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We send them to Russia, in exchange for hemp, tar, and tallow :

To Sweden, for copper:

To Norway for timber :

To Germany for linen rags and smalts for paper:

To France, for wine and brandy :

To Portugal, for wine:

To Spain, for gold and silver, and fruit :
To Italy, for silk, rags, oil, and fruit:

And to Turkey, for silk, drugs, oil, and coffee.

221. This amazing intercourse, in time of peace, was carried on in about 24,000 vessels of all sizes, carrying three millions of tons burthen, and employing 200,000 seaman,

The trade and manufactures employ, besides, from four to five millions of the people of Great Britain and Ireland; and serve, also, to enrich all its inhabitants.

222. Several branches of the foreign trade of England are carried on by subscription companies; who divide the profits in half-yearly or yearly dividends. These are the East India Company; which enjoys a monopoly of the trade to Asia:

The bank of England; for bullion and precious

stones :

And the Hudson's Bay company; which monopolize the trade in furs from those countries.

There are also the nearly extinct Turkey, Russia, African, and South Sea Companies.

223. The inland or domestic trade of Great Britain and Ireland, is carried on by means of many thousand waggons and stage-coaches; by canals and rivers, which intersect every part of the two islands; and by many hundred coasting-vessels, which carry the produce and manufactures of one place to another.

224. The chief ports are London, (equal in trade to all the others,) Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow, Greenock, Hull, Falmouth, Dartmouth, Plymonth, Portsmouth, Yarmouth, Lynn, Shields, Leith, Aberdeen,

Whitehaven, Swansea, Dublin, Cork, and Waterford. 225. The chief manufacturing towns are Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Sheffield, for cutlery and metallic wares.

Manchester, Stockport, Bolton, Glasgow, and Paisley, for calicoes and muslins.

Leeds and Norwich, for woollen cloths.
Nottingham and Leicester, for hosiery.
Belfast and Londonderry, for linens..
Wilton and Kidderminster, for carpets.

Newcastle and Worcester, for china, porcelain, and glass.

226. The United States of America, under the advantages of a long peace, the possession of raw materials of every kind, numerous fine ports, and a free government, are rapidly advancing in the manufacturing system; and with numerous ships at sea, the Americans are carrying on an extensive trade with all parts of the world.

227. The principal sea-ports in the United States, are Portsmouth, Salem, Boston, Providence, New-York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and New-Orleans. The principal manufactories, some of which are very extensive, are generally located in the New-England states. They are rapidly increasing in number, and are even now no inconsiderable rivals of British manufactures.

228. The trade of most other nations has been ruined by unwise governments, or by political revolutions. That of China by its immense canals, is the greatest and most advantageous that is carried on in any country in Asia; but, the Chinese have no general foreign trade, except with Japan.

The

229. The exports and imports of Great Britain have been nearly fifty millions each per annum. worth of the various merchandize and manufactures in hand, is estimated at 60 millions; and the value of the shipping employed, at about 25 millions.

230. The employments to which so vast a trade gives rise, are, as far as regards the ship, those of the ship-owner, the ship-builder, the copper-smith, the rope-maker, the biscuit-baker, the provision-merchant, the ship-carpenter, the anchor-smith, the mathematical instrument-maker, and the slop-seller.

231. In regard to the cargo of ships, there are the merchant, the ship-broker, the factor, the manufacturer, the packer, and the lighter-man.

Among merchants, there are Spanish merchants, Turkey merchants, Italian merchants, Russia merchants, Hamburgh merchants, West India merchants, American merchants, Brazil merchants, African merchants.

XII. The Art of Navigation.

232. That art must be allowed to be curious and extraordinary, which enables men to conduct great ships with precision, across vast seas many thousand miles wide, in which they often sail for weeks together without seeing land.

233. Anciently, and indeed till within the last 400 years, no ship ventured out of sight of land. If the mariners lost sight of the land, they gave themselves up, and it would be merely accidental if they ever regained the same shore: such were the disadvantages of Phoenician, Carthagenian, Roman, and Grecian com

merce.

234. In the 13th century, it was discovered, by mere chance, that if a certain part of the ore of iron was suspended on a point, and allowed to turn itself at pleasure, it would always point to the north part of the world. Hence, if a seaman took with him to sea one of these loadstones, he was enabled to tell the north, and keep a journal of his course.

When from the bosom of the mine,
The magnet first to light was thrown,
Fair commerce hail'd the gift divine,
And smiling claim'd it for her own;

"My bark," she said, "this gem shall guide
Thro' paths of ocean yet untried;
While as my daring sons explore
The rude, inhospitable shore,

Mid desert sands and ruthless skies,

New seats of industry shall rise,

And culture wide extend his genial reign,

Free as the ambient gale, and boundless as the main."

PYE.

235. As the loadstone enabled him to keep an account of the course of his voyage out, so it was not difficult to retrace the same course back, by referring to his journal. If a man in the dark go 50 steps to the right, 20 straight on, and 30 to the left; he will easily return to the place whence he set out, if he takes 30 steps to the right, 20 straight on, and 50 to the left.

236. In the wide and pathless ocean, the loadstone then, by constantly pointing northward, proves a certain guide, and enables the mariner, if he has recorded his past course, to ascertain his exact position on the sea, and to shape his future course accordingly.

237. The loadstone, or magnetic needle, as it is also called, is usually placed in a frame, and covered by a glass. Beneath it, in the frame, are marked the 32 points of the compass; that is to say, the whole circle of the horizon is thus divided into 32 parts.

The principal of these are, the four cardinal points, the north, south, east, and west; and these are subdivided into north-east, north-west, south-east, and south-west, &c. &c.

Obs. Annexed is the representation of this division; the boxing or repeating of which is among young sailors deemed a considerable achievement.

[merged small][graphic]

238. The practice of navigation led, however, to various other discoveries; which now render the mariner's compass of primary utility, only, during a series of cloudy weather.

Every child can always tell where he is, by looking at objects around him; i. e. at the houses, trees, and places, to which he is accustomed.

So it is with sailors: there are certain fixed objects around the earth, as the sun moon, planets, and stars; and by the position of these, a skilful sailor can always tell where he is.

239. If it appear by the almanack, that at London, the sun is, on the 5th of June, 61 degrees high at 12 o'clock, and a sailor, by his octant, find it at that time to be 70 degrees high, he concludes that he is nine degrees, or 625 miles, nearer to the vertical place of the sun, or more to the south than London. And thus he determines his latitude.

240. If it appear by an almanack, that at 10 o'clock on the evening of June 5, the moon comes to a conjunction with the planet Mars, at London, and a sailor find that the conjunction takes place at nine o'clock where he is, he concludes that he is one hour, or 15 degrees, or 1045 longitudinal miles west. Hence he knows the longitude of the place where he is.

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