fons, in other refpects intimately verfed in the affairs of India, feem to be aware. This intereft points to three diftinct objects; first, to fecure from that quarter regular fupplies of timber for fhip-building, without which the British marine of India could exist but on a very contracted fcale; fecondly, to introduce into that country as much of our manu factures as its confumption may require, and to endeavour to find a mart in the fouth-west dominions of China, by means of the great river of Ava; thirdly, to guard with vigilance against every encroachment or advance, which may be made by foreign nations to divert the trade into other channels, and obtain a permanent fettlement in a country fo contiguous to the capital of our poffeffions. This laft confideration fuperfedes all others in the magnitude of the confequences that might ultimately refult from it.

It is impoffible to imprefs my reader by any ftronger proof with the vaft importance of the Pegue trade than briefly to ftate, that a durable veffel* of burden cannot be built in the river of Bengal, except by the aid of teak_plank, which is procuable from Pegue alone; and that if the timber trade with that country fhould, by any act of power, be wrefted from us; if it should be loft by misfortune, or forfeited through misconduct, the marine of Calcutta, which of late years has proved a fource of unexampled profperity to our principal fettlement, effentially benefited the parent country, and given honourable affluence to individuals, must be reduced nearly to annihilation, without the poffibility of our being able to find any adequate fubftitute for the material of which

we should be deprived. Within the laft fix years, fome of the finest merchant-fhips ever feen in the river, Thames, have arrived from Calcuttat, where they were built of teak timber; and, after delivering valuable cargoes in London, were ufually employed in the service of the state: nor would the deftruction of the Pegue trade be confined folely, in its effects, to Bengal: the other fettlements would fenfibly fhare in the lofs. Madras is fupplied from Rangoon, with timber for all the common purposes of domeftic afe; and even Bombay, although the coaft of Malabar is its principal ftorehoufe, finds it worth while annually to import a large quantity of planks from Pegue.

But whilft it is advantageous to us to promote the exportation of timber from the maritime towns of Pegue, it is as manifeftly our intereft to dif courage the building of fhips in the Rangoon river, where the conftruction is facilitated by local advantages, equal to thofe of any port in the world, and fuperior to moft. The progrefs made in this art by the Birmans has of late years been rapid, and increafes in proportion as foreigners can place confidence in the Birman government. When merchants find that they can build with fecurity in the Rangoon river for one third lefs coft than in the Ganges, and for nearly half of what they can at Bombay, few will hefitate in their choice of a place. It is faid, that the fhips of Pegue are not fo firmly conftructed as thofe built in our porte, and in general this affertion is true; but the defect does not arife from the want of materials, but because the owners were fpeculative adventurers, without fufficient funds to defray the charges of labour and of

iron,

iron, in which material Pegue fhips have, by fatal experience, been found deficient. The shipwrights, however, are as expert as any workmen of the East, and their models, which are all from France, are excellent; the detriment, thereof, that arifes to us from the conftruction of fhips at Rangoon, is not lefs evident than the benefit that we derive from importing the unmanufactured material. The Birmans, fagaciously knowing their own intereft, fet us an example of policy, by remitting all duty on cordage, canvafs, and wrought iron, provided thefe articles are, bona fide, brought for the equipment of a new veffel; the port charges alfo are not exacted from a new fhip, on leaving the river to proceed on her first voyage, A conduct on their part fo wife, fuggefts to us the expediency of adopting fome measures for our own intereft; an alien duty, or a modified difqualification, would probably, like the acts of parliament in aid of British navigation, prove the moft effectual remedy. Trade cannot be profecuted in the Indian feas to any extent, except with British

ports; many objections, it is true, may be made to fuch a propofition, but the good refulting to us would be immediate and certain, whilft the ill confequences, if any there be, are equivocal and remote.

But if we are called upon by our intereft in a commercial point of view, to check the growth of hipbuilding at Rangoon, how much more important is the fubject when feen in a political light? It is a fact which appears to merit fome confideration, and is, perhaps, not generally adverted to, that in a very few years, and at a fmall comparative expenfe, a formidable navy may rife on the banks of the Irrawaddy, from the forefts of Pegue. It is probably not known, that artificers are educating by our enemies for that exprefs purpofe, whilft we encourage their progrefs in the fcience, by enabling them to derive benefit, and acquire experience at the fame time. National Le curity, therefore, as well as mercantile advantage, ftrongly urge a vigilant attention to a quarter, whence the means of injury to ourselves may fo abundantly be drawn.

Extracts from the Advertisement. THE great author of the following works has long had the honour of being ranked in the first clafs of English Poets; for, to the names of Shakspeare, Spenfer, and Milton, we have now for near a century been in the habit of annexing thofe of Dryden, and his fcholar, Pope. The prefent publication will show, that he is equally entitled to our admiration as a writer of profe; and that among his various merits, that of having cultivated, refined, and improved our

language, is not the leaft. Inmaking, therefore, this collection of his Critical and Miscellaneous Effays, which are found difperfed in a great variety of books, many of them now not eafily to be procured, I trust that, while I have done an acceptable fervice to good letters and to the public, I have at the fame time in fome degree contributed to the fame of the author; a confiderable portion of whofe valuable writings will thus become acceffible and familiar to a more numerous clafs of readers than the votaries

votaries of the Mufes, and whofe reputation, high as it is at prefent, will confequently be extended to a ftill wider circle than that within which it has hitherto been confined.

