thefe unjuft oppreffors have the daring effrontery to lift up their head, and with impious boldness appeal to the impartial juftice of Heaven for the neceflity they are under of treating them thus, to eradicate the vices with which their own merciless cruelty hath debafed the likeness of the Divinity originally ftamped upon the mind of all mankind!

Leave then to the defpots of other regions the guilt of fuch aggravated crimes, and let them not once be named in this land of happiness and freedom.-Complain no more of the ignorance or wickedness of your dependents, if you with to conceal your own fhame, or wipe off a ftain from the memory of your forefathers ;— for those are vices that fpring only from weakness and dependence. If they are dependent on you, give them proper fecurity;-if they are rendered weak by your fuperior power, remove the rod from above them, and only wield it to guard them from the attacks of others. Soon fhall all thefe vices difappear, and you fhall have the pleasure of finding yourfelf placed above men who are in rank and dignity of ftation only inferior to yourselves; and who, in candour of mind, and undifguifed fincerity, are every way your equals.

Firmly convinced of the juftnefs of thefe remarks, we cannot help wishing that they may obtain that degree of attention from men in authority which they deferve. The nature of man, is, we believe, in fome cafes, fo much depraved, as to render chaftifement neceffary; but this would much feldomer be the cafe were more attention beftowed in removing thofe circumstances that tend infenfibly to debafe the mind. The apology ufually made by owners of flaves for maltreating them, viz. that they are incapable of feeling any fentiments of gratitude, is, we think, ill founded, even without the aid of our Author's ingenious argument in their favour; for we have often known in

Itances of amazing attachment in flaves to fuch masters as have treated them with lenity. And if other inftances can be produced in which they have retaliated on their cruel masters with a merciless barbarity, it does not invalidate our remark. The moft vigorous minds feel in the most fenfible manner, and refent with the greatest vehemence thofe humiliating indignities to which flaves are too often expofed, and are thus moft apt to fall into barbarous exceffes. Happy would it be for mankind, and much good would refult to fociety, could the world in general as readily practife the humane precept conveyed in the following paffage, as they will be difpofed to admit the juftnefs

of the remark :

'Every good man must be fenfible, that heaven has endowed all ranks of people with talents nearly equal; and that thefe talents are often buried under a load of ignorance among the lower claffes of people, fo as never to appear. It therefore behoves those who have had the benefit of a liberal education, inftead of imitating the vulgar in their illiberal prejudices, and adding infult and contumely to the other misfortunes of the poor, rather to commiferate their hard

lot

lot in life, and while they have a grateful fenfe of their own fuperior good fortune, endeavour to fmooth thofe difficulties that lie in the way of the others, and, with a merciful forbearance, not be irritated at their abfurdities or errors, but with kindness and lenity gently lead them from error to truth--from prejudice to right reafon, and from mifery to happiness. Thus would they fhow themselves truly worthy of that eminent ftation they enjoy, and prove in the most unequivocal manner that they are indeed exalted above the vulgar.'

These sketches are drawn, con amore, and the Reader will eafily perceive that our Author is not only firmly perfuaded, himself, of the juftness of these obfervations, but that he is alfo folicitous to convince others of the fame momentous truths. So anxious indeed does he appear about the welfare of the lower ranks in fociety, that fome may, perhaps, imagine, he looks upon the higher orders with an evil eye, and endeavours to excite, in the minds of the poor, that difaffection toward the great which feems to be too natural to them. But this would be far from anfwering the beneficent views with which he appears, on all occafions, to be actuated; for instead of fomenting divifions, his reafoning tends, in the ftrongeft manner, to unite all ranks and conditions of men in the most cordial esteem of one another, as he proves that the profperity of each individual is moft powerfully promoted by that of the whole.

When men of low ftation, he argues, are enabled to raise themfelves to life and independence, they are rendered capable of paying to their fuperiors, without depreffing themselves, thofe dues, whether under the name of rent, or of taxes, that are neceffary for establishing themselves in bufinefs, and fecuring the enjoyment of their own property: as their property increases, they, therefore, become not only more able but more willing to contribute to the fupport of their fuperiors, and are more contented and happy in their own minds.

