fuccefsfully, predominated, and which has indeed formed the grand object on the fore ound of their political views from the era of Lewis the XIVth.

This, to confider the matter philofophically and hiftorically, to compare the paffions and propensities of rival nations at different periods, and their fituation with respect to each other under different circumstances, has ever been the cafe, during and after thofe great contentions that have at different epochs exifted in the world. It may have been obferved, that when the operation of arms has declined, when every effort of force has been exhaufted, a commercial opposition has arifen, which has frequently been purfued with equal afperity and avidity, until fresh caufes for the commencement of hoftilities have occurred, and this contelt has continued, fometimes flaming into eruptions and bursting into explofions, and fometimes fmouldering and boiling in the bowels of the feveral countries, until, fuppreffed and exhaufted by the destruction of one, or perhaps both, it has been smothered by their alhes.

It is a fingular, a curious, and, from the authority of ancient records, a circumftance most indubitably found. ed on fact, that our ancestors, legiflating for themselves and their posterity, have, from the time of the first eitab lithment of the Silk Manufactory in this kingdom, a period much antecedent to its introduction into France, confi. dered it as a commercial point on which they were affailable, and therefore have formerly taken as much care to guard against the introduction of foreign commodities in a wrought flate, fo as to operate against domeftic exertions, as we have latterly to regulate all its

3 Edw. 3. C. 4. 33 Hen. 6. c. 5. 3 Edw. 4. c. 3. 22 Edw. 4. c. 3. 1 Rich. 3. c. 9. 1 Hen. 7. c. 9. 19 Hen. 7. c. 21.

13 & 14 Car. 2. c. 13. and 15.

20 Car. 2. c. 6.

2 Will. & Mar. flat. 1. c. 9.

5 & 6 Will. &. Mar. c. 20.

branches, and defend it against intef tine depredators. The barely quoting the dates of the ftatutes in its favour will be fufficient to show how much this elegant and beautiful branch of our domeftic ingenuity and industry has been the object of the care of Government, though perhaps it may, in a future paper, be necessary to obferve upon the tendency and operation of fome of them.

It is a matter calculated to excite fome furprife, that, among the number of ancient and femi-modern ftatutes quoted in the note, there does not occur one for the encouragement or regulation of the Silk Manufacture, during the long period filled by the Reigns of Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, Mary, Elizabeth, James, and Charles the Firft, although thefe Mo. narchs are, most of them, known to have had much at heart its extenfion; but the reafon why parliamentary interference ceafed in this refpect about the nineteenth of Henry, I take to be this :-It is well known, and indeed the ftatute. book renders it obvious, that our ancestors were not fond of Legiflating unless the circumftances of the times, or trade, made it abfolutely necellary. In this cafe, when the Silk Manufacture had, though ftruggling into exiftence, little to rear from the fpirit of rivalry, it was only neceffary to fhut out Italian fabrics, left our own should be hurt by the comparifon; and when British ingenuity foared to a perfection which, from the first rude attempts, could fcarcely have been expected, fuch was the fituation of our affairs, and fuch the consequence of this kingdom in the great fcale of mercantile nations, that it had ftill lefs reafon to fear that the

Stream

ftream of commerce, with respect to the raw commodity, would be impeded in its progrefs to our fhores, or dammed up at one of its fources. The Statelinen of thefe reigns probably found that the laws enacted by their forefathers, and, I conceive, strictly enforced by them, were fully fufficient to answer all the purposes for which they were intended; namely, to ferve as fentinels upon the operations of foreign traffic, and regulators of domeftic industry.

In the reign of Charles the Second, owing to a variety of well known caufes and events, the times had confiderably changed. When the afperity of men's paffions had been repreffed by the misfortunes they had occafioned; when the fluctuations of po.. litics, and the ebullition of the public mind, had in fome degree fubfided; "When the tired nation breathed

from Civil War;"

the merchants had an opportunity to look about them; to turn their attention from domestic derangement, and domeftic bufinefs, to the commercial ftate of Europe: they then discovered the ftrides that had, during the period of our political infanity, been made by other nations; the commercial and manufacturing advantages which had been taken of our diftrefs; and this difcovery, combined with other Causes, produced the famous Navigation Act, to which in a former fpeculation upon this fubject I have alluded.

