considerate and experienced mind, how naturally, in societies of this sort, designing and bad men, men of daring spirits and discontented tempers, naturally acquire the ascendency; how surely also, they extend their influence, till by degrees they obtain the direction of the whole body. The least of the evils to be apprehended (though an evil in itself abundantly sufficient to accomplish the ruin, not only of any particular branch of trade, but even of the whole commercial greatness of our country) is, the progressive rise of wiges, which among all classes of workmen must be the inevitable, though gradual result of such a society's operations:-an evil, the fatal though more distant, and in each particular increase, more doubtful consequences of which, it cannot be expected that the workmen themselves should foresee so plainly, or feel so forcibly, as not to incur them, under the powerful temptation of a strong and immediate interest.

But your committee need scarcely remark, that such institutions are, in their ultimate tendencies, still more alarming in a political, than in a commercial view. Their baneful, as well as powerful effects, have been however so fatally exemplified not long since, in a sister kingdom, that it will be sufficient merely to refer to the melancholy recital of the events alluded to.

Your committee conceive, that they would be travelling out of their proper province, if they were to suggest an opinion as to the expediency of any alteration in the existing laws against illegal associations and combinations. But the summary view above exhibited, discloses the existence of a systematic, and organised plan, at once so efficient and so dangerous, both from the amount of its force, and from the facility and secrecy with which, at any time, and for any purpose, that force can be called into action, that your committee feel, they would have been wanting to their public duty, if they had closed their Report without laying before the House the general outline, at least, of the information they have obtained on the subject. It deserves, in their judgment, the most deliberate and serious consideration of parliament.

The committee have also come to the following resolutions:-1st, that the first class of laws do remain in force; 2d, that the second class do also remain in force.

3. Resolved That it is the opinion of this commmittee, that it be recommended to the House, that the following acts be repealed:-2 Ed. III. C. 14-13 Rich. II. c. 11.-17 Rich. II. c. 2.14 Hen. VI. c. 9.-7 Ed. IV. c. 2.-1 Rich. III. e. 8-5 Hen. VIII. c. 2.-6 Hen. VIII. c. 8.-6 Hen. VIII. c. 9.-25 Hen. VIII c. 18.-27 Hen. VIII. c. 12.-33 Hen. VIII. c. 3.-3 and 4 Ed. VI. c. 2.-5 and 6 Ed. VI. c. 6.-5 and 6 Ed. VI. c. 22.-1 Mary, c. 7.-2 and 3 Ph. and Mary, c. 11—2 and 3 Ph. and Mary, c. 12.-4 and 5 Ph. and Mary, C. 5.−1 Eliz. C. 14.23 Eliz. C. 9. 27 Eliz. c. 17.−27 Eliz. C. 18.–35 Eliz. c. 9. 25 Eliz. C. 10.39 Eliz. C. 20.43 Eliz. c. ro. 4 James I. c. 2.-21 James I. c. 18.-7 Ann. c. 13.-10 Ann. c. 16.-1 Geo. I. c. 15.

4. Resolved-That it is the opinion of this committee, that it be recommended to the House, that certain parts of the following acts be repealed:-27 Ed. II. stat, 1, c. 4.-4-Ed. IV. c.

1. sec. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.-5 Eliz. c. 4. sec. 3, 4, 27, 29, 31, and 33.-3 James I. c. 16. sec. 3, 4, and 5-13 Geo. I. c. 23. sec. 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14.

5. Resolved-That it is the opinion of this committee, that it be recommended to the House, that the following acts do remain in force:-50 Ed. III. c. 7—7 Ed. IV. c 3.—3 Hen. VII. c. 11.-3 Hen. VIII. c. 7.-23 Hen. VIII. c. 17.-27 Hen. VIII. c. 13.-33 Hen. VIII. c. 17. -33 Hen. VIII c. 19-8 Eliz. c. 6.- 6 Ann. c. 8.-6 Anu. c. 9.-11 Geo. II. c. 28.-5 Geo. III. c. 51.-6 Geo. III. c. 23.

