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tons, was after this fashion: fhe came into the room where the King and his guests were fitting; making a low obedience to him, the faid, Be of good health Lord King; then having drank, the prefented it on her knees to the King, who (being told the meaning of what he had faid, together with the cuftom) took the cup, faying, I drink your health, and drank also.'

This original flourish of Saxon politenefs in the ceremony of drinking, had by no means any fhare in promoting that intemperance which has difgraced the character of the English nation; for drunkennefs was brought into Britain by the Danes, who were fuch immoderate topers in the reign of Edgar, and fo much did their bad examples prevail with the English, that he, by the advice of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, put down many alehoufes, fuffering only one to be in a village or fmall town; and he alfo further ordained, that pins or nails fhould be fastened into the drinking cups and horns, at stated distances, and whofoever fhould drink beyond those marks at one draught, fhould be obnoxious to a fevere punishment.'

In the ancient hiftory of burials, Mr. Strutt gives a very copious detail of fepulchral cuftoms, from the earliest times; in which he fhews, his reading, tafte, and judgment.

He now proceeds to give a brief account of the Danes, whom he introduces with the following remark: The Saxons now settled in the kingdom, fhook off by degrees their natural ferocity, becoming much more civilized and polished; but as it often happens, that the minds of men run from one extreme to another, so our ancestors banishing the plain and homely habits of their forefathers, adopted in their ftead a fumptuous expensiveness in their drefs, as well as luxury and profuseness in their entertainments. The love of the most effeminate amusements took the place late occupied in their fouls by manly vaJour, and defire of glory. This material change from their ancient manhood fore-ran their deftruction, and haftened on the advancement of the Danes,'

The Danes, we are told, entertained a most barbarous idea of their God; it was a common practice with them to facrifice kings upon the altar of fuperftition; kings their subjects; and what is most horrid, fathers their children, to appease his wrath, or obtain his divine affiftance !-What muft the God of Mercy think of fuch inhumanity!

Moral instruction had little effect upon these favages; the prefent hour of brutifh enjoyment obliterated every fentiment of terror from future punishments; they were vicious in defpite of thofe frightful fcenes of mifery fo pathetically displayed by the Edda, as the portion of the wicked. "There is an abode remote from the fun, the gates of which face the North; poifon rains there through a thoufand openings: this place is all com

pofed

pofed of the carcaffes of ferpents; there run certain torrents, in which are plunged the perjurers, aflaffins, and those who seduce married women. A black-winged dragon flies inceffantly around, and devours the bodies of the wretched who are there imprisoned."

The establishment of juries took its rife from the religion of the Danes, as explained in the ancient Edda. "He (the univerfal father Odin) in the beginning established governors, and ordered them to decide whatever differences fhould arife amongst men, and to regulate the government of the celeftial city. The affembly of thefe judges was held in the plain called Ida, which is in the middle of the divine abode. Their first work was to build a hall, wherein are twelve feats for themselves, befides the throne, which is occupied by the Universal Father, &c." From hence came the fenate of twelve among the northern nations: the veftiges of this ancient custom may be discovered in the fable of the twelve peers of France, and in the establishment of the twelve jurymen in England, who are the proper judges according to the ancient laws of the country.'

Thefe flagitious Danes were likewife voluptuous and effeminate; their beds were conftructed for indulgence, and their beautiful locks that twisted round the hearts of the British females feemed to be their peculiar care. A young warrior going to be beheaded, begged of his executioner that his hair might not be touched by a flave, or ftained with his blood and Harald Harfragre (viz. Fair Locks) made a vow to his mistress to neglect his fine hair till he had compleated the conqueft of Norway, to gain her love.'

Their heroilm was fullied with vanity, and their diffipations. were inactive; the Danish kings and heroes always carried a poet with them to battle, to immortalize their prowefs; and they filled up their leifure hours with chefs, dice, and backgammon ; the last game was invented about this period in Wales, and derives its name from back (little) and cammon (battle.)'

From reviewing the different nations of which the English are compounded, it appears to us that manly fortitude and valour are truly British; the Saxons budded upon the original ftock the gentler virtues; and the Dancs engrafted cruelty, intemperance, and all the boisterous paffions which agitate the moft violent tempers; fo that we derive intrepidity from the Britons, politenefs from the Saxons, and barbarity from the Danes.

The Normans, of whom Mr. Strutt fays little, were shoots from the Saxon and Danish plants, and their properties fo blended that they partook of both.

See what is faid on this fubject in our Review for March, p. 196; where the origin of our juries is referred to the Saxons.

This

This discourse on the manners and customs of our British, Saxon, Danish, and Norman ancestors, which confifts of 104 pages, is followed by the Author's defcription of the numerous engravings for there are no fewer than 67 quarto plates. The figures exhibited on thefe plates are, for the most part, fimilar to those of which we have given fome account in the preceding article. They may be curious as fpecimens of the ancient ftate of painting and sculpture in this country; but they do no honour to the taste of our ancestors.

ART. VII. The Political Survey of Great Britain, concluded.

R. Campbell, in the fecond volume, enlarges on those

He gives Malines's geometrical defcription of the world; the extent of England by Dr. Halley; and the fuperficies of Britain and Ireland by Mr. Templeman. He then confiders the contents of the foil of Great Britain. His general principle here is very juft, that our real affluence arifes from the improvement of our native commodities by induftry. He begins with foffils, earths, and clays; but we think he mentions too flightly our great improvements in pottery. Meffrs. Wedgwood and Bentley deferved a very refpectable place in this part of the furvey.