Among the many branches which had, during our civil contention, declined, or had rather been, in a confiderable degree, transferred to France; it was found that this very important one, the Silk, had been, from neglect at home, raised to an incredible height in that country. It was difcovered that the city of Tours had, from a fmall beginning, grown into fuch a itate of manufacturing opulence, that eight thoufand looms, and eight hundred mills, were employed therein; and that Lyons had become the emporium of the filk bufinefs, having at leaft eighteen thousand looms in conftant operation; fo that thefe cities, together with their provincial de pendencies, employed, either directly or collaterally, upwards of two millions of people. Struck with this difcovery, our merchants found it neceffary to endeavour, if not to contend

with this Commercial Coloffus, at leaft to impede him in his endeavour to tride across the channel, and ravage this country. In this enterprife, the folly of the French seconded the exertions of the English; and, from a zeal which we, who now coolly view the page which records the. history of thofe tranfactions, are almost tempted to term infanity, led them to banish from their kingdom incalculable numbers of thofe promoters of their national profperity; and this too at a period when National Aggrandizement might, according to the quaint jargon of modern times, have been termed "the Order of the Day." This, in a people fo aftert to their own intereft, was cer tainly an over-fight; bt, let it be remembered that it is almost the only one of which they have been guilty in any cafe where their intereft or ambition were concerned; and the confequences that have flowed fhow, in a pretty ftrong light, how difficult it is to regain what the folly of a short period had, perhaps, diffipated. But although it may be difficult to reclaim loit, to raile declining, or to guard and fupport feeble, manufactures, the altonithing exertions which that nation has made, and is making, to restore, renovate, and give new energy, to theirs, ought to keep us upon the alert, and render us eagle-eyed with refpect to every change in the Political, and every encroachment in the Commercial, World.

With refpect to the latter, looking with an impartial though inquifitive eye upon the conduct of our Gallic neigh bours, I do (as I have obferved) conceive the thutting the French and Italian ports against the exportation of the raw or organzine filks of Piedmont, &c. to be a kind of signal x for a commercial attack; and that, ever fanguine, they entertain a hope that, by the withholding articles deemed fo necellary as thefe, they thall be able to deprefs, perhaps annihilate, x our manufacture, and establish their own upon its ruins.

But there is one, and a material, circumftance which they ought firft to have confidered; namely, whether the articles I have mentioned, are fo ab folutely neceffary in the conftruction of an elegant and ufetul fabrick, as their commercial cupidity would induce them to believe; or, whether

we

we have not refources within ourfelves (I mean within the territories appendant to the Crown of this realm) that, called into action by the neceffity of the cafe, more generally practifed upon, and confequently better underfood, may, through the exertions of manufacturing industry, be adapted and adopted, fo as to ferve as a fubftitute, equal in durability, in utility, and beauty?

It is well known, although it has not been much fpeculated upon, that, with respect to trade in general, and manufactures in particular, many falfe and unfounded prejudices have arifen in the minds of commercial men and artificers against the hazard incurred by attempting new discoveries, and the uncertainty of new experiments: and although, in confequence of the good fenfe and liberality which mark the British Mercantile Character, these prejudices predominate lefs in our countrymen than in thofe of any other nation, yet we know that prepoffeffion in favour of particular materials, and mode of workmanship, learned and adopted in early life, have not (even to give place to better) very hastily receded from the minds of our artificers. It may ftill be remembered, that the attempts to introduce Ma. chinery, equally new and ingenious, as the means of shortening labour, was, to every art to which it was applied, attended with confiderable difficulty; and that the prejudices of the workmen, aided by their fear, flowly receded before even conviction; and alfo, that in fome inftances it has still been found impoffible to bring it into operation. This obfervation will fully apply to manufacturing materials; the weavers in particular have an idea, that Piedmont filks are abfolutely neceffary to frame a Warp, whereon a fabrick of fuperior beauty and elegance can be constructed; and nothing but the fuperior neceffity of working without it, or, in other words, of introducing generally Bengal ilk in its ftead, will convince them to the contrary.

The fame kind of prejudice operated both in Italy in ancient, and France in more modern times; not indeed particularly againit any material or mode of workmanfhip, but generally against the Silk Manufacture itself.

