had past, while in the bowels of the earth, before it had burst out in fprings to the furface.

The utmost stretch of human ingenuity has not been able to diftill water fo pure, but that fome terrene particles would ftill remain. Mr Boyle distilled one ounce of common water two hundred times, in glaffes, and obtained fix drachms of a white light infipid earth, fixed in fire, and indiffoluble in water. It becomes therefore neceffary, to examine the kind of stone, of which the hill from whence the fpring iffues is compofed; because, not only the qualities of ftones differ, but the quantity of one kind of earth, which the water is capable of carrying along with it to the land, is ten times that which it is able to carry of another kind of earth. And let it be held in perpetual remembrance, that the benefit of flooding, will be in the most exact proportion to the quantity and quali. ty of the matter which the water carries to the land.

There are five kinds of fimple earths; I fhall, however, call the farmer's attention (who must be very familiar to them) only to three, limeStone, clay, and fand, in order to explain to him the different proportions in which they are found to be contained in water: 680 ounces of water, may contain one ounce of limeflone; 7700 ounces of water may contain one ounce of clay; 10,000 ounces of water may contain one ounce of fand. Such being the proportions, in which three different earths are found fufpended in water, it becomes an object worthy of attention to the farmer, to reflect, that the particles from the limestone, are not only more congenial to his grafs than either clay or fand would be, but also, that 680 tons of water from a limeftone rock, would bring as much in quantity as 7700 tons of water from clay, or 10,000 tons of water from a fandy stone rock.

Waste Lands-One half of this driftrict, containing in the whole five hundred and twelve thousand acres, is waste land. The principal stock kept upon thefe extenfive mountains, is fheep.

Some horned cattle and horfes are alfo depaftured there in fummer; but the number is not confiderable, because the farmers, by neglecting the cultivation of their inclofed land, have not fufficient to keep for them in winter. In many places, therefore, the commons are fufficient to keep in fummer three times more ftock than the parishioners can fend there.

Whoever will examine the ftate of agriculture, in the vicinity of all the extenfive mountainous commons in this ifland, will hazard little in rifquing it as a general remark, that the cultivation of the inclofed lands is neglected in a very uncommon degree, and that a national loss, to a very confiderable amount, is annually fuftained by the public,in confequence of fuch neglect. It is not difficult to account for this, when it is remembered, that few like to labour hard who can afford to be idle. Here the farmer poffeffes a large tract of land for little rent; and thefe extenfive commons, which, as an appendage to his farm, he enjoys gratis, furnish fo wide a range for his flocks, that upon the profits of thefe alone he can fubfift, without the drudgery of that hard labour, to which the cultivation of his farm would unavoidably fubjet him.

Confonant to the inviolable principles of human nature was the remark of the infpired writer, when he informs us, that it was inflicted on man as a curfe, "That he should earn his bread by the fweat of his brow." For few will be inclined to submit to this curfe, who can provide for the demands of nature, by any employment lefs painful. Neceffity at first drove man to dig the earth, and when that neceffity ceases to exift, he will al

ways

ways be found ready to defiit from the performance of an office, which Le never embraced through choice. Waste lands, in the vicinity of large towns, or in the middle of a well cultivated country, if they be not of any confiderable extent, may be ufeful in their prefent ftate. The poor may derive fome benefit from them, with out depriving the community altogether of their labour: but in this country, where the commons extend eight or ten miles in a ftraight line, and the narrow vallies that furround them being thinly inhabited, they become, in a peculiar degree, hurtful to fociety, by holding forth a tempta tion to idlenefs, that fell parent to vice and immorality.

That these commons furnish paf ture for a great number of sheep and young cattle, is certainly true: but whether that advantage be not in a confiderable degree, if not wholly, over-balanced by the lofs which the nation fuftains in being deprived of the labour of that vaft number of people, to whom thefe commons offered the means of wafting their time in idlenefs, becomes, at least, a question. But idleness is an improper term, fince nature has implanted a principle of action upon every animated being, as much as reft is a principle of inanimate matter. Every member of the community, who is not employed in the performance of fome ufeful or good action, is generally bufy in the, accomplishment of fome deftructive, or wicked deed. That immenfe lofs, which many of the honeft part of the community have, in the vicinity of thafe commons, fuftained, from the depredations of that numerous gang of fheep-ftealers that infeft thefe hills,are too notorious to be queftioned, and they justify the truth of this remark. Excepting thofe who refide in the vicinity of large commons, the inhabitants of this country are remarkable for their honefty, fobriety, and peaceable demeanour.