Our Author proceeds to treat of ochre, allum, copperas, ftone, lime, marble, alabaster, and granite; the methods of making falt; the manufacture of glafs; and the great advantages of our collieries. He then gives an account of antimony, lapis calaminaris, and cobalt; what he fays of black lead, may be curious to many of our Readers:

Black lead is what fome have supposed with very little reafon to be the molybdena, or galena of Pliny; others ftyle it plumbago. Our judicious Camden, in whofe days it was a new thing, would not venture to give it a Latin name, but calls it a metallic earth, or hard fhining ftony fubftance; which whether it was the pnigitis, or melanteria of Diofcorides, or an ochre burned to blackness in the earth, and fo unknown to the ancients, he left others to enquire. Dr. Merret, from the use to which it was first applied, named it nigrica fabrilis. The learned Boyle is of opinion, that it has not any thing metallic in its nature; relying upon which, we have ventured to give it a place here. It is indeed a very fingular fubftance, but being very common, and confequently very well known, it would be needlefs to defcribe it. It is found, but in very trivial quantities, in feveral mines here, and it may be alfo in other countries. But the fole mine in which it is found by itself, is on Barrowdale, about fix miles from Kefwick, in the county of Cumber land.

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land. It is there called wadd, and those who are beft acquainted with it, ftyle it a black, pinguid, fhining earth, which they fuppofe to be impregnated with lead and antimony. When it was firft difcovered, the people ufed it to mark their fheep. It was afterwards introduced into medicine, and taken in powder, for the cure of the cholic and gravel; but it has been fince applied to many other purposes. It serves to scour, to clean, and to give a luftre to wrought iron, and to defend it from ruft; it is applied in the varnishing crucibles, and other earthen veffels that are to be expofed to the fiercest fire, which end it answers effectually. But after all, the great confumption of it is in two articles, in dyeing, to fix blues fo as that they may never change their colour, and in pencils; and the being confined to this country is fo well known, and fo univerfally allowed, that they are from thence ftyled abroad, crayons d'Angleterre. It arifes from hence, that the nature of this fubftance is little known to foreigners, the most learned of whom fpeak of it very confusedly, and with much uncertainty. These farther particulars we may venture to affirm concerning it, without any danger of mifleading our Readers, that the mine beforementioned is private property, is opened but once in seven years, and the quantity known to be equal to the confumption in that fpace fold at once; and as it is used without any preparation, it is more valuable than the ore of any metal found in this island. But there is nothing improbable, and much lefs impoffible, in fuppofing that other, and it may be many other ufes will be difcovered in medicine, painting, dyeing, varnishing, or pottery, which would certainly contribute to raife the value of a mineral peculiar to this country, and with the nature of which, though fo long in our poffeffion, we are ftill fo imperfectly acquainted.'

His accounts of tin, iron, copper, lead, &c. are very concife and pertinent. In the fucceeding chapter he treats on the productions of Great Britain arifing out of the foil. The natural and artificial caufes of fertility, and the several hints for improvements in thefe articles render this chapter very important and entertaining. It is followed by one of equal confequence, on the animals in the British dominions. Sheep, and the woollen manufacture depending on them; cattle, as they are useful in the dairy, and in the leather trade; fwine, horses, affes, bees, &c. &c, are curious fubjects of difquifition. Dr. C. concludes this part of the work in the following words:

We have now concluded a fhort and very imperfect inventory of the foffil, vegetable, and animal riches of thefe iflands, with fome obfervations intended to illuftrate their nature and importance: a tafk fo difficult, and yet fo neceffary, that an attempt to execute it, if it does not amount to a degree of merit, affords at least a claim to indulgence.

• Such

• Such as it is, it most certainly proves, that our commodities and manufactures are very numerous, fubftantial, and of great value, equally neceffary to other countries, and permanent as well as apparent fources of industry in our own. So that we may with great juftice affume, even in our present state, a laim to national independeney, as having all things requifite, not only to eafe and convenience, but also to ftrength, to wealth, and to power, either immediately within our reach, or which furnish us amply with the means of obtaining them. A very great part of this, though always through the bounty of Provi dence, in our own hands, hath been, as is likewife fully fhewn, by a gradual exercife of fkill and labour, brought into our actual poffeffion, and very much ftill left to be as certainly acquired by the fame methods. For after all our numberlefs difcoveries and improvements, we have no just grounds to affirm, that any one of our many national advantages hath been absolutely exhaufted,' or carried to the utmoft point of perfection of which it is capable. On the contrary, it very visibly appears, that our pofterity, by their industry and application, affifted by the lights received from us, and which from the future progrefs of fcience, they may ftrike out for themselves, may be very well able to leave us as far behind as we have done our ancestors. It is admitted, that if we look back on past times, the progrefs made feems to be prodigious, but if we carry our views forward, the profpect becomes boundless, and we fee plainly an infinity of materials that may in time be converted to use and profit.

• We have drawn the far greatest part of our inftances from South Britain, not only because therein they are most confpicuous, but as there and there alone they have been properly recorded. But North Britain and Ireland are likewise improved, very confiderably improved, to what they formerly were, and are poffibly at this day not in a worse state than England was in a century paft, and both countries may very probably be raised to a fituation not inferior to that in which The now ftands, and even when that shall happen, find them-felves as far behind her as they are at prefent. The numerous natural advantages, which from the bounty of nature she poffeffes, as well as her being the feat of government, will ever preferve the fuperiority to South Britain, not barely without prejudice, but with eminent benefit to them. In fome refpects there may be a fignal facility of improving visible in one or other of them, and then it ought to be cherished and fupported for the common good. This was clearly the cafe in reference to England's encouraging the linen manufacture in Ireland, that induftry might flourish there. North Britain, very prudently delifted from the woollen manufacture, in which

the

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