can timber in foreign markets, and prejudice whole nations against it. Contracts for timber fhould always be made fo as to give time to look for the requifite fticks, and cut them in the proper season of the year. If the trees were girdled and left to die ftanding, the timber would be much fuperior to any which is cut whilft alive. Trees cut in the fap fhould be ftripped of their bark as foon as poffible, or they will be damaged by the worm; but after all the care and attention which can be bestowed on them, many trees which are intended for mafts, on the ftrict examination which they muft pafs, prove unfit for fervice, and fometimes the labour of a whole feafon is loft. It is therefore accounted more profitable to get the smaller fpecies of lumber, and especially those which do not interfere with husbandry, which, after all, is much preferable to the lumber business, both in point of gain, contentment, and morals. Nothing is more convincing than fact and experiment. During the late war the trade in lumber was fufpended, and the people were obliged to attend to husbandry; they were then able to export large quantities of corn, though for several years before the war, it was imported for neceffary confumption. The following statement, obtained from the naval-office, will place this matter in its just view. To the above account of exports, the following note is added by a naval officer: "It is likely near half as much has been smuggled* The fmuggled corn during the war went chiefly to Nova-Scotia, the country which, by Lord Sheffield's calculation, was to fupply the West Indies with provifions! Q 2 out out of the State and not accounted for." It must alfo be remem bered, that great quantities were carried out by land into the eastern countries of Maffachusetts. If these be added to the lift of exports, the average will come very little fhort of the average of corn im ported before the war; and thus it is demonftrable that even those towns adjoining the river, in which lumbering was formerly the chief employment, and into which much corn was imported, are fully capable of raising, not only a fufficiency of provifions for their own fupport, but, a furplus for exportation equal to what they formerly imported, and paid for in the hard, dangerous, and unprofitable labour which always attends the getting of lumber. At the close of the war the high price of lumber induced many people to refume their old employments; but there has been fo much fluctuation in the demand for that article of late, that no de pendence can be placed on it, and for this reafon as well as others, husbandry is daily growing more into ufe. A careful inspection of provifions falted for exportation would tend to establish the character of them in foreign ports, and greatly encourage the labours of the husbandman. The cod fishery is carried on either by boats or fchooners. The boats, in the winter feafon, go out in the morning and return at night; in the spring and fummer, they do not return till they are filled. The schooners make three trips to the Banks in a feafon. The firft, or spring fare, produces large thick fifh, which, after being properly falted and dried, is kept alternately above and under ground, till it becomes fo mellow as to be denominated dumb fifli. This fish, when boiled, is red, and is eaten, generally on Saturdays, at the beft tables in New-England. The fifh of the fummer and fall fares is divided into two forts, the one called merchantable, and the other Jamaica fifh. These forts are white, thin, and lefs firm. The Jamaica fish is the fmalleft, thinnest, and moft broken. The former is exported to Europe, the latter to the West India Iflands.` The places where the cod fishery is chiefly attended to are the ifles of Shoals, Newcastle, Rye and Hampton; but all the towns adjoining the river are more or lefs concerned in it. The boats employed in this fishery are of that light and fwift kind called whale boats; they are rowed either with two or four oars, and steered with another, and being equally fharp at each end, move with the utmost celerity on the furface of the ocean. Schooners Schooners are generally from twenty to fifty tons, and carry fix or feven men, and one or two boys. When they make a tolerable fare, they bring home five or fix hundred quintals of fifli, split, falted, and ftowed in bulk. At their arrival the fifh is rinfed in falt water, and fpread on hurdles compofed of bruth, and raised on stakes about three or four feet from the ground; thefe are called flakes. Here the fish is dried in clear weather, and in foul weather it is put under cover. It ought never to be wet from the time that it is first spread till it is boiled for the table. Befides the fleshy parts of the cod, its liver is preferved in casks and boiled down to oil, which is ufed by curriers of leather. The tongues and founds are pickled in small kegs, and make a luxurious, vifcid food. The heads are fat and juicy; but most of those which are caught at fea are thrown away; of those which are caught near home, the greater part become the food of swine. The fishery has not of late years been profecuted with the fame fpirit as formerly: fifty or fixty years ago the fhores of the rivers, creeks, and islands were covered with fifh-flakes; and feven or eight ships were loaded annually for Spain and Portugal, befides what was carried to the West Indies; afterwards they found it more convenient to make the fish at Canfeau, which is nearer to the Banks; it was continued there to great advantage till 1744, when it was broken up by the French war. After the peace it revived, but not in fo great a degree as before. Fifh was frequently