תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

whence they came forth; then, although these colonists should be permitted to form feparate and diftinct communities, to establish governments having fovereign jurisdiction within the limits of their own corporation; yet being fettled on the lands, and within the dominions, although external dominions of the parent flate; thefe colonies remain under a certain relation of allegiance to its general and fupreme imperium.' And this latter he gives as a defcription of the ftate and circumstances of the colonies in America, taking it for granted, that the lands on which they are fettled were, prior to fuch fettlement, part of the dominion and property of the realm of England: a propofition which, with regard to the more ancient colonies, we think cannot be proved. For it is univerfally acknowledged that dif covery, the only title that any European ftate could allege to the lands of America, affords no juft claim to any but derelict or uninhabited lands, which thofe of America were not. It had indeed been fuggefted by papal ingenuity, in more fuperftitious ages, that grace was the only juft foundation of dominion; that Chriftians alone had a right to inherit the earth; and that unbelieving nations ought to be regarded as unjuft poffeffors of the countries where their Creator had placed them. And fuch were the pretences on which Pope Eugene the Fourth, in 1440, granted Africa to Alphonfo king of Portugal; and on the fame pretences, Pope Alexander the Sixth, and feveral European princes, afterwards difpofed of the countries of America.-But all diftinctions between the temporal rights of chriftian and infidel nations having been long fince exploded, it may, we think, be fafely affirmed, that the ftates of Europe by whom the first grants of American territory were made, had neither in equity, nor in the laws of nature or of nations, any right to make fuch difpofals. And we have abundant evidence, that the first Englifh emigrants to America, confidered their respective grants from the crown, not as valid titles to the foil of that country, but as inftruments affording a kind of nominal sanction, or as they termed it, a right of pre-emption, under which they might afterwards, without moleftation, proceed to acquire a real title, from the original natives, by purchafe, treaty, fettlement, and cultivation.

Having thus loofened our Author's foundation, the superftructure refting upon it might easily be overthrown-but being convinced that his work has been undertaken from benevolent motives, we shall avoid fuch violence, and proceed to review the building itself.

Taking it for granted, therefore, that the colonies were fettled on territories belonging to the realm, and confequently that they ought to be fubordinate to its fupreme authority, our Author proceeds to fix the precife limits of this fubordination

by

by a definition of what he terms colonial government. This, he fays, fo far as it refpects the acts of the colony operating within its own jurisdiction, on its own body, and in matters refpecting its own rights only, is internal, and as fuch, and fo far forth, is abfolute and fovereign;' but, on the other hand, the fupreme fovereign power of the mother country, hath a right to actuate and exert even up to the very bounds of the line of the jurifdiction of the colonies, provincial or external government; (by which he understands a government depending on force) to make all regulations whatfoever, and to impofe all fuch duties and cuftoms on the tranfit of goods, paffing the boundaries of its jurifdiction, as the economy and neceffities of the ftate fhall require.' And he afterwards limits the boundaries of colonial jurifdiction, within low water mark in their respective harbours, &c. Whatever paffes this mark he subjects to taxation or confifcation at the pleasure of parliament, and thus deprives the colonifts of the benefits not only of the fea, which has been deemed the common property of mankind, but also of the rivers and harbours belonging to their own peculiar jurifdictions. And yet he has no where given us any fatisfactory reafon or authority for making this precife limitation at the point of low water, or indeed at any other determinate boundary. Narrow however as these limitations are, all the freedom and fecurity which our Author at firft bestowed on the colonifts within thofe limits, are perfectly annihilated by another part of his fyftem, where he maintains, that in extraordinary cafes, and whenever the colonies exceed the proper limits of obedience, parliament has a right to interpofe and fuperfede their respective governments, even fo far as to govern them by force, and to tranfport fuppofed offenders from America to Great Britain for trial and punishment. On thefe propofitions (parJiament alone having a right to judge of the expediency of fuch interpofitions) all thofe acts which are now oppofed as grievous by the colonies, and every other which may be hereafter enacted, will be juftifiable; and therefore we may conclude that our Author's plan of pacification' will not pacify the people of Ame rica; at least, not until they fhall have abandoned those principles which fupport their prefent oppofition.-Suppofing them that this plan fhould not be acceptable, no other, according to our Author, remains than either that the colonies be admitted into the parliament of Great Britain by a general British union, or that they have a parliament of their own under an American union. There is (fays he) no other part in the alternative than that they be put either in the fituation of Scotland or in that of Ireland.'

