"Whether all objections to Union, which we hear fo loudly urged, are not fuch, as the terms might easily obviate, and which are now therefore premature?

"Whether, if legislative incorporation tend to fortify the empire, Britain is not likely to purchafe this imperial ftrength, by the most ample and liberal conceffion, in point of terms?

"Whether two legiflatures in one empire, do not tend to difunite? and whether our experience has not alarmingly reduced this theory to practice?

"Whether the teftimony of all, who oppofe an Union, is fo difinterested as to deserve implicit credit?

"Whether the example of Scotland has not proved that faction, not patriotifin, may vehemently oppofe an Union? that integrity and public fpirit may vote for whatever facrifice the meafare involves? And finally, that time may fanction fuch a step, by fhewing legislative incorporation to be the bafe of national profperity?

"Whether our fituation is, or has been fuch, as that fome radical and tranquil change does not feem desirable?

Whether that diftinct independence which may mar imperial energy, is likely to be very real? or confequently to be fo precious, as that it fhould not be refigned?

"This, I take to be fome imperfect analysis of that queftion, which I earneftly recommend to the cool, and honeft confideration of the country gentlemen, and of every Irifhman who loves his country better than himself: nor do I even fear to refer the enquiry to thofe, whọ recollect that national tranquillity is effentially conducive to private intereft.

"Let no man timidly fupprefs his opinion; because, by declaring it, he may expofe himself to a mere temporary, and artificial obloquy. "Let him, as I do, encounter willingly an honourable unpopularity; and refufe to decide the question, which he has not yet difcuffed. Falfus honos juvat, et mendax infamia terret Quem-nifi mendofum, et mendacem ?'

"For my part, I am deaf to clamour, and, I hope, obftinate to intimidation; but I am open to reafon; and fhall ever prefer retracting, to perfifting in an error.

"At prefent, my deliberate opinion is, that a legiflative Union with Great Britain would ferve this country, if obtained on those fair terms, which I think likely to be conceded.-I look upon it to be a measure, which, in incorporating our diftinétnefs, and thus far altering our Conftitation, will however,

on change Duration found :"

on a change of the modes and forms of the imperial establishment, will found the permanence of our tranquillity, our connexion with Great Britain, our wealth, our liberties, and our Constitution.

"Union merely forms my means; which I am ready to vary, if any man will prove that they are ill chofen. My end, I folemnly declare, is the Profperity of my Country.

" WILLIAM SMITH." P. 102.

Upon

Upon the whole, this Addrefs, although there are a few trifling inaccuracies in the language, does great credit to the writer's abilities, and his patriotif, and contains a very ample and fatisfactory difcuffion of the important queflion to which it relates.

ART. XIV. General View of the Agriculture of the County Lincoln; drawn up for the Confideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement. By the Secretary to the Board. 8vo. 455 PP. 9s.. Nicol. 1799.

LINCOLNSHIRE is one of thofe counties, not few in number, the first furvey of which (by a Mr. Stone) was received by the public with much diffatisfaction. A vehement fufpicion was entertained, that the reporter drew up his account from hearfay, and a flight previous acquaintance with a few diftricts of the county, and not from a view actually taken for the purpose. We rejoiced, therefore, on finding the business committed by the Board of Agriculture to its own Secretary. But our joy was fomewhat damped by learning, from the Introduction to this View, that feven weeks only were allowed to him for the furvey of a county containing nearly two millions of acres; the foil of which, and confequently the agricultural management, is uncommonly various. The Secretary, however, extended his commiffion to twelve weeks, and would have carried it further, had not the meetings of the Board prevented him.

This circumftance accounts for the many fpecimens of crude. and imperfect information which have been exhibited by fome of the county-furveyors; to whom a fhorter time, in proportion to the extent of their bufinefs, was probably allowed, than to the favoured Secretary himfelf.