The brooks or rivers that run through these commons, form beautiful narrow vallies. The banks of these are inclosed, and laid out in little holdings, from 51. to 201. a year. The inclofed land may extend from 20 to 100 acres. The inclofed land, however, is but a fecond confideration with the tenant, fince he will fcarcely take the trouble to keep up the fence between it and the common. He will, however, plough up, in the fpring, a few spots of the dry part of a field; the wet part he leaves in the fame ftate in which it has lain for a thoufand years. All the improvement that has been introduced during that period, feems to be, that in the eighth century, the muck was carried to the land, in two baskets, on the back of horfes. It is now placed in a basket, and drawn by the horfe, on a fledge. The tenant avails himself of the fame machine to draw home his corn and hay. From the hills, on both fides of his farm, the water oozes out, and falling down, deftroys his beft land; but fuch is the wonderful effect of habitual idleness, that he will not take the trouble to draw even a furrow with the plough to direct its course, by the fide of the field: the reason is obvious; he can live upon the profit of his flock that depafture upon the commons. This farm is, there fore, totally neglected.

From the notoriety of thefe facts, it will readily occur, that it will ever be found found policy in the government of every ftate, to give dif countenance to every measure that tends, even in the fmallest degree, to put it in the power of the people to live idle. While the ftate purfues this plan it is not poffible for it to act wrong, fince it only follows the great line chalked out by nature: for nature has erected fo many real wants, that her intention feems to have been that man fhould employ one half of his time in providing for thefe wants; and, in order that he might always

be

be out of the reach of those temptations to which idlenefs invariably leads, matters are fo wonderfully contrived, that, for most of the other half, his eyes are closed in sleep. Hence the whole period of life feems intended for action; and at fuch time as actions cannot be performed, a kind of temporary non-existence takes place, by fleep. In order, therefore, to excite a fpirit of improve ment among the people, the first step feems to be, to put it as much as poffible out of their power to live idle, and the fecond, to put it in their pow. er to exert themselves in a way that will be beneficial to themfelves; which, in the end, muft prove advantageous to the community at large, Nothing feems fo likely to accom. plish both thefe ends, in this corner of the land, as a general divifion of all extenfive districts of commons.

Suppofing that only one third of thefe commons could be cultivated to raise grain, one acre would, when fo employed, produce more food for fociety, than ten do in their prefent ftate. Independent of this addition to the general mafs of individual wealth, fuch poor people as are now ftarving, for want of work, in many fequestered corners of the kingdom, would then, if they were inclined to be induftrious and ufeful, find employment in the cultivation of the commons; and theworthless and profligate, deprived of the means of fub. fifting in idleness and floth, as they do at prefent, in the vicinity of thefe commons, might, in time, become ufeful members of that community to which they have hitherto been a pest and a burden.

Altho' tillage be not the principal purpose to which these commons ought to be applied, if inclofed, yet there are several tracts by the fides of the brooks and gentle hillocks, that might be fo employed. The fteep and rocky fide of mountains may be planted to great advantage. The foil

is fo congenial, when dry, to the growth of timber, that nothing is more requifite, than just to inclose the ground, and protect it from cattle. The plants will rife of their own accord. Moft of the rocky part in which the cattle could not come to deftroy the young sprouts, are now covered with trees of various kinds; but the oats is the great favourite of this foil. The remainder of this land ought to be used in the depafturing of fheep and cattle, as at prefent, Great part of these mountains, in their prefent ftate, are not only uselefs, but hurtful, to the fheep elpecially, on account of the waters heing fuffered to take their own courfe down the fides of thefe mountains, and deftroy fuch immenfe tracts of land. This never can be removed while thefe commons remain in their prefent ftate. But were they inclafed, the water would be diverted into channels, that would relieve the ground from the fatal ravages of this enemy.

HUNTINGDONSHIRE.

By Mr Maxwell. Improvement in the drainage of the Fens. A very great improvement has been brought about in part of the fens of Lincolnshire, Cambridgefhire, and Northamptonshire, which directly applies by comparison, to thofe which are at this moment, either in a precarious or an unprofitable state; and I think it my duty, not to let fo material a fact go unexplained, in a work of this nature.The three counties laft mentioned. and the county now under confideration, meet nearly at a point, fo as to give to each of them a fhare of an immenfe level, containing 600,000 acres of land, of which the Great Bedford Level forms a part. The Great Bedford Level is fubdivided into three, which, for distinction fake, are called the fouth, the middle, and the north levels. The north level is fituate north of the river Nene.

and

and conjointly with the waters of the other great parts of the 6000 acres, its waters are discharged not into the river Nene, but into the bay called Metaris Efluarium, at a place below the town of Wisbech, where thofe waters meet the waters of the Neue.

This place of confluence is precifely one of thofe points which, I have before had occafion to obferve, ought to have been the object of attention at the time of the general undertaking, instead of forming projects, with the waters in their paffage through the levels, at a great distance from the outfals, as was unfortunately done. The confequence of this mismanage ment, fo far as concerns the lands draining in Wisbech outfal, and the navigation from Wisbech to the fea, is fresh in every one's memory, who is at all acquainted with the country. Suffice it for me to say, that the lands were almost in a conftant ftate of drowning, while the navigation to the fea was nearly loft. Happily for the country, happily for trade, for the navigation, for the landed intereft, and for the confumer of goods, a man of found understanding and unwearied diligence, became the leading agent to a princely eftate, confifting altogether of fen land, which fhould have been drained through the Wifbech outfal, at the very time when this deplorable ftate of the country and of the navigation prefented itfelf; while, by the greatest good fortune, the refident agent happened to be one, who had ftudied the conftitution of the place, and knew exactly what remedy was wanting to be applied. The active minds of thefe two worthy men were fet in motion, and a plan founded upon true principles, which would have fecured the navigation and drainage for ever, was fubmitted to the public. Plain as the matter was to any man of common fenfe, who would take the trouble to inquire, the merchants of Wisbech oppofed the fcheme.

