double) on laths, but much better on boards. Plain tiles make a confi→ derably more temperate covering for houses than either pan-tiles or flates, by reason of their being laid double and in mortar, and thereby forming a much thicker and clofer roof. In this they are nearly equalled by the thick or stone flating of the midland counties; they might also be glazed of a flare colour, in which cafe they would make a roof, more handfame, temperate, and durable, than any other covering material now "known." P. 41,

Mr. M. confirms our favourite notion, concerning the annexation of a small piece of land to each cottage; which, he fays, would not only

"ameliorate the condition of the humble, but useful cottager; but alfo help to reduce the poor-rates, render the labourers more orderly. deftroy the difpofition to pilfering, which is now far too frequent, and more firmly attach them to their fuperiors and their native foil." P. 46.

On the question which has been, and continues to be agitated, with great warmth, by fome well-meaning, but (we think) injudicious people, concerning the fize of farms, Mr. M. delivers a judgment dictated by plain good fenfe.

"With refpect to the long-difputed fubject of great and fmall farms, which has of late fo much occupied the attention of every man at all concerned in rural pursuits, I conceive that, in crder to accommodate every poffible defcription of men, who, by inclination or otherwife, are difpofed to become occupiers of land; and in order to fuit every extent of capital, there ought to be farms of almost every fize; provided there be at the fame time the most perfect cultivation of every acre of the foil." P. 48.

The "requifites to make a good farmer," are flated with wonderful cafe.

"In order to make good farmers, the roads should be kept in repair to their very doors, canals fhould be near, tithes fhould be abolifhed, the game-laws and hunting fhould be annihilated, well-drawn leafes fhould be general; and, above all, there thould be a certain, good, and ready-money market for the produce of their farms, and within a reasonable distance." P. 54.

My opinion on the rent of land, is of fo much confequence to myfelf, that it will not be expected of me to give it in this place." P. 56. We are not fatisfied with this excufe,

On the fubject of tithes in kind, Mr. M. is as mif. hievoutly intemperate, as any of his fellow-labourers, in the talk of invading other mens' property. He produces four "oppreffive inftances;" in each of which, ine oppreflion appears to us to have been fuffered by the tithe owner; for he was haraffed by the occupiers with great trouble and expence, to recover his

right.

right, as the event fhowed it to be. Declamation more vulgar, and more foolith, has never fallen in our way*.

*We fhall take this opportunity of inferting part of a letter from a very refpectable clergyman in the weft of England, as affording a remarkable illuflration of the effects produced in that part of the country (and certainly in many others) by the unfair and falfe allegations of the Agricultural Emiffaries. After thanking the Editor of the British Critic for what has been adduced by us in defence of law and justice, our correfpondent adds, "The British Critic feems, however, to be by no means aware of the prefent oppressed and meJancholy fituation of the Parochial Clergy, owing to the clamour against tithes which has been fo induftrioufly raifed by means of the Board of Agriculture. A few years fince, our compofitions were paid with cheerfulness; but now, let them be ever fo low, the farmer confiders them as a grievance, and looks with an evil eye on the perfon who receives them. I know not, in all this country, of one clergyman who may be faid to have a fair compofition; and most of us have little more than 25. in the pound.

"What I told you refpecting myfelf is accurately true. I do not believe that I receive more than a fourth part of the actual value of the tithes; and, though I have every reafon to think that I am greatly refpected, though I perform the duties of my office with unremitted attention, though I know that the parishioners are extremely pleased with my mode of performing it, yet I am Jure that, if I only propofed an addition of zd. in the pound, the whole parifh would be in arms againit me. Thofe few clergymen, indeed, who, driven by the neceffities of the times, and unwilling to fubmit to fuch an annual lofs, have endeavoured to obtain fomewhat of a more reasonable com pofition, have been abfolutely hunted down by the neighbourhood. Affociation are formed to involve dum,na low, to defert the church, and to offer them every perfual infalt that can be devised. I myself was perfonally attacked, as you know, for no other reason than for being acquainted with one of the gentlemen above-mentioned. Where this perfecution will end, God only knows; but, be affured, it is a moft grievous one: and, ftrange to fay! it feems to have the fanction of government: for, otherwife, it cannot be fuppofed that the President of the Board of Agriculture would have fent thofe infidious Refolutions of the County of York to every Grand Jury in the kingdom. If a commutation of tithes be a measure of juft policy, let it take place but it is ungenerous, unmanly, and cruel, to endeavour to effect this by fuch indirect methods as neceffarily render the clergy obnoxious to their parishioners, and hold them up as objects of dislike

