of one arch only, 120 feet span, was built at Manchester over the Irwell, from Salford to Strangeways. In Derbyshire, the plan of Mr Telford was adopted for the Runcorn bridge, being that of a bridge of suspension of 1000 feet span, with two side ones of the same construction, each 500 feet wide, forming on the whole a range of iron 2000 feet long; the expence of which, with the road, was estimated at 100,000. Acts were obtained during this session for erecting a new gaol in the city of Bristol; for lighting with gas the city of Exeter; for paving, lighting, cleansing, and improving West Cowes, (Isle of Wight); for making a road from Dewsbury to Leede, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Notwithstanding the depressed state of agriculture, upwards of fifty bills for new enclosures were passed during the session.

In SCOTLAND, the most important public undertaking consisted in the Union Canal, proposed to be carried from Edinburgh, to meet the Great Canal at its sixteenth lock, near Falkirk. The advantages expected from this measure were not only the transit of passengers and goods to Glasgow, but still more the obtaining of lime and coal for the supply of Edinburgh, from the vast fields which were to be found upon this line. It was not proposed to make this of the same dimensions with the Great Canal, but only fitted for vessels drawing five feet of water. This scheme was opposed by the town of Edinburgh, and by several great proprietors in the neighbourhood, who urged in its stead the adoption of a canal on a higher level, admitting larger vessels, and extending the whole way from Edinburgh to Glasgow. A very warm controversy was carried on for some time, and the opponents of the Union Canal had sufficient interest to prevent its receiving the sanction of Parliament. As, how

ever, they were unable to procure an adequate number of subscribers for their own more extended plan, they at last agreed to an accommodation with the Union Canal subscribers, whose measure passed in the present session without opposition. Before the end of the year the whole sum was subscribed, and the operations began. The following is Mr Telford's final estimate:

......

Cutting, embanking, puddling, lining, dressing banks, and making towingpaths .... L.95,324 12 2 Aqueducts, culverts, wastes, let-offs, and public road bridges, 35,674 126 Locks, stop-gates, basins, wharfs, and lockkeepers, and wharf. ingers' houses Reservoirs and feeders, Land, fences, occupation bridges, and temporary damages, Carrying the canal and

basin from GilmourPlace to the west side of the LothianRoad ......... Ten per cent. for contingencies

22,853 10 8 10,155 76

50,210 94

4,399 50

21,860 00

Total L.240,468 17 2

Arrangements were made during this year for securing to Edinburgh a copious supply of excellent water. Dissatisfaction having been expressed at the arrangements made by the Magistrates on this subject, the concern was vested in a company formed for that express purpose, and whose capital was divided into shares of 25., so as to enable individuals, by taking shares, to cover the expence of their own supply of water. The sources of this were about seven or eight miles to the south of Edinburgh, among the

Pentland hills, and called the Black and the Crawley springs, both of excellent quality the former being particularly pure, though not so abundant as the Crawley, which could afford four times the supply of Edinburgh. The work was placed under the able direction of James Jardine, Esq. civil engineer.

During this year the arrangements made for completing the long suspended erection of the College of Edinburgh were begun to be put in execution. The Parliamentary Commissioners, consisting of the Right Honourable the Lord President, the Lord Justice Clerk, the Lord Chief Baron, the Lord Chief Commissioner, the Lord Advocate, the Right Honourable the Lord Provost, William Dundas, Esq. M. P. Sir John Marjoribanks, of Lees, Bart. Hugh Warrender, Esq. the very Rev. Principal Baird, and Andrew Duncan, jun. M. D. appointed to manage the yearly grant of 10,000l. voted by Parliament for this purpose, met on Wednesday the 4th December, 1816, in order to receive plans and specifications for the completion of the building. The plan of Mr William Playfair being adopted, the prize of 100 guineas was adjudged to that gentleman. The second prize of 80 guineas was awarded to Mr Burn. According to Mr Playfair's plan, the ex

terior of the building, as originally planned by Adams, is to be retained, with very little alteration; but there will be a total departure from the internal arrangements. The southern side of the quadrangle is to be occupied almost entirely by the library, which will be 190 feet long, and one of the most elegant rooms in the kingdom. The western side is to be appropriated to the Museum, and the other two sides are to be occupied chiefly as class-rooms. The original proposal of accommodating the professors with houses in the College, was entirely abandoned.

