the water from his land, and the thick edges of white thorn, which grow upon the banks raised by what is thrown out of them, ferve to fhelter his stock from the ftorms of win ter, as well as to protect his corn from the intrusion of cattle; and by dividing his land into diftinct parcels, enable him to fupport twice the quantity of ftock he could otherwife dos advantages an open country can never enjoy.

Coriander, Teazel, and Carraway.

As Effex is fingular in the production of a kind of treble crop, confifting of coriander, teazel, and carraway, a particular mention of it may be acceptable to the public. The feeds of thefe feveral plants are fown together, very early in the spring, upon a strong old ley, once plough ed; and generally yield very confiderable returns; the ufual mode is, for a fubftantial farmer to take in a fort of partner, in this fpecies of hufbandry, who is in an inferior fituation, and will give up his time to the hoeing and managing of it: the agreement is, that the farmer fupplies the land, ploughs it, and pays all parish and other cafual charges incident to land, and the labourer fows it, keeps it clean by frequent hoeings, cuts, threthes, and makes it ready for market: and then the produce is equally divided: this connection lafts three years, and fometimes longer. In the first, the several seeds come up; and, when of fufficient growth. are fet out with a hoe; and the coriander, which is an annual, is ripe before harveft, and produces a return of from ten to fourteen hundred weight an acre: in the fecond year the teazel, most of which will run now, yields a load, or fix-fcore Staffs of fifty heads each staff; and the carraway from three to fix hundred weight of feed: the third year the teazel declines, and the carraway is in perfection, and will yield an e

qual bulk with the coriander; and moft of the teazel that did not run laft season, will produce heads this, and afford a fourth or fifth part of the crop it did the preceding feafon; by which time the feveral plants are in general exhaufted, tho' a fourth, and even a fifth year of carraway, has been known to fucceed. The coriander, or col, as fome call it, and carraway, are to be treated with great care when ripe, otherwife the largest and best part of the feed will be loft; to prevent which, women and children are employed to cut it, plant by plant, as foon as it is ripe, and put it immediately into cloths, prepared to receive it; and in them it is carried to the middle, or fome other convenient part of the field, and threshed upon a fail-cloth, spread for the purpofe, upon which men ftand to receive it; who, with a few ftrokes of the flail, get the feed clean out of the straw, and are ready for another little load in a few minutes, The use of thefe feeds is too well known to need a word upon that fub. ject.

The teazel is alfo cut by women; who are inftructed to leave the weak and rotten heads, and felect only the frong and healthy ones; the others, being of no ufe, would fpoil the fample, and the credit of the grower: at the fame time thefe heads are cut with a ftalk of fix or eight inches in length, and bound up in fmall bunches, or gleans, of fiveand-twenty heads each; the like number of which bunches, or gleans, conftitute half a staff; which, after a few days fun, to harden and dry them, are tied together upon a stick, or ftaff, of two feet and a half long; and, in this form carried to market. The head of the teazel is of a conical form, two or three inches in length, and one, or one and an half, in diameter, at the bottom, or largeft end, armed on every part with small, firong points, turned a little downwards; and are bought by the wool

len

len manufacturers; who fix them upon frames, calculated to cover a cylinder, which is made to turn round, and flightly catch their fays, bays, &c. which another part of the weaver's machine draws against them: by which means the knap is raised to almost any length the manufacturer wishes. Sometimes, where the farmer prefers a certainty, he will let his land, for three, four, or five pounds per annum, for three years, ploughing and paying as before, rather than rifk the hazards of blights, ftrong winds when the feeds are ripe, or a decay of the woollen trade; any of which greatly leffen the profits of this fpeculation. After the carraway is worn out, the farmer refumes his land, and has nothing to do, but plough and fow for a good crop of wheat the following year, which is feldom known to disappoint him, af, ter the land has been thus treated.

[In most of these reports, there is an article of the following import. We have felected the prefent, becaufe the author goes rather more minutely into certain fubjects, upon which the public mind is now very laudably employed.

