HE multiplication of small Farms

Twith a piew to affording the publick a better and cheaper supply of Poultry, and the smaller agricultural articles, having long been a popular sentiment amongst us, I have the pleasure of announcing to you that a New Agricultural System, divested of the disadvantages to which small farms are subject under the established agricultural regime, has been conceived and arranged; and is now in a forward state of preparation for bringing before the public, with a view of ascertaining their sentiments upon it. As the narrow limits allotted to each miscellaneous article in a Magazine do not admit of going into details of a comprehensive subject, the essence of it may be briefly stated to be, that by affording a larger scope of employment to human labour, to be advantageously excited through newly invented mechanical means, in lieu of having recourse to the usual expedient of employing agricultural horses in the tillage of the soil, the great excess of it now in the market may be turned to a beneficial account, both as to enabling the individuals them. selves to acquire the comforts of life through the means of their industry; and relieving the public from the present heavy pressure of their poorrates proportionally; and, at the same time, affording a more abundant supply of provisions to the public markets, from the double cause of thus converting to the use of the human species that portion of the produce of the earth which has hitherto been consumed by useful but devouring agricultural horses; joined to the enlarged production of the soil, which will infallibly be caused, according to the laws of nature, by the elements of Juxuriant vegetation, water, sun, manure, and the pulverization of the soil, being advantageously brought into chemical action, in unison with each other. These constitute the leading features of its various recom

-

mendations, as the public generally are concerned in the question.

As enlarging the sum of agricultural comforts and happiness, according to the multiplication of these kinds of tenures, it is to be observed, as relates to the tenant, that a double produce being obtained from the same land, at a double expence of culti vation, will yield him three times the profit it formerly did; which may be

thus briefly explained :-Taking the old calculation that a farm ought to produce three rents, the one for the landlord, another for the expences of its cultivation, and the third for the maintenance of the tenant's family; if we take this gross produce as being 301. this gives 10l. to each item; but this being doubled produces 601.: so that allotting to the landlord his 107. and allowing 201. as the doubled expence of cultivation, these two sums being added together make but 307. leaving the remaining 301. as the profit to improved cultivation, instead of his former 107. upon the old plan..

To realize these ideas will be the grand object of our endeavours, which we propose to attain by three distinct means: first, by a superior cultivation of the soil, as before expressed ; secondly, by a quicker succession of crops, and by an improved method of making the most of them; and thirdly, by breeding and feeding, by improved methods, a more profitable description of stock than sheep and oxeu, namely, pigs, poultry, rabbits, pigeons, and even game, if legislative countenance be given thereto, off the land. Upon which last head, as it differs from the established agricul tural opinions almost universally diffused throughout the land, we propose to join issue with them upon the question, whenever they think proper to give notice of trial.

How greatly the landed interest of the country is interested in the establishment of these measures will be manifest enough, on merely a slight consideration of them; for as it is the characterick of all the different kinds of small stock enumerated, that their natural fecundity is such that a few well-selected parent pairs of each would soon multiply their species into any extent of stock which it might be desirable to keep: the expence of this, therefore, would be so small, compared with that of stocking a farm

of

of the same size with the larger animals, and furnishing it also with all the necessary paraphernalia of dead stock,waggons,carts, harness, ploughs, drays, and agricultural horses, that the competition for the occupancy of these farms, where the returns are also so comparatively quick, will be brought within the reach of thousands who were before excluded from aspiring to the tenantcy of even a small corn and cattle farm, from the want of the necessary capital to manage it. The interests of the soil will also be consulted in these arrangements beyond all former example; for here will not only be the greatest part of the heavy green crops proposed to be raised consumed upon the land, which will therefore furnish abundant manure accordingly for reproduction in future years; but this quantity, great as it is already from its own resources, will be constantly in the way of being augmented by the addition of the rich articles brought in from other lands, for the purpose of fattening off the stock for market; a principle which will render corn farms tributary to them in this important article for procuring heavy crops from the soil; which will be again assisted by another of still more importance; as the irrigation water proposed to be plentifully supplied, and constantly at hand, to use at discretion, will of itself be in the nature of another standing mauure heap constantly furnishing its contents. So that with all these inherent and extrinsic advantages, aided by the further consideration, that the outskirts of an estate inay virtually be rendered of the value of homestead laud, by being converted into poultry farms. What is true as to the competition likely to be excited by inviting circumstances for their tenantry, will also be so for the purchase of them upon the same principles, whenever the party may wish to convert them into money. Nor have the interests of the capitalists also been forgotten amongst these numerous arrangemeats of combinations, as novel as they are important; but on the contrary, a wide field for speculation will be opened to his view, by which he will be enabled to employ the telescope of his understanding to deterinine for himself how far he may, or may not, employ his money to greater

