1801.] 
ous fketches of Society and Manners, with 
which the public has been from time to 
time favoured through the medium of 
your valuable mifcellany ; the perufal of a 
very inaccurate delineation of the inhabi- 
tants of Sunderland in your laft number 
was not unaccompanied with the ftrongeft 
feelings of aftonifhment and regret. Ful- 
ly aware of the difficulties which muft 
ever attend thefe characteriftic def{crip- 
tions, the fcanty materials of the pafling 
traveller, and the partial bias to which a 
refident, uninfluenced by acrimonious mo- 
tives, will be naturally inclined; I fhould 
not have entered the lifts of controverfy 
with your late correfpondent, had trifling 
or immaterial miftakes alone pervaded the 
tencr of his account. But, Sir, the re- 
putation of a very refpectable fociety is 
publicly arraigned, crimes, unknown to its 
members, are charged upon a large commu- 
nity, and unqualified affertions or miftated 
facts, which uncontradiéted will acquire 
the ftamp of authenticity, demand an ear- 
ly refutation. Aware, indeed, of his own 
infufficiency, your correfpondent R. H. 
calls on fome more competent writer fo 
perfec thofe features, the outlines of which 
alone he attemptedto portray. But if thele 
outlines convey but a very imperfect re- 
femblance of the original, or in fact would. 
apply to any other original of a fimilar 
fpecies with equal aptitude, their deline- 
ation rather encumbers the canvafs than 
affifts towards the completion of a more 
perfect defign. 
It becomes, then, a duty, before any 
further defcription of this vicinity is at- 
tempted, to rectify feveral miftakes into 
which your correfpondent has fallen, to 
contradié&t fome affertions which he has 
very confidently made, and to generalize a 
few particulars which are ftated as diftinc- 
tively characteriftic of this town. After 
premifing that the tows of Sunderland has 
been rifing for feveral years into a flate of 
refpeliability, on account of its commercial 
importance, it is fomewhat fingular that 
R. H. fhould farcaftically obferve that the 
accumulation of wealth, to the exclufion of 
nearly ev.ry other purfuit, appears to be the 
principal objeé of its inhabitants. Is not 
this the natural charatteriftic of the many 
in every commercial town; and to what 
muft we attribute the boafted fuperiority 
of Britain over other nations in her fa- 
brics or her trade, if not to the ardent ac- 
tivity of the inhabitants in their feveral 
profeffional purfuits? The philofopher 
May, indeed, inveftigate with {cientific pre- 
Cifion the principles of agriculture, ma- 
uiactures ; and commerce, and important 
Account of Sunderland Corrected. f 
224 
difcoveries frequently reward the labours 
of his diligent refearch: but the mafs of 
mankind muft ever guide the plough, the 
loom, and the fail, and their exertions 
alone can give the due effect to his more 
comprehenfive plans. The love of gain 
is, 1 believe, the grand axis on which the 
wheel of public intereft revolves. Re- 
move its all. propelling force, and by what 
other ftimulant thall a fpirit of general in- 
duftry be excited? The acquifition of 
wealth, when it degenerates not into ava- 
rice, nor inftigates to oppreffion, ought 
never to be deemed an unworthy motive. 
Tt raifes the individual in the great {cale 
of fociety, and furthers the performance of 
the nobleft focial duties. . The recreations 
of a commercial or indeed of any other fo- 
ciety mut neceflarily vary; uniformity of 
tafte cannot pervade numbers, and a mul- 
tiplicity of amufements are the natural 
confequences of increafing wealth. The 
inhabitants of Sunderland are allowed to 
derive th<ir fecondary enjoyments from the 
theatre, afjemblies, and routs. Is there any 
thing diftinGtively peculiar in this? Dra- 
matic reprefentations have been a favourite 
and certainly a laudable refource in al- 
moft every age and country of the civi- 
lized world. Is there a town of equal con- 
fequence throughout the Britifh Empire 
where. they are not at the prefent moment 
in equal vogue? Afiemblies and routs are 
the fafhionable propenfities of every po- 
lifhed fociety, where they are not reftrained 
by enthufiafm and bigotry ; and in Sunder- 
land thofe meetings are conducted upon 
the moft liberal plan. That barbarous aud 
itubuman diverfion of cock-jighting, which — 
your correfpondent fo confidently declares 
to be iz high eftimation, is abfolutely un- 
known. In Sunderland or Bifhop Wear- 
mouth a fingle cockpit does not exift, nor 
are any of the principal inhabitants addiét - 
ed to this reprobate amufement. ‘The ac- 
tive engagements of trade afford but little 
leifure for literary acquirements or the 
advancement of intellectual excellence, and 
the man of fcience rarely fixes his refidence 
in a fecondary commercial town :-=that 
the fociety in Sunderland is inferior in thefe 
attainments to that of almoft every other 
town of equal importance in the kingdom, 
is however.a hardy affertion, inadmiMble _ 
from the pen of a writer who has proved 
himfelf fo incompetent to the fubjeé& he 
has voluntarily attempted to difcufs. Like 
Liverpool it may not boaft the claffic ele- 
gance of a Rofcoe, the critical acumen of 
a Currie; nor with Briftol jay claim to 
_ the foaring genius or enraptured mufe of a 
Southey, Coleridge or a Cottle 5 yet it has 
“ been 
