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communications under the name of Ralph Robinson of Windsor.

The idea of making an actual survey of the territory of France had long been a favourite subject with Mr. Young, and it was first called into action by the invitation of M. Lazowski and the Duke de la Rochefoucault to accompany them in a journey to the Pyrenees. This first excursion to France took place in the year 1787, and Mr. Young returned to London in the winter, in order to be present at the discussion on the subject of the wool-bill then before parliament, a national object, in which he zealously interested himself. His last Tour was made in 1789, which completed his travels in France, and the account he has since published of that country stands unrivalled in respect to important and solid information.

The intermediate space between this period and the date of his appointment as Secretary to the Board of Agriculture was filled up, as was the whole life of Mr. Young, in pursuits of the most useful nature to his country and to mankind. He was engaged either upon his own farm, or in making practical observations in various parts of Great Britain.

Nothing could be more contrary to fact, or more calumnious, than the corrupt motives assigned to Mr. Young's acceptance of the Secretaryship of the Board of Agriculture. The propagators of that calumny neither knew the man, nor the history of the transaction. The equally illustrious Sir JOHN SINCLAIR, in one of the volumes of Communications to the Board, has said enough to impress every candid mind with the conviction, that the post of Secretary, with its salary of six hundred pounds per annum, was not the gift of ministers, but the boon of private friendship; and we know that it was not the price of any political tergiversation, for to the last hour of his life his opinions continued little altered on the necessity of reform, and of many changes in the system and policy of the government. The country is indebted to the patriotic exertions of Sir John for the establishment of this excellent institution; but so convinced was Mr. Young of the fruitlessness of the efforts in his favour, that while the affair remained in suspense he offered to stake a set of the Annals of Agriculture against a set of the Statistical Account of Scotland on the event.

Mr. Young was now in his element, conducting the business of a board instituted expressly for the purpose of extending and improving his constant and favourite object, the national agriculture.

He continued, from the first, to take a principal and active share in all the transactions of the Board of Agriculture, independently of the mere duties of its Secretary. He personally made and published an account of the survey of the two counties of Suffolk and Lincoln; also of the waste lands in various parts of England, on the authority of the Board, besides certain private agricultural journies and tours, of which we have had an account in his Annals: that useful work has at the same time been regularly continued; and Mr. Young also, amidst his numerous avocations, found leisure frequently to address the public on various important subjects.

The attention of the Board of Agriculture has been directed to almost every useful object of rural economy, and to those more especially in which there has appeared a deficiency in the national practice: on these heads the usual channel of communication with the public was through Mr. Young's Annals. The mode of premiums was adopted, and it seemed the only means of stimulating public indolence to a deviation from the beaten track into the field of promising experiment.. The extension of the breed of fine-wooled sheep upon all suitable soils, for the truly national purpose of ridding ourselves of a precarious dependence on Spain for that precious commodity, and the general substitution of labouring oxen, which in the end become food for man, and are the harbingers of plenty in the place of horses, which, after their labour, produce only food for dogs, and become in themselves one great permanent cause of scarcity, were among the chief objects of solicitude.

Mr. Young pretended not to the merit of original discoveries, either in respect to new practices, new implements, new vegetables, or new varieties of animals. Tull and Ellis, and the most eminent rural philosophers of the continent, had preceded him; and their theories which Young taught, and their practices which he inculcated, were known long before his day, although they prevailed within a very narrow circle: it was his great merit to recommend and universally

spread

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In the long list of the works of our author, it is not possible that all can be of equal excellence or public use; but it may be most securely averred, that there is not a single publication unworthy of general attention. On the 66 Tours," ," the great reputation of the author is chiefly founded; and the account of Ireland particularly helped to spread his fame throughout Europe; at home that work was also received with great avidity; and parliament immediately adopting his advice, 40,0001. per annum was saved in the bounty on the inland carriage of corn.

Mr. Young was one of our most expeditious writers; and such, indeed, he must have been, considering his occupations; he seldom took any pains with his compositions than merely to render them perspicuous, in which he invariably succeeded; but some parts of his works are, however, distinguished by a rough and manly species of eloquence. For example-in speaking of the slave-trade, he says, "that infamy of all infamies, the most damnable, and passing all expression; with which the punishment of tearing up by the roots all human society would be barely commensurate; and in comparison of which the late horrors at Domingo were but as a point to infinity. That wickedness, with which all forbearance and compromise is a crime of deep and crimson dye; and which, rather than tolerate upon the earth, it is the bounden duty of every man of honour and honesty to resolve to perish."