annual advantage, in investing it in the new species of hydro-landed property proposed to be created, ihan either the funds, mortgages, or personal securities will yield him. Suffice it for the present to state generally, that if the lands in Great Britain and Ireland were improved so as to average only a shilling per acre in water rent, for money laid out upon them to pay the monied men advancing it five per cent. for their money invested therein; this would absorb about sixty millions pounds sterling, laid out in their permanent improvement, and the enrichment of their respective neighbourhoods, in the first instance: but as the money thus disbursed is not annihilated, but only changes hands by being thrown into circulation, by being paid to labourers and artificers as the wages of labour and the purchase of materials; and as the annual revenue accruing to the monied interest thereby created, and, figuratively speaking, springing out of the earth, would be three millions sterling, it follows that when the first year's interest was received, there would then be 63 millions of money in the monied market, looking out for objects on which advantageously to employ itself: in the next year something more than 66 millions; and so on, progressively, according to the nature of compound interest: so that one batch of improvements, as of the estates in a whole parish together, for instance, will necessarily be the precursor of succeeding ones.

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TIMOTHY TELEGRAPH.

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 10. IT is with mental endowments,

"I as with other rich gifts of previdence; the inhabitant of the luxuriant Southern climes, where Nature has done every thing in the way of vegetation, indolently lays hold on this very plea of fertility which should animate his exertions, as a reason for doing nothing himself; so that the soil, which teems with such encouraging abundance, leaves the favour. ed possessor idle, and comparatively poor: while the native of the less genial region, supplying by his labours the deficiencies of his lot, overtakes his more favoured competitor; by substituting industry for opulence, he improves the riches of his native land beyond that which is blessed

with warmer suns, and thus vindicates Providence from the charge of partial distribution.”

On such a subject, the season which now presents itself, affords topics for enlargement-In taking a brief survey of the various climates of the earth, we find the doctrine verified wherever we stray; the volcanic eruptions themselves are not exempt from the effects of that diffusion of good which Providence every where scatters with unsparing bounty-the, barren land is taught to smile by exciting the necessarily increased efforts of cultivation; and when we return home, and contemplate around us the competitions of poverty and industry; opulence and power; we see them so wisely intermingled, and so benevolently exercised, that one seems but to hold his extended opportunities, as a trust, for the more limited means of subsistence or enjoyment. The more severe the changes of weather may be, the more have we seen the spirit of beneficence prevail; compassion no longer remains quiescent as a sentiment to adorn the modern system of sympathetic education, but is happy exemplified in deeds of charity old dependencies, which during the past tranquillity of ease and prosperity have been noticed only with complacency, have now been sought out, and aided by effectual relief-even former animosities have been forgotten, and given place to Christian conciliation-and the hand, hitherto withdrawn, has been stretched forward with promptitude, and loaded with the proffered gift! The commemoration of the nativity and the epoch of a new year, has been greeted in every Society and Club with voluntary contributions for its poorer members-and the festivities of the rich and powerful have been accompanied with appropriate comforts to the dependent collagers!

