hoped that the generous and wife difpofitions lately made will reftore the energy that is wanting, and without which one of the richest provinces in Europe is in danger of utter ruin. Silk and effence of bergamot, oranges and lemons, are the great articles of trade at Reggio. I am affured, that no less than one hundred thousand quarts of this effence is annually exported. The fruit, after the rind is taken off, is given to the cows and oxen; and the inhabitants of this town affured me, that the beef, at that feafon, has a difagreeable flavour of bergamot. The worthy archbishop gave me an account of the earthquakes here in 1770, and 1780, which obliged the inhabitants (in num ber fixteen thousand four hundred) to encamp or remain in barracks feveral months, without, however, having done any confiderable damage to the town. I was affured here, (where they have had fuch a long experience of earthquakes,) that all animals and birds are, in a greater or lefs degree, much more fenfible of an approaching fhock of an earthquake, than any human be ing; but that geefe, above all, feem to be the fooneft and not alarmed at the approach of a shock: if in the water, they quit it immediately, and there are no means of driving them into the water for fome time after. I [To be continued.] Origin of the GREY MARE's being the BETTER HORSE. SIR, Had lately the pleasure of paffing a very agreeable evening in a mixed company of both fexes, where the converfation happening to turn upon the propriety of that power which men ufually arrogate to themfelves of ruling over their wives with a defpotic fway, a young lady of wit and humour, then prefent, replied, "It might poffibly be fo fometimes, but much oftener the grey mare is the better horfe" and very obligingly enter tained the company with the following account of the rife of that proverbial faying, which is made ufe of when a woman governs her husband. A gentleman of a certain county in England, having married a young lady of confiderable fortune, and with many other charms, yet finding, in a very fhort time, that he was of a high domineering fpirit, and always contending to be mistress of him and his family, he was refolved to part with her. Accordingly, be he went to her father, and told him he found his daughter of fuch a temper, and was fo heartily tired of her, that, if he would take her home again, he would return every penny of her for tune. The old gentleman having enquired into the caufe of his com plaint, asked him why he fhould be more difquieted at it than any other married man, fince it was the common cafe with them all, and confequently no more than he ought to have expected when he entered into the marriage ftate? The young gentleman defired to be excufed, if he faid he was fo far from giving his affent to this affertion, that he thought himself more unhappy than any other man, as his wife had a spirit no way to be quelled; and as most certainly no man, who had a fenfe of right and wrong, could ever submit to be governed by his wife. "Son, (faid the old man,) you are but little acquainted with the world, if you do not know that all women govern their hufbands, though not all, indeed, by the fame method: however, to end all difputes between us, I will put what I have faid on this proof, if you are willing to try it: I have five horfes in my ftable; you fhall harness thefe to a cart, in which I shall put a basket containing one hundred eggs; and if, in paffing through the county, and making a strict enquiry into the truth or falfehood of my affertion, and leaving a horfe at the house of every man who is mafter of his family himself, and an egg only where the wife governs, you find your eggs gone before your horfes, I hope you will then think your own cafe not uncommon, but will be contented to go home, and look upon your own wife as no worfe than her neighbours. If, on the other hand, your hoffes are gone first, I will take my daughter home again, and you fhall keep her fortune." This propofal was too advantageous to be rejected; our young married man, therefore, fet out with great eagerness to get rid, as he thought, of his horfes and his wife. At the first houfe he came to, he heard a woman, with a shrill and angry voice, call to her husband to go to the door: here he left an egg, you may be fure, without making any further enquiry at the next he met with fomething of the fame kind; and at every houfe, in fhort, until his eggs were almoft gone, when he arrived at the feat of a gentleman of family and figure in the country he knocked at the door, and enquiring for the mafter of the house, was told by a fervant, that his mafter was not yet ftirring; but, if he pleafed to walk in, his lady was in the parlour. The lady, with great complaifance, defired him to feat himfelf, and faid, if his bufinefs was very urgent, the would wake her spoufe to let him know it, but had much rather 2 X 2 not not disturb him. "Why, really, Madam, (faid he,) my bofinefs is only to afk a question, which you can refolve as well as your husband, if you will be ingenuous with me: you will, doubtless, think it odd, and it may be deemed impolite for any one, much more a stranger, to ask fuch a question; but as a very confiderab e wager depends upon it, and it may be fome advantage to yourself to declare the truth to me, I hope thefe con fiderations will plead my excufe. It is, Madam, to defire to be informed whether you govern your husband, or he rules over you?" Indeed, Sir, (replied the lady,) this question is fome what odd; but, as I think no one ought to be athamed of doing their duty, I fhall make no fcruple to fay, that I have been as ways proud to obey my husband in all things; but, if a wo man's own word is to be fufpected in fuch a cafe, let my buf band answer for me, for here he comes.” The gentleman at that moment entering the room, and, after fome apologies, being made acquainted with the bufiuefs, com firmed every word his obedient wife had reported in her own fa vour; upon which he was invited to chufe which horfe in the team he liked beft, and to accept of it as a prefent. A black gelding truck the fancy of the