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of the corporation: a table of fines is printed, and they are coinpellable to carry the chair five hundred yards for fix-pence, and a proportional greater diftance for a filling,

Projected Improvements.-Till the check the rage for building experienced at the breaking out of the war, Bath bid fair fhortly to double its prefent bulk; and it must be confefsed, that no place affords greater encouragement to a spirit of adventure, whether we confider its natural or acquired advantages. All who have ever vifited it, acknowledge it to be unique, and captivating in the highest degree; and when even the improvements now determined on are carried into execution, it will be fill more fafcinating to the eye of tulte.

In the year 1789, the corporation procured an act of parlia ment, for widening and enlarging the principal avenues in the lower, or old town, and for making five new streets. The first of thefe is to lead from Burton-ftreet to Stall-ftrect; the fecond, from the weft fide of Stall-street to the Crofs Bath; the third, from the north fide of the Crofs Bath to Weftgate-ftreet; the fourth, from the fouth fide of the Crofs Bath to the Borough Wall; and the fifth, from the weft fide of Stall-ftreet to the Borough Wail.

A new road is to be made through Bathwick meadows, communicating with the New Bridge, by which a confiderable stretch of the London road through Walcot, &c. will be cut off. On the Pulteney eftate, there are to be many more new ftreets, a square, a circus, and a crefcent.'

The amufements are generally known; but we cannot pafs over the following remarks on the prints given in this work, which we highly applaud, and indeed regard the contrary practice with contempt, as a specics of literary forgery.

And here in juftification of ourselves, if it fhould be urged against us, that, by copying too rigidly, we have facrificed beauty to minute veracity, let us beg our readers' patience, while we candidly animadvert on a modern refinement in one branch of descriptive art, which feems to threaten the ruin of one fpecies of integrity: a refinement, if falfe, that cannot be too ftrenuously oppofed, as it comes from an authority, even we who condemn it, acknowledge to be refpectable, and with which we often are happy to coincide.

'We have been induftriously taught of late, that, when delineating a view from nature, we are not only permitted, but obliged, if we would gain the approbation which all artists seek, to correct any deformities or difcords we may meet with in the objects before Now, if this practice be once admitted and fanctioned, adieu to all refemblance in landicape, and to all thofe pleafing emotions which are excited when we trace on canvas the haunts of our youth, pr the fcenes endeared to us by circumftances of focial or domeftic felicity.

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felicity. All deviation from beauty is not uglinefs, all want of harmony is not grating difcord. Perhaps, the ftrait line, or unfortunate angle was the feature which gave character to the view; and without it all comparifon may be vain.

Another ftrong objection to the practice here reprobated, is, that the ideas of hardly any two will agree refpecting beauty, and, confequently, that what one artift would reject as stiff, heavy, or inharmonious, another may adopt as fublime and contrasting.

When we are employed to compose a junction of picturesque objects, we are undoubtedly at liberty to pillage all the ftore-houfes of nature, to groupe, to transpose, and to riot in all the luxuriance of fancy; but a portrait must be a refemblance, or it is worth little to the poffeffor; and if we affume to ourfelves the licence of planting and felling trees, cleaving mountains, and bending rivers, what is to deter us, when depicting the human form, from amending in it whatever we think faulty?

When, exercifing our tafte without restraint, we seek a spot affording a subject for the pencil, we are not compellable to take fuch as thwart our ideas of picturesque beauty; but when we are inftructed as to the compofition of our picture, furely fidelity demands that it should be a copy, and not a creation.

We must often caricature improprieties before we can judge how far fmall deviations will lead us aftray. Suppofe, then, we are directed, in a strongly-featured country, to a level encompaffed with dufky rocks, barren, and, to ufe the modern phrafe, impracticable: fuppofe the middle of the plain affords us fome acres of a lake rectilinear in its boundaries, that the back-ground is formed of a mountain divided in the middle by an angular opening; and that the foreground, on one hand, gives us an acclivity nearly answering to one of thefe maffes. The picturefque painter turns with abhorrence from fuch a jargon of croffing lines, till recollecting that a wood in the fartheft distance, a ragged plantation on one of the rocks, a graceful bend of the water, and a little chizeling of the fore-ground, or the partial concealment of it by an old oak, will make it an agreeable view, he fets to work, and prefently produces a creation, it is true, of his own brain, but not a representation of an awful, fterile country.

'On the whole, as to falfify is to deceive; and as to attempt ornament is often to deform what was not defigned for it, we, in this work are content to take our views as they really exift, aiming at nothing higher than making the most of them, by chufing a good point of view, and fatisfied with the praife of fcrupulous fidelity.'

It is proper to inform our readers, that there is but one view of Bath, or its environs: thirteen, out of fixteen prints, relate to the Hotwells of Bristol, the Avon, and the Severn:

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but the vacuity of decoration, in the first part of the book, is compenfated by the abundance in the latter divifion.

The journey from Bath to Bristol, and the account of the latter city, we need not detail; but is doubtful that Bristol is now, next to London, the chief mart of English commerce, as Liverpool has, perhaps, greater pretenfions to that diftinction; the manufactures of this country gradually moving north, as labour becomes more expenfive in the already opulent fouth. The defcription of the Well-houfe, of which there are two good views, we shall tranfcribe:

'The Well-house is situated at the foot of the romantic rocks of St. Vincent, and under the steep crags of Clifton, and obtrudes itself several feet into the Avon. It has a good effect when viewed from almost any point; and, for a building of the fort, may be termed picturefque. Its gable ends are converted into chimnies. The crefcent, that extends towards what is called the Rock-house, varies the forms of this compofition very happily, and it is backed by abrupt rocks, well covered with verdure, and affording an agreeable repofe for the eye. The Well-house harmonizes with this fcene, and prevents the stupendous cliffs from bursting on the fight at an improper distance, and thereby leffening their picturefque effect. Paffing under the piazza, and through the paffage of the house, the view is grand, even to a degree of awfulness. Some violent effort of nature appears to have rent the folid rock to form a bed for the river Avon, which rolls in a tremendous chafm for more than two miles.

