of a divine nature, and he submitted to them with a resignation which seemed to be derived from Heaven, where he is gone to mingle with the spirits of the good and great, who preceded him in their flight to immortality.

The Senatus Academicus of Marischal College consists of the following members :--

Right Hon. Lord AUCKLAND, Chancellor.

Alex. Baxter, Esq. Rector.

William L. Brown, Principal.-Patron, the Crown.

In the market-place, which is a handsome oblong square, is the town-house, with a handsome spire; and adjoining this is the tolbooth, a gloomy square building, about one hundred and twenty feet high, in the tower of which there is a depot of small arms, and the fragments of a maiden, or guillotine. Whilst the city is receiving so many embellishments, it would be well if the magistrates would erect another gaol in the room of the present one. The chambers, or rather dungeons, of this gloomy abode, every one of which I

LUNATIC ASYLUM.

285

inspected, are small, confined, badly ventilated, and loathsome. Some of those miserable beings, who may be destined to the rigours of confinement in this town, may hereafter find accommodations equally secure and more healthy in the bridewell which is building in its vicinity; but as the town must, I presume, have a tolbooth for the safe custody of criminals committed for trial, or punishment of very serious offences, a traveller may be permitted to submit, with deference, his feelings upon the subject, to the humane and enlightened magistracy of this town; not doubting that when their resources will admit, when other difficulties, which perhaps at present obstruct their intentions, are removed, they will consider, that, by restraining the persons of those who violate the laws, the legislature never intended that they should incur the superadded misery of disease and sickness.

That there is a great share of humanity as well as liberality in the town is evident from the number of asylums for the sick and infirm which it contains, amongst which the Lunatic Hospital, built and principally supported by subscription, and very properly removed about a mile from the town, deserves attention for its neatness and order, and the excellent treatment of the unfortunate objects confined within its walls. Dr. Dyce, physician to this hospital, has tried an experiment upon some of the

286

THE BRIDEWELL.

patients, in violent cases, which has been attended with temporary success. He has had a machine like a pump made, into which the maniac is shut, and so closely confined, in an erect position, as not to be able to move, in which state water is pumped upon his bare head. The terror produced by this process has, I believe, never failed to subdue the paroxysm, and to render the patient much milder and more rational. The patients have spacious grounds to walk in; the violent are separated from the convalescent, and their rooms were remarkably clean and comfortable. The whole had that neat and sprightly appearance which I should conceive so necessary to sooth and gradually restore the mind suffering under the heaviest visitation of the Almighty.

The bridewell, as far as I could judge, will, when finished, in some degree resemble that at Edinburgh: it was constructing of the granite I have had occasion to mention before, which is almost the only mineral production of Aberdeenshire, and with which, either upon the surface or in quarry, the county abounds. This stone has a tendency to split only in one direction, and the common masons know how to split it into blocks, and they afterwards cut it, although astonishingly hard, with uncommon skill and dexterity. The chippings are found very good for roads.

CHAP. XVI.

TRADE OF NEW ABERDEEN-MANUFACTURES-SHIPPING-LAND

VALUABLE DR. JOHNSON'S ILLIBERALITY

MEDICAL

-

INFIRMARY

NÆUM-OLD ABERDEEN - JURISDICTION OF MAGISTRATESTHE SHERIFF'S COURT-SOCIETY OF ADVOCATES IN ABERDEEN -KING'S COLLEGE

ODISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS

DANISH

ANECDOTE.

ABERDEEN, in regard to population and trade, is reckoned the third town in Scotland. The number of inhabitants, by the last census, was computed at twenty-seven thousand; but it has been increasing very rapidly for some years past, and at this time it is supposed to contain at least thirty thousand inhabitants. Its trade is very various, and pretty extensive. The imports, as far as the difficulties of the present war will admit, are chiefly from the Baltic, Archangel, Holland, and America: the articles brought from these places are mostly such as are calculated for manufacturers. There is, at present, very little export direct from this town, but its manufactures are circulated through the whole island, and part of them exported from other places. The principal article of export is worsted stockings, knitted on wires, which, at a former period, this

place sent into Germany and Holland in very great quantities; indeed it at one time supplied a great part of the Continent with this article, through the medium of Holland, and it formed a very extensive and profitable traffic both for the manufacturers and the industrious females in the country all round, by the latter of whom these stockings were wrought. Since the commencement of the present war, however, this trade has suffered very much, and is now almost totally annihilated, owing to the very severe restrictions upon our intercourse with the Continent; what little, therefore, is done in this way at present, is merely what is required in Britain itself; and the article of this kind made for home consumption is much finer than that usually sent to the Continent, and indeed much higher priced than stockings made on frames, the consequence of which is, that but very few comparatively of knitted stockings are required.

The principal manufactures in Aberdeen at present consist of cottons and linens, various descriptions of which are made in great perfection, and in very considerable quantities; there are also several very extensive manufactories of white and coloured threads, for which articles Aberdeen has been long famous. One house, of very great extent, embraces the manufacture of threads, linens, ducks and sail cloth, and this indeed may be justly reckoned the