That Mr. Young did not enjoy that popularity which might have been further instrumental to his public services is to be regretted; and is to be attributed to various causes..—The high superiority conferred upon him, by great talents and long experience in whatever he professed, and perhaps a tone somewhat too decided and dictatorial, aroused the jealousy of the half-informed, and excited the scoffs of the ignorant. His open and unreserved manner of declaring his sentiments, and the ardour with which he pursued his aims, obtained him many enemies. A man does not engage himself earnestly on such subjects as the slavetrade, the wool-monopoly, the tythe and poor laws, unmolested and with impunity. But Arthur Young has

long and faithfully served his country

-HIS ERRORS WILL BE FORGOTTEN, AND HIS SERVICES ONLY BE REMEMBERED!

In 1797 he lost his youngest daughter, at the age of fourteen; and this loss first drew him from the extensive circle of acquaintance he had formed, which he gradually lessened, to the commencement of his blindness in 1807, when he almost entirely withdrew himself from general company; although, by the assistance of his amanuensis, he retained his situation of secretary to the time of his death, and kept up an extensive correspondence. In 1811 he was couched, and from that period became totally blind, though always happy, and cheerful in the retrospect of a well-spent life.

His works and their dates were as under:

1. The Farmer's Letters, 8vo. third edition. 1767.

2. The Southern Tour, 8vo. third edition., 1763.

3. The Northern Tour, 8vo. second edition. 1769.

4. The Expediency of a Free Export of Corn. 1769.

5. The Eastern Tour, 8vo. 1771.

The Three Tours were translated into Majesty the Empress Catherine. Russian by the express order of Her Imperial

6. Proposals to the Legislature, for Numbering the People. 1771.

7. Rural Economy, containing the Memoirs of a celebrated Swiss Farmer, 8vo.

1772.

8. Observations on the present State of the Waste Lands. 1773.

9. Political Arithmetic, 8vo. 1774.

10. A Tour in Ireland, 8vo. 2 vols. second edition. 1776.

11. Annals of Agriculture, first published in 1784. 45 vols. 8vo. Price 251.

In the 15th volume of the "Annals," is an

interesting account, drawn up by himself, of his life up to that period. In the 27th volume of the same work, is an account of his first appointment as Secretary to the Board of Agriculture, and the turn it gave to his future life, as he had just before purchased 4,000 acres of waste land in Knaresborough Forest.

12. The Question of Wool stated. 1787. 13. A Speech that might have been spoken.

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France. We heartily approve of Mr. Young's intentions, but unhappily the same advantage was taken of his honest politics, as of his agricultural improvements; and while he put down one danger he gave that countenance to the enemies of civil liberty, and to inveterate abuses in Government, which it will require ages of self-devotion wholly to correct and extirpate. At the same time, while Mr. Y. was quoting France as a warning, he forgot that all the calamities of the revolution were owing to the conspiracy of ministers and kings.

16. Report of the County of Suffolk. 1794.

17. The Constitution safe without Reform. 1795.

18. National Danger, and the Means of Safety. 1797.

19. A Letter to Mr. Wilberforce, on the State of the Public Mind. 1799.

20. Report of the County of Lincoln. 1798. 21. The Question of Scarcity. 1800. 22 Correspondence with General Washington. 1801.

23. Report of the County of Norfolk, 8vo.

second edition. 1805.

24. Report of the County of Hertford, 8vo.

1804.

25. Essay on Manures. 1804; which gained the Bedford Gold Medal offered by the Bath Society.

26. Report of the County of Essex, 2

vols. 8vo. 1806.

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For above thirty years he had been preparing for the press, a great work, on the Elements and Practice of Agriculture, containing his experiments and observations made during a period of fifty years.

These works exhibit him as a practical farmer, as an enlightened agriculturist, as a patriotic politician, and also as a mystical theologian; for he was the dupe of certain mystics in divinity, and being sincere and zealous in every thing, he became a writer and teacher, as well as a hearer. It deserves, howmade him a good man in every relation ever, to be noticed, that his religion of life, and his politics and pursuits rendered him one of the most useful men in the age and community of which he was a member.

