The Northern Batchelor. 1786. the lithologift on account of the variety and beauty of the pebbles it contains. The natural philofophers of Switzerland are much obliged to M. de Luc for having afcertained, by means of the barometer, the elevation of the lake of Geneva above the level of the Mediterranean; which he has found to be 187 toifes, or 1126 French feet, when the waters of the lake are at the higheft. Befides the gradual increase of the waters in fummer, the lake is fubject in formy weather to fudden fwellings and depreffions of four or five feet, which continue alternately for fome hours. This phenomenon is hardly perceptible on those fhores of the lake which correspond to its greatest breadth; it is more fo at the extremities, but efpeci Geneva where the lake narrow 419 towards the mouth of the Rhone, there are no marshes on the border of the lake. Geneva, built on the banks of the lake and of the Rhone, and on the declivity and fummit of a hill elevated about eighty or ninety feet above their level, enjoys the profpect of thefe beautiful objects, and an air pure and wholefome. The prevailing winds are the north-eaft and fouth-eaft ;. for the mountains that enclose our valley conftrain the winds to take that direction. The cli mate is fomewhat colder than that of Paris, although Geneva be fituated 29 38" more foutherly. It is the fnow of the mountains and the height of its fituation, which are the cause of this difference. The Norman Batchelor. elly Mr. Bertrand profeffor of mathematics Opleafant adventure happened in Nor at Geneva, fupopofes that it is caufed by electric clouds which attract and raise the waters of the lake, and that these again fubfiding produce a sort of undulation like the tides. I imagine that fudden and local variations in the weight of the air may alfo contribute to this phenomenon, and produce a temporary flux and reflux, by occaLioning unequal preffure on different parts of the lake. At great depths the bottom of the lake is compofed of a fine fleech almost impalpa ole, mixed with clay and calcareous earth, But the fhores washed by the agitation of the waves discover fand, gravel, and rounded pebbles, which probably form even under the fleech the bottom of the greateft part of the lake. Fish are not very abundant in the lake, on account of the purity of its bottom and the clearness of its water; but thofe which are caught are wholesome and of a delicate tafte. Our trouts, our graylings, and perches, are so famous, that in winter they are fent to Paris and even to Berlin. The fera of Willoughby is alfo a fifh of excellent kind, but too delicate to fuffer carriage. The platte, which I take to be the falmo lavaretus of Linnæus, is larger and flatter than the ordinary fera, which otherwise it very much resembles. The rarer birds which live on our lake are, the created grebe, whofe feathers, of 4 filvery whitenefs, are very valuable; the common, little, and northern grebes, with other fpecies of the fame genus not well known; the fandpiper, which is taken in Auguft; the curlew, the whimbrel, and the long legged plover, with the rare and beautiful Tantalus falcinellus Lin. and many fpecies of divers, ducks, &c. Our Jake harbours only fuch birds as are either shore-birds or perfectly aquatic, and not those that frequent marfhes; for except mandy. A batchelor † of that province had one morning nothing for his dinner but a halfpenny loaf. To make his fcanty meal the more palatable, he went into a ta vern and called for a pennyworth of wine.The mafter of the house, who was a man of rough and boorish manners, came and prefented to the gentleman, with great rudenefs, the liquor in a cup; and in handing it to him, fpilt near half of it on the floor. To complete his infolence, he obferved to him," you are going to be a rich man, Mr. Batchelor; for liquor fpilt is a fign of good luck." To break out into a rage against fo contemptible a brute, would have been beneath a gentleman: the Norman took his meafures with better management, and more addrefs. He had fill a halfpenny remaining in his purfe; he gave it to the tavern-keeper, and defired to have a spice of cheese to eat with his bread. The vintner takes it with a fneering air, and goes to the cellar to bring what was required. The bachelor, during the abfence of the vintner, goes to the wine cafk, turns the cock, and lets the wine run out upon the floor. The other, on his return, finding his wine running out and overflowing the room, quickly makes up to the barrel, and having flopped the cock, rufhed upon the Norman, and feizes N O TE S. *This town was taken by Philip Auguftus, and Richard Coeur-de-Lion in 1191. ↑ A batchelor meant, in the days of Chivalry, a probationary knight, or one between that degree and an efquire. It was also used to fignify a poor gentleman, and in that sense it is here to be taken. It was the custom then to dine at ten o'clock in the morning, and to fup at five in the afternoonr. Thus in the ftory of Lan val, we hear of a company going out fter Supper, and walking till night, Ggg 2 him him by the collar, vowing vengeance for the lofs of wine. The Norman, however, being the stronger, raised the other by the middle, and throws him among the bottles, a great number of which are broken, and proceeds to inflict the merited chaftifement, till he is interrupted by the entry of fome neighbours. The affair was notwithstanding carried before the