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whom one has faid, that he fhould rather be called the Juft than the Cruel. Mr. Sotheby has availed himself very judicioufly of this circumflance; and indeed had his character been fuch as it has been reprefented, it is impoflible that any Sympathy could have been excited by his fate. As it now ap◄ pears, it is that mixed character which is best adapted to dŕamatic and poetic effect.

The lines which mark the characters of Conftance and of Lancafter we think too faint and unappropriate.

From the foregoing obfervations it will appear, that this poem, in point of fubject, is judicioufly felected, orderly and clearly arranged, and, with very few exceptions, fuccefsfully executed.

We apprehend that the manner and metre which Mr. Sotheby has chofen will be chiefly objected to; the defultory ftanza and occafional familiarity of ftyle, with its abrupt tranfitions, involuntarily reminding us of the peculiar flyle of Mr. Walter Scott; but there feems no reason why Mr. Sotheby, if he thought it more confonant to his fubject, fhould not employ fuch a fruéture of versification. At all events, Mr. Sotheby's verfe is remarkably correct and pure. We have no fuch botches and vulgarifms as

"Ave Maria, fainless ftyled."

Or, Heaven grant in happy dew,

Earth grant it fap anew!"

At the fame time we cannot acquit Mr. Sotheby entirely for having introduced fuch lines as thefe:

Hear, hear, good fentinel,

Heaven and the holy Virgin fhield thee well."

"His falchion flames in the van

Knight, Senehall, and Caftellan."

Caufton and Roche-Chourat poife the fpear,
And Clayton calls on Boutelleire."

This is a bad echo of what was originally bad.

In fome other paffages we have a few forms of expreffion from Gray and from Milton, which fhould have been acknowledged, as they could not in the leaft detract from the original beauties of the poem. The rich man need not borrow fpangles, and we always wifh to fee Mr. Sotheby write from himself. We have to add, that in the conduct of the story we think the author has fometimes expanded what fhould have been compreffed, and fometimes compreffed what fhould have been expanded, of which we have given fome examples. The principal

lights which fhould reft on the chief figures, are thus, if we' may fay fo, indifcriminately mingled, or thrown upon what might be called the neutral tints; by which the attention is weakened, and led away from the main action, by a variety of distracting and fubordinate interefts.

We were fomewhat disappointed in not finding de Caftro, a more prominent figure, as his fidelity through all fortunes to his master, would have given room for a fine portrait, and we could well have wifhed he had been fubftituted for the Platonic Julian; both because it would have rendered the plot more fimplex & unum, would have been more confiflent with nature and truth, and befides, might have fupplied the fource of a moral lesson.

Such we think are the defects (and from fome defects few poems have been ever free,) and fuch are the beauties of Conftance de Caflile: of the faults, we truft, we have spoken with candour of the beauties, (and they are many,) with warmth. Indifcriminate praife, we think, only not so bad as indifcriminate cenfure. We can recommend with great truth and fincerity the whole Poem, as eminently worthy the tafle, judgement, and talents of a perfon, fo well known and fo highly refpected as this author.

ART. II. Letter to the Right Hon. Ifaac Corry, containing an Epitome of fome of the most curious and important Properties of Irish Fiorin, or Fyoreen Grafs, with Proofs that the Facts by which they have been established are fairly flated, and that the Author is not Mad. By William Richardfon, D.D. To which is added, a Letter from the Right Hon. Ifaac Corry to the Right Hon. Charles Abbot, with Notes on the State of Dr. Richardfon's Crops in 1809. 12mo. 54 pp. Shea, College Green, Dublin*. 1809.