Obftacles to Hufbandry.-As the honourable Board has condefcended to afk our opinion, of the fuppofed obftacles to improvement in agriculture, it is humbly submitted to their attention, whether this most ufeful fcience would not be greatly affifted, if the opulent manufacturers were made to contribute, in a larger proportion, to the neceffities of their weavers, when driven to their parish by distress, than is the cafe at prefent; for although it may be replied, that there is already a law for this purpose, it is found fo difficult to be put in practise, that it is not attempted here at prefent.

Other obftacles may be the total want of leafes, or the short terms and ftrict and penal covenants fometimes infifted upon by gentlemen of pro

perty, which prohibits that return which is neceffary, to induce a man to disburse his property in the improvements of the natural foil; and were the land-owners to confider, that, except in a very few inftances, of converting meadows and old leys into tillage, deftroying timber, &c. their and their tenants real interefts are the fame, for the greater part of a leafe; they would fee it to be their own and the public advantage, to fuffer their tenants to manage the land in fuch way, as would beft enable them to pay their rents with punctuality, and almost give them their own covenants, till the term came within five or fix years of its expiration: when, perhaps, it might be nothing more than policy, to guard against the poffibility of abufe, by laying down fome rules to govern their conduct, in thofe particulars, where their intereft militates against that of their landlords; but any certain fixed method, or rotation of management, will ever be difadvantageous to the growth of corn, fo long as feafons are uncertain, and the many cafualties a farmer is liable to, (which no art or industry can prevent) continue to perplex him. If it should be thought this liberal conduct on the part of the landlord might lay his good nature open to the defigns of an artful tenant, who might think himself at liberty to crop his land, as long as it would pay him for the tillage, and then refign or fell his lease; it may be answered, that, if the certainty of lofing his character, would not operate fufficiently upon him, to prevent fuch impolitic measures in a tenant, they might eafily be provided againft by a claufe in the leafe, calculated for that end; or, by an indemnification of fome other fort, before the leafe was granted.

Another circumftance which would aid the plough, it is conceived, is liberty to the poor to feek a livelihood wherever work offers, or inclination

leads

TH

HE religious, moral, political, and literary character of Johnfon, will be better understood by this account of his life, than by any laboured and critical comments. Yet it may not be fuperfluous here to attempt to collect, into one view, his molt prominent excellencies, and diftinguishing particularities.

His figure and manner are more generally known than those of almost any other man. His perfon was large, robuft, and unweildy, from corpulency. His carriage was disfigured by fudden emotions, which appeared to a common obferver to be involuntary and convulfive. But in the opinion of Sir Joshua Reynolds, they were the confequence of a depraved habit of accompanying his thoughts with certain untoward actions, which feemed as if they were meant to reprobate fome part of his paft conduct. Of his limbs, he is faid never to have enjoyed the free and vigorous ufe. When he walked, it feemed the ftruggling gait of one in fetters; and when he rode, he appeared to have no command over his horfe. His Strength, however, was great, and his perfonal courage no lefs fo. Among other inftances, which exemplify his poffeffion of both, it is related, that, being once at the Litchfield theatre, he fat upon a chair placed for him beside the scenes. Having had occafion to quit his feat, he found it occupied upon his return, by an innKeeper of the town. He civily demanded that it fhould be restored to him; but meeting with a rude refufal, he laid hold of the chair, and with it, of the intruder, and flung them both, without further ceremony, into the pit. At another time, having engaged in a fcuffle with four men in the street, he refolutely refufed to yield to fuperior numbers, and Ed. Mag. March 1796.

