no less than 25 women. This witticifm probably had its rife from a then recent fact, which reflected great honour on the late fir Walter Blackett, baronet, who was at that time the fat friend of, and much attached to, Mr. Murray, and alfo to Mr. Booth, the conveyancer. Sir Walter stated his cafe to them in Lincoln's-inn, and pointed out the dilemma into which a friend in the north (Mr. Davifon) had drawn him, by leaving 1500l. to be laid out, under the direction of fir Walter, in building a fuite of alms-houses for twelve old women, near Newcastle upon Tyne. Sir Walter added, how uncomfortable these poor creatures will be placed in a row, without any human being to look upon. What think you, my friends and counsellors, if I run up another wing for twelve old batchelors? The learned counfel agreed in opinion, that the charitable inftitution would thereby be freed from partiality, and be abundantly more comfortable and more complete. The fuperftructers were foon raif. ed, and according to common fame, in a year or two afterward, feveral of the ancient maidens and old batchelors looked with great complacency on each other, fo as to occafion a few marriages to take place, and to make convenient room for other inmates and inhabitants under these hospitable habitations. THE virtues which were moft confpicuous in lord Mansfield's private character, and which gained most on his affections, were a love of moral rectitude, and fidelity in friendship. In public as in private life, his precepts and his practice inculcated, recommended, and enforced, every branch of moral rectitude. In trying a caufe at the fittings after term at Guildhall, a merchant loft his temper, who was the defendant in an action of debt, in detailing with great warmth, to the chief justice, the great indignity put upon him, a merchant of London, by the plaintiff, in caufing him to be arrested, not only in the face of day, but on the Royal Exchange! Lord Mansfield, with great compofure, flopped him, faying. Friend, you forget yourfelf; you were the great defaulter, in refufing to pay a juft debt; and let me give you a piece of advice, worth more to you than the debt and cofts. Be careful in future not to put it in any man's power to arrest you for a just debt, in public or in private.' In his friendships, he was cautious in making them, but none was more conftant in preferving the various links when they were riveted, or more zealous in the discharge of all the pleafing duties of friendfhip. The learned man, in him, frequently found a patron, and a zealous promoter of his merit. And whenever an ingenious barrister was difcovered, whose fortune was fmall, or whofe friends were few, he was foothed and rejoiced to find, unasked, and when leaft expected, fome generous plan · fuggefted, matured, and carried into execution, to extricate him from difficulties, or to point out the path to future fame. Some of the fhining ornaments of the bar have in early life experienced the viciffitudes of fickle fortune, have had their legal ftudies embittered with difficulties and diftrefs. Not a few, who have emerged from early embarraffment, will, I am perfuaded, ever ever recollect with gratitude, and may exult in the recollection of the earl of Mansfield's interpofition in their behalfs, and in various pleafing inftances conducted with peculiar adroitnefs and delicacy, fo as not to wound the feelings of any one. His lordship had read with critical accuracy, and with a penetrating eye, the important book of human life, and was very skilful in probing the heart of man. He could develope ftratagem, however artfully concealed under the cloak of hypocrify or diffimulation. In the Tuscan code of laws promulgated and established with fome fuccefs by the late emperor of Germany, when duke of Tuscany, we learn, that certainty of punishment, after the guilt of the perpetrator of a crime had been fully proved, contributed forcibly and confiderably to the prevention of crimes. Lord Mansfield feems to have coincided in this opinion generally, and particularly when the very dangerous crime of forgery in a commercial state became the ferious fubject of difcuffion. Not a life of unfpotted integrity previous to the commiffion of a fingle crime could fave Robert Perreau, the favourite companion of fome, and the excellent apothecary to many, noble families. By honeft industry and uncommon diligence in his medical profeffion he had acquired fomething like a competency, but, like too many vain and afpiring mortals, he must move in a different fphere, and gain a large fortune in the banking line. Deluded and deceived by a brother, and by a moft artful woman-a forgery was committed, and his life paid the forfeit to the laws of his country. The incerceffions of the great did not weigh in the balance which the chief juftice held in the council. Forgery is a ftab to commerce, and only to be tolerated in a commercial nation when the foul crime of murder is pardoned. A few years afterward, Dr Dodd's fentence for a fimilar crime of for gery became the ferious fubject of debate, in a high circle. Great intereft was made to mitigate the fentence; but the ftrong expreffion of the chief juftice is said to have precluded mitigation, which, according to general report, was to the following effect : "If Dr Dodd does not fuffer the juft fentence of the law, the Perreaus may be faid to have been murdered." DESCRIPTION OF THE VIEW. PENNYCUIR HOUSE, is fituate at the distance of about nine miles, between weft and fouth-west from Edinburgh; on the northern bank of the North Efk; amidst a tract of ground, of which the furface is naturally broken, with confiderable irregularity, into rifing knolls, level meads, retiring dells, abrupt glynns, and broad fwelling ridges. The house is fpacious and elegant in its architecture. Its fculptured