A paffage in the Introduction is very creditable to the inhabitants of Lincolnthire, and may ftimulate others to follow their example; we fhall therefore extract it with much fatisfaction.

"It was not poffible to meet with a more liberal fpirit of communication than I experienced in the County of Lincoln; not confined to the nobility and gentry of fortune, from whom it might be expected of courfe, but from every clafs of the people: the clergy, farmers, graziers, and equally the inhabitants of towns; all were defirous to contribute whatever information was in their power; the numerous breeders of sheep and cattle were emulous in fhewing their stock with

T 2

out

out referve or myftery, and explaining their motives and reafons for adopting or adhering to this or that breed, with an openness and candour which will for ever give me a very high idea of the merit of that refpectable clafs." Introd. p. i.

Our remarks upon this View will be particular; and will be concluded by a general character of the work.

64

The first thing which attracts our attention in this General View is, a map of the foil of Lincolnshire," distinguished into heaths, wolds, black tract (that is, fens and marshes) and mifcellaneous. The black tract occupies the largest space, and perhaps the most honourable, on account of its wonderful fertility, and the very fpirited improvements by drainage which have been made in it within the laft forty years, though much, very much, remains to be done in this refpect. In this map the names of many villages are mifprinted.

In the Ile of Axholm, it is faid,

"They do nearly all their work themfelves; and are paffionately fond of buying a bit of land. Though I have faid they are happy, yet I fhould note that it was remarked to me, that the little proprietors work like Negroes, and do not live fo well as the inhabitants of the poor-houfe; but all is made amends for by ping land." P. 17.

We think this an excellent spirit, that cannot be too much encouraged; it fimulates to induftry, fobriety, and general good conduct, and is in many refpects highly beneficial to fociety. We have reafon to believe that this fpirit pervades other parts of Lincolnthire, particularly the fertile diftricts.

The catalogue of large eftates within the county is indeed "very incomplete." (p. 15) Inftead of thirty-five of 2000l. a year and upwards, we have feen a lift of fixty, which we believe to be correct.

"Laceby is, I think, one of the prettieft villages in the county; containing a great number of very well built houfes, with much air of comfort, and feveral of a more confiderable appearance, and being on a flope of country, and very well wooded, with a fine clear ftream through it, the afpect is on the whole very pleafing; I inquired the caufe, and found it inhabited by freeholders; each man lives on his own." P. 19.

This living upon a man's own, when the examples of it are very numerous, conduces more perhaps to the happiness of a people, and to the ftability of its government, than any other external circumftance whatever; and it is more general in Great Britain than in any other country.

"There is nothing in the ftate of property in Lincolnshire that pleafed me more than to find on the Wolds, and especially about Louth,

men

men poffeffed of eftates of three, four, five, and even fix or seven hundred a year, and yet remaining farmers, occupying other farms hired, and fome of them living merely on their own, but keeping entirely to the manners and the appearance of farmers; confequently thriving, independent, and wealthy, and in confequence of all, as happy as their perfonal merit, their moral virtue, and dependance on, and attention to, their religious duties permit them to be. Such a fpectacle is not only pleafing to an individual, but highly beneficial to the community; fuch men are able to cultivate their land well, and to make exertions not in the power of weaker efforts; and would do much more if it was the cuftom of the county to give leafes ; but unfortunately it is not." P. 19.

The following extract will suggest good hints to fuch men of fortune as have the good fenfe to think, that to be usefully bufy is more pleasant than to be idly diffipated.