fovereign, Count Henry. The vintner spoke firft, and demanded reparation of his damage. The prince, before he condemned the knight, asked him what he had to urge in his defence. The latter then related the affair exactly as it had fallen out, and concluded with faying: "Sire, this man afsured me, that wine fpilt portended good fortune, and that, having wafted half my measure, he had put me into a fair way to become a rich man. Gratitude demanded a return on my part, and as I did not chufe to be out done in generofity, I fpilled him half a tun." All the courtiers applauded the conduct and the declaration of the bachelor. The Count himself laughed heartily, and difmiffed both parties, laying that what was fpilt could not be gathered up again. An Enquiry into the Influence which Enclofures have upon the Population of England. By the Rev. Mr. Howlett. CARCELY any thing at all connected ons; and we could not form any very favourable conception of the judgment or patriotifm of our fucceffive reprefentatives. -But before we admit conclufions fo very dishonourable to any part of our legislature, let us fairly examine the feveral articles of the Doctor's information, as well as that given by others of a different and oppofite tenour. And first, as to the Doctor's communications; he tells us, Vol. II. p. 276, that "he had lately received an account of a large common-field in Leicestershire, which used to produce 800 quarters of corn, befides maintaining 200 cattle, which now, ip confequence of being inclofed and getting into fewer hands, produces little or no corn, and maintains no more cattle than before, though the rents are confiderably advanced." This account feems to carry its own refutation along with it. It had alfo been printed before, and, in my apprehenfion, fatisfac torily answered by Mr. Arthur Young, in his Political Arithmetic, p. 146. If the Doctor," says he, “had formed his tables on no better authority than this, they would not have been very famous. Rents railed, -corn disappeared,-cattle not increas ed! What are we to think of such facts? I travelled through Leicefter fhire and Northamptonshire, and not, I think, without attention. I faw great tracts of country enclosed and laid from arable to grafs; but S with the improvements of modern agri- I law in the graziers fields fuch herds of fat culture, has been more eagerly contefted, or more amply difcuffed, than the advantages or difadvantages of Enclosures with relpect to their influence on Population. Dr. Price has uniformly maintained their immediate and powerful tendency to depa pulate, and has printed and reprinted accounts to confirm and establish this idea, without feeming to have at all attended to the accounts, of equal authenticity, repeatedly given on the other fide of the queftion. Such partial reprefentations are only calculated to miflead. In his late edition of Reverfionary Payments, after a difmal detail of the pernicious confequences of Enclofures, he obferves, that he can scarcely think of any thing that fhould be more alarming, and exclaims, How aftonifhing is it, that our parliament, inftead of applying any remedy to thefe evils, thould chufe to promote them, by paffing, every year, bills almoft without number for new Enclofures!" If the accounts he had given were not only true, but fiated in all their attendant circumftances and effects, and the fame were ftrictly applicable to all, or only the greater part of the Enclofures which have taken place during the laft thirty years, there would, indeed, be fome foundation for fuch complaints and exclamati sheep and oxen, as delighted the eye.The generality of these lands are stocked at the rate of a large ox, and 2 theep to every two acres; and the foil does fo well in grafs, that they fat large fheep the win ter through. Before the enclofure, thole lands were managed in the courfe of fal low, wheat, and fpring-corn. How, in the name of wonder, were fat fheep and oxen then kept?-Upon the fallows;-or upon ftraw? That corn disappears is moft certain, but that it is amply made up by beef and mutton's equally certain." This is furely to fay the leaft of it, as good and fatisfac tory information as the Doctor's. But the Doctor further informs us, from the Reverend Mr. Addington's Enquiry inth the Reasons for and against enclosing ope Fields, published in 1772, that the tw enclofed lordships are turned into pafturage in confequence of which, many lordfhip have not se acres ploughed yearly, in which 1500, or at leaft rooo, were ploughed for merly; and fcarce an ear of corn is now to he feen in fome that bore hundreds of quar ters." Granting all this to be true, it ma turally occurs, how many more fheep and oxen are now fed and fattened than before How much more beef and mutton produc ed? What greater quantity of wool, hides tallow 1786. An Enquiry into the Influence of Enciojures. tallow, &c.? How many hands employed But what immediately follows in the fame writer, is more directly to the prefent purpole. "The decrease of inhabitants in almoft all the enclofed villages," fays he, 86 in which they have no confiderable manufacture, is obvious to be remarked by eve ry one who knew their flate 20 or 30 years ago, and fees them now. The ruin of former dwelling-houses, barns, tables, &c. fhews every one who paffes through them that they were once better inhabited. A hundred houfes and families, have dwindled into eight or ten. The