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been touched by a plough; and that three-fourths of the land, in culture and pasturage, are still capable of being improved, so as to produce fifty per cent. more annua:ly than they do in their present state. While this negligent cultivation excites our regret, it, nevertheless, affords the pleasing consideration that an abundant source of national wealth and power remains unexplored, and within the compass of our domestic exertions. Various causes have conspired to keep down the expediency and importance of a more general attention to agriculture as a primary object of national policy. Conquering nations, who extend their political dominion over distant regions, never fail to draw to their native country a very great portion of the wealth of the vanquished states. The victorious nation never fails, in such cases, to contain a great number of wealthy individuals, whose revenue is not derived from the cultivation of their native soil, or from any branch of manufacture or of commercial industry car◄ ried on by them upon it; but which consists of money drawn from the remote pro vinces of the empire, in consequence of estates possessed, or fortunes acquired there, in the service of government. The result of such circumstances naturally is, that these wealthy individuals not only live at home in a luxurious manner, and increase, to an immense extent, the consumption of butcher's meat by themselves and their numerous retinue, but, for the sake of ostentation, and as the only means of employ◄ ing their wealth, they maintain a great number of carriages and of riding horses. Ta support such establishments, they themselves not only convert large tracts of territory from arable into pasture lands, but even all the husbandmen of the country are induced to do the same to derive a profit from supplying them with butcher's meat, and with food for their pleasure horses.* In the mean time, the grain that may be wanted for the consumption of the people, whether rich or poor, being a commodity that is easily preserved and transported, must be brought from foreign nations by a proportion of the superfluous wealth of the state; and thus a rich and prosperous people may come to depend upon foreigners for a morsel of bread; and when these foreign nations happen to experience an unfortunate season, this wealthy people may suffer all the horrors of famine upon a fertile soil, and in the midst of overflowing treasures. Such was the state of Italy under the ancient Romans. Every part of it was adorned with the parks and villas, and gardens of the nobles, who derived their revenues from the remote parts of the empire. This seat of dominion exhibited a picture of boundless splendour and magnificence. But the soil was entirely occupied in the service of ostentation or of luxury; and Italy, one of the most fertile corn countries in Europe, depended for grain upon Egypt, and the western provinces of Africa that border upon the Mediterranean. Such also, though perhaps in an inferiour degree, seems to be the present state of Great Britain. It has acquired vast and fertile, and popular provinces, within the torrid zone in the east, from which individuals are annually transporting home immense treasures obtained in the public service. In the west, also, within the same torrid zone, by a great expense of treasure, and of human lives, the cultivation of certain valuable commodities has been established; and from estates situated there, individuals residing at home now derive great revenues. The principles which regulate human affairs are unalterable; and in every age the same causes are attended with the same consequences. What occurred in ancient Italy, took place among us as soon as the possession of distant territories had leisure to display its natural effects. Britain formerly not only produced abundance of grain, for

"Of all cultivated cattle," says the eloquent and learned abbé Denina, in his Revoluzione d'Italia, "the horse contributes least to the support of man, occasions the greatest consumption, and is the least necessary." Dr. Langhorne, in 1773, commenting upon this passage, observes, that, " to the immense increase of horses in this kingdom, is, most apparently, owing the exorbitantly advanced price of provisions. The dearness of that animal, occasioned by the encouragement given to exportation, has greatly turned the attention of the farmer to the breed. There are, upon a moderate computation, 200,000 horses more in this kingdom than there were twenty years ago; and that number will consume the produce of as much ground as is sufficient to maintain a million of men. It is to little purpose, therefore, for government to prohibit the exportation of corn, whilst the exportation of horses is permitted."

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the support of its own inhabitants, but it possessed a considerable surplus for expor

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Five hundred years ago, the Scotch islands maintained a hardy race of twenty times the number of their present miserable population! Situated as they are, with excellent maritime harbours, the fisheries on their coasts, may raise sailors sufficient for the constant equipment of the whole British navy. When we consider the local position of those islands, the wretched state of their present inhabitants, and then reflect upon the political situation of the British empire, one is almost inclined to think, that our legislators have never seen a map of these isles laid down. depopulation of whole villages, once filled with numerous, healthy, and industrious husbandmen, is a melancholy fact, to which multitudes of persons, now living, can bear testimony. To my knowledge, a village in the west of England has disappeared, which contained no less than seventeen farmers, and their families; and of which the parish church is the only remaining vestige: a lordly and inhospitable mansion has been erected upon the scite of these deserted fields, by an ignorant, oppressive, upstart farmer, who is the terror of the neighbourhood. What has become of its fugitive population? Do they pine away their days in parish workhouses; or, driven by necessity, have they carried the industry of their country beyond the seas ? The province of fiction belongs to poetry; but, awful truths may be conveyed in verse as well as in prose; and though the picture be too highly coloured, the perspective, nevertheless, nay be correctly delineated.