cured in the fummer on the eastern fhores and iflands, and in the fpring and fall at home. Previously to the late revolution, the greater part of remittances to Europe was made by the fisheries; but it has not yet recovered from the shock which it received by the war with Britain. It is, however, in the power of the Americans to make more advantage of the cod fishery than any of the European nations: they can fit out veffels at lefs expence, and by reafon of the westerly winds, which prevail on their coafts in February and March, they can go to the Banks earlier in the season than the Europeans, and take the beft fifh; they can dry it in a clearer air than the foggy fhores of Newfoundland and Nova-Scotia ; they can fupply every neceffary from among themselves, veffels, fpars, fails, cordage, anchors, lines, hooks, and provifions; falt can be imported from abroad cheaper than they can make it at home, if it be not too much loaded with duties; men can always be had to go on fhares, which is by far the most profitable method both to the employers and the fishermen. The fishing fishing banks are an inexhauftible fource of wealth; and the fishing business is a most excellent nursery for feamen; it therefore deferves every encouragement and indulgence from an enlightened national legiflature. The manufacture of pot and pearl afhes affords a valuable article of exportation. In the new townfhips, where vast quantities of wood are burnt on the land, the afhes are collected and boiled, and the falts are conveyed to certain places, where works are erected, and the manufacture is perfected. This, like many other of their articles of exportation, has fuffered much in its reputation, from an injudicious or fraudulent furvey. It is a leffon which ought to be deeply engraven on the minds of legiflators as well as manufacturers and merchants, that honefty at home is the only foundation for credit abroad. An attempt has been made to manufacture fail-cloth; and the proprietor of the works, Thomas Odiorne, Efq. of Exeter, has received fome finall encouragement from the legislature of the State. Such a bounty as is allowed in Maffachusetts would give a fpring to this bufinefs, and encourage the erection of other works of the fame kind. The manufacture of iron, both in forges and furnaces, might be rendered vaftly more profitable than it is at prefent. This neceffary metal, instead of being imported, might become an article of exportation. Flax feed is produced in large quantities; fome of it is manufac tured into oil, and fome is exported. The manufacture of leather and fhoes is not fo extenfive as to produce articles of exportation, but may be confidered among the domeftic manufactures. In most of the country towns confiderable quantities of tow-cloth are made, fome of which is exported to the southern States to clothe the negroes who labour on the plantations. The manufacture of bricks and potter's ware may be extended to any degree, feveral species of clay being found in great abundance in the towns at the heads of the feveral branches of the river Paf cataqua, in places which lie very convenient for water carriage. Bricks might be carried as ballaft in every veffel which goes to the ports where they are faleable. In this article, however, as well as many others, a regulation is needed; most of the bricks which are made are deficient in fize, and much of the clay which is used in making them is not fufficiently mellowed by the froft of winter, or by the labour of the artificer, BANK. By act of affembly of January, 1792, a bank, by the name of "The Bank of New-Hampshire," was established, to continue fifty years, under the management of a prefident and feven directors.-The capital ftock is fixty thousand dollars; and the stockholders have liberty to increase it to two hundred thousand dollars in fpecie, and one hundred thousand dollars in any other state. This inftitution will prove a great aid to the commerce and manufactures of this State. EDUCATION AND LITERATURE. The old laws of New-Hampshire required every town of one hundred families to keep a grammar fchool; by which was meant a fchool in which the learned languages fhould be taught, and youth might be prepared for admiffion to a univerfity. The fame preceptor was obliged to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, unless the town was of fufficient ability to keep two or more schools, one of which was called a grammar school by way of diftinction. Several inftances occur in the public records, as far back as the year 1722, juft at the beginning of an Indian war, that the frontier towns petitioned the affembly for a special act to exempt them from the obligation to maintain a grammar school during the war. The indulgence was granted them, but only on this condition," that they fhould keep a school for reading, writing and arithmetic;" to which all towns of fifty families were obliged. In later times the conduct of the fame towns has been very different. During the late war with Britain, not only thofe, but many other towns, large and opulent and far removed from any danger by the enemy, were for a great part of the time deftitute of any public fchools, not only without applying to the legislature for permiffion, but contrary to the express requirements of law, and notwithstanding courts of justice were frequently holden, and grand jurors folemnly fworn and charged to present all breaches of law, and the want of schools in particular. This negligence was one among many evidences of a most unhappy proftration of morals during that period; it afforded a melancholy profpect to the friends of fcience and of virtue, and excited fome generous |