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depofited with the parishes officers, the city is, in a great measure, fecured from the spreading of fire; for these plugs are no fooner opened than there is vaft quantities of water to fupply the engines.

This plenty of water has been attended with another advantage, it has given rife to feveral companies, who infure houfes and goods, from fire; an advantage, that is not to be met with in any other nation on earth: the premium is small, and the recovery, in case of lofs, is eafy and certain. Every one of these offices, keep a fet of men in pay, who are ready at all hours to give their affiftance in cafe of fire; and who are on all occafions extreamly bold, dexterous, and diligent; but though all their labours fhould prove unsuccessful, the person who fuffers by this devouring element, has the comfort that must arife from a certainty of being paid the value of what he has infured.

O F

NORTH BRITAIN,

OR

SCOTLAND,

WITH ITS ISLANDS.

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HE kingdom of Scotland, or North Britain, comprehends all the northern part of this ifland beyond the counties of Cumberland and Northumberland, together with a multitude of iflands, which amount to about 300; fome of them are very incon fiderable. This country is bounded on all fides by the ocean, except on the fouth, where it is feparated from England, beginning at the eaft, by the river Tweed, Cheviot

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Cheviot-hills, the river Erfk, and Solway Frith Near Carlile it is generally reckoned to extend 300 miles in length, from Aldermouth head, near the ifle of Mull, to Buchanefs, and 150 in breadth, where broadeft. The coaft is much indented, and the land in feveral places nearly cut through by bays, gulphs, and rivers, the first of which form excellent harbours, and the latter abound with fresh water fish.

North Britain, exclufive of its inlands, lies between the fifty-fourth degree forty minutes, and the fiftyeight degree thirty minutes north latitude, and be tween the first degree thirty minutes, and the fixth degree weft longitude. The longeft day is upwards of eighteen hours, and the fhorteft five hours forty-five minutes: but the brightness of the northern lights in a great measure remedy the inconvenience of the fhort days of winter.

The air is very temperate, and not half fo cold as might be imagined from its being feated so far to the north. This, as in England, is owing to the warm vapours and moderate breezes that continually come from the fea; which alfo ferve to purify the air, and put it in fuch a conftant agitation, as preferves the inhabitants from any remarkable epidemic difeafes.

Great part of the country, particularly toward the north and weft, is mountainous, and covered with heath; this is called the Highlands, but thefe in feveral places yield good pafture: between the higher grounds are many rich valleys, which produce corn and cattle. The fouth parts of Scotland are far preferable to the north parts of England, and there are every where all things neceffary for human life; and not only futficient for the inhabitants, but also to export. They do not want wheat, but the grain moftly cultivated is oats, as it will grow in the mountainous parts. The productions in Scotland are ingeneral much the fame as in England. In the Lowlands there is little timber, but in the more northern parts there are forefts of fir-trees, that might afford

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maits for the largeft men of war, but it is difficult to bring them to the fea-fide. There are alfo many large woods of oaks, afh, and elms, fit for building, and abundance of fruit-trees in their gardens and orchards. The foil likewife in many places produces great plenty of hemp and flax.

Befide the fresh-water fish found in the lakes and rivers, feveral of the islands are frequented by whales; and cod, ling, haddock, fturgeon, turbot, mackrel, fcate, fea-urchins, cat-fifh, &c. are caught in great plenty on all their coafts. Lobsters, crabs, and oyfters, are found in vaft quantities on the Weftern Islands; and cockles, muffels, limpets, wilks, fcallops, and spouts, are caft by the tide in fuch numbers on the ifles, that the people cannot confume them.

In this country fprings of clear and wholefome water are every where in plenty, not only on the fides, but on the tops of many of the mountains. Thefe in their defcent fwell into pleasant rills, and augmenting their ftreams become rivers. Many of these meeting with hollow places in their paffage, expand themselves into lakes, till finding a proper channel they refume their form of rivers, and, as the nature of the foil directs, fometimes expand themselves again and again, or continue their progrefs in the fame form to the fea.

The most remarkable lochs or lakes in Scotland are Lochtay, Lochness, and Lochlevin, which fend forth rivers of the fame name with themfelves; Lochlomond, which fends forth the river Lomond; and Lochiern, from which flows the river Iern. There is a lake in Straithe rrach, which never freezes, however fevere the froft, till February, and then in one night it freezes all over, and if it continues two nights, the ice grows very thick. Another lake ar a place called Glencanich, is feated on a high ground between the tops of two mountains, and it is remarkable that the middle of this lake is always frozen through

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throughout the fummer, notwithstanding the strong reflection of the fun-beams from the mountains, which melts the ice at the fides of the lake. Round the lake the ground has a conftant verdure, as if it enjoyed a perpetual spring; and by feeding on that grafs, cattle grow fooner fat than any where else.

In Linlithgowshire is a lake called Lochoat, from whence a stream runs under a neighbouring mountain, and after it has purfued its courfe about two hundred paces, iffues with great force from a spring about three feet broad, when it forms a stream that turns a mill.

The capital rivers, particularly the Forth, Clyde, Tay, and Nefs, &c. divide the country into peninfulas; these running fo far within land as to be intercepted only by a small ifthmus, or neck of land.

The kingdom of Scotland, notwithstanding the union of the crowns on the acceffion of their king James VI. to that of England, continued an entirely feparate and diftinct kingdom for above a century, though an union had been long projected: this was judged to be the more eafy to be done, as both kingdoms were antiently under the fame government, and still retained a very great refemblance, though far from an identity, in their laws. By an act of parliament 1 Jac. I. c. I. it is declared, that these two, mighty, famous, and antient kingdoms were formerly one. And Sir Edward Coke obferves, how marvellous a conformity there was, not only in the religion and language of the two nations, but also in their antient laws. the defcent of the crown, their parliaments, their titles of nobility, their officers of itate and of juftice, their writs, their cuftoms, and even the language of their laws. Upon which account he fuppofes the common law of each to have been originally the fame, especially as their most antient and authentic book, called Regiam Majeftatem, and containing the rules of their antient common law, is extreamly fimilar to that of Glanvil, which contains

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the principles of ours, as it ftood in the reign of Henry II. The many diverfities, fubfifting between the two laws at prefent, may be well enough accounted for, from a diverfity of practice in two large and uncommunicating jurifdictions, and from the acts of two diftinct and independent parliaments, which have in many points altered and abrogated the old common law of both kingdoms.

However, Sir Edward Coke, and the politicians of that time, conceived great difficulties in carrying on the projected union: but these were at length overcome, and the great work was happily effected in 1707, in the fifth of queen Anne; when twenty-five articles of union were agreed to by the parliaments of both nations: the purport of the most confiderable being as follows:

1. That on the first of May 1707, and for ever after, the kingdoms of England and Scotland fhall be united into one kingdom, by the name of Great Britain.

2. The fucceffion to the monarchy of Great Britain shall be the fame as was before settled with regard to that of England.

3. The united kingdom fhall be represented by one parliament.

4. There fhall be a communication of all rights and privileges between the fubjects of both kingdoms, except where it is otherwise agreed.

9. When England raises 2,000,000 l. by a land tax, Scotland fhall raise 48,000 1.

16, 17. The standards of the coin, of weights, and of measures, shall be reduced to thofe of England, throughout the united kingdoms.

18. The laws relating to trade, cuftoms, and the excife, shall be the fame in Scotland as in England. But all the other laws of Scotland fhall remain in force; but alterable by the parliament of Great Britain. Yet with this caution: that laws relating to public policy are alterable at the difcretion of the

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parlia

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