On the other hand, thofe in higher ftations, being freed from the cares that accompany indigence, and finding the people who contribute toward their fupport fo chearful and hearty, naturally view them with a greater degree of benignity, than when they fee them unable, or, as they think, unwilling to contribute what they imagine they have a juft title to demand. From hence refults a reciprocation of good offices, instead of mutualrecriminations and abufe, and each is left at liberty to promote the general good in his own fphere; the poor by their affiduity and labour, and the rich by enacting wholefome laws, and feeing them faithfully executed,-by guarding against the inroads of others, and allowing the labourers to follow their feveral employments in tranquil fecurity,-by preventing frauds and abufes among interefted individuals, and by removing, as much as poffible, all the common obftructions to induftry. Thus,

like the feveral members of the body, which are indifpenfably neceffary to one another, the well-being of the whole is neceffary for the profperity of each.

When our Author comes to treat of the principal modes in which national induftry may be exerted, viz. Agriculture, Trade, and Manufactures, he fhews in what manner the profperity of each naturally depends upon the flourishing state of all; and that every attempt to promote one of these arts, by depreffing the others, muft prove hurtful to the community, and, in the end, deftructive to that very art it was intended to ferve. No state can be in its highest degree of prosperity but where an happy alliance fubfifts between these three great fources of employment and beneficial intercourfe, as they then mutually fupport and ftrengthen one another. He agrees, with moft political writers, in thinking that agriculture forms the fureft bafis for the profperity of any ftate, becaufe the advantage derived from thence is lefs liable to be affected by the accidents or viciffitudes of the times, than any of the others. It alfo happens that every plan which tends to promote the interefts of agriculture, muft, of neceffity, promote the general profperity of the ftate; whereas it may fometimes happen that manufactures or commerce may produce a contrary effect. There is not therefore the fame danger in having the legislative council influenced by the landed as by the trading intereft; for it is clearly, at all times, the intereft of thofe of landed property to promote trade and manufactures, although it is not at all times. fo evidently the interest of merchants to promote the prosperity of agriculture.

Sometimes, however, men have been fo fhort-fighted as to think that agriculture might be promoted at the expence of the two fifter arts; the futility of which idea he thus expofes:

There are fome inftances, he obferves, of nations peculiarly fituated which have flourished by means of commerce without agriculture; -there are alfo a very few examples of manufactures flourishing among a people who could have little dependence on the produce of the foil: but there is not among all the records of patt ages a fingle proof of a people who have enjoyed for any length of time a fpirited agriculture, without the aid of commerce, or manufactures, or both.

• Nor is it poffible that it fhould be otherwife. For without commerce or arts, what inducement has the farmer to cultivate the foil? In this cafe every man will only wish to rear as much as is fufficient. for his own fuftenance, and no more; fo that if the foil could afford a hundred times the produce that is fufficient for them, it will be allowed to remain an uncultivated wafte. And if, in that country, any man fhould be fo foolish as to rear large crops, what would it benefit him! Every man has enough for his own fubfiftence, fo that he wants none of that fuperfluous produce. It must therefore be fuffered to perish without being of any ufe at all to the owner.

REV. Mar. 1778.

For

For this reafon a nation peopled only by farmers, must be a region of indolence and mifery.-If the foil is naturally fertile, little labour will procure abundance; but for want of exercise, even that little labour will be burthenfome, and often neglected;-want will be felt in the midst of abundance, and the human mind be abafed nearly to the fame degree with the beafts that graze the field. If the region is more barren, the inhabitants will be obliged to become fomewhat more induftrious, and therefore more happy. But miferable at best must be the happiness of fuch a people.

Thofe, therefore, who wish to make agriculture flourish in any country, can have no hope of fucceeding in the attempt, but by bringing commerce and manufactures to her aid; which, by taking from the farmer his fuperfluous produce, gives fpirit to his operations, and life and activity to his mind.

Without this ftimulus to activity, in vain do we use arguments to roufe the fluggish inhabitants,-in vain do we difcover that the earth is capable of producing the most luxuriant harvests with little labour-our own abundant crops are produced as undeniable proofs of this in vain. But place a manufacturer in the neighbourhood, who will buy every little article that the farmer can bring to market, and he will foon become induftrious. The most barren fields will then become covered with fome ufeful produce.-Inftead of liftlefs vagabonds, unfit for any fervice, the country will abound with a hardy and robuft race of men, fit for every valuable purpose; and the voice of feftivity and joy be heard in every corner, inftead of the groans of mifery, and the fighs of difcontent.'