[ocr errors]

The reft of our Author's performance confifts chiefly of remarks on the Pennfylvania inftructions, which are cenfured as

far

far as they oppofe his ideas of colonial government. He has, however, delivered fome good obfervations, though we cannot adopt his general fyftem, which feems to be little more than a creature of imagination; as no inftance of colonial government, fuch as he has defcribed it, ever exifted, that we recollect, in any nation either ancient or modern: nor has he alleged any thing analogous to it, except the fupremacy of the Deity and the fuppofed free-will of mankind. B....t.

ART. III. A new Syftem of Husbandry. From Experiments never before made public. With Tables fhewing the Expence and Profit of each Crop. How to stock Farms to the best Advantage. How the Crops are to follow each other by Rotation. Of Trenchplowing, fhewing how to raife good Crops without Manure. On breeding and feeding Cattle. Of a new-difcovered cheap Food for Cattle. A Defcription of a most valuable moving Sheep-house for eating Turnips on the Ground. Of Cabbage Husbandry. Of the naked Wheat, &c. Of all Sorts of Manures, Marles, &c. With choice Receipts for the Cure of all Sorts of Cattle. By C. VARLO, Efq. The Fourth Edition. 8vo. 3 Vols. 15 s. Boards. Bew. 1774.

IN

N the introduction, the Author informs us, that what is here offered to the Public, is merely a compendium and abstract of matters of fact, of perfonal experiments and obfervations, for a number of years; and that he hath here delivered the product of what he has gleaned, with the varying allowances and refpective inftructions, touching the difference of climate, culture, and foil.

[ocr errors]

Mr. Varlo first treats of a method of Trench-plowing [or turning one furrow upon another] by which, he affirms, any fort of ground may be kept in perpetual good order, fo as to produce good and clean crops for ever, without any other af fiftance of fallow or manure than what itfelf produces.'- Any common plow, without altering, will turn the first furrow, and all that is wanted in the next [for there must be two plows used at the fame time] is only to add to the mould-board a caftoff board, in order to raise the second furrow over the first.'The manner of making this addition to the plow, he particularly describes, and fays it may be done for fix- pence: we look in vain, however, for a fatisfactory confirmation of all this, on the authority of EXPERIENCE, which is here wanting. Chap. v. explains the advantages of the Author's new-invented fheep-houses, for eating turnips in the field. The fize

The former Editions were never (ftrictly speaking) published, any otherwife than by fubfcription; and were chiefly fold by the Author, and his agents, in their peregrinations round the country.

of

of these houses is 16 feet by 12. They are made of deals, have no floor, but are furnished with a rack and manger, into which the turnips are put for the fheep to eat; and the houfes are moved [for they run upon caftors] from one part of the field to another, as occafion requires. Each houfe is calculated to hold 20 fheep, and will cost about 21. 13s. an expence not to be thought of by the proprietor of the numerous flocks which are kept in our great sheep-counties.