"In the management of a great eftate, I remarked a circumstance at Reevefby, the ufe of which I experienced in a multitude of inftances. The liberality of Sir Jofeph Banks opened every document for my infpection; and admiring the fingular facility with which he laid his hand on papers, whatever the fubject might be, I could not but remark the method that proved of fuch fovereign efficacy to prevent confufion. His office, of two rooms, is contained in the space of thirty feet by fixteen; there is a brick partition between, with an iron plated door, fo that the room, in which a fire is always burning, might be burnt down without affecting the inner one; where he has 156 drawers of the fize of an ordinary conveyance, the infide being thirteen inches wide by ten broad, and five and a half deep, all numbered. There is a catalogue of names and subjects, and a lift of every paper in every drawer; fo that whether the inquiry concerned a man, or a drainage, or an ir-clofure, or a farm, or a wood, the request was scarcely named before a mass of information was in a moment before me. Fixed tables are before the windows (to the fouth), on which to fpread maps, plans, &c. commodiously, and thefe labelled, are arranged against the wall. The first room contains defks, tables, and book-cafe, with measures, levels, &c. and a wooden cafe, which when open forms a book-cafe, and joining in the centre by hinges, when clofed forms a package ready for a carrier's waggon, containing forty folio paper cafes in the form of books; a repofitory of fuch papers as are wanted equally in town and country. Such an apartment, and fuch an apparatus, must be of incomparable ufe in the management of any great eftate: or, indeed, of any confiderable bufinefs." P. 20.

Tenures, "At Thong Caftor, on Whitfuntide, the lord of the manor has a right to whip the parfon in the pulpit. I was told of this ftrange tenure, but do not vouch for the truth of it." P. 21. A cuftom fo fingular as that here alluded to, deferved a little further enquiry. We have obtained fome information concerning it, for which the Secretary, in galloping through the county, could not be expected to wait. The

manor

manor of Broughton is held of the lord of the manor of Caf tor, or of Harden, a hamlet in the parish of Castor, by the following fervice. On Palm Sunday, a perfon from Broughton attends with a new cart-whip, or whip-gad (as they call it in Lincolnshire) made in a particular manner; and, after cracking it three times in the church-porch, marches with it upon his thoulder through the middle ifle into the choir, where he takes his place in the lord of the manor's feat. There he remains till the minifter comes to the fecond leffon; he then quits the feat with his gad, having a purfe that ought to contain thirty filver pennies (for which, however, of late years half a crown has been substituted) fixed to the end of its lash, and kneeling down on a cufhion, or mat, before the reading defk, he holds the purfe fufpended over the minifter's head all the time he is reading this fecond leffon, after which he returns to his feat. The whip and purfe are left at the manor-house. Some ingenious perfons have devifed a reafon for every ci cumftance of this ceremony. They fuppofe that the thirty pennies are meant to fignify the thirty pieces of filver mentioned in the fecond leffon, which Judas received to betray his maller; that the three cracks of the whip, in the porch, allude to Peter's denying his Lord thrice, &c. &c. We recommend to antiquarians a more minute enquiry concerning this cuftom, than it was poffible for us to make.

Under Chapter III. Buildings, we meet with a full account, very worthy of attention, but too long to be extracted, of the materials ufed, and the mode of preparation, in making and applying the ftucco, with which the house at Brothertoft-Farm is fronted. (p. 22) Though we are not fanguine enough to be ftrongly perfuaded with Mr. (or Major) Cartwright, "that in this very compofition we have the whole fecret of the cement of the ancient Romans, confifting of nothing but lime and fand in purity, and knowing how to make ufe of them;" (p. 26) yet we readily atteft, that he has made a very curious, and probably an ufeful experiment; and we think highly of his cement for new-fronting a house, though we have fometimes disapproved of his recipes for a political cement to repair our conftitution.

Mr. Hoyte's farm-houfe at Ofbournby, is commended for its remarkable cheapnefs. (p. 28) The extent of the farm is not mentioned; but we doubt whether there be any farm in Lincolnshire, on which the dwelling-houfe alone ought to coft 919l. Neither do we expect to find in fuch buildings, "drawing-rooms, breakfast-rooms, and drefling-clofets, mahogany banifters, double architraves, ornamented chimney-pieces, pilafters to niche, iron fanlights, enriched cornices, and aftragal

ftune.