gentleman moft; bus the lady defired he would chufe the grey mare, which the thought would be very fit for her fide-faddle. Her husband gave fub fantial reafons why the black horfe would be most useful to them; but Madam ftill perfifted in her claim to the grey mare. "What! (faid fhe) and will you not take her, then? But I fay you fhall; for I am fure the grey mare is much the better berfe." "-" Well, my dear, (replied the hufband,) if it must be fo"- "You must take an egg, (replied the gentleman carter,) and I must take all my horfes back again, and endeavour to live happy with my wife." ZENO. ON SLAVERY. NUMBER II. MAcademy of Sciences at Paris, who was employed from the ONSIEUR ADANSON, correfpondent of the Royal 66 year 1749 to 1753, in making natural philofophical obfervations on the country about the rivers Senegal and Gambia, fays, (page 54.) Which way foever I turned my eyes on this plea fant fpot, I beheld a perfect image of pure nature; an agree able folitude, bounded on every fide by charming landscapes; the rural fituations of cottages in the midst of trees; the eale and indolence of the negroes, reclined under the fhade of their Ipreading fpreading foliage; the fimplicity of their drefs and manners; the whole revived in my mind the idea of our firft parents, and I feemed to contemplate the world in its primitive ftate. They are, generally fpeaking, good-natured, fociable, and obliging. I was not a little pleafed with this my firft reception; it convinced me, that there ought to be a confiderable abatement made in the accounts I had read and heard every where of the favage character of the Africans. I obferved both in negroes and Moors, great humanity and fociablenefs, which gave me ftrong hopes that I fhould be very fafe among them, and meet with the fuccefs I defired in my enquiries after the curiofities of the country." And in page 252, fpeaking of the remarks which the natives made to him refpecting the stars and planets, "It is amazing, that fuch a rude, illiterate people, should reafon fo pertinently in regard to thofe heavenly bodies: there is no manner of doubt, but that, with proper inftruments and a good-will, they would become excellent aftronomers." Jobfon writes, "That the Mahomedan negroes fay their prayers thrice a day. It is furprizing, as well as commendable, (fays he,) to fee the modelly, attention, and reverence, which they obferve during their worship. He afked fome of their priefts the purport of their prayers and ceremonies? Their anfwer always was, that they adored God by proftrating themfelves before him that by humbling themfelves, they acknowledged their own infignificancy, and farther entreated him to forgive their faults, and to grant them all good and neceffary things, as well as deliverance from evil." ASTLEY'S Collection, vol. II. p. 296. [To be continued occafionally.] ESSAY on the ORIGIN and PROGRESS of AGRICULture. By Mr. RACK, of BATH. WE E are very much in the dark with refpect to the state and progrefs of agriculture in Great Britain, previous to the 14th century. That it was generally practifed, efpecially in the eaftern, fouthern, and midland parts of England, is certain; but of the mode and the fuccefs, we are left almost totally ignorant. In the latter end of the 15th century, however, it feems to have been cultivated as a science, and received very great improvement. At this time our countryman, Fitzherbert, judge of the Common Pleas, fhone forth with diftinguifhed eminence in the prac tical parts of hulbandry. He appears to have been the firf Englishman who ftudied the nature of foils, and the laws of re getation, with philofophical attention. On thefe he formed a theory, confirmed by experiments, and rendered the ftudy pleafing as well as profitable, by realizing the principles of the an tients, to the honour and advantage of his country. Accord ingly, he published two treatifes on this fubject; the first, entitled "The Book of Husbandry," appeared in 1534; and the fecond, called "The Book of Surveying and Improvenients," in 1539 These books, being written at a time when philofophy and fcience were but jut emerging from that gloom in which they had long been buried, were doubtless replete with many errors; but they contained the rudiments of true knowledge, and re vived the study and love of an art, the advantages of which were obvious to men of the leaft reflection. We therefore find that Fitzherbert's books on agriculture foon raised a spirit of emulation in his countrymen, and many treatifes of the fame kind fucceffively appeared; which time has, however, deprived us of, or at least they are become fo very fcarce, as only to be found in the libraries of the curious. During the reign of Charles the Firft, our fatal domeftic dif fentions and wars reversed the true order of things, changing our ploughs and pruning-hooks into martial weapons. But i the general revolution of affairs, which took place on the death of that unfortunate monarch, artful and avaricious then creșt into the confifcated eftates of fuch of the nobility and gentry & had steadily adhered to the royal caufe; and as many of thei new incroachers had rifen from the plough, they returned with pleafure to their old occupations, being chiefly animated with the love of gain. About this time Tuffer, Platt, Plattes, Hartlib, Blythe, and fome others, feized this favourable opport nity of encouraging the difpofition of the common people, by writings, which have been equalled by few in later times. This revival of the art of hufbandry received confiderable encouragement from Cromwell himself. Sir Hugh Platt was one of the most ingenious hofbandmen of the age in which he lived; yet fo great was his modefty, the all his works, except his Paradife of Flora, feem to be polthu mous. He held a correspondence with most of the lovers and patrons of agriculture and gardening in England; and fach was the jaftice and modefty of his temper, that he always named the author of every difcovery communicated to him. Perhaps o man in any age discovered, or at least brought into ufe, fo many new kinds of manure. This will be evident to those who read |