6. Resolved-That it is the opinion of this committee, that it be recommended to the House, that contracts of apprenticeships be made legal between the parties for any period not exceeding seven years, and jurisdiction be given to magistrates, under certain regulations, to enforce them, so that such apprenticeships be not made a previous qualification for exercising any branch of the woollen manufacture, either as a master or a journeyman.

An Account of the number of pieces of Broad Cloth, milled at the several fulling mills in the West Riding of the County of York, from the 24th of June 1725 (the commencement of the act) to the 12th of March 1726, and thence annually; distinguishing each year-and of the Narrow Cloths, from the 1st of August 1737 (the commencement of the act) to the 20th of January 1783, and thence annually; distinguishing each year.

1804

298,178

1905

150,010

300,237 165,847.-The value of this year, alone, (containing 10,079,256 yards of broad, and 6,193,317 yards of narrow eloth is about £9,000,000.

M. DE CHATEAUBRIAND'S EXCURSION TO MOUNT VESUVIUS.

The following notes were not originally intended for the press, as may easily be inferred from the peculiar nature of the reflections they contain. But a new eruption of Mount Vesuvius having been lately mentioned in the daily papers, that event tends to render them interesting. They were written in pencil while climbing the summit of the volcano.

An Excursion to Mount Vesuvius, 1804. This day, January 5, I left Naples, at seven in the morning; I have now reached Portici. The sun is clear of the eastern clouds, but the head of Vesuvius is still covered with a fog. I agree with a cicerone to conduct me to the crater of the volcano. He supplies me with two mules; one for himself, one for me; and we start.

I begin to ascend by a pretty wide path, between two vineyards bordered with poplars. I proceed straight on towards the point where the sun rises in winter. Somewhat under the vapours that have descended below the middle region of the air, I perceive the tops of a few trees, they are the elms of the hermitage. Both on the right and left appear sorry habitations of the humble vine dressers, encircled with the luxuriant grapes of which is made the lachryma Christi. Every where else, on all sides, are seen a calcinated soil, withered vines, intermixed with umbrella shaped pine-trees, a few olives that grow out of the hedges, numberless rolling stones, but not a single bird.

I arrive at the first level of the mountain; an extensive barren land stretches before me; I then descry the two heads of Vesuvius; on the left the Somma; on the right the present mouth of the volcano; both of these peaks are partly veiled by pale clouds. I advance, on one side the Somma lowers; on the other I begin to distinguish the interior cavities of the volcano, whose cone I am proposing to ascend. The lava of 1766 and 1769 overspread the whole plain which I tread. It is a dreadful smoaky wilderness, over which the lava, issuing like melted iron from a forge, exhibits a whitish froth on a sable ground, not altogether unlike dry faded moss.

Proceeding to the left, and leaving the cone of the volcano on the right, I arrive at the foot of a little hillock, or rather of a wall formed by the lava which covered Herculaneum. This kind of wall is planted with vines on the borders of the plain, and its reverse offers to the view a deep vale overspread with copse. The cold becomes very sharp and cutting.

I ascend the hillock on my way to the her mitage which is seen from the opposite side. The sky and the clowds lower, the latter rolling along the ground appears like a greyish smoke, or like ashes driven by the winds. I now begin to hear the rattling of the elms in front of the hermitage.

The hermit is come out to welcome me.. He has already seized the bridle of my mule, and I have dismounted. This recluse is a tall good looking man, with an open countenance. He has invited me to enter his cell, has prepared the table himself, and has brought out a loaf, a few apples and some eggs. He has seated himself facing me, leaning, with both his elbows on the table, and has begun to converse very freely while I breakfasted. The clouds had now closed all around us; not a single object could we distinguish through the window. Nothing was heard in this vaporous abyss besides the whizzing of the trees, and the distant roaring of the sea on the coast of Herculaneum. Is it not very remarkable, that this peaceful abode of christian hospitality, should be situated in a

small cell at the foot of a volcano, and amidst the conflict of elements?

