the Royal Academy at Woolwich, and afterward obtained for him a commiffion in the corps of engineers.-He profecuted his mathematical ftudies under Mr. Thomas Simpson, and, from being his fcholar, became his friend and intimate: fuch, we are told, was the opinion which Mr. Simpfon entertained of Mr. W.'s abilities, that at his deceafe he left him his unfinished mathematical papers, with a request that he would revife then, and make what alterations and additions he might think neceffary. One of thefe manufcripts is faid to be a treatife on the conftruction of bridges, which is finished by Mr. W.

During the war which broke out in 1756, Colonel Watfon gave fignal proofs of his fuperior abilities as an engineer; particularly at the fiege of Belleifle in 1761, and at the Havannah in 1762. His talents foon became fo confpicuous as to attract the notice of Lord Clive, whom he accompanied to Bengal, and where he was appointed chief engineer.

It was not difficult for a perfon of the Colonel's penetration to fee the advantageous fituation of the Bay of Bengal. He knew that if proper forts were built, and the English marine put on a tolerable footing in that part, they might foon become masters of the eastern feas; he, therefore, got a grant of lands from the Eaft India Company for conftructing wet and dry docks, and a marine yard at Calcutta, for cleanfing, repairing, and furnishing with stores, the men of war and merchantmen. A plan of the undertaking was drawn, engraved, and prefented to his Majefty and the East India Company, and fully approved of; and the works were carried on for fome years with a fpirit and vigour that manifested the judgment and abilities of the undertaker; and, though the utility of fuch a great and national concern is too obvious to be infited on, yet the Colonel, after finking upwards of 100,000l. of his own property in the noble defign, was obliged to defiff, to the eternal difgrace of this nation.'

Colonel Watfon had determined to come to England to feek redrefs, but was induced to change his refolution, and to fend Mr. Creally (the fuperintendant of his works) in his ftead. This happened juft at the time of the laft Spanish war; and as the Colonel had great quantities of iron and timber in store, he refolved to build three fhips, two of 36, and one of 32 guns; and, in confequence, he fent inftructions to his agents in England to procure letters of marque. The defign, however, was fruftrated; perhaps by the fame means that stopped his proceeding with the docks; for his agents, on applying for the letters, received a pofitive denial. On this ill fuccefs, he employed the two veffels, which he had finished, in commercial fervices; the third, fays the writer, remains to this day unfinished.

• By

By long and hard fervice in an unfavourable climate, the Colonel found his health much impaired, two or three years before he left India; and, therefore, in 1785, he put his affairs in a train of fettlement, in order to return to England, not only to try the effects of his native air, but to profecute the East India Company for not fupporting the faith of the grant they had folemnly made to him for the dock-yard. In the fpring of 1786, he embarked on board the Deptford Indiaman; but the flux, and a bilious complaint with which he had been fometimes afflicted, fo much reduced him by the time he had reached St. Helena, that he was not able to profecute his voyage in that fhip. This ifland is remarkable for the falubrity of its air; of which the Colonel foon found the benefit; but the importunity of his friends, or his own impatience to fee England, got the better of his prudence, for, as foon as he began to gather ftrength, he took his paffage in the Afia; the confequence was a relapfe, which weakened him to fuch a degree by the time he arrived at Dover, that he lingered but a fhort time, and at that place departed this life on September 17, 1786.

He was buried in a vault made in the body of the church at Dover, on the 2zd of the fame month, in a private manner; only three of his confidential friends attended the funeral, namely, John Barchard, Efq. his agent, Mr. James Creaffy, and Mr. George Louch; his hip-builder.'

The biographer remarks, that the death of fuch a man is a national lofs: his genius was formed for great undertakings: he was judicious in planning, cool and intrepid in action, and undifmayed in danger. As an engineer, he has not, perhaps, left his fuperior. For nearly ten years he was the chief engineer of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. The Eaft India Company, in a great measure, owe their valuable poffeffions in that quarter to his unexampled exertions; for, in spite of party dif putes, of bribery on the part of the natives then at war with the Company, and of the numerous cabals which perplexed and embarraffed their councils, he executed the works of Fort William, which will long remain a monument of his fuperior skill, and, for their ftrength, may juftly be ftyled the Gibraltar of India:-nor are the works at Buge Buge and Melancholy Point conftructed with lefs judgment.