Yet count our gains. This wealth is but a name,
That leaves our useful products still the same.
Not so the loss. The man of wealth and pride,
Takes up a space that many poor supplied;
Space for his lake, his park's extended bounds,
Space for his horses, equipage, and hounds
His seat, where solitary sports are seen,
Indignant spurns the cottage from the green-
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied.

After the acquisitions of foreign possessions, this surplus produce of grain gradually reased to exist; and it appears, from documents, which the legislature has acknow ledged to afford authentic and complete evidence of the truth of the fact, that for twenty years past, notwithstanding all our agricultural improvements, and the waste lands that have been brought under the plough, the produce of grain is annually becoming more and more unequal to the consumption; and this decrease appears, in some measure, to keep pace with the increasing value of our distant possessions. In the mean time, we are aunually coming under the necessity of purchasing larger and larger supplies of grain, from the foreign states of Europe, and of North America; and thus these nations, without undergoing the imputation of usurpation, and without encountering the hazard of an unfriendly climate, have been enabled, through the medium of our luxury, to obtain a share of the riches of Hindustan, and of the profits of our West India cultivation. In the mean time, their agriculture is encou raged, while we are made to depend upon them for the necessaries of life. After all, it appears unreasonable, and would, perhaps, be improper, to regret a state of affairs, which is the result of national aggrandizement, and of the superiority and successful enterprizes of our countrymen. Still, however, it is obviously to be wished, that so far as agriculture is concerned, we could be restored to the state of independence which our ancestors enjoyed, when they were able, from their own soil, to supply themselves with the necessaries of life: such a state is sometimes necessary to the independent existence of a community, and is, at all times, conducive to its welfare. It can only, however, be produced by means of agriculture; and the relative situation of this country is such, that unless we make a timely provision for the support of our own people, from our domestic resources, we must become, in despite of our wealth, commercial industry, and maritime preponderance, a dependent nation. The basis of intrinsic strength consists in the abundance of useful productions. When we are assured that we are above the apprehension of

want in these, the people cannot fail to be inspired with confidence in the stability of their country's power. To keep alive this moral energy, and to give vigour to public measures, nothing should be concealed respecting the wants and the resources of the state; for clear and candid exposure of facts, however ungrateful they may appear to the community, is the only sure and honest method of uniting all orders of men in a common endeavour to prevent the approaches of calamity. Furthermore, it should be observed, that in a war like the present, the miseries of which are extended and felt in every quarter of the globe, and which is manifestly continued with a view to the utter extinction of British power, great deviations from our habitual policy must not only be expected, but are also justified by the occurrence of new ard unforeseen circumstances. Although it be true, that during those serene years of uninterrupted tranquillity, which succeeded the American rebellion, the policy of this country was judiciously directed to the extension of commerce, manufactures, and navigation; while agriculture was left to the unpatronized exertions of individual enterprize, until, happily for the age in which he lives, and for the people over whom he rules, the most just, mild, and patriotic of kings recalled it from obscurity, patronized, and made honourable, by his own example, those useful and innocent pursuits, which had till then been spurned, as degrading to their rank, by an opulent nobility and gentry,-yet, the negligence of this basis of national strength, occasioned no permanent inconvenience to the state; for the voice of hostility, and the spirit of vengeance, were appeased, and the ports of every nation in the world were open for the use and comfort of mankind. In such a state of things, every apprehension of dependence, arising from national want, no sooner appeared than it was dissipated by the friendly intervention of powers which were blessed with superabundance. But now, desolating wars having ravaged the fields, and discouraged the industry of the people of the continent and the black spirit of vengeance having again broken prison, and being perpetually occupied in extorting from every portion of the world, the means of giving vent to its long suppressed malignity against this little spot, more sequestered from the rest of Europe by its moral virtues, its courage, and unshaken constancy, than by its geographical position; it is become essentially necessary to our very existence that we give another direction to the industrious habits of our people, without, however, forsaking those pursuits which have so largely contributed to our support during our long and arduous conflict with the tyranny, usurpation, and rapacity of France. The wealth which we acquired in the course of last war, enabled us not only to provide for our domestic wants, but also to assist our confederates in keeping their ground against French aggression. It has pleased God, for ends which we cannot fathom, that the worse cause should prevail for a time, and that our means should prove unavailing. This consideration should induce us to redouble our efforts, now that we stand unsupported in this mighty contest, and encourage us to look 'deeply into, and make an ample use of those prodigious resources of our country, which Providence has deposited in store for us, against the day of need. We have no longer any friends to subsidize; nor can our arms with any prospect of success be carried to the continent under the hope of retrieving its dilapidated fortune. The present war, therefore, assumes a new and scarcely definite form: it is become, on our part, essentially defensive, without precluding the policy of offensive measures, in order to consolidate and strengthen our line of defence. Under such circumstances, it will be found, from the experience of all ages, to be true, that the agricultural part of a community are better adapted than the commercial and manufacturing part, to the purposes of defensive war; for they are the representatives and guardians of their natal soil, of that immoveable property, which the violence of man may transfer or appropriate, but which it cannot remove. As therefore we are destined to keep perpetual watch at home, to protect our distant establishments in every quarter of the globe, and to be prepared to seize every favourable conjuncture which may present itself for making an impression upon the enemy; we ought so to cultivate our natu ral resources, as to render the state wholy independent of every other power for the supply of its wants, and to combine the moral and physical energies of the agricultural, as well as the commercial and manufacturing, portions of the community in the exercise both of offensive and defensive war.

