quickfande, as no one but himself would have attempted to conquer.

Soon after the navigation from the Trent to the Merfey was undertaken, application was made to Parliament, by the gentlemen of Staffordshire and Worcestershire, for leave to conftru&t a canal from the Grand Trunk, near Haywood in Staffordshire, to the river Severn, near Bewdley. The aft b: ing obtained, the design was executed by our great engineer, and hereby the port of Bristol was added to the two before united ports of Liverpool and Hull. This canal, which is about forty-fix miles in length, was completed in 1772. Mr. Brindley's next undertaking was the furvey and execution of a canal from Birmingham, to unite with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal near Wolverhampton. This navigation, which was finished in about three years, is twenty-fix miles in length. As, by the means of it, vast quantities of coals are conveyed to the river Severn, as well as to Birmingham, where there must be a peculiar demand for them, extraordinary advantages have hence accrued to manufactures and commerce. Our engineer advifed the proprietors of the last mentioned navigation, in order to avoid the inconvenience of locks, and to fupply the canal more effectually with water, to have a tunnel at Smethwick. This would have rendered it a complete work. But his advice was rejected, and, to fupply the deficiency, the managers have lately erected two of Meffrs. Watts and Boulton's fteam engines. The canal from Droitwich to the river Severn, for the conveyance of falt and coals, was, likewife, executed by Mr. Brindley. By him, alfo, the Coventry navigation was planned, and it was a fhort time under his direction. But a difpute arifing concerning the mode of execution, he refigned his office; which, it is imagined, the proprietors of that undertaking have fince had caufe to lament. Some little time before his death, Mr. Brindley began the Oxfordshire canal. This unites with the Coventry canal, and, if the latter were completed, would be a continuation of the Grand Trunk Navigation to Oxford, and fo far towards London. Though the proprietors were too foon deprived of their engineer, for whom they entertained the higheft refpect, they, nevertheless, continue the work with great fpirit, and give reafon to hope that it will be attended with the defired fuccefs. The canal from Chesterfield to the river Trent at Stockwith, was the last public undertaking in which Mr. Brindley engaged. He furveyed and planned the whole, and executed fome miles of the navigation, which was fuccefsfully finished by Mr. Henshall, in 1777. There were few works of this nature projected, in any part of the kingdom, in which our engineer was not confulted. He was employed, in particular, by the City of London, to furvey a courfe for a canal from Sunning, near Reading in Berkshire, to Monkey Island, near Richmond. But when application was made to Parliament, for leave to effect the defign, the bill met with fuch a violent oppofition from the land owners, that it was defeated. Thefe gentlemen would not fuffer their fine villas to be disturbed by noify boatmen, or their extenfive lawns to be cut through for the accommodation of trade and commerce; though it was from trade and commerce that most of their fine villas and extenfive lawns had derived their origin.

Mr.

Mr. Brindley had, for fome time, the direction of the Calder nas vigation; but he declined a farther inspection of it, on account of a difference in opinion among the Commiffioners. In the year 1766, he laid out a canal from the river Calder, at Cooper's Bridge, to Huddersfield in Yorkshire, which hath fince been carried into execution. In 1768, he revised the plan for the inland navigation from Leeds to Liverpool. He was, likewife, at the firft general meeting of the proprietors, after the act of Parliament had been obtained, appointed the engineer for conducting the work: but the multiplicity of his other engagements obliged him to decline this employment. In the fame year, he planned a canal from Stockton, by Darlington, to Winfton in the Bishopric of Durham. Three plans, of the like kind, were formed by him in 1769'; one from Leeds to Selby; another from the Bristol Channel, near Uphill in Somersetfhire, to Glastonbury, Taunton, Wellington, Tiverton, and Exeter; and a third from Langport, in the county of Somerset, by way of Ilminster, Chard, and Axminster, to the South Channel, at Axmouth, in the county of Devon. In 1770, he furveyed the country, for a canal from Andover, by way of Stockbridge and Rumfey, to Redbridge near Southampton; and, in 1771, from Salisbury, by Fordingbridge and Ringwood, to Christchurch. He performed the like office, in 1772, for a navigation of the fame kind, propofed to be carried on from Prefton to Lancaster, and from thence to Kendal, in Westmoreland. He furveyed, likewife, and planned out a canal, to join that of the Duke of Bridgwater's at Runcorn, from Liverpool. If this scheme had been executed, it was Mr. Brindley's intention to have conftructed the work, by an aqueduct, over the river Mersey, at a place where the tide flows fourteen feet in height. He also furveyed the county of Chester, for a canal from the Grand Trunk to the city of Chefter. The plan for joining the Forth and the Clyde was revised by him; and he propofed fome confiderable alterations, particularly with regard to the deepening of the Clyde, which have been attended to by the managers. He was confulted upon feveral improvements with refpect to the draining of the low lands, in different parts of Lincolnshire and the Isle of Ely. A canal was likewife laid out by him, for uniting that of Chesterfield, by the way of Derby, with the Grand Trunk at Swarkftone. To the corporation of Liverpool, he gave a plan for cleanfing their docks of mud. This hath been put into execution with the defired effect and he pointed out, alfo, the method, which has been attended with equal fuccefs, of building walls against the fea without mortar. The laft of our great mechanic's ingenious and uncommon contrivances, that we shall mention, is his improvement of the machine for drawing water out of mines, by a lofing and gaining bucket. This he afterwards employed, to advatage, in raifing up coals from the mines.