Mr. Young was Honorary Member of the Societies of Dublin, Bath, York, Salford, Odiham, South Hants, Kent, Essex, and Norfolk; the Philosophical and Literary Society of Manchester; the Veterinary College of London; the Economical Society of Berne; the Physical Society of Zurich; the American Society of Massachusetts; the Palatine Academy of Agriculture at Manheim; the Imperial Economical Society established at Petersburgh; the Royal and Electoral Economical Society of Celle; Member of the Society of Agriculture for the Department of the Seine, France; and Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Agriculture at Florence; of the Patriotic Society at Milan; of the Economical Society of Copenhagen; the Agricultural Society at Strelitz; the Royal Society of Agriculture at Brussels; and the Imperial Economical Society at Vienna.

ORIGINAL POETRY.

TUNBRIDGE-WELLS.

BY THE LATE DR. BUCHAN.

To the NAIAD of the FOUNTAIN.

HAIL, sweetest of Hygeia's Train!

Who Health can'st give, or banish Pain; Whither thou delight'st to rove, On Ephraim Mount,* or Sion Grove ;* Or if thy Pleasure is to dwell In Caverns of the rocky Dell:* Attend, O Naiads! to my Pray'r, And make Maria's Health thy Care. For her the secret Springs explore, Springs pregnant with the steely Ore

*** Places near the Wells. MONTHLY MAG. No. 340.

Which genuine Vigour can impart,
To brace the Nerves and warm the Heart;
Can make the Cheeks with Roses vie,
And add fresh Lustre to the Eye;
Can squalid Spleen and Vapours chase,
And plant new Beauties in the Face;
The wasting Phthisis can restrain,
And ease the Gout's corroding Pain.
When Palsy shakes the feeble Frame,
And torpid Nerves pale Death proclaim,
Thy potent waters can alone,

To torpid Nerves restore due Tone.
If flaxid Fibres should refuse,
To second Nature's genial Views,
Thy Fountain, Naiad, can bestow
Each tender Joy that Mothers know.
3 I

When

When great Archeust loses Power,
And choicest Viands please no more,
Thy Streams his Empire can regain,
And bless him with a double Reign.
If youthful Strephon should bewail
On Delia's Lip the deadly pale,
Thou, Goddess! can'st restore her Charins,
And yield her blooming to his Arms.
When ruthless Time, with rapid Pace,
Hath mark'd his Progress o'er the Face,
And languid Limbs and Pulses show,
The ebbing Fount of Life grows low,
Thy Springs, O Naiads! can restore
To languid Limb's their Pristine Power;
Can make the Veins with Vigour glow,
And all the Streams of Life o'erflow.

By the late Dr.BUCHAN, on reading Dr. John-
son's "Prayers and Meditations."
VIEW'D in the full meridian blaze
Of learning's artificial rays
Johnson seems more than common:
When like a puritan divine;

We hear him preach and cant and whine,
The Doctor's an old woman.

TO MR. AND MRS. LIDIARD.

WHEN first the infant Muses chose their seat On earth and sought with care a lone retreat,

No floweret smil'd, no foliage dress'd the place,

Where Poesy soon poured enchanting grace;
Their magic truth soon verified the scene,
And the dull spot arose in bloom serene.
Thus here, the hand of genius forms around,
The charms that deck the wondering ground,
And here the Muses haste, they gently press,
And hail the spot that all the virtuous bless.
Sept. 21, 1815.
J. B. TROTTER.

TO THE PRIMROSE.

BY JOHN MAYNE.

By murm'ring Nith, my native stream,
I've hail'd thee with the morning beam,
Woo'd thee among the Falls of Clyde-
On Leven's banks-on Kelvin-side!
And now, on Hanwell's flow'ry plain,
I welcome thy return again-
At Hanwell, where romantic views,
And sylvan scenes, invite the Muse;
And where, lest erring Man shou'd stray,
Truth's blameless Teacher leads the way!
Lorn tenant of the peaceful glade,
Emblem of Virtue in the shade,
Rearing thy head to brave the storm
That wou'd thine innocence deform!
Of all the flow'rs that greet the Spring-
Of all the flow'rs the seasons bring,
To me, while doom'd to linger here,
The lowly Primrose shall be dear!
Sprung, like a Primrose, in the wil'd,
Short, like the Primrose, Marion smil'd;
The Spring that gave her blossoms birth,
Tore them for ever from the earth;
Nor left, ab me! one bud behind

To tranquillize a Parent's mind,

Save that sweet bud which strews the way,
Blest Hope, to an eternal May!
Lorn tenant of the peaceful glade,
Emblem of Virtue in the shade!
Pure as the blossoms on yon thorn,
Spotless as her for whom we mourn!
Of all the flow'rs that greet the Spring-
Of all the flow'rs the seasons bring,
To me, while doom'd to linger here,
The lowly Primrose shall be dear!

