which it was derived, will admit of no doubt.”—In July, 1808, Mr. F. Smith of Norwich, manufactured from Lord Somerville's Anglo-Merino wool, some very fine shawls, and a pair of men's stockings, of the usual size, so tine as to be drawn through a lady's middle-finger ring. And Lord Sheffield, in his account of the wool-trade in England in 1809, adduces several facts, to show that large quantities of wool are now raised in Britain, equal in quality to that of the finest Spanish Merino-fleece. For further details respecting the manufactures of Britain, see" Hints," &c. pp. 18-45.

A better and a more productive system of Agriculture prevails in Britain than in any other country on the face of the earth; more capital, industry, knowledge, and talent are applied to the cultivation of land; and the flourishing state of British manufactures and commerce insures the progressive improvement of agricultural pursuits by creating a constant and a perpetually increasing demand for the rude produce of the soil. For proofs of this assertion see the" Bibliotheque Britannique," in 1809: whose writers tell us that the English system of agriculture is most highly esteemed in France; and therefore that they have collected from all the English writers on the subject whatever may tend to the improvement of the agriculturists on the European continent. And for a much more unequivocal proof of the recent extensive improvements in British agriculture consult the voluminous, but very able and important "Report of a Committee of the Honorable House of Commons appointed to inquire how far and under what circumstances, &c. the distilleries of the United Kingdom should be confined to the use of Sugar and Molasses only," &c. &c. published in April 1808. In this report is brought forward a large mass of testimony shewing the great increase in the growth of grain in England, Scotland, and Ireland,

during the last ten years. The same result in favor of the continual improvement of agriculture will also appear from a perusal of the 6th volume of " Communications to the board of Agriculture," London 1808.

The contents of England, Scotland, and Wales in acres are supposed to run thus; England,31,929,340; North-Wales, 2,035,200;-South Wales, 2,284,800; Scotland, 18,943,720;-Total in acres, 55,193,060. Mr. Comber, in his" Inquiry into the state of national subsistence," &c. pp. 193-210; gives the following proportions of land cultivated for the different kinds of crops in England and Wales; in acres, wheat, 3,160,000 ;-barley and rye, 86,000; oats and beans, 2,872,000; clover, rye-grass, &c. 1,149,000; -roots and cabbages cultivated by the plough, 1,150,000; fallow, 2,297,000 ;-hop-grounds, 36, 000;-nursery-grounds, 9,000;-fruit and kitchengardens cultivated by the spade, 41,000;—pleasuregrounds, 16,000 ;-land depastured by cattle, 17,479,000 ;-hedge-rows, copses, and woods, 1,641,000-ways, water, &c. 1,316,000; Total of acres cultivated Commons and waste-lands,

Total acres in England and Wales,

32,027,000,

6,473,000,

38,500,000.

Mr. Comber's calculation as to the number ofacres in England and Wales outruns that above inserted by 2,250,660. In the 5th. Vol. of" Communications to the board of Agriculture," London 1806, a correspondent rates the agricultural population of England at 46 in the 100; the commercial and other population at 54 in the 100; and the quantity of land necessary to subsist 8,000,000, of people in England, according to the present mode of living to be as follows:

Bread-corn, acres, 3,000,000;-barley for drink, 1,500,000; potatoes &c. 500,000;-grass-land for

butcher's meat, 12,000,000; grass-land dairy, 4,000,000; making a total of 21,000,000, of acres.

If these gentlemen be correct in their calculations it is evident that at present less than a due proportion of land in England and Wales is devoted to the cultivation of grain. This inconvenience however will soon remedy itself, unless the British government should interfere with any regulations operating upon the corn-farmers. If the competition in agricultural employments be left free to find its own level, the present disproportion between the quantity of land in Britain employed in grazing and that used in tillage will soon cease; and a proper adjustment take place of its own accord. For the very high profits upon grazing stock, will naturally divert so much capital from other pursuits into the channel of pasture-farming, as to diminish these profits below the level of those which the corn-farmers obtain from the use of their capital employed in tillage; and then consequently a portion of the surplus grazing capital will be directed to the breaking up of newground with the plough; and thus extend the compass and the produce of tillage-husbandry.

It should be noticed that the Scottish farmers in general excel those of England and Wales, in their mode of managing land; and in consequence of their improved system of agriculture, can afford and do actually pay a larger rent to the proprietors of the soil, than can be drawn from the same number of acres, of the same quality, from their more southern brethren. The farmers in Ireland also are rapidly emerging from their unproductive mode of cottarhusbandry, and becoming agriculturalists on a more enlightened and extensive scale; after the manner of their English and Scottish neighbors. As proof of this, see the proceedings of the "Farming Society of Ireland" for the year 1809; their account of the progress made in diffusing a more improved method

of cultivating land; in dispersing the different valuable breeds of live stock throughout the country; in the great increase of grain produced in the corn-districts; in the removal by government, at their suggestion, of many obstructions to the importation of live stock, implements of husbandry, &c. in the recent settlement in Ireland of numbers from England and Scotland, well skilled in the various branches of agriculture, and giving instruction to the Irish peasantry in the labors of the plough; in their establishment of an extensive manufactory of farming implements in Dublin, which has already been productive of the most extensive benefit to the agriculture of Ireland, &c. &c. &c.

Whoever wishes to see the recent great improvements in the agriculture of Britain, and more particularly of Scotland, may consult the 33d-34th-and 36th numbers for the months of March, June, and December 1808, of "The Farmer's Magazine," an able and popular periodical work exclusively devoted to agriculture and rural affairs, and published quarterly in Edinburgh. As a very surprising contrast to the present state of Agriculture in NorthBritain, see its condition in the year 1768, as described by Sir James Steuart in his " Inquiry into Political Economy," &c. Book 1st, chapter 16th, at which time the Scottish farmer gathered a very scanty produce from a large extent of ground, and paid a very trifling rent to the proprietors of the soil.

Upon the whole the British system of agriculture is so good, that notwithstanding the comparatively small quantity of land employed in the cultivation of wheat, the annual growth of that grain in the United Kingdom is adequate to the usual and ordinary consumption of its inhabitants; as was demonstrated by the experience of the years 1806 and 1807, each of which produced rather more than twelve mil

lions of quarters of wheat; twelve million quarters being the quantity yearly consumed by the whole British home-population. Hence it appears that the stocks of Poland, of these United States, and of some other grain-bearing countries, which are occasionally imported into Britain, bear so small a proportion to the whole consumption of the British Isles as to do very little more than cause slight temporary fluctuations in the money-price of wheat while their influence is too feeble to be felt either in augmenting or diminishing the wants or the comforts of the British people. The largest quantity of wheat ever imported into Britain from the United States of America in one year, to wit in the year 1807, amounted to 255,319 quarters; which bears to the whole annual consumption of that grain by the British people not quite the proportion of one to forty-seven. And the proportion of wheat imported from Poland and from some of the grain-bearing districts of Germany is still less, in comparison of the whole yearly British consumption. See Sir James Steuart's "Political Economy," 1st Book, chapters 17-20, for proofs that if the lands of England did not produce in years of the greatest scarcity nearly enough corn to subsist the whole people during the twelve months; all Europe together could not in any one year supply a quantity sufficient to prevent the greatest desolation by famine.

Mr. Burke, the great father of political philosophy in Europe, in his "Thoughts and Details on Scarcity," originally presented to the Right Hon. William Pitt, in November, 1795, says, "In our history, and when the laborer of England is said to have been once happy, we find constantly after certain intervals a period of real famine, by which a melancholy havoc was made among the human race. The price of provisions fluctuated dreadfully, demonstrating a