Of Dryden's Letters, very few of which have ever been printed, I wished to form as ample a collection as could be procured; and am highly indebted to William Baker, Efq. Reprefentative in Parliament for the County of Hertford, who most obligingly has furnished me with all the correfpondence, now extant, which paffed between our author and his bookfeller, Jacob Tonfon, from whom thefe papers defcended to that gen tlemen: which, befide exhibiting a lively portrait of this great poet, contain fome curious documents refpect ing the price of his works, and fome other interefting particulars concern ing them. To this feries I have added a letter written in his youth to Mrs Honor Dryden, from the original in the hands of the Rev. Mr Blakeway, of Shrewsbury; a letter to John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, from a manufcript copy in the Mufeum; one to Samuel Pepys, Efq. from the original in the Pepyfian Collection in Magdalene College, Cambridge; one to Charles Monta gue, afterwards Earl of Halifax, from the original in my poffeffion; and fixteen letters addreffed, at a late period of life, to his kinfwoman, Mrs Steward, or her husband; which have been obligingly communicated to me by her grand daughter, Mrs Gwillim, of Whitchurch, near Rofs, in Here fordshire, by the hands of Mrs Ord, of Queen Anne Street, Some others have been found fcattered in mif cellaneous volumes; and many more, I have no doubt, are in the poffeffion of various perfons, which might eafily be difcovered, if they would but fearch their family papers.

The profe of Dryden has been fo long and fo justly admired for its copiaufnels, harmony, richness, and va

riety, that to adduce any teftimony in its favour feems unneceffary. To the high eulogy of Congreve on this head, and the printed encomiums of Dr. Warton, Mr Mafon, and Dr. Beattie, I may, however, add the authority of the late Mr Burke, who had very diligently read all his mifcellaneous Effays, which he held in high eftimation, not only for the inftruction which they contain, but on account of the rich and numerous profe in which that inftruction is conveyed. On the language of Dryden, on which, perhaps, his own ftyle was originally in fome measure formed, I have often heard him expatiate with great admiration, and if the works of Burke be examined with this view, he will, I believe, be found more nearly to refemble this great author than any other English writer,

Extracts from the Life.

Our author received the firft rụdiments of learning at Tichmarsh, Northamptonshire, and probably was indebted for part of his education to the fchool at Oundle, in the fame county; from one or the other of which places he was removed to Weftminfter fchool, where he was admitted a King's fcholar, but at what age I have not been able to afcertain; probably, however, about the time of the civil war's breaking out, when he was near eleven years old. After remaining fome years at that excellent feminary, of which the celebrated Dr. Busby had been ap pointed mafter in 1638, he was elected to one of the scholarships of Trinity College, in Cambridge, where he was admitted, May 11th, 1650, under the tuition of the Rev. Mr Templer, and was matriculated on the 6th of July following.

At this early period he commenced poet, not only by the Elegy on the death of Lord Haftings (1649), mentioned by all his biographers, but by commendatory verfes prefixed to

the

the Poems of John Hoddefdon, in 1650; neither of which afforded any indication of that genius by which he was afterwards fo highly diftinguished. Of his school performances we only know, that he tranflated the third fatire of Perfius, for a Thursdaynight's exercife impofed by his mafter, whofe high opinion of his talents is Atrongly evinced by prefcribing fuch a tak; and he has himfelf told us, that he believed it and many other exercises of this nature were, in 1693, in the hands of Dr. Bufby.

The only notice I have been able to recover concerning his early college days, is the following order, which was made about two years after his admiffion.

"July 19, 1652. Agreed, then, "that Dryden be put out of Comons, "for a forthnight at leaft, and that he "goe not out of the colledg, during "the time aforefaid, excepting to "fermons, without exprefs leave "from the Mafter or Vice-mafter; and that at the end of the forth"night he read a confeffion of his crime in the hall at dinner-time, at "the three -- fellowes table.

"His crime was, his difobedience "to the Vice master, and his contu"macy in taking his punishment in"flicted by him."

What degree of reputation he obtained in his academic courfe, it is now extremely difficult, if not impof fible, to afcertain. It has been mentioned as extraordinary, that his name is not found in any of the Cambridge Verfes compofed in his time. on public occafions; that he took no degree in the university; and that he did not obtain a fellowship in his college. From whatever caufe it may have proceeded, he certainly was not a fellow*: but one of the other subjects of furprise has not been accurately ftated; for he took the degree of Bachelor at the regular time, in January 1653-4, and in 1657 was made Mafter of Arts, though in the university Register, his name is unac countably omitted.

The only general collection of either gay or lugubrious verfe, that was iffued out by the univerfity of Cambridge during the period of Dryden's being a member of it, appeared in 1654, under the title of "Oliva Pacist," &c. in honour of the peace concluded between England and Holland on the 15th of April, and ratified May 2d of that year. To this volume he might naturally be expected to have been a contributor, being then of four years ftanding in the univerfity, having already commen

ced

Editor.