r)f mahufachiring Tin Ptaie. S(J9l 



they were stopped by the patent, they had made *■' many thou- 

 sand plates from iron raised in the forest of Dean,and tinned them 

 over with Cornish tin, and the plates proved far better than thd 

 German plates, by reason of the toughness and flexibleness of 

 our forest iron. One Mr. Dison, says he, a tinman in Worces- 

 ter, one Mr. Lydiate near Fleet-bridge, and one Mr. Harrison 

 liear the Kingsbench, have wrought many, and they know their 

 goodness*." 



• In another place this interesting writer informs us that" wheri 

 he was in Saxony, the different establishments for making tin- 

 plates were very numerous, and that most of them belonged to 

 the dukef." " The trade," says he, " is so great, that bv com- 

 putation, no less than S0,000 men depend upon it, alid when the 

 plates are finished, they are sent by land to Lipsick, from thence 

 to the Elbe river, alid so down to Hamburg, and from thence 

 Sent by sea as far as trade is known J." " There was," says he, 

 " no tin any where in Europe, fexcept in Cornwall, Until a Cbrnish 

 man found tin in the mountains of Saxony, near A town called 

 Awe, where his statue is yet to be seen. The tin works are fixed 

 upon a great river running down the valley— and the tin, iron 

 and woods, grow in and upon the moimtains adjoining to both 

 sides the river ; and those tin-works have proved so beneficial to 

 the place, that there are several fine cities raised by the riches 

 proceeding therefrom §." He adds, " the trade of rnaking tin- 

 plates was about sixty years since fixt in Bohemia, and had ther6 

 long contiimed ; but the woods decaying, and there being at that 

 time a wise duke of Saxony, willing and ready to improve his own 

 revenue, and his subjects, did accept of directions how this trade 

 might be brought away and fixt in the duke of Saxony's territories i|. 

 A Romish priest, converted to be a Lutheran, was the chief in- 



jrears this very scheme has been effected;— he proposed the cutting of se^ 

 veial navigable canals, half a century before any such project had been ^x- 

 fecuted in this country. He niade'the necessary surveys and planned docks 

 for the cities of London and Dublin ;— besides his journey to Saxony already 

 mentioned, he went to Holland, under the patronajje of the ancestors of 

 Some of our puesent nobility, to examine the inland navigations of the Dutch, 

 and to investigate the nature of their linen manufactures ;— and on his re- 

 turn promulgated the plan for a new manufacture of linens, which he cal- 

 culated would employ all tlie poor of England. He published schemes for 

 the improvement of our national fisheries ; he made several tours through 

 Ireland, for the express puipose of planting new manufactures and devising 

 the increase of the staple trades of that country. He made a regular sur- 

 vey and estimate of the expense of rendering the river Slane in Ireland na- 

 vigable, for the puipose of bringing timber down to the coast for His Ma- 

 jesty s navy ; and rendered many other signal /services to his country. 



• Page 173. t Page 155. X Page 1/2. 



§ Varranton, part H. page 176. 11 Ibid, page 178. 



Vol, 55. No. 2Gb. Maij 1820. li strument 