The hermit has presented to me the book in which those travellers who visit Mount Vesuvius write some remarks. However, I did not meet with a single one deserving of being recollected; some few French alone, with that fine taste which is natural to our countrymen, had been satisfied with inserting the date of their passage, or bestowing some eulogium on the hermit who had welcomed them. Be that as it might, the volcano had suggested nothing remarkable to the various peregrinators; which corroborated an idea I have long since entertained, that truly great subjects like very great objects are less proper than may be thought to originate sublime ideas: their grandeur being as it were too obvious, whatever might be added to augment the reality, tends only to diminish it. Thus nascitur ridiculus mus stands true with regard to all mountains.

I leave the hermitage at half past two; and again direct my course towards the hillock of lava, which I had already mounted on my left is the valley that separates me from the Somma, and on my right, the first level of the cone. I proceed, ascending towards the summit of the hillock. The only living creature I could see in this dreary place was a poor emaciated young girl, with a yellow complexion, half naked, and overburdened with the weight of the wood she had been cutting on the mountain.

The clouds now prevent me from seeing any thing; the wind blowing from below upwards, drives them from the darkened level which I survey, over the summit of the causeway on which I am advancing. I can only hear the steps of my mule,

Leaving the hills, I turn to the right, and descend into that plain of lava, which reaches to the cone of the volcano; a lower part of which I had already traversed on my way to the hermitage. Even with these calcined remains before one's eyes, fancy forms with difficulty an idea of those fields of fire and of liquid melted metals, at the period of an eruption of Vesuvius. Dante, perhaps, had seen them, since in his Inferno he describes the burning sands on which everlasting flames descend with silent slowness, come di neve in Alpe sanza vento:

Arrivammo ad una landa

Che dal suo letto ogni pianta rimove,

Lo spazzo er' un' arena arida e spessa

Sovra tutto 'I sabbion d'un cader lento
Pioven di fuoco di latata, e falde,

Come di neve in Alpe sanza vento. The clouds begin to open a little on some points; on a sudden, yet by intervals, I dis

cover Portici, Caprea, Ischia, Pausilyppo, white sails of many fishing boats speckling the sea, and the coast of the gulph of Naples, bordered with orange trees: the prospect is that of Paradise beheld from the infernal regions.

Close to the foot of the cone, we dismount; my guide presents me with a long staff, and we begin to climb the enormous heap of ashes. The clouds close again, the fog grows thick, and the darkness redoubles.

Here I am now on the top of Vesuvius, seated, writing by the mouth of the volcano, and preparing to descend to the bottom of its crater. Every now and then the sun glimmers through the vaporous veil which covers the whole mountain. This unfortunate circumstance, which screens from my view one of the most beautiful landscapes in existence redoubles the mournful aspect of the place. Vesuvius, thus separated by clouds from the delightful country all around its basis, seems as if situated in the most unfrequented desert, and the particular kind of horror with which it seizes the beholder is not softened by the aspect of the flourishing city at the foot

of it.

we

I propose to my conductor his accompanying me to the bottom of the crater. He does not readily comply, in order to get something more from me; however, agree for a certain sum which he insists upon being paid immediately, I give it to him, he then strips; and for some time we struggle on the borders of the abyss; we search a less perpendicular steep, and a more gentle descent. The guide stops and warns ine to get ready. We are going to launch into the precipice. We reach the bottom of the abyss. I am at a loss how to give an accurate description of this chaos

Imagine a bason one mile in circumference, and three hundred feet deep, which widens from bottom to top in the shape of a funnel, Its interior walls are furrowed by the fiery fluid which the bason has first contained and then spouted forth. The projecting parts of these furrows resemble those brick piers upon which the Romans supported their massy walls. Large rocks are suspended in some parts of the circumference, and the fragments of them lie mixed with a crust of ashics at the bottom of the abyss.