In the fubfequent chapters he treats of the different forts, and proper management, of turnips and cabbages, as winter food for cattle. We alfo meet with receipts for a pickle to prevent the fly from deftroying young turnips; and for a compound manure to improve land, and to prevent the red or cutworm, and flug, from deftroying green corn. A quantity of this manure, fufficient for an acre, may be made for about ten fhillings thus-of foot, afhes, and lime, two bushels each; bay-falt, two stone; train-oil, one gallon; and the fame quantity of any kind of urine. If it is intended to prevent damage from flugs, or other vermin, you may add two pounds of fulphur, and two quarts of gall [if it can be got from the butchers: but if intended as manure only, thefe two laft-mentioned ingredients may be omitted. This compofition may be applied as a top-dreffing for any fort of land or crop, and will improve it [according to Mr. Varlo] beyond conception.'

An easy method to prevent the rot in fheep, we are here told, is to give each fheep a fpoonful of dry falt, once a week, when a rotting feafon is apprehended. When the sheep are a little used to it, they will lick it up, of themselves, if laid upon flat ftones in different parts of the pasture, without any farther trouble.

The Author (ch. xx.) treats of feeding cattle; and propofes a cheap food for that purpose, viz. linfeed-oil and bran, mixed: the quickeft feeding, he fays, that a beast can poffibly take.—

If the cattle be fmall, give each two pecks of bran a-day, divided into three feeds, which will ferve morning, noon, and night. Into each peck put half a pint of linfeed-oil, and mix it well. The cattle will eat it very greedily; and it feeds them paft conception; they must have what hay they will eat, but that will not be much.'-He adds, that five gallons of oil, which will coft about 17 s. 6d. with bran in proportion, will fatten a beaft fooner, and more effectually, than five pounds expended in any other food whatever. This food, it feems, is remarkable for laying on tallow,-but what fort of beef it will produce, is not faid.

He next treats of ditching, planting, and draining, in a manmer that may afford fome ufeful inftructions to the practical far

mer in thofe particulars, especially the laft: his invention of what he calls a pipe-drain, promifing to be of great utility, in wet fpungy foils.

In chapter xxvi. we meet with fome pertinent remarks upon the old broad-caft husbandry, compared with what the Author calls his own new mathematical husbandry; in which corn-feeds or plants may be fet at regular diftances, by means of a new-invented machine; the conftruction and ufe of which he explains, at great length, in the 27th chapter;-to which we refer the inquifitive reader, for farther information, in regard to a method of husbandry, seemingly too mathematical for common practice.

Chap. i. of vol. ii. the Author here gives into the very queftionable opinion that fmutty wheat is occafioned by a worm at the root, which is frequently the cafe where hot fresh dung is ufed as manure; this he therefore greatly difapproves, as furnishing a proper nidus for fuch deftructive worms. Instead of dung, he advises the farmer to enrich his land by more frequent plowings, as the beft prefervative against the fmut: and as a farther fecurity against the abovementioned malady, he recommends a pickle wherein to fteep the feed.

As Mr. Varlo profeffes to have travelled over many parts of the three kingdoms; he gives us, in the next four chapters, a detail of the observations he had made on the different natures of the foil, as well as the prices of land, labour, and victuals, in various parts of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; in the courfe of which he touches on many fubjects neceffary for a farmer to be acquainted with.-If his remark, that there is no greater fign of an improving country than the rife of lahour and eatables,' be well founded, we may congratulate our own country on its prefent high advancement in both thofe kinds of improvement, beyond the example of former times!

Chapters vii.-X. treat of the management of beans and peas. And in the two next are fome receipts, which the Author fays he hath experienced to be valuable for the cure of horfes, black cattle, and sheep.

In chap. xiv. the culture of madder is defcribed, and the expence ftated; by which it appears that an acre of good madder is worth upwards of 521. that the whole expences thereof (rent of the ground and tythe included) do not amount to quite 161. for the three years it is growing; fo that a clear profit of 361. i. e. 121. per ann. has been made from one acre of good madder;-a fufficient encouragement, one would think, to increase the cultivation of a plant, fo neceffary as this, in the earrying on our woollen manufactures.-This Writer, however, feems to be little acquainted with the later improvements in the culture of this article.

« הקודםהמשך »