When any extraordinary difficulty occurred to Mr. Brindley, in the execution of his works, having little or no aflistance from books, or the labours of other men, his refources lay within himself. In order, therefore, to be quiet and uninterrupted, whilst he was in fearch of the neceffary expedients, he generally retired to his bed; and he has been known to lie there one, two, or three days, till he

had

had attained the object in view. He then would get up, and execute his defign without any drawing or model. Indeed, it never was his custom to make either, unless he was obliged to do it to fatisfy his employers. His memory was fo remarkable, that he has often declared that he could remember, and execute, all the parts of the moft complex machine, provided he had time, in his furvey of it, to fettle, in his mind, the feveral departments, and their relations to each other. His method of calculating the powers of any machine invented by him, was peculiar to himself. He worked the queftion for fome time in his head, and then put down the refults in figures. After this, taking it up again in that ftage, he worked it farther in his mind, for a certain time, and fet down the refults as before. In the fame way he ftill proceeded, making use of figures only at stated periods of the question. Yet the ultimate refult was generally true, though the road he travelled in fearch of it was unknown to all but himself; and, perhaps, it would not have been in his power to have hewn it to another.

The attention which was paid by Mr. Brindley to objects of peculiar magnitude did not permit him to indulge himself in the common diverfions of life. Indeed, he had not the leaft relish for the amufements to which mankind, in general, are so much devoted. He never feemed in his element, if he was not either planning or executing fome great work, or converfing with his friends upon fubjects of importance. He was once prevailed upon, when in London, to fee a play. Having never been at an entertainment of this kind before, it had a powerful effect upon him, and he complained, for feveral days afterward, that it had difturbed his ideas, and rendered him unfit for bufinefs. He declared, therefore, that he would not go to another play upon any account. It might, however, have Contributed to the longer duration of Mr. Brindley's life, and confequently to the farther benefit of the Public, if he could have occafionally relaxed the tone of his mind. His not being able to do so, might not folely arife from the vigour of his genius, always bent upon capital defigns; but be, in part, the refult of that total want of education, which, while it might add ftrength to his powers in the particular way in which they were exerted, precluded him, at the fame time, from those agreeable reliefs that are administered by mifcellaneous reading, and a tafte in the polite and elegant arts. The only fault he was obferved to fall into, was his fuffering himself to be prevailed upon to engage in more concerns than could be completely attended to by any fingle man, how eminent foever might be his abilities and diligence. It is apprehended that, by this means, Mr. Brindley fhortened his days, and, in a certain degree, abridged his usefulness. There is, at leaft, the utmost reason to believe, that his intenfe application, in general, to the important undertakings he had in hand, brought on a hectic fever, which continued upon him, with little or no intermiffion, for fome years, and, at length, terminated his life. He died at Turnhurft, in Staffordshire, on the 27th of September, 1772, in the 56th year of his age, and was buried at New Chapel in the fame county. The vast works Mr. Brindley was engaged in at the time of his death, he left to be carried on and completed by his brother-in-law, Mr. Henfhall, for whom

he

he had a peculiar regard, and of whofe integrity and abilities, in conducting these works, he had the highest opinion.

