The number of inhabitants has been eftimated at thirty thoufand; of thete above one thousand are Chincfe. The remainder confits of Malabars, Englith, European and Aliatic Portugnefe, a few Dutch and Dauith families, Malays, Japanese, Acheenefe, Siamefe, Burmans, Buggafes, Bengalees, Perfees, Armeni sas, and Arabs. Each of thefe tribes bave a part of the town allotted to them, and nominates one of their own clafs for their head man, who is in fome degree relponible for their conduct.

The thops in the Bezar, which are very numerous, are kept by Chinese and Malabars. The Chincfe are a very inentrious quiet pcople, exercife almost all the handicrafts, and carry on moft of the

retail trade in these parts.

The harbour is fuficiently capacious to hold a large fleet, being the whole of that space between the north-eatt part of the land and the Quida fhore, extending a very little way to the point where Fort Cornwalls ftands. In the whole of this pace there is good anchorage for the largeit thips, as the water is always fmooth, however trongly and from what ever quarter the wind may blow.

In fine, the polition of Prince of Wales Iland, its climate, its fertility, its har bours, its produce of large timber, its conguity to Pegu, which contains moft abundant teak-forefts, will render it an acquisition of great importance, both in a commercial and political point of view; and I doubt not that it will foon, under the tottering care of the British government, and by the enterpriting fpirit of the British merchants, become what Malacra was during the profperity of the Fortaguefe Empire in India, and in later times Batavia,--the centre and emporium. of the commerce of the Eastern sca.

The Directors of the Faft India Company were fo fenfible of its importance, that they have erected it into a feparate fettle ment under a governor and council, and commander of the garrifon of Fort-Cornwallis, which coulifts of a confiderable body of Sea-poys and Europeans. There likewife a clergyman of the church of England,a cicrk and schoolinafter. Juftice sadainiftered nearly in the fame manner as in the English fettlements in India, by a Mayor, Alderman, and Juftices of the Peace.

I am fo well pleased with this place, that I fhall with reluctance leave it for the purpofe of fulfilling my engagement with my prefent employer. Should we in the course of our trading voyage touch

J. WALLACE.

N

In a

The experience of the naturalift demonftrates, that nothing more powerfully contributes to bring a tender and fentitive plant to maturity, and finally to perfection, than the nourishment of it by a conflant renewal of materials agreeable to its original growth, or nature. fimilar manner, reafon will fhow us, that, in the intellectual, as in the physical garden, the bloffoms of the tree will ever be molt beautiful, when the nutrition it receives from the care of fuperintendance, is congenial with its effential qualities.

Honour, if it may not be confidered as an innate object of defire in the breaft of men of talents, is at leaft the fenfible image of that impreffion on the infant mind, infcrutable in its origin, bat indelible in its effect, which alone appears to command the energies and direct the fuperior exertions of genius. The painter and the poet, indeed, often turn alde from the guiding brightness of their uardian ftar, to feek fupport, or eafe, under ignobler influence; but it will be found that they never do fo without a confcioufuels that they degrade, or, as it were, 02

defert

defert their native faculties, nor without, at the fame time, deviating from the paths which lead to excellence and immortality.

On the other hand, neceffity may fometimes chain down the reluctant fpirit, and the fente of honour may remain firm and vivid, although its call can no longer be obeyed; but, on the fuppofition of the freedom of choice and action being on an average footing with the moderate conditions of life, it is unquestionable that the wifh, the conteft for honourable diftinctions, may be regarded as the invari able teft of fuch talents as are defigned by providace to illumine and inftruct mankind.

It is not meant, by honourable diftinctions, to imply theacquifition or pofletion of merely oftentatious, or inappropriate titles, but the acquifition of fuch marked acknowledgment of eminent powers, as may every where fecure the claims of the poffeffor to deference and refpect. Titles and rank bear no effential relation to intrinfic merit, yet are they ftill the agreed fymbols, or, in a manner, the current and legal coin of public esteem. The coin, it is allowed, is often debased, and often counterfeit; but thefe are circumftances which produce no alteration in the value of its original ftandard.

If diftinctions, then, imply the acknowledgment of fuperior merit, if they reflect back to the mind the fenfation of honour, they must be found to form one of the moit congenial modes of eliciting the native powers of genius.

But, they may likewife be confidered as neceffary to the most falutary exertions of genius. It is defirable, not only to cultivate the genius of our land, but to give to its cultivation a philanthropic tendency, to make it beneficial as well as powerful, and that, while it acquires the force requifite to win admiration, it fhould allo adopt the modes molt calculated to obtain our affection, Thefe modes it will the moft readily affume, while it looks forward to a return of fayourable attention from the minds of thofe, to whom it directs its influence. Merit, compelled to watch and cherith in folitude the gerins of internal talent, and unable finally to refcue its claims from obfcurity, will not, indeed, lofe its powers, nor forfeit its ellential title to fuperiority, but it is in danger of eventually affuming an air more favage than benevolent, of dictating rather than perfuading, of de terring instead of inviting: if urged to conten by oppolition, it too frequently

deferts the paths of inftruction, to obey the impultes of irritated feelings, derides or figmatizes what nature would have prompted it to admire, and endeavours to fubvert what it is not allowed to polish.

