men was established by letters patent; and it was provided by an arret, not only that the working in glass fhould not derogate any thing from nobility, but even that none but nobles fhould be allowed to work therein.'

GOLD COLOURED METAL; JAPANNING; INK making; IVORY, ftaining of; LACQUERING, MARBLE, colouring of; PAPER flock, hangings; PAPIER MACHE Paftes; POT-ASHES, various methods of making, have equally shared the attention of the editor, and have received improvements from his col lections. The history of Silk is extremely curious, and well executed. The receipts for filvering are well chosen, and many of them, we know, will anfwer well.

The HISTORY of the SOCIETY of ARTS and ARTISTS is chiefly new; and the whole process of the preparation of fugar is also new. The account of stocking-frames is greatly improved. What Dr. Rees has collected of the invention deferves notice, as it combines circumftances hitherto little known.

< But this account of the original inventor of the stockingframe feems to be erroneous, as it is now generally acknowledged, that it was invented in the year 1589, by William Lee, M. A. of St. John's college, in Cambridge, a native of Woodborough, near Nottingham. Soon after he had completed the frame, he applied to queen Elizabeth for protection and encouragement, but his petition was rejected. Defpairing of fuccefs at home he went to France, under a promise of being patronized and recompenfed by Henry IV. and with nine of his fervants, fettled at Roan in Normandy. But Mr. Lee, difappointed by the fudden murder of the French monarch of the reward which he had reafon to expect, died of a broken heart at Paris. After his death feven of his workmen returned with their frames to England, and, in conjunction with one Afton, who had been apprentice to Mr. Lee, and who had made fome improvements in his master's invention, laid the foundation of this manufacture in England.

In the fpace of fifty years the art was fo improved, and the number of workmen fo much increased, that they petitioned the protector to conftitute them a body corporate, but their request was refufed. King Charles II. in 1663, granted them a charter, extending their jurifdiction to ten miles round Lon don. See COMPANY.

Such is the account given of this invention by Dr. Deering in his History of Nottingham, p. 100. who has alfo described the flocking-frame, and exhibited feveral figures of this machine, and of the numerous parts of which it confifts.

Mr. Lee's invention, about twenty-eight years after we had first learned from Spain the method of knitting them by wires and needles, has proved a very confiderable benefit to the flock

ing manufacture, by enabling England in aftet times to export vast quantities of filk flockings to Italy, &c. where, it feems, fays Anderton (Hift. Com. vol. i. p. 435.) by fir Jofiah Child's excellent Difcourfes on Trade, first published in 1670, they had not then got the ufe of the flocking-frame, though not much lefs than one hundred years after its invention. Yet Dr. Howell, in his Hiftory of the World (vol. ii. p. 222.) makes this invention eleven years later, viz. anno. 1600; and adds, that Mr. Lee not only taught this art in England and France, but his fervants did the fame in Spain, Venice, and in Ireland.

A late writer in the Bibliotheca Topographia Britannica, N° 7, fays that Mr. Lee, after some years refidence in France, received an invitation to return to England, which he accepted, and that thus the art of frame work knitting became famous in this country. This account of the invention, he adds, is most generally received, though it has also been attributed to a Mr. Robinson, curate of Thurcafton, in Leicestershire. The first frame, we are told, was brought into Hinckley, before the year 1640, by William Iliffe; and now the manufacture of this town is fo extenfive, that a larger quantity of hofe, of low price, in cotton, thread, and worked, is fuppofed to be made there than in any town in England. The manufacture now employs about two thousand five hundred and eighty-five working people; the number of frames is computed at about one thoufand, and there are alfo about two hundred in the neighbouring villages..

The editor is informed, that about the year 1756, Meffrs. Jedidiah Strut and William Woollat of Derby, invented a machine, by which, when annexed to the flocking frame, the turned ribbed flockings are made the fame with thofe made upon the common knitting-pins. Thefe, together with the manner of making the open work mills in imitation of the French mills, a curious fort of lace for caps, aprons, and handkerchiefs, as well as a great variety of figured goods for waistcoats, &c. have fprung from the fame machine, and form a confiderable additional branch of the flocking trade.'

The other articles, under the head of Manufactures, which we find greatly improved, are, STAINING, SULPHUR, TANNING, TAPESTRY, and the Manufacture of Carpets, WOOD ftaining, WooL, Hiftory of, and the Woollen manufacYELLOW, ZINC. The receipts for varnishes are directed very properly, and they will generally fucceed. The following is, we believe, not generally known.

ture.

VARNISH. The compofition of a gold-coloured varnish, ufed by the English artists for brafs and filver, was communicated to fome of the French academicians in 1720, by Mr. Scarlet, and, in 1738, by Mr. Graham, and published in the volume of the French Memoirs for 1761. It is as follows: take two ounces of gum lac, two ounces of yellow amber, forty grains of dragon's blood in tears, half a dram of faffron,

and

and forty ounces of good fpirit of wine; infufe and digeft in the ufual manner, and then strain through a linen cloth. The piece to be varnished must be heated before the liquid is applied: it receives from the varnish a gold colour, and may be cleaned, when fullied, with warm water.'

For the more delicate fubstances, and particularly for brass, we apprehend, that it is better to diffolve copal in spirit of lavender and spirit of wine; and a varnish of this kind, if it grows yellow by smoke, may be cleaned, by lightly wiping the print with a fponge dipped in fpirit of wine. is a greater difficulty, however, in diffolving copal, in any effential oil, than authors on this fubject commonly suppose.

There

In the Materia Medica there are many new articles; and the contents of mineral waters occur under the term WATER. The articles, in this department, are generally fhort, but they feldom feem to be incorrect.