The Caledonian Canal, which had been carried on since 1804 by an annual parliamentary grant of 50,000, was now approaching to its completion. Of the three districts into which it was divided, the eastern and the western were finished, and the workmen were now employed upon the middle portion. By the report of 1816, there had been already expended

upon this great national undertaking, 600,000l.; and it was expected that another 200,000l. would complete the navigation from sea to sea. An excellent account of this great national work, will be found in Mr Stevenson's article on the subject, in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. II. Part II.

THE distresses of the times, and the difficulty of subsistence, rendered emigration a very prominent feature in the transactions of the present year. Amid the suffering which caused and accom

panied these removals, some satisfaction may be afforded, by considering them as the means of peopling and civilizing the unoccupied and savage districts of the earth. We shall endeavour here

to collect into one view the scattered notices upon this subject which occur in the journals of the time.

The Helen, Wilson, sailed from Kirkaldy on the 20th May, for Halifax, with nearly 100 passengers. Since that period the following vessels, with emigrants, have sailed from Leith for British America, viz. Agincourt, Matheson, 200; Alexander, Henry, 44; Lord Middleton, Ker, 163; and Trafalgar, Mitchell, 78; in all 485. On the 30th May, about 100 mechanics, engaged as settlers on Mr Moodie's estates at the Cape of Good Hope, embarked at Leith on board the smack Matchless, for London.

Six hundred and seventy-two persons have this year emigrated from the port of Hull for Canada.

No fewer than 547 persons have this season emigrated from the port of Dumfries alone, and, we believe, considerably more than 100 have sailed from the port of Annan. The Nancy, which left the Nith on 7th June, with 119 passengers, found on her arrival at the Carse, 34 additional adventurers, waiting at that place to be taken on board! We lately mentioned (says the Dumfries Journal) that the Jessie, of this port, had sailed with goods and 65 passengers for British America; and we have now to add, that the three under-mentioned vessels, with goods, and 275 passengers, will sail this week from this port, for the same destination :-Elizabeth, for St John's, 125; Augusta, for Miramichi, 115; North Star, 35; Jessie, for St John's, 65. Total 340.

Number of emigrants that have sailed from the port of Belfast for America, from the 17th of March to the 21st of August inclusive;-For Philadelphia, 252; New York, 331; Norfolk, 40; Baltimore, 251; St Andrews, 252; Quebec, 1023. Total 2149.

A moral malady, says a continental journal, seems to affect the inhabitants of several countries in Europe, and that malady is emigration. It began its ravages at that period when it ought to have found the termination of them, in the restoration of general peace-when all sources are reopening to activity and commercewhen it is at length permitted us to taste repose after 30 years of misery. Vainly is it stated that the streets of Philadelphia and New York are full of unfortunate mendicants, who weep for the native land they never will see again-vainly do the priests and magistrates endeavour to check the dis ease. Reason has lost her power, and

from the mountains of Switzerland and Germany, descend whole families, who embark on the Rhine, traverse Holland, and are going under the Tropics to find there misery and repentance.

Amsterdam, April 30.-There are here more than six hundred unhappy Swiss and German families, who want to go to America, destitute of every thing; men, women, and children, run about the streets begging a morsel of bread to keep them from starving, while waiting their departure. Some of them who were provided with money to pay their passage, have been deceived and plundered by a German, who made them believe that he was commissioned to receive (on giving them a receipt) part of the passage money on account: he promised them a good vessel, &c. He made some of them proceed to the Helder, the others were to embark here; but in neither of the two ports was either vessel or captain of the names which he had given them. The pretended agent vanished last Friday, carrying away a sum of money, which is estimated at several thousand florins, leaving his

victims in the most deplorable situation. Every measure has been taken to discover this swindler, but hitherto without avail.

Jutphaas (Netherlands) April 24.We have seen pass by this place, at different times in the course of this year, some thousands of individuals of both sexes, coming chiefly from Switzerland, and going through this commune to Utrecht, in order to proceed to America. This emigration seems to augment. Yesterday passed six vessels, on board of which were twelve hundred Swiss families, from the Canton of Basle. To-day six hundred have passed, who are to be followed by a still greater number.

An inhabitant of this commune, who conversed with several of them, found that many of them had directed, as masters and weavers, the first manufactories of linen, cotton, and silk, in Switzerland, and distress and want of work were the causes which obliged them to quit their country.