We cannot close this article without noticing the difinterested zeal of Mr. Sewell, (the publisher of this treatife,) in promoting, at the risk of incurring confiderable expence, whatever may tend to the increase of nautical science.

Z 4

MONTHLY

MONTHLY

Art. 20.

CATALOGUE,

For JULY, 1792.

EAST INDIES.

Narrative of the Operations of the British Army in India, from April 21ft, to the 16th July 1791. With a particular Account of the Action on the 15th of May, near Seringa patam. 4to. 4s. fewed. Faden. 1792.

THIS appears to be a faithful, though brief, account of the campaign in India, during the period above mentioned. The difficulties which our forces had to furmount were certainly very great; which renders the advantage obtained by them the more brilliant. The engraved sketch of the pofitions of the British and Myforean armies at the battle fought May 15th, 1791, is neatly executed, from the drawing made by Captain Agnew, Aide du Camp to Colonel Maxwell. Another plate is given, exhibiting the order of the battle fought near Seringapatam, on the 15th of May 1791. -For our account of Major Rennel's larger and more detailed account of the fame events, with his map and plan, &c. fee M. R. for May 1792, p. 50.

Art. 21. A Sketch of fome late Arrangements, and a View of the rifing Refources, in Bengal. By Thomas Law, Efq. late a Member of the Council of Revenue in Fort William. 8vo. pp. 283. 5s. Boards. Stockdale. 1792.

This volume confifts, chiefly, of official correfpondence, on matters of provincial regulation, refpecting the tenures of land, and the collection of the revenue. The author, after hinting that the duty of a local fervant has been performed,' proceeds to India concerns, in a more general and national view. He affords favourable hopes of our receiving fufficient fupplies of fugar from India, the fugar cane being much cultivated; and as to its quality, the fugar in Bengal,' fays he, is fo much fuperior to the West India raw fogars, that I conjedure the fample mills of the natives do not expreís any droís *. In his preface, he declares, I have feen, I think, in the courfe of my travels, about 50,000 acres of plantation, which is mentioned as a proof of the general produce of fugarcane all over the country:' general, indeed, by adverting to a circumftance incidentally mentioned in another place: it is a curious fact, that coarfe fugar is introduced in India, by the natives, as an ingredient in the compofition of mortar; but our practice of ufing merely lime, has of late been much adopted +.' The obftructions to our availing ourselves of the many ample refources in our Eastern poff- fions, are stated (in an intelligent anonymous letter, copied in the introduction to this work,) to be the extravagant freight of goods in our Eaft India fhips, which is compared with the price of West India freight; and from the refult, aided by other arguments, the writer pleads ftrongly for an open trade with the East. In this, as in all other fubje&s, there is a fufficient number † Page 217, note.

* Page 62, note.

of

of reafons for the ufe of advocates on the different fides of a question; and we may amufe ourselves with them as long as we pleafe: but when circumstances are ripe for alteration, alterations will take place, and work their way, like water, to a natural level.

TRADE and COMMERCE.

N.

Art. 22. Wool encouraged without Exportation; or, Practical Obfervations on Wool and the Woollen Manufacture. In Two Part I. containing Strictures on Appendix, No. IV. to a Report made by a Committee of the Highland Society on the Subject of Shetland Wool*. Part II. containing a Brief History of Wool, and the Nature of the Woollen Manufactures as connected with it. By a Wiltshire Clothier, F. A. S. 8vo. pp. 72. 25. Cadell. 1791.

This Wiltshire clothier animadverts on Dr. Anderfon for con. demning the prohibition of the exportation of wool, with much tartnefs and afperity; which, fuppofing him to have the better of the argument, will fcarcely add to it the credit of liberality of mind. He accufes the Doctor of mifquoting hiftory, and of mifunderstanding what he quotes. The validity of criticifms muft, in many cafes, be referred to thofe who make particular fubjects the objects of their study; and credit fhould be given to them, until they are refuted by known facts, ftronger reafoning, or better authority. Thus, when the prefent writer affirms that the fine wooled theep of Spain, is a meer carrion, and never eaten +;' we may indeed hefitate, for want of authority, but may not be able to controvert the truth of the affertion.