'The water of the Hot-well, commonly known by the name of Bristol water, iffues out of a rock on the north fide of the river Avon, and when first drawn, is warm and of a whitish colour; but this hue it lofes as it cools. Bubbles rife in it on its first exposure to the air; the taste is very soft and milky, but it leaves a peculiar ftyptic fenfation on the palate. The elafticity of the air with which it is impregnated, makes it neceffary to drink it quickly. An impregnation of lime, fulphur, nitre, and iron, with the addition of an alkaline quality, is difcovered in this water by the ufual chemical procefs. It diffolves fal-ammoniac with a confiderable effervefcence. Oil of tartar will make it cifervefce, and increases the milky appearance, which, in going off, leaves a light earthy precipitate. Diffolved foap curdles it, and covers the furface with a greafy fubftance, the water below at the fame time becoming turbid. Solution of filver will produce an inky appearance in the water. A gallon of water contains about thirty-four grains of a light grey brackish fediment, with a latent bitterness, perceptible in the throat. This fediment ferments with acids, and is turned green by fyrup of violets.

Amongst the writers who have treated of the Bristol water, Dr.

Keir, Dr. Higgins, and Dr. Randolph, are the most confpicuous The degree of heat by Fahrenheit's thermometer is judged to be feventy-fix.

Those who refort hither for health, drink the water early in the morning, and about five in the evening, ufing gentle exercife after it. A lefs quantity is taken at firit than afterwards, and it must be perfevered in daily; it may be drank at meals, and agrees well with wine and malt liquers; but, in common with most other means of reftoring or preferving health, it is highly inimical to all fpirituous liquors.

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The effects of first taking this water are unpleafant, and far front encouraging, unless the patient is aware that they are to be confidered as indications that it agrees and will produce benefit. The fymptoms are nearly thofe of intoxication, but in a few days they

ceafe to be trouble fome.

This water is faid to have been discovered by fome failors, who coming from long voyages, much affifted with the fcurvy, as they paffed from King-road to Briftol, here drank and wafied, and found relief. For all eruptions of this nature, for obftructions, for internal inflammation, for confumptive habits, and fometimes even in fcrophulous and cancerous difcafes, this water has been found a remedy, if applied to in an early ftage of the diforder; and in chronic diforders it has afforded great relief.

The wells have the neceflary attendant of fuch a place, gaiety. The refort to them is great, and during the fummer months, a band of mufic attends every morning. Here is a master of the ceremo nies, who conducts the public balls and breakfafts, which are given twice a week.

The environs of Bristol are defcribed with great minutenefs, and are illuftrated with many prints; but our limits will not permit us to extend our extracts. Bristol Channel, Tintern Abbey, Chepstow, &c. furnish additional fubjects to this entertaining work, which is among the best of the picturesque defcription.

The Hiftory of the Poor; their Rights, Duties, and the Laws refpecting Them. By. T. Ruggles, Efq. F. A. S. 820. Vol. II. 55. Boards. Deighton. 1794.

OF the former volume of thefe Letters we gave an account in our Review for July laft. In the one now before us, the author profecutes the fubject with great precifion; taking a view of the feveral productions which have lately been writ ten on this important inquiry, and pointing out both the merits and defects, as they appear fuch to him, of the plans fuggefted by different writers.

With respect to the expedient propofed by fome, of leaving the fupport of the poor to private contributions, it would, our author thinks, in the prefent fate of civilization, refinement, and general apathy to religious matters, be a cruel and unjust direliction. He maintains the neceflity of a regular provifion fanctioned by the legislature; but that previously to every public impoft for the fupport of the poor, the occupiers of the lands at prefent pertaining to the church, as well as of thofe alienated at the Reformation, ought to refign, for that purpose, at least a fourth part of their revenue, as being a moderate proportion of what was originally granted chiefly for the maintenance of the poor, and which, during many ages, was exclufively applied to their relief. This however, is a propofal, which the author entertains no fanguine expectation of ever being carried into effect.

Some writers having recommended a total repeal of the law of fettlements refpecting the poor, the author is of opinion that fuch a measure might, in the prefent ftate of things, promote vagrancy, which is a diforder both in morals and induf try, tending to the worst confequences that can arife from population. He therefore thinks that a modification of the ferdements, on principles more confiftent with the general advantage of fociety, is the whole that should be attempted.

If the poor, fays he, were permitted to remove from place to place, as beft fuited the interests of industry; it would be reasons able, that the fame authority which granted them the liberty, fhould connect it with fuch regulations as are neceflary to the fafety and advantage of the ftate; which might probably be effected by preventing that liberty, which was intended for the encouragement of industry, degenerating into vagrancy; by making it of immediate ufe, in diminishing the expences of their maintenance; and by offering a profpect of advantage to pofterity, from the certain good tendency of an induftrious education.

To effect the first end, box-clubs fhould be the means; which fhould be obligatory on all the poor while in health, and without a family of children; or poffibly the Lex trium liberorum might with propriety be the point of exemption; but thofe who migrate, as the only good reafon for their migration must be larger wages, fhould contribute a larger proportion of their earnings; if one-thirty-fixth were the general proportion, one-twenty-fourth might be a proper proportion of the earnings of thofe who leave their parishes.

Government has an undoubted right, on every principle of natural justice, to direct, in fome meafure, the education of thofe children whose parents are chargeable to fociety; and this arifes from the reciprocity on the part of government, to preferve all the verned from perishing by want.

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