The bottom of this bason is broken up in different ways. Nearly in the center are recently opened three large pits, or small mouths, which vomited flames during the stay of the French at Naples, in 1798.

Columns of smoke rise from different parts

There is more fatigue than danger to encounter in the attempt of descending into the crater of Vesuvius, except in case of sudden eruption.

The general colour of the surface is that of cinders. But providence, when it pleases, as I have often observed, knows how to render the most dreadful objects agreeable to the eye. The lava, in some parts, is decorated with azure, ultramarine, yellow, and orange colour specks or streaks. Large blocks of granite, owing to the vehemence and action of the fire are seen twisted and curling at their extremities, like the acanthus, or the leaves of the palm tree The volcanic matter, chilled on the rocks over which it has flowed, forms here and there, vases, chandeliers, ribbons, &c. sometimes it assumes the figures of plants or of animals, and imitates the variegated designs which constitute the beauty of an agate. I have observed on a bluishcoloured rock a swan of white lava, so well modeled that you would have sworn you saw that beautiful bird asleep, on his smooth watery bed, with his head concealed under his wing, and his long neck extended over his back like a roll of white silk.

Ad vada Meandri concinit allus olor. Here I observe again the unvarying silence which I have formerly noticed, at noon, in the forests of America, when holding my breath, I could only hear the pulsation of the arteries in my temples, and the beating of my heart. However, sudden gusts of wind, occasionally blowing from the summit of the cone to the bottom of the crater, roar within my garments, or keep whistling along my stick: I likewise hear some stones rolling, which my guide displaces with his feet while climbing amidst the ashes. A confused reverberation of the sound not unlike that produced by the vibrations of metal or of glass, prolongs the noise occasioned by the fall, and suddenly ceases. Now, compare this deadly silence to the dreadful detonations which shake these very same parts when the volcano vomits forth fire from within its entrails, and overspreads the land with darkness.

What a favourable opportunity for making reflections, truly philosophical, and, if inclined so to do, to lament over the vicissitudes of human institutions! But what are the so famous revolutions of empires, in comparison to these convulsions of the natural system, which change the face of the earth, and ocean! Happy indeed were it if men were not employed in tormenting one another the few moments they are allowed to spend together! But Vesuvius has never laid open its abysses, not once, to devour cities, without its fury having surprised the divers nations

Times vary, and the destinies of men display the same inconstancy. Life," says the Greek poet," glides away like the wheels of a chariot."

66

Τροχὸς ἅρματος γὰρ οἷα
Βίοτος τρέχει κυλιθείς.

Pliny lost his life for indulging the curio sity of viewing from a distance the volcano in the crater of which I am now seated very quietly! I behold the abyss smoaking all around me. Moreover, I am aware that at a few fathoms lower down, there is an abyss of fire under my feet; I reflect that the volcano might open on a sudden, and blow me up into the air with those mutilated huge blocks of marble.

What providence has brought me here? By what unforeseen event have the tempests of the American ocean driven me to the Lavinian fields? Lavinaque venit littora. L cannot forbear casting a retrograde look on the troubles of this life, in which, according to St. Augustin," things are replete with mi"sery, and hope is void of happiness."-Rom plenam miseriæ, spem beatitudinis inanem.— Born on the rocks of Armorica,† the first sound that struck my infant ear, was that of the bellowing waves; and on how many shores have I seen those same waves break, which I here meet again! Who would have told me, some years ago, that I should hear the roaring of those same waves at the tombs of Scipio and of Virgil, which flowed at my fect on the coast of England, or on the shore of Canada! My name was already known in the hut of the Indian of Florida. The hermit of Vesuvius has it now in his book. When shall I lay down my staff and travelling cloak at the gates of our family hall?

O patria! o divum domus Ilium! How do I envy the fate of those who have tures to relate to any one! never left their country, and have no adven,

CHATEAUBRIAND.