We hoped to have concluded our account of this vaft and important work, in the prefent Number; but much remains to point out, though we have avoided engaging in extenfive difcuffions. We shall return to the subject foon, and it will certainly be then finished.

A concife Account of the Kingdom of Pegu; its Climate, Produce, Trade, and Government; the Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants. By W. Hunter, A. M. Surgeon. Printed at Calcutta.

TH

870.

HIS is a plain, and, aparently; a faithful account of a kingdom little known in Europe. Pegu is fituated on the eastern fide of the bay of Bengal, nearly opposite to Orixa, and to the north-east of the coaft of Coromandel. Strictly speaking, the coaft of Pegu runs eaft and weft; for the country immediately oppofite to the northern Circars is the kingdom of Ava, and the land forms an angle before we arrive at Pegu.

Pegu is a conquered country, and fhares all the miseries of delated defpotifm: their conquerors are their northern neighbours of Ava; but the inhabitants of Pegu ftruggled hard for their liberty, and feel the weight of their chains fo feverely, that few years elapfe without being diftinguished by unfuccessful ftruggles for it. This country is of great confequence to our fettlements in India, fince, from it, they derive the most durable kind of wood which that neighbourhood produces. It is called the teak-wood, and it is not only useful for fhip-building, but for various kinds of furniture. The wood from the neighbourhood of Bombar

is fuperior to it, but its diftance renders it expensive. Tin is alfo found in that part of the continent, as well as a little gold; and bees wax is one of their staple commodities: their honey has a ftrong tafte, and is faid to be not only difagreeable, but unwholefome.

The Peguers are spirited and warlike; but their northern neighbours excel them, in these qualities. Mr. Hunter mentions a strong inftance of the fpirit and perfeverance of the invaders. A French frigate endeavoured to afflift the Peguers, when the armies of the king of Ava attacked them; fecure in their floating battery, they feemed to defpife the anger of their enemies; but they were attacked at once by numerous boats; and though they defended themselves with fpirit, and of courfe made the greatest devaftation among their affailants, the frigate was boarded and taken.

In their manners, they feem to be open, generous, and hofpitable they have not the indolence or the jealousy of the eastern nations. To our East India Company they pay great refpect, and whatever may be the motives of party, in detracting from the characters of their fervants, it is certain, from indifputable facts, that they receive more attention, and are treated with greater regard in India than fubjects of any other European nation. It it juftly obferved by Mr. Hunter, that travelling, and furveying the manners of other countries, not only enlarge our acquaintance with the human mind, but leads us to compare different customs, and fometimes fhow the abfurdity of our own. In one or two inftances, we fufpected that he had tortured his reprefentations, to make them more fevere fatires on our customs but the plain and honeft manner confpicuous in other parts of the work, foon deftroyed the fufpicion. We shall select a paffage as a specimen, and fhall prefer one in which we thought that we perceived the teudency just now mentioned.

;

In the government of this country, we fee defpotifm pre vail in its full extent, and defpotifm too of the very wort kind; for the inhabitants are under the abfolute power of a fet of petty tyrants, who are themfelves nothing more than flaves to the king of Ava. As they have little or no emolument, except what they can raife by extortion, it is exercised in the most unlimited manner. They take cognizance of all difputes between individuals, that come to their ears, without the cafe being laid before them by either of the parties; and on whatever lide the caufe is determined, there is a never failing charge brought in against both, for justice, as they exprefs it; and this price of juftice, is often three or four times greater, than the value of the matter in agitation.

An

An inftance of this kind fell under my own observation, in a trivial difpute, which happened between two English gentlemen, when the judges condemned each party to pay tripple the fum contefted; for juftice, which neither of them had ever thought of feeking at fuch a tribunal. Yet, however abfurd this may appear, it is, perhaps, nothing more than a prejudice, arifing from the force of habit, that makes us look with contempt and indignation on thofe mercenary retailers of juftice, and yet feel no fimilar emotions, when we fee, in a country famed for the wisdom of its government, a poor man, by appealing to the laws of that country, in a caufe where equity is plainly on his fide, reduced to ruin; merely because his antagonist is rich. But the inconveniencies that this government labours under are not only thofe of def potifm, the unhappy fubjects feel thofe of anarchy too. There are about twenty perfons concerned in the government of Rangoon, who, though one is fubordinate to another, and though matters of the first confequence are determined in a council of the whole, can yet act feparately; and any one member of this body can, by his own authority, give out orders, which no inhabitant of Pegu dares to disobey. Thofe orders may be contrary to the fenfe of the whole body, in which cafe they are, indeed, reverfed in council; but then there are inftances, and I myself observed one, of fuch orders being, notwithstanding, repeated, more than once, by the fame perfon, and obeyed, each time, till they were again reverfed; nor was any redress obtained by the party aggrieved, or any effectual measures taken to prevent fuch a contempt of authority for the future.'

The country itself is low and fandy; but it is not unwholefome either to the natives or ftrangers: perhaps the tides, which rife with rapidity, and to great heights, produce a brisker cir culation of the air than in other low spots; and, from the an tifeptic exhalations, correct the impurities of that element. Mr. Hunter proposes that a fettlement should be formed in this country, to procure wood of the best kind, and to obtain gold for the China market. The wood would be highly advantageous in cafe war was carried to the bay of Bengal, and the gold might, he thinks, be procured for opium, which is already a ftaple commodity. But till we have fomething more valuable than opium to offer, or a more varied affortment of merchandife, our returns from thence cannot be confiderable.

The Appendix contains obfervations on the hair, and on the wool of sheep, in hot countries. Mr. Hunter endeavours to fhow that the degeneracy of the fleeces in warm climates is owing to relaxation; and that the hair is, in fact, an infpiffated fluid, drawn out like the filk of the filk. worm, or the web of the fpider. The relaxation is fuppofed to enlarge the pores through