ornaments are light and elegant. Its principal front looks towards the north-east: The access to it, is by a winding road which approaches, nearly in this fame direction. The principal rooms with in, are large, in a due proportion to the fize of the edifice; skilfully proportioned, in their relative height, breadth, and length; cheerfully lighted; handfomely furnished; and fo arranged, as to compofe a very elegant fuite. The Picterefque forms, at prefent, in a very confpicuous degree, the character of the place and its environs. To this general effect, a Gothic tower, a Ruftic temple, other ornaments of fanciful architecture, and fome fine pieces of water, all remarkably confpise. On one fide appear in the widening profpect, the range of the Pentland heights; and on the other, the view is bounded by the hills of Tweeddale. ACCOUNT JAME ACCOUNT OF MR JAMES BRINDLEY. From a Survey of the Counties of Lancashire, Se. AMES BRINDLEY was born at Tunfted, in the parish of Wormhill, Derbyshire, in 1716. His father was a small freeholder, who diffipated his property in company and field amufements, and neglected his family. In confequence, young Brindley was left deftitute of even the common rudiments of education, and till the age of seventeen was cafually employed in rustic labours. At that period he bound himself apprentice to one Bennet, a mill-wright, at Macclesfield, in Cheshire, where his mechanical genius prefently developed itfelf. The mafter being frequently abfent, the apprentice was often left for weeks together to finish pieces of works concerning which he had received no inftruction; and Bennet, on his return, was often greatly af tonished to fee improvements in various parts of mechanifm, of which he had no previous conception. It was not long before the millers difcovered Brindley's merits, and preferred him in the execution of their orders to the mafter or any other workman, At the expiration of his fervitude, Bennet being grown into years, he took the management of the bufinefs upon himself, and by his kill and industry contributed to fupport his old mafter and his family in a comfortable manner. In procefs of time Brindley fet up as a mill-wright on his own account, and by a number of new and ingenious contrivances, greatly improved that branch of mechanics, and acquired a high reputation in the neighbourhood. His fame extending to a wider circle, he was employed in 1752 to erect a water-engine at Clifton, in Lancashire, for the purpofe of draining fome coal mines. Here he gave an effay of his abilities in a kind of work for which he was after Ed. Mag. Sept. 1797. 167 wards fo much distinguished, driving a tunnel under ground through a rock nearly 600 yards in length, by which water was brought out of the Irwell for the purpose of turning a wheel fixed thirty feet below the furface of the earth. In 1755 he was employed to execute the larger wheels for a filk mill at Congleton; and another perfon, who was engaged to make other parts of the machinery, and to fuperintend the whole, prov ing incapable of completing the work, the bufinefs was entirely committed to Brindley; who not only executed the original plan in a masterly manner, but made the addition of many curious and valuable improvements, as well in the construction of the engine itself, as in the method of making the wheels and pinions belonging to it. About this time, too, the mills for grinding flints in the Staffordshire potteries received various useful improvements from his ingenuity. In the year 1756 he undertook to erect a team-engine upon a new plan at Newcastle-under-Line; and he was for a time very intent upon a variety of contrivances for improving this useful piece of mechanifm. But from thefe defigns he was, happily for the public, called away to take the lead in what the event has proved to be a national concern of capital importance the projecting the fyftem of canal navigation.-The Duke of Bridgewater, who had formed his defign of carrying a canal from his coal-works at Worley to Manchefter, was induced by the reputation of Mr Brindley to confult him on the execution of it; and having the fa gacity to perceive, and ftrength of mind to confide in, the original and commanding abilities of this felftaught genius, he committed to him the management of the arduous unY dertaking dertaking. The nature and progress of this enterprise have already been defcribed; it is enough here to mention, that Mr Brindley, from the very firft, adopted thofe leading principles, in the projecting of these works, which he ever after adhered to, and in which he has been imitated by all facceeding artists. To preferve as much as poffible the level of his canals, and to avoid the mixture and interference of all natural ftreams, were objects at which he conftantly aimed. To accomplish thefe, no labour and expence was fpared; and his genius feemed to delight in overcoming all obftacles to them by the discovery of new and extraordinary contrivances. The most experienced engineers upon former fyftems were amazed and confounded at his projects of aqueduct bridges over navigable rivers, mounds across deep vallies, and fubterraneous tunnels; nor could they believe in the practicability of fome of these schemes till they faw them effected. In the execution, the ideas he followed were all his own; and the minutest, as well as the greateft, of the expedients he employed, bore the ftamp of originality. Every man of genius is an enthufiaft. Mr Brindley was an enthufiaft in favour of the fuperiority of canal navigations above thofe of rivers; and this triumph of art over nature led him to view with a fort of contempt the winding ftream, in which the lover of rural beauty fo much delights. This fentiment he is faid to have expreffed in a ftriking manner at an examination before a Committee of