1 the great benefactor, whose powerful genius first opened the way by which they may ascend to the level of brethren, with the more favoured children of the eastern hemisphere. After touching at nearly all the colonies in his way home, and encountering more than the ordinary privations and fatigues consequent upon a long residence upon the ocean, he reached his native country on the 12th of June, 1771, having been absent nearly three years; in which period he had amassed an amount of information and discoveries equal to that which had been collected by all the navigators of Europe from the time of Columbus, Soon after his return, two ships were equipped to complete the researches which had been commenced with such marked success, and Captain Cook was appointed to the Resolution, while Captain Furneaux had the command of the Adventure; but the expectation that they should discover a large continent in the South Seas was disappointed; and the expedition, after an absence of three years and eighteen days, returned home. This heroic man, however, seemed, by the boldness and success of his former enterprizes, to have created a taste in the government for exploring the distant regions of his favourite element; and he was destined once more to encounter the difficulties and dangers of a protracted voyage in unknown seas. He prepared for his departure with the utmost alacrity, and actually sailed in the month of July, 1776; but after an absence of two years, when the nation was anxiously looking for tidings of his success, intelligence arrived of his death, the manner of which is known to almost every English reader. It was on Sunday, the 14th of February, 1779, that the ships crew discovered that the Indians of Owhyhee had taken kaway the large cutter belonging to one of the ships; and on Captain Cook being apprized of it, he took measures for the recovery of the vessel, which eventually led to a serious tumult between his men and the natives, several of whom were shot, which exasperated the others to such a degree, that finding him left alone by the mistakes of This companions, they struck him to the ground, and with repeated blows of their clubs and an iron dagger, succeeded in destroying his Evaluable life. This celebrated circumnavigator, though so, constantly engaged in active service, found time to read Euclid, and supply the deficiencies, of his early education. His constitution was robust, and capable of undergoing the severest hardships; and the qualities of his mind were of the same vigorous kind with those of his body;-cool, determined, and prompt in adapting his means to the difficulties of his situation on all occasions. No science, perhaps, ever received greater accessions from the labours of a single individual, than geography has done from those of Captain Cook: he discovered and surveyed vast tracts of new coasts, and fixed the bounds of the habitable earth as well as of the navigable ocean in the southern hemisphere. Nor is he less entitled to the highest honours of the true patriot, for the constant attention which he paid to the health and comfort of his seamen, and the adzimirable regulations which he introduced into the navy, by which the & most distant voyages may be performed without that sacrifice of human life which at one time operated as a check upon the adventurous spirit of our countrymen. The history of his various labours, on which the talents of several eminent literary men have been employed, is full of interest, and calculated to impress the mind with the highest admiration for his genius while it excites a feeling of devout thankfulness that our lot has been cast amidst the enjoyments of all that can render life happy, and fit us by superior intelligence for the especial favour of the Almighty, if we do not, by a criminal negligence and the indulgence of bad passions, reduce ourselves to little better than savages, without the excuse for our degradation,-the want of instruction, which renders the multitudes of our fellow-creatures, brought to our notice by the discoveries of Captain Cook, the objects of pity and compassion. J. S. ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL.-The original foundation of this excellent institution is ascribed to Raherus, minstrel to Henry I., in 1102, who also endowed a priory of black canons contiguous to the hospital, of which he was the first prior. He was buried in the church, where his tomb, still in perfect repair, affords a curious specimen of English architecture at that early period. In succeeding times considerable alterations were made in the buildings; and at the general dissolution of monastic establishments, the whole of this foundation was abolished. Henry VIII., however, in the last year of his reign, granted a new charter of incorporation to the city of London, for the hospital, for the relief of 100 poor and sick citizens, endowing it with 500 marks, on condition that the city should contribute a like sum for its support. But the hospital was not fit for the reception of the specified number of inmates till the reign of Edward VI.; and five years afterwards a misapprehension as to the terms of the charter gave rise to many complaints against the governors, who therefore published a report, stating in effect that the benefits of this charity were not to be limited to 100 patients, but that they were justified in extending their benevolence to 1000, if they had the means. The hospital was repaired in 1691; and its houses, from which its chief revenues were derived, having been burnt by the great fire in F1666, were rebuilt, and its income restored. In 1730, the whole buildings being declared in a dangerous state from decay and antiquity, were taken down, and the present quadrangular structure was erected by voluntary subscriptions, in the early part of the reign of George II. The government of this charity is conducted on the most liberal plan; and the ability of the medical and surgical professors not only ensures the most skilful treatment of all disorders which are submitted to their care, but has so strongly established its reputation as a school of science, that students from all parts of the kingdom repair thither to complete their knowledge, before they venture into the world as practitioners. BETHLEM HOSPITAL was originally a priory, founded by Simon Fitz-Mary, Sheriff of London, in the year 1247; and at the suppression of monasteries, Henry the Eighth, on the petition of Sir John Gresham, Lord Mayor, granted its lanas and revenues to the Corporation of London, for the maintenance of lunatics. The great number of persons applying for admission led to a voluntary subscription for the erection of a new building, which was completed in 1676, at an expense of £17,000; and in 1733 an enlargement took place to accommodate a still greater number of patients. The hospital used formerly to derive a revenue of at least £400 a year from the indiscriminate admission of visitants, but the practice was abolished in 1770, being found to be incompatible with the recovery of the patients. The whole fabric in Moorfields falling into decay, and the situation not being a very healthy one, from its being so thickly populated, induced the corporation to undertake the erection of a handsome new building in 1810, fronting the road leading from Westminster-bridge to Newington, which combines all the necessary accommodations and offices for the patients and servants of the establishment. It is in a fine salubrious situation; and, as the funds are ample, its benefits are extended to numbers annually, who might, but for this receptacle, continue