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rate Company for a trade to China and Japan. This was certainly a very unjuft meafure, as the old Company's charter was, beyond any doubt, exclufive of all other parties. Under this opposition, and the interruption of commerce and manufactures, by the war between Charles and his Parliament, the English Eaft India Company feems to have almoft funk: it certainly was faft decaying; when the Dutch India Company abandoned the fettlement which they had on the Island of St. Helena; and our Company, in 1651, took poffeffion of that place, at which their fhips have ever fince touched on their homeward-bound voyages.

In 1655 Cromwell diffolved the East India Company, and laid that trade open for three years; but the difadvantage of this meafure to the commerce of the country was fuch, as to induce the Protector, at the expiration of the time, to re-inftate the Company. After the restoration of Charles II. the Eaft India company being fuppofed (notwithstanding the diforders in it of late years) ftill to exift as established by Queen Elizabeth and James the Firft, obtained of his majesty a new exclufive charter, dated the 3d of April 1661, by the old name of "The Governor and Company of Merchants

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of London trading to the Eaft Indies."

The town, port, and island of Bom. bay, being part of the portion which Charles received with his wife Catherine, infanta of Portugal, in 1661, was by him granted in full property`for ever to the East India Company, to hold it in free common foccage of his crown, under an annual rent of ten pounds in gold to be paid, on the 30th of September, yearly, at the CustomHoufe in London.

In 1698 a new Eaft-India Company was established by Act of Parliament; by virtue whereof the old Company was to be diffolved, after the expiration of a certain time allowed them for difpofing of their effects. By fome friendly and powerful mediation,however, and a due confideration of their feveral interefts, the companies were at lengthunited.

On the 22d of October 1716 a Proclamation was iffued, prohibiting all trade to the East Indies, but by the Company.

The foundation of the prefent East India Houfe was laid in the year 1725; previous to which the business of the Company was tranfacted in the building of which we have prefixed to this Article an exact Representation.

THE BATHS AT BRIGHTON.
[WITH AN ENGRAVED VIEW.]

AMONG other inducements to thofe cold-bathing would be ferviceable, if

who, in fearch of health or pleafure, vifit Brighthelmftone, are the Hot and Cold Sea Baths, near the Steyne. These were erected on an excellent plan by Mr. Golden, and are fuitable to both sexes.

The firft ftone was laid in the year 1759. On one fide of a spacious veftibule are hot-baths, fweating-baths, and fhower-baths, which are fupplied from the fea by means of an engine; and here every poffible convenience may be had at a few minutes' notice.

A ftrong foutherly wind creates fuch a fwell, that it is frequently hazardous to venture into the open fea; to remedy which, on the other fide of the veftibule are fix cold-baths, also fupplied by pumps from large pipes which run to the thore, and are filled every tide. There are many perfons to whom

they were able to bear the fatigue of being dipped in the fea, and (which is more material) to be expofed to the cold air. If, therefore, the weather happen to be ftormy, and the fea fo rough as not to admit of bathing in it, recourfe is conveniently had to the Baths.

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The Baths at Brighton

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VESTIGES,

COLLECTED AND RECOLLECTED,

BY JOSEPH MOSER, ESQ.

NUMBER X.

JOHN LORD SOMMERS. r has been somewhere stated, that it is the fure fign of a right mind, and the well-governed difpofition of a mariner, when his conduct merits the approbation of his fhipmates. Prefiguring the commonwealth by its old antitype, the thip, and extending the obfervation to higher life, the propofition naturally refolves itfelf into this question: How muft that State fman have governed the veffel, who, in periods when storms gathered on every fide, fteered through the mid-ftream of two violent contending parties, and, weathering every rock and thoat of politics, reached, at last, his deftined port in fafety? How Lord Sommers did this, may, perhaps, be more eafily afcertained than imitated. We know it was not by too feduloufly inclining to the one or to the other, but by reflecting that he had a motive fuperior to per fonal attachments or perfonal prejudices; that his genius, talents, and exertions, were the property of the public; and, therefore, under this impref. fion, whilft he, with indefatigable labour, bore the burthen, he, with a modefty and difinterestedness in modern times unequalled, fhrunk from the praise, and cautiously endeavoured to avoid the fame, that followed his fuccessful efforts.

Reflecting, in our turn, that daring and defigning men have, in every age, founded their air-built caftles upon that quick-fand bafis, the paffions of the people, and determined that the fureft mean to render them as inimical to the good order and government of the State as the real castles were to the Monarch under the feudal fyftem, was, to fupply them with that kind of artil. lery which, without any fubftantial charge, would, from the loudnels of its report, keep the neighbourhood in continual alarm. This, in one age, has been the danger of the Church; in another, the danger of the prefs; in another, the danger of excife laws, of ftanding armies, of invafion, &c. &c.

VOL. XLIII. APRIL 1803.