and averfion."

Who can fay that the fe facts are not important, or that these re flections are unjult?-While there is an established church (which will not be long, if thefe gentlemen prevail!) it should at least be treated with humanity.

The

The next fection relates to the poor. Why will not the county-furveyors learn the laws on this fubject, inftead of peftering us by their abford cenfures of them? The note at p. 64, betrays grofs ignorance of the prefent law on this fubject. Did the Board of Agriculture beltow any confideration (as the title-page expreffes it) upon the th.ee laft lines of p. 69, and upon the four firft, with the feventeenth, &c. of p. 70, before this book was fent to the prefs? We trust they did not; believing that they would have provided for the quiet of their country by expunging them. Mr. M. (as well as many other furveyors) might have enlarged the title of his work thus, or, an inccrive to lifeontent and difaffection." In the margin of a returned Reper, it p. 113, among other ab. furdities, is the following: thongh war is urged as a neceffary measure, to prevent too great an inverse of inhabitants, it is a reafon no man of common feeling or fe: fe would fuffer to enter his head." P. 113. Probably it never did enter into any head, except that of this notable remarker.

The fection on "rotation of craps," is very deferving of attention, but too long to be abftracted. In general, it recommends " for the best land, alternate green and white crops; for land of a full medium quality, three green crops for two of white; for ordinary land, two green crops for one. of corn; and, for the worst, or most exhaufted land, downs and fheep-walks, three green crops to one of while." P. 159

"Changing the feed of corn every two or three years, is a practice which prevails almoft generally. It is done at an extra expence of from fix-pence to ene fhilling a bufhel on wheat, and half thofe fums on other grain. This practice is as little founded on propriety, as a change of live ftock once in every two years would be, and never will be the means of advancing corn to a high pitch of excellence. On the contrary, when corn-farmers become wife enough to apply Blakewell's method of improving cattle, to the raifing of feed grain, the advance will be rapid indeed, and its improvement will go on towards the mark of perfection, in a degree which, in the prefent ftate of things, can scarcely be conceived.

"The method I wish to recommend to those cultivators who defire to excel in the article of grain, is the following; nan ely, a few days before harvest to walk through their fields of corn, to felect and gather the prime famples of every fpecies of feed, and ever afterwards to continue the fame practice, by repeating the operation of collecting the molt perfect grain from the crops produced from fuch collected feed. "The fame obfervations apply to every variety of cultivated crop." P. 165.

The evil practices of mealmen, in and about London, are expofed at pp. 177, &c.: At p. 236, we find an ufeful admonition to land-owners.

"I am

"I am forry to fay, it is the practice of fome farmers, in moft other counties, to continue towing corn fo long as the land will produce any, and then to apply to the landlord or his fteward, faying that they are ready to lay fuch a field (thus fhamefully exhausted!) down to grafs, provided he will give them permiffion to plough up an equal quantity of old grafs land. In this application they too often fucceed; and thus they go on ruining one field after another. This, I believe, is feldom the practice in Middlesex.”

At p. 237, &c. the Middlefex method of making hay is minutely explained, and highly extolled. But the following remark is not entirely agricultural.

