The exordium to this elementary Review, (if it may be so called,) which we Reviewers know to be the most troublesome part of our business, (ce n'est que le premier pas qui coûte,) deserves much praise. Nothing can be more pleasing and more truly maternal than this address to a beloved and hopeful child. In forming this outline of poetical portraits, just enough is said respecting each original to excite a strong desire, even in a child, to know more. The virtue, vice, and peculiar talent of each are so happily described, often in a single couplet, that children, and even adolescents, should commit these verses to memory, as a poetical catechism.

We present to our readers the opening lines of this poem, addressed to a son:

• Object of my

fondest care,
'Mid whose and childish air,
gay
Pleas'd attention can descry
Reason's dawning brightness nigh;
While she, with delighted view,
Marks the cheek of hue,
rosy

Marks thine eye, whose vivid light
Shines than orient gems more bright;
Marks thy brows serenely bold,
Crown'd with locks of waving gold;
While an inexpressive charm,

More than features, more than form,
Which no pencil e'er could trace,
Heightens every infant grace.

Twice three Summers now have shed
Their warm sun-beams o'er thy head,
Summers, fraught with anxious fears
To reflection's riper years:

While o'er Europe's wasted lands
Discord hurls her flaming brands,
And her rugged arms embrace
Gallia's sanguinary race,
Fixing in each savage mind
Hatred to the human kind-
Pale experience, all aghast,
Reads the future in the past,
And amidst impending gloom,
Trembles for the nation's doom.
Thee, lov'd boy, no cares molest,
Shade thy brow, or heave thy breast;
Or if cares should discompose,
Like the dew-drop on the rose,
Or like clouds before the wind,
Light, they leave no trace behind.
Genuine delights are thine,
Mirth and innocence divine,

Cherub

Cherub health of florid hue,
Quick surprise for ever new,
Frolic fancy, gay and free,
Gilds the rapid hours for thee.
Happy age, to grief unknown!
Happy age, but quickly flown!
Soon thy sports thou must resign,
Studious labor then is thine;
Far from every youthful play
Grave instruction points thy way :
Science, rich in ancient store,
Spreads for thee her classic lore:
Armed with magisterial rage
Pedants guard the mystic page,
Urging on thy tardy flight
To distinction's steepy height.
Rough is learning's arduous road,
Yet with brightest flow'rets strow'd,
Flowrets, 'mid the waste of time,
Blooming in eternal prime.'

Having happily sketched the merits of the Greek and Ro man Bards, and of the Italian Epic Poets, and manifested a thorough knowlege of their peculiar excellence and talents, Lady M. points her attention to the votaries of the Nine in our own country:

Leaving now each foreign soil,
Turn we to thy native isle;
Genius with a fonder eye
View'd nor Greece nor Italy.
Happy land by nature blest,
In her fairest liv'ry drest!
Mild the suns and pure the gales

That refresh her grassy vales;

Her's are daughters fam'd for charms,

Her's are sons renown'd for arms,

Nor for arms alone: the mind,

By philosophy refin'd,

Here has fathom'd truths unknown,

And each science made her own.

But more learned bards must name

Bacon's, Newton's, Harvey's fame,
And with unremitting toil

Trace the depth of Locke and Boyle.'

The modesty of our amiable sister-critic, in merely naming our great philosophers and men of science, and leaving their merits to be discussed by more learned bards, should not pass unobserved by those who indiscriminately impute unbounded vanity, and a rage for displaying their attainments, to those

7

females

females who possess somewhat more learning than the generality of their sex.-Shakspeare, Milton, Dryden, Pope, and Thomson, as their merit was great, and their writings were of voluminous, here obtain more extended praise: but many an inferior order are happily sketched in miniature, as it were, by a mere couplet :-such as:

Philips in majestic strain

Sings Pomona's cultur'd reign.
Wit and learning blushing boast
Smith, by vile intemp'rance lost.
Easy numbers, smooth and gay,
Sweetly flow thro' Parnel's lay.
Fascinating beauties glow

In the graceful lines of Rowe.
Warmest praises Garth attend,
Poverty's and merit's friend.'

Sparkling wit's incessant blaze
Congreve crown'd with early bays.-
Akenside in colours warm
Paints imagination's charm.
Careless Churchill's vigorous mind
Pours his satire unconfin'd.
Goldsmith's winning lines impart
Soft benevolence of heart.
Where the moon with glimmering ray
Lights the Church-yard's lonely way,
By pale contemplation led,

Moral Gay delights to tread.'

Of the poem altogether, we cannot say less than that the opening is beautiful, that the characters are discriminative and just, and that the termination breathes a spirit of piety and maternal affection which is truly touching. It also merits observation that, when this excellent mother has finished the secular catalogue of poets, she characterizes the sacred bards, or prophets; recommending their pious precepts to the future study and practice of her offspring, and ending with this short but heart-felt prayer:

'O may each celestial truth
Influence thy tender youth,
Teach thee every vice to shun
That has hapless man undone,
And thro' error's tenfold night
Lead thee to eternal light.'

