present system is superior to the last. That it will better the immediate property of the harbour, we are very willing to allow; but we have very serious doubts, whether that property will increase in the next 200 years, in the same proportion it has done in the last. But this is only matter of opinion, as it is not in the power of man to look far into futurity. We cannot, however, help expressing our thoughts, that had the warden and assistants continued the old practice of granting leases for twenty-one years, renewable, with this exception only, not at 2s. 6d. in the pound by the poor's rate, but at the same sum by a fair valuation at the time of granting the lease, the leaseholder would have been better satisfied with his tenure, and the harbour estates would have continued in a progressive state of improvement, in a much greater degree than by the present system. The ground rent of 3s. 6d. in the pound upon the fair annual value, is too heavy to insure much improvement; and the clause of renewal at the end of twenty-one years, being indefinite, is not calculated to remove the objection, or to inspire much confidence. It is therefore very probable that the pier liberty of Dover

will, in the course of the next fifty years, be confined to houses of trade, and the dwellings of those persons who have immediate connexion with the harbour.

By the charter, the right of electing new members is vested in the warden and assistants, and it appears to be the prevailing idea at the board, that no Dover gentleman is eligible to the situation. That the commissioners named in the charter are all country gentlemen, (with the exception of the mayor of Dover) is certain; but at that time this might arise from causes which do not exist at the present day. That there are many gentlemen, now resident in the town of Dover, fully competent to the situation, in point of ability and integrity, no one will attempt to deny; and whose knowledge, gained from many years observation of the harbour during the winter months, might be of essential service to the concern. The mayor of Dover being named in the first commission sufficiently proves, that gentlemen of the town were not intended by the charter to be excluded.

M

THE CASTLE.

Before the year 1787, these noted and extensive buildings were suffered to crumble into ruins, without ever having the scattered accounts of them collected from our various resources, for the information of the curious traveller. For the want of some guide to direct him in his inquiries, he could then only view the walls and towers as he passed; and, after reflecting on the changes which time had made, in this once important fortification, return fatigued with mounting the hill, and with as little satisfaction as he ascended it. The want of such a guide had long been lamented by many travellers, and perhaps without ever considering the time and trouble it would take, to collect and compare the various and contradictory accounts of this castle, dispersed in so many authors, and to reconcile them with the history of the arts. This deficiency has, however, been supplied by a late ingenious clergyman of Dover; who, in the above year, published “ A Brief History