"Much of the colour, and all, or nearly fo, of the fediment, or tartar, and part of the flavour of red wine, are obtained by the infamous addition of unwholesome drugs, which have destroyed fome perfons in a few hours; others in a few days, and reduced the duration of life in thoufands to half the number of years which they might otherwife have attained. This practice has determined, or will determine, every man who has any regard for his health, to refrain from drinking fuch wine, until it has been kept a fufficient number of years to procure the depofit and concretion of the poisonous ingredients that have been obtruded into it." P. 258.

We cannot fay what kind of port is produced at marketardinaries, which is probably the fort defcribed by Mr. M. or perhaps this is merely a fpecimen of his talent at declamation. We can tell him, however, that, in point of fact, the tartar belongs to the wine itself; even the best red wine. So that the poisonous infertions, in that refpect, are mere nonfenfe and ignorance. "The confumption of the metropolis and its environs, in fruits and vegetables, is upwards of one million pounds fterling per annuin." P. 267. We affent to the fol Jowing remark, and think that a general attention to it would be most highly ufeful and important:

This country ought to be in a fiate of garden-like cultivation. No parts fhould be in wood, except fuch as are unfit for the production of grafs, corn, and garden-crops; nor would there be, in that cafe, any deficiency of timber and copfe; if the millions of acres of bleak, rocky, and, at prefent, unprofitable fituations, were to be fully planted." P. 274.

At p. 309, we find a molt curious reverie, concerning the age of the globe; which is fuppofed to have been, fome time ago, not more than half of its prefent fize, and within fome million of years, not exactly afcertained, to have doubled the quantity of its folid matter by the increafe of fhells, &c. in falt and fresh water, peat-bogs, &c. Bravo! goodman Mid

dieron.

The total price of milk confumed in London, is faid to be 481,6661. half of which is the profit of the retailers; whole

various

various frauds are expofed, and a correction of them is properly withed for from the legislature. But the fuggeftions here offered for fuch correction, are as futile as could easily be contrived; namely, an annual licence from the magiftrates, on the production of a certificate of good conduct; which would doubtless be procured from the cow-keepers and their cuf tomers," with at least as much facility as a licence to keep an ale-houfe is at present obtained from the parith-officers. The impoling of an oath, upon fuch wretches as the retailers are here defcribed to be, could tend only to add one enormous wickedness to many others.

"

"Hogs. The largeft breed in Britain is fuppofed to be kept in the neighbourhood of Rudgewich, on the borders of Surrey and Suffex; which feed at two years old to an aftonishing weight, even to double or treble the ufual weight of hogs at that age." P. 376.

The largest of thefe hogs, two years old, weighed 116 ftones, 6 pounds; others from 80 to 100 ftone.

Warnings like the following cannot be too often repeated: "the increafe of public-houfes is, in my opinion, more ruinous to the lowest orders of fociety, than all other evils put together." P. 383. That this increase, however, has happened by reafon of many of the brewers and diftillers being in the commiffion of the peace," (ib.) we cannot believe; fuch people being made incapable of granting licences by 26 Geo. II. c. 13. In this, as in most other cafes, the countyfurveyors would have done well, by abftaining from all pretenfions to even the leaft knowledge of the laws of their country. Roads.-The truftees of turn-pike roads in this county are. very feverely, and (as it feems) justly reprehended (p. 395, &c.). We believe that the whole fecret of the mifmanagement of fuch roads, throughout the kingdom, may be exprelled by one word, jobs. The Grand Junction Canal is reprobated for its very unneceffarily expenfive fcale" (p. 405); but canals, in general, are ftrongly and wifely recommended. The confumption of animal food in London, is affirmed to be full one half more than it was 45 years ago. The frauds in most of the London markets are reprefented as fcandalously enormous. At p. 461, the magiftrates of Middlefex, and the officers fubordinate to them, are spoken of in terms grofsly offentive, and (we truft) unmerited. The legislature itself is treated with as little ceremony at p. 63. But it feems to be a part of Mr. M.'s plan, to render all exifting inftitutions odious in the eyes of his countrymen.

Let us produce, however, a fpecimen of his own legislative

wifdom.

"The