ore the tribunal
of the public, and to give them the best information that he has been
able to obtain. Any person who discovers errors or omissions, that
will take the trouble of rectifying them, and conveying the same
through the medium of the publisher, will confer an inestimable favour
on

Their obedient servant,

_CHARLES PYE_.

[Footnote 1:--are respectfully informed, that it is in contemplation
to publish a Description of Modern Birmingham, and the adjacent
country for some miles around it; therefore any information they may
think proper to communicate will be strictly attended to by Their
obedient servant, CHARLES PYE.]

[Footnote 2: The Birmingham Fire Office, the three Canals, &c.]

LINES

_Written by the late John Morfitt, Esq. Barrister._

Illustrious offspring of vulcanic toil!
Pride of the country! glory of the isle!
Europe's grand toy-shop! art's exhaustless mine!
These, and more titles, Birmingham, are thine.
From jealous fears, from charter'd fetters free,
Desponding genius finds a friend in thee:
Thy soul, as lib'ral as the breath of spring,
Cheers his faint heart, and plumes his flagging wing.

'Tis thine, with plastic hand, to mould the mass,
Of ductile silver, and resplendant brass;
'Tis thine, with sooty finger to produce
Unnumber'd forms, for ornament and use.

Hark! what a sound!--art's pond'rous fabric reels,
Beneath machinery's ten thousand wheels;
Loud falls the stamp, the whirling lathes resound,
And engines heave, while hammers clatter round:
What labour forges, patient art refines,
Till bright as dazz'ling day metallic beauty shines.

Thy swords, elastic, arm our hero's hands;
Thy musquets thunder in remotest lands;
Thy sparkling buttons distant courts emblaze;
Thy polish'd steel emits the diamond's rays;
Paper, beneath thy magic hand assumes
A mirror brightness, and with beauty blooms.
With each Etruscan grace thy vases shine,
And proud Japan's fam'd varnish yields to thine.

Thine, too, the trinkets, that the fair adorn,
But who can count the spangles of the morn?
What pencil can pourtray this splendid mart.
This vast, stupendous wilderness of art?
Where fancy sports, in all her rainbow hues,
And beauty's radiant forms perplex the muse.
The boundless theme transcends poetic lays,--
Let plain historic truth record thy praise.

_The Roads pointed out_

TO PLACES DISTANT FROM BIRMINGHAM.