A. D. 1789. 185 



of prints, with increafing fatisfadion, honour, and advantage, to him- 

 felf and the artifts, and being defirous of obviating a reflection of for- 

 eigners, that the talents of our bed artifts were entirely thrown away 

 upon portraits, conceived the great defign of ereding a gallery for the 

 depofit of a magnificent colledion of hiftorical pictures, the fubjeds of 

 which fhould be taken from the principal fcenes of Shakfpeare, to be 

 painted by the firft artifts of the kingdom. It is worthy of remark, that 

 thefe pidures are entirely free from that uniformity which marks the 

 works of the Roman, the Venetian, or the Flemifli, fchools, every one 

 of the painters having chofen his own diftind road to fame *. And it 

 is no fmall fatisfadion to be able to fay, that the aflemblage of paint- 

 ings, already executed in purfuance of this plan, has been pronounced 

 by connoiffeurs not inferior to many of the celebrated colledions of 

 Italy. 



Conneded with this temple, dedicated to the memory of the great 

 father of the Englifh theatre, was Mr. Boydell's plan of publifliing, in 

 conjundion with his nephew Mr. Jofiah Boydell and Mr. Nicol his ma- 

 jefly's bookfeller, an edition of Shakfpeare, which fhould combine the 

 utmoft poflible excellence of the paper-maker's, the letter-founder's, and 

 the printer's, arts with the mofl perfed fpecimens of hiftorical engrav- 

 ing comprifed in an appropriate let of prints, executed by the mofl 

 eminent engravers ; a monument to the honour of the immortal bard, 

 capable of conveying his fame, together with that of the undertakers, 

 of the feveral artifts, and of the Britifh nation, to the remoteft corners 

 of the habitable earth. 



Thus have a few private individvals in this commercial nation, rely- 

 ing on the well-merited I'upport of the public, accomplifhed, in com- 

 paratively a few years, what in other countries has only been effected 

 by the continued munificence of fucceflive fovereign princes command 

 ing the treafures of their dominions. 



May 19"' — The tax impofed upon fliops by the ad 25 Geo. Ill, c. 30, 

 againft which the fhopkeepers had never ceafed to remonftrate, and for 

 the repeal of which Mr. Fox liad regularly made an annual motion, was 

 now totally repealed. [29 Geo. Ill, c. 9.] 



The king was empowered to permit, by an order in council, the im- 

 portation of bread, flour, Indian corn, and live flock, in Britifli vefTels 

 from the United ftates for the fupply of the province of Quebec, and 

 the countries adjacent to the Gulf of S'. Laurence, in times of fcarcity, 

 notwithflanding the abiblute prohibition refpeding the province of 

 Quebec in the ad {c. 6) of laft feflion f . \c. 1 6.] 



* This remark was made by the late Sir Jofhua of permitting tlie importation of corn, bread, &c,. 



Reynolds. from the United flates by his own authority. [See 



-f Such was the fcarcity in Quebec, that Lord Ail 30 Geo. Ill, c, \.~\ 

 Dorchefter, the governor, was under the neceffity 



Vol. IV. A a 



