35^ A. D. 1762. 



ciples with great fuccefs, and alfo with improvements, by feveral watch- 

 makers. The general ufe of them onboard the navy, the Eaft-India 

 fliips, and many private merchant fliips, has been produclive of this 

 important advantage to navigation, that a very great number of the 

 prefent race of navigators are much better acquainted with the prin- 

 ciples upon which the fcience of navigation is founded, than their pre- 

 deceflbrs generally were, many of whom knew nothing further than 

 merely how to ufe the inftruments, apply the rules, and extract num- 

 bers from the tables, which men of fcience had conflruded for their 

 ufe, without ever beftowing a thought to inquire, why thole inftrti- 

 ments, rules, and tables, were fo conftruded. To the ufe of time- 

 keepers in the hands of men of fcience we are alfo indebted for the 

 great improvements lately made in the know lege of currents in the 

 ocean, whereof we may exped loon to pollels accurate charts defcrib- 

 ing their courfe and velocity as correftly as the foundings and fet of. 

 the tide are marked in the prefent charts of harbours and bays. Thus 

 does Harrifon's invention conflitute a new and a fplendid sera in the 

 hiflory of navigation. 



The board of longitude alfo gave a premium of X^5oo to Dodor Ir- 

 win for his invention of a marine chair, v/hich enables the navigator to 

 obferve the heavenly bodies during a ftorm with as much fleadinefs and 

 certainty, as if he flood on firni ground. 



In order to prevent the damages and thefts committed xtpon the 

 {hipping in the river Thames by people carrying on a petty trade upon 

 the river in boats, commonly called bum-boats, all fuch traders were 

 ordered to be regiflered, and fubjeded to regulations. The crime of 

 cutting or damaging cables, cordages, buoys, &c. belonging to vefTels, 

 was made punifhable by tranfportation for feven years : and perfons 

 convided of buying goods ftolen upon the river were fubjecled to pu- 

 nifhment by tranfportation for fourteen years *. [2 Geo. Ill, c. 28.] 



Rye in SufTex, one of the antient port-towns, diflinguiflied by the 

 name and privileges of the Cinque ports, had been ruined by the re- 

 cefs of the fea, and afterwards in the fixteenth century in a great mea- 

 fure reflored by two irruptions of the fame element, which has fo often 

 made great revolutions in the flate of the ports on that coafl. Thele 

 advantages were improved by a cut capable of carrying vellels of above 

 300 tons as high as Winchelfea, which was now completed. 



It is very agreeable to be able to record, that the fuccefs of the Bri- 

 tifh herring filhery on the coafl; of Shetland this year exceeded that of 

 the Dutch, and that the Britifh yaggers reached the firft markets at 



* Mr. Colquhoun, in his very ufeful Treatife on the commerce of the river Thames, J>. 48, obfcrvts, 

 that fourteen years elapfed after this adl was pafTed, before anv one of its provifions was carried into 

 tffcft. ' I 