"What! ruin the navigation, by lef fening the indraught of the tides, when it is a certain fact, that the width of the indraught alone enables us to navigate at all? What! tax our land, already worth nothing?" was the general cry. And the plaufibility of their objections had a weight, which they were certainly not entit led to; for the true reafon of the opposition was neither more or less than the narrow-minded prejudices of a very few merchants, who, dreading a competition in trade, were anxious to keep things as they were, and who had intereft enough with fome owners of fen lands to obtain their affiftance. But Mr Palmer and Mr Wing were not to be driven from their point, though thwarted fo much as to be obliged to drop their plan for the prefent. They watched an opportunity; and, without confulting the merchants of Wisbech at all; they got a clause inferted in an act of parliament, which was about to be paffed for another purpofe, enabling themselves, at the expence of part of thofe lands which drain thro' Wifbech outfal, to execute not the whole but a fmall part, of their plan. The work has been done; and mark the event, the lands in question are improved almoft beyond belief-they are, in fact, converted from a state of very fmall profit, in most cases, in fome, of none at all, and in others of abfolute lofs to the proprietors, to one of the most fertile and beft productive tracts that can be found, of the fame extent, within his Majefty's dominions; while the trade of Wisbech, in confequence of an improved navigation to the fea, is so much increafed, that the amount of the customs is more than four times what it had ufed to be; and the inhabitants of the northern part of Huntingdonfhire, and of great part of the county of Northampton, have the fatisfaction to know and to feel that they can be fupplied with fuch confume

able

the

able goods as they want, without depending altogether upon the Lynn merchants, whofe management, no longer fince than laft winter, would have ftarved the country to death for want of coals, if there had not been port of Wisbech to refort to. Nay more-a tract of country in Lincolnfhire, called South Holland, containing perhaps 100,000 acres of land, great part of which has never yielded any thing, is now about to be drained into the channel formed by this improved outfal, under the power of an act of parliament paffed this very last feffion (1793.) With thofe facts ftaring us in the face- with this example of improvement before our eyes, we are now gravely told by the Lynn merchants, that the very fame thing propofed to be done at the outfal of the Oufe waters at Lynn, is a wild and chimerical project, which will infallibly ruin the port of Lynn, and the drainage, forfooth, into the bargain, of that country which is dependent on the Oufe outfal.

of other lands contiguous to the Oufe) with water lying against it, whofe furface is five or fix feet higher than the furface of the land, and which is kept from overflowing it by nothing but high banks, constructed of the loofe porous foil of a fen country: conceive a very large part of this always under water in the winter feafon, and many other diftricts occafionally overflowed. Can it be wondered that inhabitants are scarce?What is it, that can poffibly reconcile any one to fuch a flate of uncer-tainty? It is the natural fertility of the land, which in one good year will recompence the farmer for the care and hazards of many, tho' perhaps not for his loffes; and furely a country like this is worth preferving, and prefents itself to an enlightened public, as the fittest object for national confideration, larger in extent than feveral whole counties of Great Britain, productive of wheat and oats to a degree of which none but a fen man can have any conception, healthy for cattle of every fpecies when properly drained, ftanding in need of no manure whatever but what may be produced from the foil, with advantages peculiar to itself as to facility of cultivation, poffefling internal rivers, which communicate with the navigations of the Nene, the Oufe, the Grant, and various others, by means whereof its produce may be conveyed to any part of the kingdom.

At this enlightened period will af fertions be believed, which, in the cafe of Wisbech, have proved themfelves to be fallacious? or can it, for a moment be fuppofed, the true reafon of the oppofition is as they have chofe to flate it? I will not offend the good fenfe of the reader by fuppofing it poffible. Does any man doubt the facts as here ftated? Inquiries are eafily made; and a view of the two countries in the winter feafon will fhow the wonderful contraft in point of fecurity, and speak to the under ftanding with arguments fo forcible as not to be refifted. Conceive, on one hand, a tract of rich country, rendered productive and fecure, as has been before ftated; on the other hand, conceive a flat extent of confiderably more than 300,000 acres, (I fpeak now of the whole of the two levels, called the South and Middle Levels, and of Marthland Fen, and .Ed. Mag, April 1796.

Let all, who delight in agricultural purfuits, lay a finger upon that part of the plan of the island. where this fpot is defcribed, and fay, Here is a country loft to its proprietors and the community at large, though at no great diftance from the feat of the empire, one third part abfolutely yielding nothing; and the remainder, though productive in a certain degree, overwhelmed with unneceffary expences, which have fwallowed up more than the fee fim

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