landholders are very few in most parishes that have been enclosed only 15 or 20 years, in comparison of the numbers who occupied them in their open field flate. It is no uncommon thing to fee four or five wealthy graziers engroffing a large enclosed lordship, which was before in the hands of 20 or 30 farmers, and as many fmaller tenants and proprietors; all thefe are hereby thrown out of their livings, with their families, that were employed or fupported by them." All this may be very true; and the following account, which I myfelf received from a correfpondent in Leicestershire, of fimilar purport, is ftill more pointed and determinate. "As to Enclosures," fays he, "I can mention two villages in this county within two miles of each other, Wiflow, and Fofton, which formerly contained 34 or 35 dwellings; but by enclofure, Fofton is reduced to three habitations; the parfonage-houfe accommodates one family, and the two other buildings are occupied by fhepherds, who manage the ftock for their diftant renters, as the whole lordship belongs to one person.And as to Wiftow, the 34 manfions have vanished in a very few years, and no dwell ing remains but the late Sir Charles Halford's hall-house, who owned the lordship and these are called improvements; for double and treble rents enfue, and double or treble the old value of land and house rents, and fe of provifions." What became, it is natural to afk, of thefe vanished inhabitants, and who took off thefe increased provifions? My correfpondent has clearly suggested the anfwer in another part of his letter, and which is, indeed, equally applicable to the preceding account, given by Dr. Price from Mr. Addington. "Manufacture," fays he," has over-peopled Leicestershire.Almoft every village, unenclofed,' is chiefly inhabited by woolcombers and frame work knitters; and though we poffefs a rich foil, Rutland and Northampton corn arrives in vaft quantities, and is ufually very reafonable, as well as butter. But cheese, notwithstanding a vaft produce of our own, is fwept away at our fairs by factors, and is rather dear." This needs no comment; the conclufions are obvious; diminution of tillage and inhabitants in one place; the confequent increase of them in another, the multiplication of sheep and oxen in the county of Leicester, brings corn in abundance from thofe of Northampton and Rutland, and no article remains dear, but that produced on the fpot, which is fent off to fill the multiplied mouths in other quarters. Similar intelligence to the above I could produce from letters now lying before me with regard to enclosures in the counties of Bucks, Bedford, Derby, Wilts, Hants, &c. but the detail would be tedious, and I muft beg leave to obferve, that for one account of this difadvantageous kind, I have, I believe, two or three of a directly oppofite tenour, in which the increase of inhabitants from enclofures is afferted and proved. From a candid review of the above oppofite reprefentations and reafonings, it appeared to me undeniable that Enclosures, according to particular circumftances, are attended with great advantages and great dif advantages refpecting the grand object of enquiry, the encrease of our people, but that ftill it was not abfolutely certain and free from all poflibility of controverfy, which of the two, in the vast number of Enclosures which had taken place in this kingdom, dur ir ing the laft 20 or 30 years, had been moft numerous and prevalent. Probability, indeed, feemed ftrongly on the favourable fide. I thought, however, that I fhould be much more clear in this point, if I could procure the annual registers of baptifins in the parifhes recently inclofed during the laft 20 years. If these parishes, when taken in the aggregate, were not materially decreased, it would be a ftrong prefumption that Enclofures had advanced our total Population; (because it was an undoubted fact that in fome few places, where open cultivated fields had been converted into paftures, the number of inhabitants on thofe particular fpots had been greatly leffened): if they were actually not at all diminished but even very much increafed, the conclufion would be ftronger ftill: if, finally, they were not only increased, but increased even more than those parishes which had not been re cently enclosed, it would amount to very little lefs than abfolute demonstration. In pursuit of these ideas I immediately procured a lift of the Enclofure-bills, from the Journals of the Houfe of Commons, and found, to my furprize, that they amounted to very near a thoufand, between the year 1750 and 1781. I foon dispatched about 500 letters to the clergy of the enclosed parifhes, omitting however the counties of Nottingham, York, and Lancaster, because Dr. Price himself acknowledged thofe to be greatly increased. Of thefe 500 letters I have been favoured with answers to hardly a hundred. Small however as this propofition is, yet coming from all quarters indifferently, and without any previous motive for choice or felection, their evidence may fairly be confidered as fatisfactory and decifive. What this evidence is the reader may fee in the following table: The number of Baptifms during two periods of five years each, the first beginning with 1760, the fecond with 1775, in a great number of recently enclosed parishes, from different counties, together with the Baptifms in other parishes not recently enclosed, in the fame counties respectively, In this Table we fee that the recently enclofed parishes have vaftly the advantage of thofe which have not been recently enclosed. The baptifnis in the 89 parishes of the former defcription, during the five years be ginning with the year 1760, to the baptifms during the five years beginning with 1775, 100 to 109 100 to 121 | | as or 1776, are nearly as 100 to 121; whereas in the 490 of the latter, for the fame pe riods refpectively, the advance is only as 100 to 109; that is, the Enclosures are increased more than 1-5th, the non-inclofures fcarcely 1-10th. This is furely little lefs than abfolute demonstration of the point 1786. Dr. Beattie's Evidences of the Christian Religion. 