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live. The utility of our harbours is not magnified, nor their inconveniences 
concealed j if the good character which I give the inhabitants, exercife the pa- 
tience of the uninterefted reader, the proper contrail which Truth required will 
deferve his acknowledgment of impartiality. The revenues of the County’s 
ftaple-commodities are calculated by the moft difeerning and converfant in thofe 
particulars, and therefore not exaggerated, nor the beauty of our natural produc- 
tions too highly extolled. Some privileges which we have in preference to other 
counties, I do not challenge as our due, and the prefent ftate of Arts is fo far 
from being heightened, that it is thought to lband in need of many improvements. 
Allowances will be made, I truft, for local deferiptions, but I defire no quarter 
for mifreprefentations. ’Tis the bufinefs of a Civil Hiftorian, faithfully to draw 
the characters of mankind, and the motives, origin, connection, and the good 
and evil tendencies of their aCtions ; ’tis alfo equally the duty of a Natural 
Hiftorian to be faithful in exhibiting the works of Nature, to point out the 
defects of Science, and the imperfections of Arts, to endeavour to rectify what 
is amifs, and promote the advancement of what is immature. 
A LIST 