When the Grecian Monks, in the reign of Juftinian, brought from the remoteft parts of Afia a large quantity of the eggs of filk worms into their own country, it was the received opinion, both in that country, and at Rome, that the land of the Seres* was too remote, for them to expect that the infects would, in their climate, find a fufficient degree of warmth and verdure to nurture them into, and to infure, their existence.

When Henry the Second + propofed to raife large plantations of White Mulberry Trees in France, and to introduce and erect filk manufactories, both at Lyons and Tours, the people, ftruck with the fingularity and extravagance of the attempt, were unanimously difgufted, and exclaimed, "Though filk worms have been successfully nurtured in feveral parts, when was there one of that fpecies ever feen in France?" yet filk worms were introduced, and manufactories erected, with what advantage to the nation is well known! Experiment in this event has trampled upon Prejudice; as I hope and trust it will in another which will form the fubject of an enfuing fpeculation or fpeculations, for the reception of which, indeed, this is meant to clear the ground. In that, or thofe, I fhall endeavour to fhow that we have little reafon to dread the prohibition of the Piedmontefe Silks; and that, whatfoever alarm the report may have excited, the thing itself is, in no inftance, an injury to this country, but, on the contrary, may, in many, be attended with advantage; as it will force that truly ufeful and elegant article, Bengal Silk, into a more general circulation; and, while the adoption of this affords employment to thoufands, perhaps millions, of people in the East Indies, its more extentive importation will add to the naval ftrength and commercial opulence of this Country; fo that, at the fame time that its reception and manufacture caufes a new epoch in the history of traffic, it is likely to become a ftimulus to the ingenuity and induftry of our artificers, and to open new fources for the acquisition of individual riches, and confequently of National revenue.

(To be continued.)

+ Of France.

THE HE pious and benevolent defign of this excellent Prelate, in framing thefe Lectures, and delivering them publickly to numerous audiences, confifting chiefly of perfons of the higher and middle claffes of the people, is fo clearly set forth in the preface, and at the fame time prefents fuch powerful inducements to all well-difpofed perfons "to mark, learn, and inwardly digeft," their important contents, that we shall need no apology for quoting the Bishop's own words, as the belt recommendation of the arduous task he undertook, under circumftances the molt unfavourable, to renovate primitive Christianity, in a gay, luxurious, metropolis, in which the fovereignty of fathion, the idolatry of pleafure, and the love of eafe, had but too generally fuperfeded the facred obligations of the Christian religion, which moft of us, it is prefumed, have folemnly vowed and promifed to perform.

"At the time when the following Lectures were first begun, the political, moral, and religious ftate of this kingdom wore a very unfavourable alpect, and excited no fmail degree of uneafinefs and alarm in every ferious and reflecting mind. The enemies of this country were almost every where triumphant abroad, and its still more formidable enemies at home, were indefatigably active in their endeavours to diffuse the poifon of difaffection, infidelity, and a contempt of the Holy Scriptures, through every part of the kingdom, more especially among the lower orders of the people, by the most offenfive and impious publications;

VOL. XLII. Nov. 1802.

while, at the fame time, it must be acknowledged, that among too many of the higher claffes, there prevailed, in the midst of all our diftreffes, a spirit of diffipation, profufion, and volup tuous gaiety, ill fuited to the gloominefs of our fituation, and ill calculated to fecure to us the protection of Heaven against the various dangers that menaced us on every fide. Under the fe circumstances, it feemed to be the duty of every friend to religion, morality, good order, and good government, and more efpecially of the Minifters of the Gospel, to exert every power and every talent with which God had bleffed them, in order to counteract the baneful effects of those peftilential writings which every day flued from the prefs; to give fome check to the growing relaxation of public manners; to ftate, plainly and forcibly, the evidences of our faith, and the genuine doctrines of our religion, the true principles of fubmission to our lawful Governors, the mode of conduct in every relation of life, which the Gospel prefcribes to us; and to vindicate the truth, dignity, and divine authority, of the facred writings. All this, after much deliberation, I conceived could in no other way be fo effectually done, as by having recourfe to thofe writings themselves, by going back to the very fountain of truth and holiness, and by drawing from that facred fource the proofs of its own celestial origin, and all the evangelical virtues fpringing from it, and branching out into the various duties of civil, focial, and domeftic life.

The