423 The tendency of this religion, fay its enemies, is to darken and bewilder the understanding, to interrupt the pleasures of life, to confound human affairs, to debafe the mind by superftition, and to make men timorous and cruel. The tendency of this religion, fay they who are better acquainted with it, is to enlighten the mind with true wifdom; to banish fuperftition; to promote univerfal righteousness, charity, and peace; to comfort us in advertfiy, and give prof perity its higheft relifh; to encourage the moft tranfporting hopes, with full affurance that they will not be disappointed; to reprefs every malevolent and every evil paffion; to make men, whatever their outward circumftances may be, refigned and thankfu! ş and, in a word, to promote their happiness, both in time and through all eternity. in queftion, the influence of Enclosures up- to the enthusiasm, the knavery, and the folon the Population of this kingdom, and ly of mankind. that, fo far from having diminished, they have much encreased it. It is alfo to be obferved, that the increae from hence arifing is certainly greater than here appears; because those Enclosures which converted arable to pasture, must have leffened the employment of the inhabitants, and of courfe their number, in the feveral parishes in which they respectively took place, and proportionably augmented and employed those in parishes where Enclofures had not taken place. It may be said, perhaps, that the increase of the enclosed parishes may have been occafioned by caufes totally diftinct from the Enclosures. I make no doubt but that with regard to some of them this has really been the cafe; but then it should be remembered, that there is no reason to fuppofe that the fame caufes have not operated likewife in the non-enclofed parishes, and confequently that the difference of the increafe, and even more than that difference, for the reafon juft now affigned, muft have arifen from the Enclosures alone. Had indeed an Enclosure of only 50 or 60 acres, belonging to fuch a town as Birmingham, been included in my lift of inclosed parishes, that alone might have turned the balance on the favourable fide, and nearly deftroyed the argument; as the prodigious augmentation of people there has doubtless been occafioned by the enormous growth of its manufactures, which, however, the vaft improvements of agriculture have helped to fupport and maintain. But no fuch towns are included; I took in merely country parishes and market towns of the common fize and defcription, as they happened to arile. The towns of Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, &c. I need not fay are excluded, as I admitted not a fingle parish enclosed or unenclofed, from the counties of either York or Lancaster. Evidences of the Chriftian Religion, briefly and plainly ftated, by James Beattie, L. L. D. F. R. S. E. Opinions fo oppofite cannot both be true; and they who have the means of knowing the truth, ought to inquire on which fide it lies. If this religion be from heaven, to be indifferent about it is inexcufable, and muft be dangerous. And no man is intitled to fay that it is not from heaven, till he have fudied its evidence and doctrines, and found the former infufficient to fatisfy a fair mind, and the latter unworthy of divine original. To refufe to believe, or inquire, about this religion, because one may have read or heard fome things plaufibly written or faid against it, would be as uncandid, as to refuse all information concerning my character, for example, except that which is known to have been given by my mortal enemy. Between the two cafes, however, there is this diffe rence; and a very confiderable one it seems to be, To the greater part of mankind it is a matter of no moment to be informed, whether I be honeft or the contrary, a man of fenfe or a fool. But if the Chriftian religion be true, and that it is false has not yet concern to us all, that it be accurately ftubeen proved, it must be a matter of infinite died, and well understood. In defence of Christianity many excel lent books have been written; by Grotius, Clarke, Locke, Lardner, Butler, Wefts Lyttelton, Sherlock, and others, whofe integrity and learning will not be called in queftion. The defign of this little work is, not to fuperfede as unneceffary, but to recommend, and ferve as an introduction to, the perufal of those great authors; by fhowing, as plainly and as briefly as I can, to every candid reader, and efpecially to the young, that the evidence of this religion is at least ftrong enough to merit attention and deliberate inquiry. If I can accomplish even this purpofe, I fhall do fervice to a caufe, which, as a friend to mankind, I have always had very |