The author gives us a very comprehenfive view of the manifold ufes of the sheep:

Amongst the various animals with which Divine Providence has ftored the world for the ufe of man, none is to be found more innocent, more useful, or more valuable than the Sheep. The Sheep fupplies us with food and clothing, and finds ample employment for our poor, at all times and feafons of the year, whereby a variety of manufactures of woollen cloth is carried on without interruption to domeftic comfort and lofs to friendly fociety or injury to health, as is the cafe with many other occupations. Every lock of wool that grows on its back becomes the means of fupport to Staplers, Dyers, Pickers, Scourers, Scriblers, Carders, Combers, Spinners, Spoolers, Warpers, Queelers, Weavers, Fullers, Tuckers, Burlers, Shearmen, Preffers, Clothiers, and Packers, who, one after another, tumble and 1ofs, and twist and bake and boil this raw material, till they have each extracted a livelihood out of it; and then comes the Merchant, who, in his torn, fhips it (in its bigbeft ftate of improvement) to all quarters of the globe, from whence he brings back every kind of riches to his country, in return for the labours of thefe his neighbours exported with it.

Befides this, the useful animal, after being deprived of his coat, grows us another against the next year; and when we are hungry

• See Rev. Enlarged, vol. iii. p 199.

+ P. 9.

and

and kill him for food, he gives us his fkin to employ the Fell-mongers and Parchment-makers, who fupply us with a durable material for fecuring our Eftates, Rights, and Poffeffions; and if our enemies take the field against us, fupplies us with a powerful inftrument for roufWhen the Parchment-maker ing our courage to repel their attacks. has taken as much of the fkin as he can use, the Glue-maker comes after and picks up every morfel that is left, and therewith fupplies us a material for the Carpenter and Cabinet-maker, which they cannot do without, and which is effentially necessary before we can have elegant furniture in our houfes, tables, chairs, lookingglaffes, and a hundred other articles of convenience: and when the winter nights come on, and we are deprived of the cheering light of the Sun, the Sheep fupplies us with an artificial mode of light, whereby we preferve every pleasure of domestic fociety, and with whofe affiftance we can continue our work, or write or read, and improve our minds, or enjoy the focial mirth of our tables. Another part of the flaughtered animal fupplies us with an ingredient neceflary for making good common Soap, a useful ftore for producing cleanliness in every family rich or poor. Neither need the horns be thrown away, for they are converted by the Button-makers and Turners into a cheap kind of buttons, tips for bows, and many useful ornaments. From the very trotters an oil is extracted useful for many purposes, as well as their affording good food when baked in

an oven.

We have now picked the poor animal to the bones, yet these are useful alfo, for by a late invention of Dr. Higgins, they are found, when reduced to afhes, to be a useful and effential ingredient in the compofition of the finest artificial ftone in ornamental work for chimney-pieces, cornices of rooms, houses, &c. which renders the compofition more durable by effectually preventing its cracking *.

If it is objected to the meek inoffenfive creature, that he was expenfive while living, in eating up our grafs, &c. it may be answered that it was quite the contrary, for he could feed where every other animal had been before him and grazed all they could find, and that if he took a little grafs on your downs, or in your fields, he amply repaid you (for every blade of grass) in the richness of the manure he left behind him. I forgot to mention the fervice he yields to the ladies, whofe fair foft hands he protects from the

Any curious perfon would be much entertained to fee the manufactory of Bone Afh, now carried on by Mr. Minish of Whitechapel, New Road, wherein the bones of Sheep and Cows undergo many ingenious proceffes.-1ft, There is a mill to break them;2d, a cauldron to extract their oil, marrow, and fat;-3d, a reverbatory to heat them red hot;-4th, an oven for thofe bones to moulder to afhes;-5th, a ftill to collect the fumes of the burnt bones into a brown fluid, from whence hartfhorn is made;-6th, furnaces for making parts thereof into Glauber's falts;-7th, a fand heat containing twelve jars, for collecting a chryftallizing vapour into Sal-ammoniac.'

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