Antient Greece, he is visiting the sites of those cities and places immortalised by events of which they have been the scenes. In the mean time, he continues his correspondence with his friends; and we may expect from him letters dated at Athens, Thebes, Constantinople, the plains of Troy, &c.

TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

OF PAPENBURG.

It is sufficiently remarkable that his Majesty should have issued a state paper, being instructions to his cruizers, which has been published in the Gazette, in favour of the vessels of a town, which is not even marked on our maps of Germany, and is barely mentioned, if at all, in geographical works: we, therefore, are happy in being able to communicate a description of Papenburg, a district so favoured, yet so obscure. It is translated from the German, by a highly respected friend to our work.

This town is situated in Westphalia, on the confines of East Friesland, in the balliage of Zeppen. It is divided into two parishes and its commerce in the Baltic is considerable.

Papenburg, within these few years, sends more ships through the Sound and the Holstein canal, than many great commercial nations. In 1796, the number amounted to 932; in the year following to 261; of which 172 passed through the sound, and 89 through the canal. Nevertheless, most geographers know it only by name, and many even doubt its existence.

Papenburg gives the title of a free baronetcy to the family of Landberg-Veelen. About 124 years ago, the country was nothing but a boundless marshy desert. Except an old dilapidated castle, and a couple of huts, there were no traces of human industry. About the year 1675, one of the noble predecessors of the present possessor, determined to convert that extensive waste into a free colony. For this purpose a navigable canal was cut from the river Ems, which is at no great distance. Many colonists soon settled on its banks; as the digging of peat, the building of ships, and the cultivation of the soil, procured them a sufficient and permanent maintenance. By degrees the canals were increased, and thus the colony has flourished to its present size and state.

The grand canal falls into the Ems by means of the Drosten sluice, which has been built in a dyke at the expence of from 20 to 22,000 Dutch guilders. All the superfluous water of the other canals flows into this and Every vessel is obliged to pass through this sluice. From thence runs another canal in a S. E. direction, to the distance of 3,200 paces, to the N. extremity of the colony, and receives in its passage the Dewer, a small stream that flows

from the S. W. At the beginning of the colony a short cut about 500 feet long, runs in a similar direction; over this a bridge is built. But the great canal inclines here to the S. and runs beyond the church to the distance of 1,500 paces, and has a bridge over it. From thence it continues in a S. E. direction about 1,700 paces, where the first caissons are. Then it runs E. 1,100 paces; then S. E. 2,300 p., where are two caissons and a bridge. Then again S. about 6,000 p. nearly to the Great Lake, which partly sup plies it with water. The whole length of the grand canal is about 15,200 paces.

Houses are built on each side of the canals. They are only one story high, in the Dutch style, and generally have a respectable appearance. Besides two churches, and three schools, the present number of houses is 400, and is increasing annually. In 1784, the population, not including the clergy, amounted to 2,114 persons. The number of females exceeds that of males by 36. This perhaps is owing to many young men who go to sea, and do not return. The number of unmar ried men (excej ting widowers), amounts to 643; that of women (excepting widows), to 628. The entire population included 672 children, under 12 years of age. Upon the whole the births annually exceed the deaths; but there are exceptions in some years when the colony is visited by the small-pox and contagious fevers. Bilious and scarlet fevers, also, are not uncommon, but agues are very rare; a proof that the canals have drained the country very much, and diminished its pestilential evaporations. There is only one sure geon there; and an apothecary at Aschendort, about 3 miles distant.

Though every inhabitant builds as and where he chuses, yet sufficient room for a carriage road, must be left on each side of the canal. As this road is made of the earth thrown out of the canal, and as almost all commodities are conveyed by water, it is in good condition, though not the least attention is paid to it. The walk along the banks is particularly pleasant. We constantly see the peat ships passing; and the noise of axes and hanimers resounds on all sides from the numerous dock-yards. The pictoresque appearance is also improved by rows of