Whenever we can apply any of these stations to ourselves, we reap some satisfaction in the hope that we have extended our usefulness in society as well as our best efforts:That all should succeed so effectually as to obliterate the claim of the poor, or to remove for ever the cry of the destitute, is a chimerical notion, which will never be realised in human affairs;-for on the contrary,

the difference will ever be the means of calling forth the otherwise dormant charities of our nature, and placing us in a condition of trial and probation of the talents entrusted to our management; and the more judicious be the extension of the use, the more extensive and powerful will be the government acquired: I say judicious, because an indiscriminate use of the talents committed to man, is an act of charity disapproved by the parabolic example of Him who was made ruler of a certain number of cities in proportion to the number of talents which he had gained with the trust coufided to him: But although these seasonable benevo lences are to be much commended, yet they are the transient occurrences of the time-something more is requisite to keep up the spring of active society, and to occupy the minds and hands, and fill with joy the chambers of the industrious ; for disaffection and murmur are the froward offspring of want of employment. The great difficulty of answering to this imperious call has not yet been subdued; public works are the chief resources, and many may be invented, if they are not absolutely necessary, as a means of sup plying the present "aching void;" one suggestion has already been offered by the Regent for clearing Dartmoor, and another by the Irish labourers of draining some of the bogs in Ireland-others may be found of improving and making new roads

of securing embankments—of draining low and watery lands-making useful openings of streets in a crowded metropolis-cutting down hills, and filling up vallies in public roadsopening communications by canals, &e. and numberless other sources of employment which would be highly acceptable to the national and local welfare, and amply occupy the laborious, and pay them all for their toil-it may be fairly alleged, that "no absurdity is more gross, than that of there being no track of em ployment. Is there a parish in the Kingdom where the arable land is clean, at least kept clean? we know of none.”—Gent. Mag. LXXXIX. ii. p. 585.

Besides all these resources of employment, individuals may, besides their own fair proportion of the rate

for

for employment of these works, extend it in some smaller way by engaging a few of their neighbouring labourers, in doing acts of similar work in their garden grounds and fields, in hedging, ditching, and fencing-and if it were not altoge ther quite necessary, yet they would esteem it well spent at such a time, that they had thus contributed to soften the hardness of complaint, and ameliorate in some degrée the condition of their poorer neighbourswould they not inwardly rejoice if they could thus see themselves instrumental in "making the forest blossom as the rose?"

It is thus, that in the hardest times and seasons, the poor need never despair of help, nor the rich be destitute of the sources of employment for them: it is thus that their mutual dependence is maintained; and that the spirit of Christianity may be exemplified amongst us, so that we need not hear of any "complaining in our

streets."

A. H.

Simon. Birckbeck.
Socius. colieg. regina.
in. Oxon. bachalaur. sac.
Theolog. pastor. Eccles.
de. Gilling. et. Forcet. et.
filius. Thome. B. de. Horn.
bie. in, Westmerl. Armig.
Resurgam.
1656."

"To the worshipful his much-respected Friend Mr. Besaire, Chapeleyne to the Lord Bishop of Durham, at Aukland; give these:

"Sir, I thanke you heartily for your kind entertainment, and your com'unicating unto me your labours, bookes, and

lettres, from those lerned men. Oh that I were acquainted with that learned Vossius! he might haply Centuriarum* qua

'rundam mearu' obscuritates illustrare Vossiana

face, et lacunas adimplere è fonte suo. I desire you lend me your Daylee touching neighbour gentleman, who understands the Fathers. I hope by the means of a some French, to aime at his meaning; it shall be faithfully and safely returned with thanks, that or any other treatise you send me. Mr. Laton shall undertake and be my pledge. I have Philip de Comines in French, which you shall have, if you like it. Good Sir, accept of this smal token minutam sed (apud nos) meliuris notæ mo netam, this halfe crowne in King Edwarde's coin; accept it as benevolentiæ tesseram. Good Sir, instead of Nestorian, put Macedonian, page 197, in my Lord's coppie, your owne, and Mr. Steward's.-Thus committing you to God's gracious protection,' I rest your truly affectionate friend, "SIMON BIRCKBECK.

"Forcet, this xxth of Nove'ber, 1634,"

Touching this said Simon Birckbeck, I find the following entries in the Parish Register of Forcett:

"Bridgett, wife of Mr. Simeon Birbeck, vicar of Gilling, buryed 6 Feb. 1644. "Mr. Simon Birbeck, vicar of Gilling and Forcett, buried 14 Sep. 1656."

