of innocence and fimplicity; he exhibits, in a well connected feries, the gradual refinements of our ancestors in manners, and in arts. To a masterly acquaintance with other branches of knowledge, he joins the inquiries of the naturalist; and gives us an accurate hiftory of the vegetative and animal world in Britain; diftinguishing the native productions of our island from those which were imported into it at different times.

From a view of this extenfive plan, to which, it appears from this first volume, that his abilities and acquifitions are adequate, the reader may infer what a variety of learning and information his work will contain. Yet in all the variety of his first period, we find no wanton and impertinent digref fions. Though, by taking in a large field of fpeculation, he often relieves our attention to the local and private hiftory of a fingle town, his copioufnefs always flows from, and winds around, his principal object.

This first volume opens with the earliest antiquities of Manchefter, and the county of Lancaster. The author ascertains the derivation of Mancunium, the old name of the town, defcribes its fituation and conftruction under the Britons, and after it became a Roman ftation. The towns of the ancient Britons were not intended for perpetual and general refidence ; they were only their places of refuge amid the dangers of war, where they might occafionally lodge their wives, their children, and their cattle, and where the weaker might refift the ftronger till fuccours could arrive. It is not to be fuppofed, that the Britons, at this period, had any confiderable skill in the fcience of fortification; though our author thinks they fe cured themselves against the attacks of an enemy with more art than antiquarians are willing to allow them. Their fortreffes were planted in the center of their woods, they were defended by the natural advantages of the fituation, were fortified by trees cut down, and piled up around them, and by the formation of a bank and a ditch. They baffled the attacks of the best troops under the command of the beft officers in the world; and the greatest of the latter gave them the commendation of excellent fortifications. This first chapter gives an account of the inhabitants of old Lancashire, of fome of their curious remains lately discovered, of their huf bandry, and their arms, and of their fubjection to the Romans about the year 79.

He next gives a defcription of Mancunium, the old Manchefter, when converted into a Roman garrifon; of the forts and walls erected in that part of Britain by the conquerors, and of the Roman polity and religion in the vanquished province. He traces the Roman geography of our island more

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tion of parts and abilities. It is probable at least, that all attempt to do it; and, if fo, that many fucceed in this kind of exercife of the imagination. That it is very common in the village of Zevolla, and that the greateft part of its inhabitants can fing extempore as well as this lad, I do not doubt. It is very plain that, if he was any way fingular, and did what his townsmen could not do, they would have made him aware of it by their admiration, and given him by degrees a better opinion of his abilities than he feems to have. But he is by them confidered in proportion to his rank in life; that is, he is not confidered at all: and this to me is a conclufive proof, that with regard to them he does nothing extraordinary when he throws his thoughts fuch as they are, extemporarily into metre, or, to speak more exactly, he does only that, which every body else can do with as much facility as himself, However, I shall foon be in Madrid, where I hope to do more than argue. Bear with the eagerness of my temper. I fear I fhall scarcely fleep until I have cleared up this matter to my full fatisfacton.'

We fhall enter upon the third volume by quoting the remarkable beginning of his first letter; this beginning he calls a grave and prolix proem. Its gravity and prolixity, are certainly its leaft exceptionable properties.

The fashionable characterisers of modern nations, a breed that in this century has prodigiously multiplied all over Europe, are unanimoufly agreed, that there is a very great difference between the natural inclinations of this and that people, and that (for inftance) idleness is as much inherent in the Spaniard and the Italian, as the oppofite quality in the Englishman or the Dutchman. But a great fhare of fagacity would not be neceffary to discover the falfity of this affertion, and indeed of all affertions of this kind, were we but willing to shake off our mental idleness, lay afide our national prejudices, and exert our faculties in the eafy difcovery of our own perceptions.

Men have no inherent qualities but what are common to the whole fpecies; and fhould we grant that those characterifers are right in their affertions, we could not avoid adopting the abfurd opinion, that Providence has been so partial, as to impart to one generation (for inftance) an innate love of labour, and to another an invincible averfion to it.

That this is not the cafe, fober reafon would tell us, if we would but liften. Sober reason would make us eafily comprehend, that human nature has always been the fame throughout the world, though the nations into which the world is divided, may temporarily vary from each other in feveral refpects, and be alternately active or inactive, brave or cowardly, learned or ignorant, honeft or difhoneft. Sober reason would inform us,

that

that particular virtues and particular vices will at times take poffeffion of this or that tract of land, fway its inhabitants for a while in fuch a manner as to appear irrefiftible; then lofe their power by degrees, fhift away imperceptibly, and make room for other virtues and other vices, which will raise or fink the people according to the nature of their tendency.

This rotation is inceffant, though fometimes quicker and fometimes flower; but men continue ftill to be effentially the fame, ftill endowed with the fame fufceptibility of good and bad qualities, ftill with the fame inclinations, ftill with the fame general nature. Does activity prevail in one nation?. The virtues which are the infeparable concomitants of activity, will give fuperiority to that nation over others. Does inactivity prevail? Inferiority will be the confequence. These were the caufes that made this and that nation alternately great or little, glorious or inglorious alternately. Medes, Affyrians, Perfians, Macedonians, Greeks, Romans, Goths, Turks, and fo forth, were by turns the greatest and the lowest people in the world. Each had a period, during which they were in a manner entitled to reproach this and that nation with idlenefs.

The English, who are at prefent the most active people that exifts, ftand of courfe quite at the head of mankind. How long they will enjoy the poft of honour, no body can poffibly tell. But every body can tell, that they must conti nue to exert themselves with unremitted vigour if they will avoid retrogradation, as was the cafe with the French and Spaniards, who have in their turn been very active, not many centuries ago, and loft the privilege of preheminence by a relaxation of that activity which animated them during a certain period. Let the English remit of their prefent vigour, and they will infallibly be lowered with a rapidity equal to that by which they have been raifed. They will infallibly fee fome rival nation lifted up to their prejudice, and entitle the fashionable chara&erifers of the next generations to brand their unborn progeny with that fame note of idleness, which they have at prefent fome right to bestow upon other nations, the Spanish in particular.