&c. Of the first of these dangers, which, indeed, except that which was falfely fuppofed to arife from fifcal regulations, includes every other, it was the fortune of Mr. Sommers to be early apprifed, and, with refpect to the operation of the report, fully fenfible. He, therefore, placed himself in the breach which prerogative had made in its privileges; and was, though from that innate modefty which accompanied him through life he does not appear in a prominent point of view, by this mean, the preferver of the Conftitu tion.

The talents of a man that works, though unfeen, that feems to have adopted this new kind of self-denying ordinance, can only be properly appreciated by the fame medium of opinion to which I have alluded in the firit lines of this fpeculation; namely, that which his fhipmates, or countrymen, have of him. How Lord Sommers was esteemed by the latter, the fentiments of two writers (whofe elevated genius has diffufed a luftre over the proceedings of the two great contending parties of that period, and excited an interest in our minds refpecting events which would otherwife have filently funk into oblivion), exhibited in the charafter they have drawn of him, will evince; and, as a comparison betwixt them will, at the fame time, mark the character of their different ftiles, it may be ufeful to beltow a few minutes on the confideration of it.

The first of these writers (Swift) has, in his dedication to the Tale of a Tub," prodused the completeft fpecimen of art and ingenuity that is to be found in the works of any author. Indeed, one may confider this compofition as of a fpecies till then unknown, and which, though it has fince been often imitated, has never yet been equalled.

We have lately heard of negative fucceffes, negative advantages, and a hundred other negatives; but no one, however ductile his genius, however extenfive

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extenfive his learning, or however bril. liant his wit, has, in this age, attempted to erect the molt exalted character that human ideas can conceive upon their bafis : yet in this Swift has been completely fuccefsful; and his fuccefs has been attended with this fingularity, that while he praifes his patron for thofe virtues and talents which he, unquestionably, poffeffed in an eminent degree, the oblique and negative manner in which the eulogy is constructed is calculated to convey to the mind an idea of the manner for which the fubject of it was remarkable; namely, for endeavouring to shrink from public approbation, for difqualifying himself, and, if the expreffion may be allowed, tacitly denying every article that feemed to point at his fame, his talents, or his virtues.

Whether it has been from want of genius that we have fo few fpecimens of this mode of writing, where the author appears to hold before the reader a convex mirror, which not only diminishes the form, but reverfes the figure of the perfon whom he means to amplify and exalt, it is impoffible to fay; but I do conceive, that, with respect to a fubject upon which every other mode has been exhaufted, it is like an improved renovation of the fyftem of ancient mythology, wherein our ideas of moral excellence become elevated in proportion to the debasement of the vehicle through which the inftruction is conveyed, or like a dream, which, it is faid, fhould be interpreted by contraries, the most artful medium for imparting praife, I will not fay for flat tering, because that is not much the vice even of modern poets, that it is poffible to conceive; and I have no doubt but that the piece to which I have alluded was, by Lord Sommers, much more highly esteemed than the dedication of Addifon to the firit volume of the Spectator, which, though written, as the Freeholer published after the deceafe of this eminent Statefman evinces, in the utmoft fincerity of heart, feems only valuable for the elegance of its file; and, compared to Swift's, fhews, in a strong light, the difference betwixt polifhed periods and pointed wit. The former, I will venture to affert, though, from the ob. lique cfection of a miniature re. femblance, the character is by the mental magnifier infinitely enlarged, indeed we might fay exaggerated, has

ever been confidered as containing genuine traits of resemblance; while the latter, weighed, with respect to its me rit, in the fcales of common dedications, has been estimated by their value rather than that of the object of it, and, confequently, being looked upon thing of course, has been, perhaps, carelessly read, and almost instantly forgotten.

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Having contrafted thefe two culogiums on Lord Sommers, published during his life, it may be both useful and curious to confider more minutely the third, to which I have alluded, which was ushered into the world the 4th of May 1716, a day rendered temarkable by his funeral; because we may fuppofe that every motive which ftimulated his cotemporaries to flatter, if they had flattered him, muit then have fubfided; and that both las friends and enemies, at a period when a tender remembrance only existed in the minds of the former, and every cause, either of envy or refentment, had vanified from thofe of the latter, were prepared properly to appreciate learning, talents, and virtues, which had rendered him confpicuous as a member of fociety; to review with candour his profeffional and public life; and, balancing his moral excellence against his failings, leave an accurate reprefentation of his mind as an example for pofterity.

This, from thofe fources of information, and means of oblervation, which official intercourfe and perional intimacy afforded, I have no question has been done by Addison, who, although a courtly, was certainly a correct, writer; and who, though eminent for his wit and humour, was ftill more eminent for his morality: he who had obferved every variation of the human character,explored everythoal,fathomed every depth, and foared to every altitude of human greatnefs; who had, befides his general knowledge of mankind, a particular knowledge of the fprings which stimulated, the counterchecks that retarded, or the balance that regulated, the complex machinery of the Court, the nation, and, indeed, of Europe, during the life of Lord Sommers, was certainly the best judge of the manner in which he had conducted himself, and the multifarious affairs in which he was engaged, through a variety of trying periods, and trying circumstances, from the dawn of manhood to the close of existence, and

he,

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