As I am now old, and others have taken in haud to put forth my Athenæ Oxon. de novo, who are in everie point equal to the task, I shall

I

time to time give my Editors an assisting band by your means. have lately had an opportunity of perusing divers original letters, fairly penned, and neatly pasted into sundry folios, which make marvellous additions to my Athenæ, but at present I am sore let by the heaviness in my head, occasioned, as my Diary, at p. 7, will tell you, by Mutton, a horse belonging to Thos. the Univer sity carrier, which rode over me as he was going to be watered, and bruised my head very much indeed. I am, good Mr. Urban, Your verie good friend, ANTH. A WOOD.

I

Mr. URBAN,

......

Dec. 14. WOULD beg you to inform my initial namesake, T. M. who inquires (vol. LXXXVIII. ii. p. 386) after "The Secret History of Whitehall, in two Parts, &c." that I have a copy

His book called the Protestant Evidence, arranged centuriatim. of

66

of that work, which he will also find mentioned in Censura Literaria, vol. III. 252; with the title-page of which, as there given, mine exactly agrees, but not the number, or mode of reckoning the pages, so as to indicate its having consisted of two volumes in one, pp. 144, and 110. For mine is in one volume, lettered on the back, Secret History, vol. I. but imperfectly; the ends of the words and figures apparently cut or rubbed out, and the whole over other words erased, the impression of which remaios. It is paged throughout in three successive series of eighty each, one of sixty-four, another of eighty, and the last of one hundred and ten; which finishes the book, without any notice of the tragical history of the Stuarts" annexed. Neither does this division of the pages correspond with one that there is of the Letters also, of which the work consists. The first series of which ends with Letter LXXIII. of King Charles II.'s Death,' at page 23 of the last series, of eighty pages, and in the middle of a sheet; Letter 1. of the second series, beginning on the opposite side of the same leaf; so that it could not have been divided into two parts there: and if, as seems to have been the case, the second part did consist of the last 110 pages, where, however, there is again Do suitable division in the contents of the Work (it being between two Letters, both relating to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes). The first part in my copy contains 384 pages, instead of 144.

The editor of " Censura Literaria" observes: "It has been remarked, that Coke's, and Daniel Jones's Volumes (who, in his Preface, speaks of his own as a necessary supplemental part to the former, and from the appearance of the defaced lettering, I suspect my copy to have been bound in a set together, with some other, as well as to Sir William Temple's Memoirs) contain a sort of secret history, engaging to an Eng lishman, naturally inquisitive,curious, and greedy of scandal." Of which certainly some curious specimens might be selected; one of the Letters is of Mrs. Carewell's coming into England," not immediately to be recognized, as the family name of the Duchess of Portsmouth; but any

further information respecting it, or, through you, the loan of the book itself, I should be happy to offer your Correspondent for his own satisfaction.

And if the Canter. editions of the Greek Tragedians shall continue so rare as your Correspondent Æ. E S. and others have represented in your Magazine for November and December, 1816, and March, 1817; I have also at yours, or his, or any Bibliomaniack's service, "The Eschylus of 1580," a genuine Plantin copy, not certainly clad in verd antique, but in plain and good condition (apparently a second binding), which I accidentally met with, and eagerly caught at, a short time since, amongst a parcel of old books of similar size and appearance, not for six, nor four guineas aud a half, but for one and two shillings each; though I shall not now part with it for less than its present market price, as it is really and intrinsically a very choice little article. T. M.

ALLOW me to offer a few remarks

on a species of Immorality that exists amongst the higher orders.-Since the Peace, there has been a copious introduction into this country of obscene models and paintings, which their purchasers (principally the higher class) have not been contented with keeping in their studies, libraries, &c. but have been actually placed or hung up in their drawingrooms, bed-chambers, and halls. Indeed it is now no rare thing to see the young females of the family, even while gentlemen are present, ad miring a new-purchased Adonis or Hercules in a complete state of nudity. Thereby making them progressively insensible to that nice regard for modesty which is the characteristick of our fair country women. I hope you will not think I am speaking against the introduction of the works of art into this country, but merely against their being so publicly exposed even to our youth. Great praise is due to the Society for the Suppression of Vice for their prompt exertions in preventing the exposing for sale those infamous French snuff-boxes.

Yours, &c. A CONSTANT READER,