A FAREWELL TO ENGLAND.
BY MR. RITCHIE,
Departing on his Travels into the interior
of Africa.

Thy chalky cliffs are fading from my view;
Our bark is dancing gaily o'er the sea;
I sigh while yet I may, and say—adieu-
Albion-thou jewel of the earth-to.thee
Whose fields first fed my childish fantasy,
Whose mountains were my boyhood's wild
delight,

Whose rocks and woods and torrents were

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And dart the beams of truth athwart the night That wraps a slumbering world-till from their sleep

Starting-remotest nations see the light,

+ The Power supposed to preside over the And Earth be blest beneath the buckler of

Stomach.

thy might.

Strong in thy strength I go-and, wheresoe'er My steps may wander, may I ne'er forget All that I owe to thee,-and O! may ne'er My frailties tempt me to abjure that debt. And what if far from thee my star must set!

Hast thou not hearts that shall with sadness hear

The tale-and some fair cheeks that shall be wet,

And some bright eye in which the swelling

tear

Shall start for him who sleeps in Afric's deserts drear?

WE

Yet will I not prophane a charge like mine, With melancholy bodings, nor believe That a voice whispering ever in the shrine

Of my own heart, spake only to deceive! I trust its promise, that I go to weave A wreath of palms, entwined with many a

sweet

Perennial flow'r, which Time shall not bereave

Of all its fragrance,-that I yet shall greet Once more the Ocean Queen, and lay it at her feet.

CORNUCOPIA

Of Literary Curiosities and Remarkable Facts.

GIBBON AND FOX.

RITTEN on the marginal leaf of the 1st vol. of Gibbon's Roman History. "From the Author to the R. H. C. J. Fox," (in the handwriting of Gibbon.)

Under this, in the hand-writing of Mr. Fox: Eleven days before the Spanish rescript was signed, the writer of this book declared in my presence at Brookes's, that there would be no salvation for this country, until the heads of six of his Majesty's ministers were cut off and laid on the table.

"Eleven days after this declaration, he accepted a place at the Board of Trade, and has ever since joined in every measure with those very ministers! C. J. Fox."

STERNE'S ELIZA.

After separating from her husband, she repaired to India, and resided some time at Vellore, of which garrison her uncle was commandant, and whose house she there superintended. I learn from an officer, who was accustomed to see her every evening, that she was very plain, but very sensible and accomplished. I am told she was any thing but a prude. She afterwards returned to Europe, and repaired to the South of France, for the benefit of her health, where she died.

NAPOLEON.

Rapport de M. Keraglion à M. le Marechal de Segur, Ministre de la Guerre, sur les Eléves de l'Ecole de Brienne.

"Napoleon Bonaparte, né à Agarica (Corse) le 15 Août, 1769, les faible de constitution, les reconnaissant envers les maitres sachant bien la geographie et l'histoire, et sur tout le mathematiques faible pour le Latin-conduite reguliere-sera un jour un excellent marin. Les reguliere merite à passer à l'ecole de Paris."

M. Keraglion was very fond of Napoleon, and supplied him with pocketmoney, and made him dine with him every Sunday. After the death of M. K. Napoleon granted a pension to his widow.

General Dugoumier, presenting Bonaparte to the Directory, said, "Here is a young man of great talent; give him employment and advance him, or he will do it for himself."

WASTE LANDS.

Unto the King's Most Excellent Majesty: And to the Right Honourable, and Honourable the Members of both Houses, in Parliament assembled: The Petition of the Waste Lands, Com mons, Common Fields, and other Commonable Lands, in England and Wales,

Most humbly sheweth,-That your Petitioners have, for many thousand years past, remained in a desolate and unproductive state, though ever ready and willing to produce articles profitable to man, honourable to their powers of fertility, and useful to their country.

That indignant at the treatment they have so long experienced, your Petitioners have not failed to be, of as little utility as possible, to those who have so grossly neglected them. That instead of bringing forth rich and luxuriant crops of grain, &c. the greater part of your Petitioners have hitherto yielded nothing but ling, goss, furze, and other rubbish; with a little miserable herbage, barely sufficient to preserve in existence multitudes of half-starved animals, thousands of whom fall a sacrifice every year to hunger and disease; by which numbers of their unfortunate owners are ruined. That a part of your Petitioners, who are distinguished by the name of Common Fields, though sometimes under crop, and at other times in fallow, yet like every thing else pos

sessed

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