in the miserable alienation of their reason, the objects either of terror or of the most painful commiseration to all who saw them. BRIDEWELL HOSPITAL occupies the site on which stood the palace where King John held his court, and takes its name from a well on the spot dedicated to St. Bridget; but William the Norman gave many of the materials of which the palace was built for the restoration of St. Paul's Cathedral, which had been destroyed by fire. It was afterwards repaired by Henry VIII., to receive the Emperor Charles V., on his visit to England in 1522, and Cardinal Wolsey resided there during his prosperity; after which it was suffered to decay, till the pious Bishop Ridley begged it of Edward VI. to convert it to some charitable use. In a short time it was fitted up as a House of Correction for the reception of the idle and the profligate, who were discharged at the Sessions, or committed to labour at some useful employment by the magistrates. The regulations also admitted of the introduction of indigent children, and masters were engaged to instruct them in various trades, the choice being subject at all times to the changes in the state of society, and the discipline of the establishment yielding from time to time to the improvements suggested by reflection and experience. Its endowments are blended with those of Bethlem Hospital, and its system of government is nearly the same, and administered by the same authorities. Great improvements have been made on the estate; several new houses have been erected in front of the Hospital, which is thereby enclosed from the street, reserving only an entrance from Bridges-street. (To be continued.) EDITOR-K. MODERN ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH PROMOTED COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES, (From Millar's Historical View of the English Government.) [John Millar, the author of a work on "the Origin and Distinction of Ranks," and of an "Historical View of the English Government," from which the following was extracted, was Professor of Law in the University of Glasgow. He was a native of Lanarkshire, and was born in 1735. He died in 1801. His political principles were not very creditable to him as the instructor of youth under a constitutional Monarchy-but his writings are valuable from the spirit of inquiry which they display, and the extensive information with which they are illustrated.] THE Commerce of the ancient world was confined, in a great measure, to the coasts of the Mediterranean and of the Red Sea. Before the invention of the mariner's compass, navigators were afraid of venturing to a great distance from land, and in those narrow seas, found it easy, by small coasting expeditions, to carry on an extensive traffic. From the time of Alexander the Great, when Greece had become one extensive kingdom, and had formed connexions with Asia, the two narrow seas above-mentioned became the channel of a more distant commerce along the Indian ocean, by which the valuable productions of the East were imported into Europe. It was in order to facilitate this traffic, that the city of Alexandria is said to have been built. The same commerce was carried on, and probably much extended, in the flourishing periods of the Roman empire, when the numerous articles of Asiatic luxury were in such universal request among that opulent people. The decline of the Roman power tended gradually to diminish that branch of trade; but did not entirely destroy it. During the barbarous period that succeeded the destruction of the Roman empire, the same cause which had formerly promoted the commerce of the Mediterranean, gave rise, in the northern part of Europe, to a small degree of traffic upon the narrow sea of the Baltic. While the inhabitants of the different parts of Europe were advanc ing in navigation and in commerce, they could hardly fail to make some progress also in manufactures. By having a vent for the rude produce of the country, they must have had frequent opportunities of observing that, by bestowing a little labour upon their native commodities, they could draw a much greater profit upon the exchange of them. In this manner they were encouraged to occupy themselves in working up the raw materials; to acquire habits of industry; and to make proficiency in mechanical employments. The commerce of Italy seems accordingly to have been followed by a rapid improvement of the mechanical arts. In the twelfth and thir teenth centuries, many of the Italian towns had arrived at great perfection in manufactures; among which we may take notice of Venice, Genoa, Bologna, Pisa, Sienna, and Florence. It was from Italy that the art of making clocks and watches, as well as many other of the finer branches of manufacture, together with the most accurate method of keeping mercantile accompts, was afterwards communicated to the other nations of Europe. Towards the end of the sixteenth, and the beginning of the seventeenth century, three great events concurred to produce a remarkable revolution upon the state of trade and manufactures in general, and that of Europe in particular. 1. The first of these was the invention of the mariner's compass; which changed the whole system of navigation, by enabling navigators to find their way with certainty in the wide ocean, to undertake more distant expeditions, and to complete them with much greater quickness. When this discovery had been properly ascertained, and reduced to practice, those who inhabited the coast of a narrow sea had no longer that superiority, with respect to commerce, which they formerly possessed; for, whatever advantages they might have in a small coasting navigation, these were overbalanced by the inconveniencies of their situation, whenever they had occasion to sail beyond those adjacent capes or promontories by which they were limited and circumscribed. The harbours, which became then most favourable to commerce, were such as had formerly been least so; those which were the farthest removed from streights, or dangerous shores, and, by their distance from opposite lands, admitted the freest passage to every quarter of the globe. 2. The discovery of America, and the opening of a passage to the East-Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, which may be regarded as a consequence of the preceding improvement in navigation, contributed still farther to change the course of European trade. By these discoveries a set of new and magnificent objects of commerce was presented, and Europe began to entertain the prospect of forming settlements in distant countries; of trading with nations in various climates, producing a proportional variety of commodities; and of maintaining an easy correspondence between the remotest parts of the world. The merchants of Italy, and of the northern parts of Germany, were naturally left behind, in the prosecution of these magnificent views. Their situation, hemmed in by the coast of the Baltic, or of the Mediterranean, was particularly unfavourable for that new species of trade. They had, besides, a reluctance, we may suppose, to abandon their old habits, and to relinquish that settled traffic in which they had been long engaged, for the new and hazardous adventures which were then pointed out to them. Adhering, therefore, to their former course, they found their profits decrease, according as the new commerce became considerable; and their commercial importance was at length, in a great measure, sunk and annihilated. 3. The violent shock given by the Spanish government to the trading towns of the Netherlands, occasioned, about this period, a |