Thus was the world deprived, at a comparatively early period, of this great genius

Of mother wit, and wife without the schools,'

who very foon gave indications of uncommon talents, and extensive views, in the application of mechanical principles; and who, by a happy concurrence of circumftances, the chief of which was the patronage of his Grace the Duke of Bridgwater, was favoured with an opportunity of unfolding and difplaying his wonderful powers, in the execution of works new to this country, and fuch as will extend his fame, and endear his memory, to future times. The Public could only recognize the merit of this extraordinary man in the ftupendous undertakings which he carried to perfection, and exhibited to general view. But thofe who had the advantage of converfing with him familiarly, and of knowing him well in his private character, refpected him ftill more for the uniform and unfhaken integrity of his conduct; for his fteady attachment to the intereft of the community; for the vaft compafs of his understanding, which feemed to have a natural affinity with all grand objects, and, likewife, for many noble and beneficent defigns, conftantly generating in his mind, and which the multiplicity of his engagements, and the fhortness of his life, prevented him from bringing to maturity."

There are, in this volume, many other lives from which we were tempted to make extracts, but from which we are forbidden by our limits; among the articles heré alluded to, are the lives of the late Earl Bathurft-of Dr. Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne-of that upright fenator and diftinguished patriot Henry Booth, Earl of Warrington, and of the celebrated John Boyle, Earl of Corke and Orrery. Befide thefe, the prefent volume contains the following new lives, viz. Andrew Baxter, Metaphyfician; Mary Beale, Painter; George Benfon, Divine; Juliana Berners, learned Lady; William Berriman, Divine; Charles Bertheau, Divine; Thomas Birch, Biographer; Sir Richard Blackmore, Phyfician and Poet; Thomas Blackwell, Critic; William Borlafe, Antiquary and Natural Hiftorian; Thomas Bott, Divine; William Bowyer, Printer; Mark Alexander Boyd, Latin Poet; John Boyfe, Divine; Samuel Boyfe, Poet; James Bradley, Aftronomer; Sir Reginald Bray, Statesman; Hugh Broughton, Divine; William Brown, Poet; Simon Brown, Divine; Ifaac Hawkins Brown, Poet; John Brown, Various Writer; George Buchanan, Hiftorian; Euftace Budgel, Author. The Editors apprehend the Work will be completed in nine volumes.

ART.

ART. II. A Tour in Ireland; with general Obfervations on the prefent State of that Kingdom: made in the Years 1776, 1777, and 1778. And brought down to the end of 1779. By Arthur Young, Efq; CONTINUED. See our laft Month's Review.

HEN the wretched ftate of agriculture, and indeed of

WHE

every species of rural management, in Ireland, is confidered, it is no wonder, that gentlemen of fortune and enterprize are ftimulated to exertions much beyond any thing we know of in this ifland. Indeed, with us, there is no neceffity for gentlemen to engage in undertakings of fuch various comprehenfion and magnitude. English farmers have, in general, capitals equal to their farms, and the only encouragement they want, is an advantageous leafe. In Ireland, we obferve a melancholy reverse: the tenantry, fome of the opulent graziers excepted, are for the moft part an oppreffed and impoverished race. Their whole attention having been always occupied by their immediate neceffities, they are unable to look forward to those reverfionary advantages which arife from an improved fyftem of agriculture, and for which they frequently are to forego prefent gratification and emolument. But even fuppofing their views were more enlarged, and that a fpirit of improvement fhould be awakened in them, yet the want of capital muft ever be an impediment to their progrefs which in moft cafes will be infurmountable. So true, in more fenfes than one, is the wife man's obfervation, The deftruction of the poor is their poverty. How happy then are thofe who are placed under the patronage of men whofe fuperior fortune and abilities enable them to call forth into action those powers which, without fuch affistance, they never could have exerted! of men, whose wealth is employed in the diffufion of happiness !-We were led more immediately into this reflection by the account which Mr. Young gives of the Lord Chief Baron Forfter's truly aftonishing improvements:

im

Took the road to Cullen, where the Lord Chief Baron Forster received me in the most obliging manner, and gave me a variety of information uncommonly valuable. He has made the greatest i provements I have any where met with. The whole country 22 years ago was a waste fheep walk, covered chiefly with heath, with fome dwarf furze and fern. The cabbins and people as miferable as can be conceived; not a Proteftant in the country, nor a road paffable for a carriage. In a word, perfectly resembling other mountainous tracts, and the whole yielding a rent of not more than from 3s. to 48. an acre. Mr. Forfter could not bear fo barren a property, and determined to attempt the improvement of an eftate of 5000 acres till then deemed irreclaimable. He encouraged the tenants by every fpecies of perfuafion and expence; but they had fo ill an opinion of the land, that he was forced to begin with 2 or 3000 REV. Aug. 1780.

H

acres