the Houfe of Commons, when, on being asked, after having made fome contemptuous remarks relative to rivers, what he conceived they were created for, he answered, to feed navigable canals.' A direct rivalry with the navigation of the Irwell and Merfey, was the bold enterprize of his first great canal; and fince the fuccefs of that defign, it has become common all over the kingdom to fee canals accompanying, with infulting parallel, the courfe of navigable rivers. After the fuccefsful execution of the Duke of Bridgewater's canal to the Merfey, Mr Brindley was employed in the revived defign of carrying a canal from that river to the Trent, through the counties of Chef. ter and Stafford. This undertaking commenced in the year 1766; and from the great ideas it opened to the mind of its conductor, of a scheme of inland navigation which should connect all the internal parts of England with each other, and with the principal fea-ports, by means of branches from this main ftem, he gave it the emphatical name of the Grand Trunk. In executing this, he was called upon to employ all the refources of his invention, on account of the inequality and various nature of the ground to be cut through: in par ticular, the hill of Harecaftle, which was only to be paffed by a tunnel of great length, bored through ftrata of different confiftency, and fome of them mere quickfand, proved to be a moft difficult as well as expenfive obftacle, which, however, he completely furmounted. While this was carrying on, a branch from the Grand Trunk to join the Severn near Bewdley was committed to his management, and was finished in 1772. He alfo executed a canal from Droitwich to the Severn; and he planned the Coventry Canal, and for fome time fuperintended its execution, but on account of fome difference in opinion he refigned that office. The Chesterfield Canal was the laft undertaking of the kind which he conducted, but he only lived to finish fome miles of it. There was, however, fcarcely any defign of canal-navigation fet on foot in the kingdom, during the latter years of his life, in which he was not confulted, and the plan of which he did not either entirely form, or revife and and improve. All these it is needlefs to enumerate; but as an inftance of the vastness of his ideas, it may be mentioned, that on planning a canal from Liverpool to join that of the Duke of Bridgewater at Runcorn, it was part of his intention to carry it by an aqueduct bridge across the Merfey, at Runcorn Gap, a place where a tide fometimes rifing fourteen feet rushes with great rapidity through a fudden contraction of the channel. As a mechanic and engineer, he was likewife confulted on other occafions; as with refpect to the draining of the low lands in different parts of Lincolnshire and the Ifle of Ely, and to the cleaning of the docks of Liverpool from mud. He pointed out a method, which has been fuccefsfully practifed, of building fea-walls without mortar; and he was the author of a very ingenious improvement of the machine for drawing water out of mines by the contrivance of a lofing and a gaining bucket. The intenfity of application which all his various and complicated em ployments required, probably fhortened his days; as the number of his undertakings, in fome degree, impaired his usefulness. He fell into a kind of chronic fever, which, after continuing fome years, with little intermiffion, at length wore out his frame, and put a period to his life on September 27th, 1772, in the 56th year of his age. He died at Turn hurst, in Staffordshire, and was buried at New Chapel in the fame county. his mind with his business, that ho was incapable of relaxing in any of the common amufements of life. As he had not the ideas of other men to affift him, whenever a point of diffi culty in contrivance occurred, it was his cuftom to retire to his bed, where in perfect folitude he would lie for one, two, or three days, pondering the matter in his mind, till the requi fite expedient had prefented itfelf, This is that true inspiration which poets have almoft exclufively arrogated to themselves, but which men of original genius in every walk are actuated by, when from the operation of the mind acting upon itfelf, without the intrufion of foreign notions, they create and invent. A remarkably retentive memory was one of the effential qualities which Mr Brindley brought to his mental operations. This enabled him to execute all the parts of the most complex machine in due order, without any help of models or drawings, provided he had once accurately fettled the whole plan in his mind. In his calculations of the powers of machines, he followed a plan peculiar to himself; but, indeed, the only one he could follow without inftruction in the rules of art. He would work the queftion fome time in his head, and then fet down the refult in figures. Then taking it up in this ftage, he would again proceed by a mental operation to another refult; and thus he would go on by ftages till the whole was finished, only making ufe of figures to mark the feveral results. of his operations. But though, by the wonderful powers of native ge nius, he was thus enabled to get over his want of artificial method to a certain degree, yet there is no doubt that when his concerns became extremely complicated, with accounts, of various kinds to keep, and calcu lations of all forts to form, he could not avoid that perplexity and embar raffment which a readiness in the proY 2 In appearance and manners, as well as in acquirement, Mr Brindley was a mere peafant. Unlettered, and rude of fpeech, it was easier for him to devife means for executing a defign, than to communicate his ideas concerning it to others. Formed by nature for the profeffion he affumed, it was there alone that he was in his proper element; and fo occupied was ceffes |