As a ftriking example of the juftness of this reasoning, he gives the following very curious account of the prefent ftate of the town of Aberdeen; the authenticity of which cannot be difputed, as the Author lives in its neighbourhood:

The town of Aberdeen has made great advances in trade and manufactures within these thirty or forty years paft. The number of inhabitants has encreafed greatly within that period.-Money has become more plenty there than formerly.-Their manner of living is now more elegant and expenfive; articles of luxury have encreased.In confequence of good roads having become more common, horfes and wheel-carriages have alfo become extremely numerous.-On all which accounts, the demands for fresh vegetables has greatly encreased in that place within the period above mentioned.

But, on account of the particular fituation of that town, it was a matter of fome difficulty to augment the produce of the fields in that neighbourhood, and fupply the daily encreafing demand for thefe. This city is placed in the midst of a country that is naturally the most fterile that can poffibly be imagined. For, unlefs it be a few hundred acres of ground that lie between the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don, close by the town, there was not an inch of ground for many miles around it that could fupply the inhabitants with any of the neceffaries of life. On the east is the German ocean ;-on the fouth the Grampian mountains come clofe to the river, terminating in a head-land on the fouth fide of the harbour called the Girdle Nefs; -and on the weft and north, it is environed for many miles with an extended waste, the moft difmal that can be conceived, in which

nothing

nothing can be difcovered but large maffes of ftone heaped upon one another, interfperfed here and there with a few bushes of starved heath, or disjoined by uncomfortable bogs and fpouting marfhes, the most unpromifing to the views of the farmer that can poffibly be imagined.

But what is it that human induftry cannot perform!-what undertaking is too bold for man to attempt when he has the profpect of being repaid for his labour! Even thefe difmal waftes, it was imagined, might be converted into corn-fields.-The ground was trenched; -The ftones are blafted by gun-power, and removed at an immenfe expence ;-manures were purchased :-and thousands of acres of this fort of ground are now waving with the most luxuriant harvefts, and yield a rent from 5 1. to 81. Sterling per acre.

In any other part of the world that I have feen, it would be reckoned impoffible to convert fuch foils to any valuable use; and the moft daring improver that I have met with any where elfe, would fhrink back from attempting to cultivate a fie'd which an Aberdeenfman would confider as a trifling labour. Long habit has familiarifed them to fuch arduous undertakings,-undertakings which could not be attempted any where elfe, as, unless in fuch a particular fituation as I have defcribed, the improver could never be repaid.- For in what other part of Europe could a man lay out tool. Sterling, or upwards, on an acre of ground, before it could be put under crop, with any profpect of being repaid?-yet this is no uncommon thing in that neighbourhood.

Nor is this all: For to fuch a height is the spirit for improvement risen in that part of the world, that they are not only eager to cultivate these barren fields, but even purchase these dreary waites at a vast expence for that purpose. The laft fpot of ground of this fort that was to difpofe of in that neighbourhood, was feued off by the town of Aberdeen in the year 1773, for ever, at an annual quitrent, or, as we call it, feu-duty, of thirty-three or thirty-four fhillings Sterling per acre, although it was not then, and never could have been worth fixpence per acre, if left in its native ftate,-nor could be converted into corn ground but at an expence nearly equal to that above mentioned.

It ought to be farther remarked in favour of the Aberdeen improvers, that as they are at an unufual expence in first bringing their grounds into culture;-fo they continue afterwards to cultivate them with greater care and attention than is common perhaps in any part of the island, fo that they have more abundant returns, and can afford to pay greater rents. than in any other part of Great Britain.

Could I produce a more fatisfactory proof, that a good market will always produce a fpirited agriculture? or is it poflible to bring a more convincing argument in favour of the poor people in other corners of the country, who are accused by their proprietors of obiti nacy, and other bad qualities, because they do not improve their fields in the manner the proprietors could with ;-feeing many of those who carry on improvements about Aberdeen, are people who have come from diftant parts of the country, where no fort of improvements were ever carried on,-and have no other arguments made

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