An account of a volume of Poems, by Lady Manners, will be found in our xith vol. N. S. p. 319.

REY. DEC. 1799.

E e

ART

ART. VIII. A View of the Agriculture of Middlesex; with Observations on the Means of its Improvement; and several Essays on Agriculture in general. Drawn up for the Consideration of the Board of Agriculture, by John Middleton, Esq. of West-Barns Farm, Merton, and of Lambeth, Surrey, Land Surveyor, &c. Accompanied by the Remarks of several respectable Gentlemen and Farmers. 8vo. pp. 600. gs. sewed. Nicol, &c. 1798. merit always gained precedence, even from those who are desirous of so allotting it, this work would not have been so long neglected by us. Could any doubt be entertained of the truth of King Solomon's observation that "time and chance happen to all," or that there are accidents, lets, hindrances, and molestations, in all undertakings, we should feel ourselves compelled to apologise to our agricultural readers, for having so long omitted to announce the pleasure and satisfaction which they may promise themselves from the perusal of this elaborate and well-digested Report: but we are persuaded of the futility of such excuses. The county of Middlesex has been fortunate in its surveyor; and the Memoir here composed for the Board of Agriculture will not only be interesting to the inhabitants of the county which it describes, but will be acceptable to all men who are concerned in discussions relative to rural affairs and political economy. Mr. Middleton has collected a great variety of matter concerning this rich and populous district, which he has arranged with a patient and displayed with an intelligent mind; and if, as a late writer has remarked, he may furnish some instances of the facility with which "conjectures accommodate themselves to hypotheses," it should not be forgotten that this is an evil almost constantly attached to philosophic examination. Our own system is the me dium through which we all contemplate things; and this is very rarely, if in any case, so pure as to suffer every ray to pass through. it un-coloured and un-distorted. Though Mr. M. has a system, however, it occasions no weak delusion. He argues ably even when he does not convince, and is always desirous of giving the best and most satisfactory information.

Mr. Middleton's remarks on the subjects of Tithes, Management of the Poor, and Inclosures, are very judicious; and we hope to be more than excused for inviting the attention of our readers to what he has advanced, respecting topics now so necessarily connected with the welfare and prosperity of the country.

It would be speculating in too wide a field, to inquire whether the circumstances of Europe may not, in the course of a few years, oblige us to a general commutation of tithes it is sufficient to consider how far the taking them in kind operates against agricultural improvements. There are different opi

nions on this subject, but the series of these Reports has made it apparent to which side the general opinion leans. Mr. M. has given his sentiments on this head in so clear and decided a manner, that it may not be unacceptable to our readers, if we extract the whole of the Section entitled TITHES :

In many parishes of this county, the tithes are taken in kind; and which is nearly the same, in others they are annually valued, and compounded før. In several parishes, a reasonable composition is taken; in some it has been very little advanced during the last twenty years; happily there are farms which pay a modus, and others that are entirely tithe-free.

I doubt not but I shall stand excused for relating the following oppressive cases of tithes. It is in order to shew more clearly than I could otherwise do, that tithes operate against the improvement of the soil, and consequently against the interest of the nation.

I met with an instance near Longford, in this county, of a farmer having with great pains, and by an expensive culture, raised large crops. He offered a guinea* an acre as a composition for the tithe of his wheat; but it was refused, and was spitefully and maliciously taken in kind.

A late rector of Kensington, in this county, after having for some time harassed his parishioners in the court of Exchequer, obtained a decree that pine apples, &c. which are well known to be raised at the expence of hot-houses, and other considerable expences, should yield their tithe in kind. I have not heard how many hothouses were pulled down on that occasion, but a very exorbitant composition was demanded and received from the inhabitants, in lieu of paying their tithes in kind.

Jonathan Tyers, Esq. was at the expence of making a hop-plantation at Denbys (Surrey). The vicar refused to compound on any reasonable terms, and insisted on taking the tithes in kind, and also on having them picked. A suit in the court of Exchequer was litigated, and the decree going against Mr. Tyers, he grubbed up his hops, sowed grass-seeds, and made a pasture of the land. Thus was a produce of upwards of thirty pounds an acre reduced to three.

The parish of Hutton, in Essex, was much occupied by the suckling of calves. The clergyman insisted on taking the tithes in kind. The inhabitants were willing to set out one-tenth of every · meal's milk, and it was the only means they had of continuing the suckling business.

This, however, would not content the parson-no: he insisted on having all the milk of every tenth day, though he must know that it would ruin their suckling system. They of course resisted; the parties were several years at law, and at last an unreasonable composition was obtained from the farmers +.

• * Which was exactly the rent he paid per acre.-J. M?

Tithes are not only oppressive in their own nature, but the method of taking vicarial tithes in kind, is ruinous to the occupier.-J. M.

• The