Mentz, June 2.-From the 16th to the end of May, a great number more of emigrants has passed down the Rhine; viz. from Baden, 492 men, 449 women, and 1096 children, in all 2037; from Alsace, 211 men, 480 women, 444 children, in all 845; from Wurtemberg, 52 men, 38 women, 69 children, in all 159, making a sum total of 3041. The number of them was much greater, but as they found at Weisenau, above Mentz, some hundreds of emigrants, who were return. ing to their country, who gave them a dreadful picture of the misery which awaited them in Holland, a great many of them turned back, or resolved to go to Poland. The accounts which travellers bring from the Lower Rhine make humanity shudder. Poor wretches, - who return in great numbers, have been found starved on the road, with grass in their mouths. About Amsterdam, where it was found necessary

to erect barracks for them without the gates, their number is said to have increased to 3,000, who are almost entirely destitute of every thing.

Rotterdam, May 19.-I am just arrived from Amsterdam, where there are not less than 4000 Swiss and German peasants waiting to embark for America, and more are arriving daily. The city of Utrecht is crowded with these distressed emigrants; and at Amsterdam there are about 500 encamped in the open fields, waiting for the like purpose. Their appearance is exceedingly novel, and they seem to be organized in clans, having chiefs, and a gradation of superiors. At Amsterdam I saw them frequently promenading the streets in little bands, with a leader at their head.

Emigrants from Switzerland to North America pass in great numbers by Strasburg. It is said in that town that an ex-great personage (Joseph Buonaparte) who is founding a colony in the new world, has agents in Switzerland to excite this emigration.

The number of persons who have emigrated from Baden this year, is said to be 20,000, of whom about 2000 have gone to Poland, and the rest to North America.

Stutgard, June 30.-For some weeks past we see a great number of Wurtemburgers return, who had quitted their country to go and seek their for tune elsewhere, and who are now in the greatest distress. Some of them return from Holland, or from the frontiers of that country, and of the Prussian States, where a passage has been refused them. Others have been only to the environs of Mentz, where the crowds of their fellow countrymen, who were returning home, induced them to do the same.

From Ratisbon, the 17th instant, it is mentioned, that on the 14th two bodies of Wurtemberg emigrants, consisting of 4 or 500 persons each, pass

ed through that city on their way to the borders of the Black Sea.

Two hundred and eighty emigrants from Wurtemberg are encamped on the glacis of Vienna. They were unable to pay for their passage by the Danube to Gallatz, and were starving, until the inhabitants of Vienna took them under their protection.

A distressing picture is given in the American journals, of the emigrants to America from Holland and Germany; and some severe but just remarks are made on the conduct of those captains who are styled the kidnappers of the foreigners. A person of some credit, pleading the cause of those deluded and unhappy emigrants, terms the trade an unhallowed speculation in white freemen's liberty, which he considers in the highest degree derogatory to the character of the American republic. He avers,

1st, That such servants as come from Germany, at least, are generally ignorant of that humiliating fact, that they are to be made slaves for years, for the payment of their passage.

2d, That they are not driven by famine or necessity from their native country, but that they are enticed by kidnappers, with false promises of happiness and gain, superior to any they could enjoy in Europe.

3d, That the whole business is a speculation, even more infamous than the slave trade on the coast of Africa.

4th, That this inhuman traffic is a flagrant breach of the law of nations, and abhorred by every civilized go

vernment.

5th, That the laws in America sanctioning such an unrepublican, unchristian, immoral, and fraudulent traffic, are absolutely unconstitutional, and ought, for the honour of the only remaining republic on earth, to be speedily and eternally repealed.

Accounts have been received by the Jean, arrived at Annan, from the emigrants who sailed from Scotland the latter end of last spring for America. These unfortunate men found themselves miserably disappointed in their expectations. Artificers in wood or iron were the only tradesmen in any request; little or no demand for labourers in husbandry, hewing or squaring of wood being the only source of extended permanent employment for any considerable part of the year, and the season for it is now rapidly expiring, and a long winter coming on, with hardly any resources but charity.

Extract from the report of the joint committee of the senate and assembly, to whom was referred the memorial of the Mayor, Aldermen, and commonality of the city of New York, relative to the proportion of auction duties arising from sales at public auction in the city of New York, which was appropriated to the support of foreign poor in that city.

"That many foreign artisans land in the city of New York; disperse themselves among the various manufactories established through the country, where they seldom gain a settlement, and when reduced to want, are returned to be supported by that city.

"That many foreigners who support their families during the summer months, when employment can be readily obtained, and the necessaries required for the support of life are few, and easy to be procured, abandon their families in the winter season, and leave them a charge upon the public benevolence.

"That one-fourth of the population of said city is computed to consist of foreigners, who having no relatives in this country, are liable, upon the least reverse of fortune, to become a public burden; that the emigration from Europe during the last year to the