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But let us fuppofe, for argument's fake, the English ftripped of their prefent fuperiority over all the prefent nations, which they have undoubtedly obtained by dint of fuperior activity let us fuppofe their influence not extending much beyond their native land, as it is in a great measure the cafe with the Spaniards: Can any body be seriously of opinion that the nature of the English would alter in such a cafe, and their prefent characteristics undergo any real change? That they would intrinfically be lefs courageous than they are at prefent?

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chefter to Overborough. But as this alleviates not at all the cenfure upon the narrownefs of the ways, fo the paving of a road is obviously a very awkward expedient at the beft. This may fufficiently appear from thofe boafted remains of the Roman roads, the Appian and the Flaminian ways in Italy, which are fo intolerably rough and fo inexpreffibly hard, that the travellers, as often as they can, turn off from them, and journey along the tracks at their borders.

Many of the Roman roads indeed have continued under all the injuries of time and all the inclemencies of climate to the prefent period, and fome few in excellent confervation. The Romans, having the whole power of the country at their command, and nations of fubjects to be their labourers in the work, were not frugal of toil in the difcovery of the materials and in the conveyance of them to a confiderable diftance. Thus, fince little or no gravel was to be found along the courfe of the Roman road from the common of Hollinwood to the end of Street-lane, they dug up a very great quantity of it along the fides of the prefent Millbrook upon the former, as the long broad and winding hollow which still remains doth manifeftly evince, and conftructed all the road from the one to the other with it, as the peculiar redness of the gravel along the road does evidently prove. Thus, what is much more remarkable, the Stane ftreet in Suffex, ten and feven yards in breadth and one yard and a half in depth, is compofed entirely of flints and of pebbles, though no flints are to be found even within feven miles of the road. And they laid their roads, not funk, like ours, many feet below the level of the ground about them, but rifing with a rounded ridge confiderably above the furface, unless they were obliged to climb obliquely up the fide of a steep hill or to defcend obliquely down it. By this means the water never fettled upon their roads, filently fapped the foundations, and effectually demolished the works. But the continuance of many roads to the prefent moment, and the peculiar confervation of fome, result very little from these general circumstances, and are principally the effect of particular accidents. That these circumItances have not given the roads fuch a lafting duration, is evident from the above mentioned ftructure of all of them within, and more evident from the particular roundness of fome of them without. The fact arifes chiefly from the early defertion of particular roads by the Britons and Saxons, new roads being laid for new reafons to the fame towns, or the towns being destroyed and the roads unfrequented. Such muft affuredly have been the cafe with the fmartly rounded road at Haydock. And fuch will hereafter appear to have been the cafe with the ftill-remaing road upon Stony Knolls.

But had the Roman roads been always laid in right lines, always conftructed with a fufficient breadth, and been never paved with ftone; had the materials been bound together by fome incorporated cement; and had they been all calculated to receive carts and to bear waggons; they muft ftill have been acknowledged to have one effential defect in them. The roads almoft conftantly proffed the rivers of the island, not at bridges, but at fhallows or fords, fome of which nature had planted and others art fupplied. By this means the travelling on the roads muft have been infinitely precarious, have been regulated by the rains, and have been controuled by the floods. Such must have certainly been the confequence at the fords of Ribchester and Penwortham over the

Ribble, fuch more particularly at the fords of Warrington Stretford and Stockport over the Merfey, and fuch even at the fords of Knotmill and Garret over the Medlock, at the way of Trafford over the Irwell, and at the paffages of Huntbank over the Irke and of Throftleneft-lane over the Cornebrook. One of those very rainy nights which are fo common in our Lancashire winters would raife a confiderable depth of water upon the fords, and would fix an abfolute bar to the progrefs of travelling. Thus, for want of a few bridges, the Roman roads mult have been often rendered impaffable during the winter, and often for a confiderable part of the winter together. And thus, for want of a few bridges, muft the Roman roads have been rendered frequently ufelefs, the military communication between the feveral parts of the island have been frequently fufpended, and the Roman empire within it have been frequently expofed to danger.'

In this chapter, he informs us of the number of the legions by which Britain was garrisoned after the Romans had conquered the greater part of the island; he describes the fituation and strength of their stations and their camps.

In the two fubfequent chapters, our author gives us an account of the policy of Agricola. That conqueror drew the Britons from their retreats in their woods and mountains, and settled them in towns, to rivet their subjection and dependence, By degrees, they incorporated Roman manners with their own, and began to imbibe a tafte for the finer arts, imported into the ifland by their conquerors, In these chapters, we have an entertaining description of the food and manner of our anceftors at this early pericd; of the government, of the private and publick œconomy of the British chiefs: and in the fame chapters, our author traces the first regular divifion of the country into diftricts, and the commencement of feudal te

nures.

He gives a particular, but not an infipid and tedious hiftory, of the improvements which the Britons received from the Romans in mechanics, and the other useful arts. He distinguishes the productions of the earth, and the animals which were natives of our island, from those which were introduced by the Romans and other foreigners: and he enumerates the diverfions which we adopted from the Romans. Among other favage amusements, he proves, that they introduced cock-fighting into Britain; and we are glad to find that we cannot reproach the memory of our ancestors with the invention of that favage entertainment.

We learn from our author, that the Britons were indebted to their communication with the Romans for their early improvements in commerce and navigation; and for the introduction of Chriftianity into their ifland. He concludes this first book of his antiquities with the brave and effectual oppo

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