointed to regulate the mooring and conduct of veffels, agreeable to the 19, 29, and 39 of George III.; one of the largest canals ever attempted has been cut, near 1 mile in length, 142 feet wide at top, and 24 feet deep! across the Isle of Dogs, for fhortening the paflage of veffels to and from the pool, and to avoid the long circuit by Greenwich and Deptford. Several large fums of public money have been granted out of the confolidated fund; for the repayment of which, yeffels palling through this canal, of 200 tons or upwards, are to pay 2d. per ton; thofe from 200 to 100 tons, d. per ton; from 100 to 50 tons, Id. per ton; 50 to 20 tons, 5. each; and boats and craft 15. each. Two or more piers are intended to be built at the entrance, for facilitating the entrance of veffels to this canal. Between this canal and the entrance of the Eaft India docks, there is a large mafs of filicious pudding-ftone, confifting of chert pebbles imbedded in a very hard cement, which lies in the bed of the river, and has proved fatal to several fhips, on which account the committee, in September 1802, and on several other occafions, advertised for perfons who would undertake to lower this rock 18 feet, its length being about 40, and breadth 30 feet. The Thames river, below London, is embanked through a great part of its courfe; the time when these banks were first erected is uncertain, but they appear to be of great antiquity; and during several hours of each tide the adjoining meadows are ten feet or more below the level of the water. At Dagenham, about feven miles below Blackwall, a large breach in one of thefe banks happened, which Capt. John Perry fucceeded in ftopping, after feveral others had failed in their attempts. Thus far defcription relates entirely to that portion of the Thames which is devoted to commerce. Of the refidue the following animated account is extracted from the work of Mr, Pennant on the Metropolis. "I fhould fpeak, he fays, with the prejudices of a true Englishman, was I to dignify the Thames with the title of the chief of rivers. I must qualify my patriotifm with its just claim to that of first of island rivers. But in refpect to our rival kingdom, it must yield the palm to the Garonne; only we must not make comparison of its length of courfe. The contracted space of our ifland must limit that fpecies of grandeur, but there are none, in any part of Europe, which can boaft of more utility in bringing farther from the ocean the largest commercial fhips; nor are there any which can bring the riches of the univerfe to their very capital. The ships of the Seine difcharge themselves at Havre; thofe of the Loire reach no farther than Port Lannai, far below its emporium, Nantes; Nantes; and the Garonne conveys no farther than Pouillac the full loaden fhips; they are obliged to be eafed of part of their cargoes before they can reach the opulent Bourdeaux*. The Thames rifes beneath Sufferton-hill, juft within the borders of Gloucestershire, a little to the fouth-west of Cirencefter, which it inftantly quits, and enters for a fhort space into the county of Wilts, bends a little into it, and re-enters its parent province near Lechlade, where (by means of locks) it first becomes navigable, and, as it is faid, for barges of feventy tons. It here leaves Gloucestershire, and becomes the whole fouthern boundary of Oxfordshire, or the northern of Berkshire, and from thence is the fouthern limit of Buckinghamshire. Boulter's lock, above Maidenhead, in the fame county, is the laft lock; from thence to the fea it requires no farther art to aid its navigation. At a fmall diftance from Windfor-bridge it divides Berkshire from Buckinghamshire; and at a small diftance from Staines-bridge it divides Middlefex from Surrey. Juft above Kingston it feels the laft feeble efforts of a tide; from thence is a most important increase: just below London bridge eighteen feet; and at Deptford twenty. This noble river continues frefh as low as Woolwich, and even there is brackish only at fpring tides. Thus at our capital it is perfectly pure, falubrious, and fubfervient to vaft articles of commerce, with which that ftupendous city abounds. The whole courfe of the Thames, to its mouth, is confiderably above two hundred miles; contracting its length very confiderably, in comparison of the ufual eftimation, and limiting its mouth to the spot between the weft-end of the ifle of Grain, in Kent, and the eastern part of that of Canvey, in Effex. From thofe places to the Naze in the latter county, and the North Fore The following comparative statement of the length of the Thames in relation to that of other rivers, is extracted from Major kennel's Memoir on a Map of Hind dostan. The proportional lengths of course of some of the moft noted rivers in the world are fhewn nearly by the following numbers: land in that of Kent (which have hitherto been confidered as its entrance), it ceafes to flow in a fingle channel; it becomes a vaft eftuary filled with fand-banks, many of which appear above water at the reccfs of the tides. The whole courfe of the river is through a country which furnishes every idea of opulence, fertility, and rural elegance: meadows rich in hay, or covered with numerous herds; gentle rifings, and hanging woods; embellished with palaces, magnificent feats or beautiful villas, a few the hereditary manfions of our ancient gentry, but the greater part property transferred by the effects of vice and diflipation, to the owners of honeft wealth acquired by commerce or induftrious profeffions, or the dear purchase of cankering rapine. Its course furnishes few fublime fcenes, excepting the high chalky cliffs near Henley; all its banks are replete with native softness, improved by art and the fulleft cultivation. It does not flow in any part over a rocky channel; its bottom is either gravelly or clayey, according to the nature of the foil through which it meanders. This gives growth to the abundance of weeds with which it is in many parts filled; and thefe prove the fafety of multitudes of fishes, and preferve them from being extirpated by the unbridled ravages of the poachers. The Thames has, between its fource and Woolwich, every fpecies found in the British rivers, except the burbot, the loche, the cobitis tænia or fpiny loche, of late years difcovered in the river Trent, and the fmall fpecies of falmon, the famlet. The falmon and the fhad are fishes of paffage; the first appears in the river about the middle of February, is in great eftimation, and fells at a vaft price; their capture is prohibited from the 24th of Auguft to the 11th of November. The fhad arrives the latter end of May or be ginning of June, and is a very coarse fish; it fometimes grows to the weight of eight pounds, but the usual size is from four to five. The leffer lamprey, the Petromyzon fluviatilis of Linnæus, is a fmall fish of great and national importance, and is taken in amazing quantities between Battersea reach and Taplow mills (a fpace of about fifty miles), and fold to the Dutch for the cod and other fisheries; 450,000 have been fold in one feafon for that purpofe; the price has been 40s. the thousand: this year the Dutch have given 37. and the English from 5 to 81.; the former having prudently contracted for three years, at a certain price. Formerly the Thames has furnished from a million to twelve hundred thousand annually. The fish of the Thames which come as low as London bridge, and beyond it as far as the river is fresh, are a few roach and dace; bleak in great plenty, and eels extend far down the river; fmall floun ders are found as far as Fulham, brought up by the tides, and continue |