By a judicious application of the means we now possess, the average produce of

crops in England and Scotland, estimated at this time at about forty-five millions of quarters, might be raised, at the lowest calculation, to sixty-five millions, including a moderate appropriation of waste and common lands, fens, &c. and as some diminution of our commercial and manufacturing interests must be expected to take place from the forced and general exclusion of our commerce from the continent, it is obvious that, as a national object, the extension of our agricultural pursuits would find employment for a number of hands, which would otherwise become a burthen to the state; and our mercantile deficits would be thus compensated by agricultural improvements. These are weighty considerations, which call for legislative interposition before the arrival of the moment when we may experience a dearth of provisions We have already felt the evils of such a pressure; and it would be a mark of the boldest impicty, to assert, that they may not visit us again. I speak with confidence when I state, that the probable recurrence of such a calamity is not one of the least important of the speculations against our national happiness which has entered into the mischievously capacious mind of our implacable foe. Let not this suggestion be treated with indifference: the safety of the state is connected with its execution; for where more than half of the population live detached from the s, and, together with the other half, are shut out from those granaries to which they we accustomed to resort for food, every one must admit it to be the duty of governn. nt to render the necessaries of common life as little dependent as possible upon mere ntile operations. It is only by a provident diversion of a part of our national industry to his indispensable object, that we shall be able to bridle the audacious groupe of miliary adventurers with whom we are contending.

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Hitherto have not adverted to the explorement of those incalculably rich mines. of undiscovered treasures with which Heaven has girded our island, and to the enjoy ments of which its inhabitants have been shamefully indifferent. But the improver ment of our fisheries, in all its relations, more especially in the supply of our WestIndia colonies, shall very soon become an object of our most serious investigation. I the mean while, however, the savage policy of the ruler of France should be made to recoil upon himself, and the subjects of his vassal states, throughout the Toug ime of his iron domination. Not a single fishing smack, no, not even a cocklebashold be permitted to steal from his self-blockaded harbours, nor a single vessel of any nation, or under any circumstances, distress excepted, be allowed to attempt to erter them, without being seized by the vigilance, or sunk by the thunder of our squadrons. It is by such a vigorous procedure, provoked only by the rancorous politics of this mercantile general, that we shall successfully dispel the illusion which has too fatally seized every civilized community that the prosperity and power of Great Britain are dependant upon,-the dissentions and wars of the European powers. Wherever our commercial exclusion has been carried into effect, every pretension to independent neutrality has been set aside, and, consequently, Great Britain deriva the right, by the laws of nature and of nations, to ruin the trade of all countries, to cut off the commercial intercourse of the several states of Europe, and to prevent every communication between Europe and the other quarters of the globe. Nor will this system of retaliation be alone a competent satisfaction for the injuries with which we are menaced. It appears that our exclusion from the continent is not confined merely to our commercial transactions; it embraces within its comprehensive ban our proscription from all intercourse with our fellow creatures; it corrupts and poisons the channels of civilized life; it strikes even at the source of all the benevolent affections which God hath implanted in the breasts of men, and its tendency is to introduce barbarism, hatred, and remorseless passions, and to perpetuate the wildest disorders amongst mankind. Whether these prohibitory decrees be launched against us reluctantly from Memel, insidiously from the banks of the Neva, or forcibly from the dykes of Holland, the banks of the Elbe, or the shores of the Mediterranean, they have but one common object in view; namely, to absolve the rest of the civilized world from every principle of moral obligation towards this country; to place the mention of the British name itself under a tremendous interdict, accompanied with penal sanctions; to cause us to be relegated from society, as the heirs of pest and contagion; and to generate in the bosoms of the rising population, an abhorrence not only of our national character, but even of our fortitude, prowess, freedom, and social virtues. In such a violent dislocation of the rights and relative interests of