Every laudable purpose of society, with regard to the arts, is therefore accomplified by annexing honours to the fuccefsful exertion of talents. Nor is this doctrine new in refpect of the general inflitutions of all civilized nations, for the progrefs of intellectual studies. It is, fortunately for learning, new only in refpect to the cultivation of the arts of painting and fculpture; and, unfortunately for us, it is, in this refpect, newer in England than in any other country in Europe. An Academy of the Arts eftablished by royal favour has, indeed, elevated a certain number from the common mats, and the induftry of its members has fecured them from the defolating profpect of mendicity; but there is no great honour in attaining what it is a difgrace not to avoid; the feat which mediocrity may reach cannot be a ground of diftinction; for other diftinctions are neceffary towards the exaltation of the arts.

Let us now enquire what other rewards of honour are open to thofe arts in England. The only one which our fiate acknowledges, is the title of King's Painter, annexed to an office to which the painter is generally advanced, not by public competition, but by private favour, and fo little regarded as an object of fame, that the artit, if he do not difdain, at leaft overlooks the employment; for he hires inferior painters at a cheap rate, to paint the pictures required of hiin, and to enable him to take what he regards as the only refpećtable fruits of his office, into his pocket, This office was, fome years fince, ludicrously conferred on the late Sir Jothua Reynolds: I fay ludicroudly, for who but muft fimile on reflecting that an artift, to whom the fovereign always declined to fit for his portrait, was chofen to convey the refemblance of that very monarch to foreign nations, and to their lateft pofterity? Yet, ridiculous as this circumftance may appear, it was, alas! the only inftance of royal favour which graced the profeffional efforts of that must accomplished painter, either before or after he became, from secondary views, the titled Prefident of the Academy.-Hic, to whofe hand nature gave her own truth, and from whofe pencil the borrowed grace, he, by whom Alexander would have chofen, in the polithed age of Greece, to tranfinit his image to future.

ages, abfolved his long career of public admiration, wholly unemployed by the fovereign, whole reign and country he adorned.

This extraordinary, nay, almoft incredible circumftance, leads to the fuller eincidation of the nature of thofe national dimctions, which may be confidered as provocative of talent. Reynolds, with us, was a Kuight, and King's Painter; bat thefe honours were to far from ferving as a ground of future emulation in his art, that they have merely left a riddle, fcarce to be folved by posterity, wherefore no picture of an artift fo figualized, is to be found in any of the various palaces of his fovereign. It is evident, therefore, that the cafe of Reynolds, notwithstanding nominal honours, cannot be quoted as au infance of due diftmction conferred on ment: on the contrary, it may be safely affected, that at least half of the opportunity offered by the life of fo illuftrious sa artit, to raife the character and ge neral ellimation of Engilh art, was lot to our country for want of proper excitements, whereby his talents might have been fully called into exertion.

This inftance is fufficient to explain the views of our enquiry, regarding the influence of honours and rank on the arts. Such honours as empty titles can beftow, by no means appear to conftitute the fpecies of diftinction, which may be fuppofed at once to reward and ftimulate geplus. Before the arts can be expected to reach their ultimate degree of elevation in a philofophical land, a more folid and permanent bafis muit iupport the honours to be allotted to them, and they inuft find their etablithment on fair and public ground, where their claius may be duly invelugated, and as duly rewarded. If they be truly denominated liberal arts, it is among the national claffes of liberal fudy that they must take their station. It is here that they inuit be taught to feek for diftinction, not from the favour of a partial admirer, or a courtly patron, but from the more exalted fuffrages of learnine and patriotifin.

It may be the more requisite to inlift on this point, on account of fome unjust prejudices under which the arts of defign evidently labour in this country. The degree of rank or estimation, in which we hold thofe ftudies, is at variance with the terms in which we fpeak of them. We call them liberal arts; but how can that be construed liberal which is unconnected with established liberal education, and in which no person in the liberal claffes

of life would profeflionally engage? The father who would bring his fon up to the practice of phyfic, or the law, will hesitate to make him a painter or a fculptor.

Our prefent fyftem of opinions therefore, allows painters to be gentlemen, but will not allow gentlemen to be painters. Men of liberal rank, in their intercourfe with artifis, rather confider them as entitled to their condefcenfion, than as admitted to their prefence ou a footing of equality. Indeed, fo little has the profeffion of a painter been hitherto made the fubject of attention, by the reflecting claffes of fociety, that the mental part of it, and the mechanical, are still spoken of under the fame denomination; and a painter is equally a term expreffive of the man who fills the mind with the awful exhibitions of the Siftine Chapel, and of him who covers the wainscot or the walls of our houfes, to fecure them from the injuries of fmoke and rain.

There is, no doubt, a reafon of a more fubitantial nature to be given, wherefore, an English gentleman fhould not confider painting as an eligible employment for his fon, viz. the impoffibility of acquiring wealth by the purfan of it; and this, as was fhewn in the former part of the quef tion, is a fault inherent in its nature. With regard merely to honour, many situations in life are preferred for our children, which yet we can hardly esteem more creditable to the holders. It, certainly is no where thought more honourable, for inftance, to brew than to paint, to fabricate that which eclipfes the intellect than that which enlightens it; but brewing is productive of immenfe opulence, painting of none. Let it not be fuppofed, from this comparison, that the Enquirer, who is an Englishman, harbours the leatt thought of difrefpect to the patrons and providers of a liquor from which he derives daily comfort. In an enlightened country like our own, every honeft employment fhould fit a man for the moit distinguished general fociety. It is only meant to affert that, in the probability of acquiring opulence, painting cannot and ought not to enter into competition with fuch trades as England difplays. But there is, therefore, the fironger neceflity for enforcing its claims to reward in another line; and, until this be done, until the various claffification of the arts be farther determined, and their proportional degrees of rank and value afcertained, it will, with respect to national character, be a magnificent, but vain profufion, to offer medley premiums to the

pretenfions