kept them all at bay, until the watch came up and carried him and his antagonists to the watch-houfe. In his drefs he was fingular and flovenly; and though he improved fomewhat under the lectures of Mrs Thrale, during his long refidence at Streatham, yet he was never able completely to furmount particularity. He never wore a watch till he was fixty years of age, and then caufed one to be made for him by Mudge and Dutton, which coft him feventeen guineas, with this infcription on the dialplate," For the night cometh." He was fond of good company, and of good living; and, to the last, he knew of no method of regulating his appetites, but abfolute réstraint or unlimited indulgence. "Many a day," fays Mr Bofwell," did he faft ; many a year refrain from wine: but when he did eat, it was voracioufly; when he did drink wine, it was copiously. He could practice abftinence, but not temperance." In converfation, he was rude, intemperate, overbearing, and impatient of contradiction. Addicted to argument, and greedy of victory, he was equally regardless of truth and fair reafoning in his approaches to conqueft. "There is no arguing with him," faid Goldfmith, alluding to a fpeech in one of Cibber's plays; "for if his piftol miffes fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it." In the early part of his life, he had been too much depreffed; in his latter years, too lavishly indulged. His temper had at first been foured by difappointment and penury, and his petulance was afterwards flattered by univerfal fubmiffion. In his converfation and goodness of heart, his friends met with a recompenfe for that fubmiffion which the fovereignty of his genius challenged, and his temper exacted from them to the Y

utter

uttermoft. To great powers, he united a perpetual and ardent defire to excel; and even in an argument on the moft indifferent fubject, he generally engaged with the whole force and energy of his great abilities. Of his converfation, it is true, all that has been retailed by Mr Bofwell, does not seem to be worth recording.Judging of it most favourably, it is not much diftinguished by the flashes of wit, or the ftrokes of humour. Where he appears ferious, we are not always fure that he speaks the fentiments of his conviction. Mr Bofwell allows that he often talked for victory, and fometimes took up the weaker fide, as the most ingenious things could be faid on it. Truth, and the ableft defences of truth, are mixed with error, and the moft ingenious glofes which ingenuity could invent, or addrefs enforce. Authors are exalted, or depreciated, as the moment of hilarity or gloom was connected with the fubject, or as the opinion of the fpeaker was adverfe; and the whole is given as the fentiment of Johnfon. But for the inferiority of his converfation, to our opinion of the man, he has himfelf made a prophetic apology, in his first interview with this biographer, who was deftined to retail it. "People may be taken in once, who imagine that an author is greater in private life than another man. Uncommon parts require uncommon opportunities for

their exertions.''

With thefe defects, there was, how. ever, fcarcely a virtue of which he was not in principle poffeffed. He was humane, charitable, affectionate, and generous. His most intemperate fallies were the effects of an irritable habit; he offended only to repent. To the warm and active benevolence of his heart, all his friends have borne teftimony." He had nothing," fays Goldfmith," of the bear but his fkin." Misfortune had only to form her claim, in order to found her right

to the ufe of his purfe, or the exer cife of his talents. His house was an afylum for the unhappy, beyond what a regard to perfonal convenience would have allowed; and his income was diftributed in fupport of his inmates, to an extent greater than ge neral prudence would have permitted. The most honourable teftimony to his moral and focial character, is the cordial esteem of his friends and acquaintances. He was known by no man by whom his lofs was not regretted. Another great feature of his mind, was the love of independence. While he felt the ftrength of his own powers, he defpifed, except in one inftance, pecuniary aid. His penfion has been often mentioned, and subjected him to fevere imputations. But let thofe, who, like Johnfon, had no patrimony, who were not always willing to labour, and felt the conftant recurrence of neceffities, reject, without an adequate reason, an independent income, which left his fentiments free, and required neither the fervility of adulation, nor the labours of fervice. It is not uncommon to fee a defire to be independent, degenerate into avarice. Johnfon did not feel it early, for his benevolence counteracted it; but he declined going into Italy, when worth 1500l. befides his penfion, because of the expence and we see the furly dignity, which formerly fpurned at an obligation, relaxed, in his refafal of Dr Brocklesby's affiftance, and Lord Thurlow's very delicate offer of the fame kind. Some little cenfure is due to him for his eafy faith, occafioned by his political prejudices, in the forgeries of Lauder. That he fhould have appeared in public, in company with this defamer of Milton, is to be lamented. Yet his renunciation of all connection with Lauder, when his forgeries were detected, is only a proof of his having believed (a common weaknefs of worthy minds,) without examination, not

that