communities, the voice of reason can be no longer heard; and where that voice is silent, justice also is mute. There is an end of the society of nations, and a general disruption of all social principles takes place, leaving us alone, to float in a compact and united body, within sight of the fairest part of God's creation, with the inclination, the power, and the right, to redeem our share in the behoofs of Providence, to regain a footing of that creation, wherever the opportunity and the means present themselves, in order to retrieve our glory, and to recover the inheritance of our fathers. For these purposes we are now authorized, in the strictest sense of the word, to sweep the seas, to suffer no ship to sail thereon without our permission, and even to destroy every sea-port, city, and town, within the reach of our cannon balls and bombs. A very short time would elapse, under the prosecution of such vigorous measures, before the enslaver of Europe would see the futility of his plan of mercantile proscription, and be compelled to acknowledge the justice of that admonition which France received from the court of Madrid, upon the defeat of the Spanish fleet, off cape St. Vincent; "that for either of our two nations to ttempt to bring reproach upon the other, for their inferiority to the nglish in na power, skill and courage, is nothing else than to arraign the wisdom of the Almighty power, who has thought it proper to grant the decided superiority, upon the wide and extended ocean, to that brave people.' And if the conviction of this truth should be suppressed by the ruler of France, from motives of inveterate antipathy, and humbled arrogance, it would not be long before the suffering and despair of the continental states would remind him of the awful truths which the Spanish minister, upon the above occasion, communicated to Perignon, the French ambassador. "The king, my master," said he," has commanded me to signify to the members of the French republic, that whether it be true or not, that it is the infrmity of government, as they state, to be seized with certain cancers, which contaminate and corrupt the state; it is not his majesty's intention to follow the example of degenerated France, by applying caustics. and the knife to remedy that evil; for which reason, he has no occasion to suspend, even for a moment, the dictates of his paternal affection towards the subjects of his own states, which he is more than ever determined to cherish and cultivate, being firmly persuaded, by his own observation, and which is confirmed to him by the historical experience of all nations, that no evil can be so great as to submit to the tyranny and oppression of a foreign government, nurtured and supported by the very dregs of the lower orders of society."

PRUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

Scarcely a mail arrives from the continent without affording us fresh causes to commiserate the degraded condition of the ill-fated house of Brandenburgh. It seems that nothing short of absolute vassalage will appease the vindictive malice of the conqueror; and if the king of Prussia still reign, it is only with a view to render his power more burthensome to himself, and contemptible to his neighbours. But wonderful is the contrast between outrageous insolence and passive fortitude! In all the transactions of the king of Prussia, since the downfal of his monarchy, we discover a mind strongly endowed with moral principles, a patriotism ardent even amidst public distress, and a resignation worthy of a royal christian. The future historian will not fail to place the character of this suffering prince in contrast with that of his conqueror; and when the day shall have arrived, on which mankind shall know how to discriminate between the successes of a lawless murderer, and the enduring firmness with which a legitimate monarch has borne the stripes of calamity, the palm of true glory will be assigned to that sovereign, who became greater by his misfortunes than the purpled tyrant, surrounded with the trophies of his frauds and sanguinary ambition. What can more fully express the love of a people to their sovereign, and the sovereign's tender regard to his people, than the following letter, extracted from the Bamberg gazette, from the king of Prussia to the magistracy and present authorities of Berlin? It is dated from Memel, August 8, 1807.

HONOURABLE AND WISE, DEAR AND FAITHFUL, &c.

"We have read with emotion the letter you transmitted to us as the expression of the sentiments of yourselves, and of the inhabitants of Berlin in general, on the occasion of our birth-day, and the conclusion of the peace. In your faithful attention, we have not failed to notice, even under the most unfavourable circumstances,

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