the general amount of our export trade in British manufactures, of which this forms a considerable part, has been undoubtedly large. The increase I think of the amount of 1799 above that of 1784 was £8,337,663.

The corn-trade and corn-laws have been profoundly investigated by Charles Smith. But nearly fifty years have passed since his tracts were first published; and perhaps there has now arisen much matter for additional disquisition. It strikes me that the country banks did materially contribute to augment the prices of corn in the last war; and that the dan gerous, because too sudden, change of their conduct, the consequence of the new mode of managing the money-market in London, has since tended to reduce those prices as much too low, as they were before too high. That, whatever be the increase of the issues of paper money, the evils of an impeded circulation are alarmingly felt, is demonstrable from the diminished price of land, which has fallen since the accession of the Addington administration, from a free sale at upwards of thirty years purchase to less than twenty-seven, at which price much land remains unsold for want of purchasers. This is a gloomy symptom, which has never before occurred, since the termination of the American war.

There are one or two more topics on which it may be proper to say a few words. The Essay by Evelyn on the advantages of an Active Life opposed to Solitude suggests many topics worthy of meditation. It cannot be denied, that in the exercise of the duties of a public station, and in the collision of society, there

are many pleasures, and many benefits to be gained. The ill Spirits which inhabit retirement are neither few nor insignificant. Languor, Spleen, Misanthropy, Sameness, Grief, Fear, Melancholy, and others of that family, are too often found in the abodes of Loneliness. But on the other hand the noblest virtues flourish best in that soil. The sublimest efforts of the mind, and exertions of the heart can only be nurtured amid the silence of woods, and the recluse charms of Nature. Mr. Evelyn seems to have taken the other side of the question only for the purpose of trying his ingenuity; for all the habits of his life disprove his sincerity on this occasion. The works which his Solitude produced have spread far beyond the narrow sphere of individual action and the short span of human life; and his knowledge and his sentiments yet survive in books the registers of his private occupations.

Of the few original articles in this volume it would not become the author to speak. They were introduced for the sake of variety; and partly perhaps to shew that the writer of them is not totally incapable of sometimes rising above the humble merits of a mere transcriber.

If there be any, and I suspect there are very many, who think the publications of their own age sufficient to enlighten the mind and charm the fancy, and that the revival of obsolete volumes, and the rescue of the ponderous black-letter tomes of more laborious times from the dust of the shelf, is an useless waste of toil and expence, it will not be illiberal to assert that these censurers possess but a very limited acquaintance

with the history of the human intellect, and have obtained but an inadequate idea of the force and va-” rieties of language. The literature of every period intermixes in its character a tendency to some peculiar faults and corruptions which they, whose habits are exclusively confined to it, will never detect. It is by comparison and contrast that these vices are rendered glaring, and the taste continues acute and sound. But wisdom and erudition are the accumulation of ages, and how can he appreciate the merits of a modern writer, who is unacquainted with the matter or manners of his predecessors. "Doctrina,” says my predecessor and relation*, Sir Thomas Pope Blount, in the preface to his Censura Celebriorum Authorum, "Doctrina non sine summo studio et vigiliis paratur. Putare homines divino afflatu doctos fieri, Fanaticorum est; etiam poeta frustra nascitur, nisi ad præclaram indolem accesserit industria. Atque hinc est, quod pauci revera docti sint, (quicquid crepent scioli) quoniam laborem atque operam ferre nequeunt. Ut autem maximum, quantum fieri potest, fructum ex lectione perciperes, quendam tibi authorum delectum, deque iis varia doctissimorum hominum judicia proposui; quæ si inter se diligenter contuleris, et tuum ipse judicium acuere et confirmare poteris ; et nunquam in nullius pretii scriptoribus evolvendis oleum atque operam perdes. Quod enim ad ipsius operis rationem spectat; hoc se maxime nomine commendat; quod inde tibi Bibliothecam instruere possis; quam ad rem notitia autorum apprime utilis ac necessaria; quæ nisi adfuerit, sæpe evenit, ut homines in libris comparan

* Half-brother to the present writer's great grandmother. VOL. I.

с

dis et tempore simul et nummis fraudentur. Huic igitur incommodo ut occurrerem, hunc laborem exantlavi.'

Oct. 19, 1805.

SAMUEL EGERTON BRYDGES.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

VOLUME II. OF THE FIRST EDITION.

I

FEEL some satisfaction in having brought this Work to the conclusion of a second volume. From its very nature, it must become more useful in proportion to its extent; and in a moderate course of time, if its progress shall receive as much encouragement as its commencement, will embrace the account of no small Library of curious, or useful publications, of which the lapse of years has latterly confined the knowledge to the diligence of expensive collectors, or of the researchers into forgotten literature.

If the larger part of the scarce books noticed in this volume, belong to the department of Old English Poetry, the reader, who has any acquaintance with my habits, or those of my principal Correspondents, will scarcely wonder at it. By the aid of those Correspondents, I have brought forward a description of some tracts of uncommon rarity, even among the best informed Bibliographers. The "Chips" and the "Challenge" of Churchyard, the poems of Verstegan, and the Satire of Roy on Cardinal Wolsey, in particular, are of such unusual occurrence, that they may be deemed almost inaccessible. The memorial of these, at least, therefore, and others of the same sort, will, I trust, be considered as a grateful service to all minds embued with a spirit of liberal investigation.