THAT fo fmall a tract fhould be raised to the dignity of a

principal article, in our monthly account of literature, may feem extraordinary; but utility being the best fource of dignity, we cannot hesitate to give it this diftinction. Few things can be more important to the public than the discovery which Dr. Richardfon here feems to eftablifh, in fpite of all that has been faid againft it, and the ridicule attempted to be

* We are not yet informed where it is to be had in London.

thrown

thrown upon himself and his friends; namely, that there is a fpecies of grafs, which not being liable to the fame causes of corruption that affect the common graffes, may be cut and made into hay throughout the winter, and in the most adverse ftate of weather. Another material branch of his discovery is, that this fame fpecies of grafs, called Fiorin, (i.e. the Agroftis Stolonifera of Linnæus) will grow and flourish on peat bogs, immediately after the peat has been cut out, and in many other fituations, generally, and indeed univerfally, confidered as hopeless to the cultivator, in any mode of application. By means of this discovery, if once eftablifhed, our beft lands, now referved for grafs and hay, may be given up to the growth of corn; while the very worst will fuffice to give an abundant fupply of the moft nutritious and moft palatable hay.

Befides the intereft naturally attached to a fubject of such extenfive national benefit, a very great portion of additional gratification is produced, by the lively but decorous jocularity with which Dr. R. defends himself and attacks his opponents. He informs Mr. Corry, who, it feems, was formerly his pupil, that he writes for the fake of defending his own fanity, and his friend's veracity.

"Unfortunately you and I have each laid down our positions fo decidedly that Christmas is an admirable feafon for hay. making; You, that your tutor is not mad; that we cannot now recede with any decency, we must make the best battle we can, and I hope that in our adverfity we shall be allowed to make use of our old weapons, that we may, if poffible, recover, by their aid, our characters for veracity and fanity." P. 5.

He then reminds his quondam pupil that he formerly pointed out to him two fpecies of demonftration, one called à priori, the other à pofteriori, by both which methods he

undertakes to defend the affertions he has circulated. For

this purpofe, he fhows that the neceffity for fo managing common hay as to prevent fermentation, heating, and rotting, arifes from the circumftance of the plants lofing the principle of life when cut; which he confirms by obfervations of the beft chemifts. He then argues, that if there be a fpecies of grafs which does not lofe the preferving principle of life, by being feparated from the roots, of this grafs it ought to be expected that it will not heat, Spoil, or rot, like other graffes. This he affirms to be the peculiar property of the FIORIN, in which the vegetable life is retained for many months, in great vigour, in all parts of its long ftrings, or Stolones, “like animal life in all parts of the Polype." Having thus effab

lifhed his principle, à priori, he proceeds to ftate the arguments à pofteriori, or the facts refulting from clear experi ments. Thefe facts are fo ftrong, and attefled by fo many witneffes*, of high rank, and indifputable veracity, that we do not exactly fee how fcepticifmt itfelf can refift them.

We fhall not attempt to detail thefe experiments, which would make our article nearly as long as the book, but fhall barely fay, that to us they appear completely fatisfactory; and are more than fupported by the letter of Mr. Corry to the Speaker of the Houfe of Commons. But the following paffage is fo ftamped with the easy humour and ftrong fenfe of the writer, that we cannot refrain from extracting it.

"Had the advocates for old ufages conducted themfelves with tolerable modesty, they fhould have been treated with all the tenderness due to ancient prejudices, for you know it is our maxim:

"Parcere fubjectis, fed debellare fuperbos.

"The old school for hay-making has long enjoyed a most unrea. fonable monopoly: they have appropriated to themselves the very beft months of the year, and not content with that option, they infift on the very beft weather in their own feafon; they must make their hay while the fun fhines; for, like the Pope's foldiers (while he had any), they claim the privilege of not marching in

rain.

"They have faftened too, from time immemorial, upon our beft grounds, and on these most of our richest manure is expended.

"Quite fpoiled by indulgence, they fly into a paffion on the leaft femblance of a difference of opinion.

"What could be more civil or refpectful than the conduct of the new school towards them? we claim none of their privileges, we leave them in poffeffion of all their advantages; modeftly propofing to do without any of them; and to be quite content with the feason, the weather, the foil, and even the climate, which they reject for all this we are pronounced mad, and when a friend prefumes to fay a word in our favour, his moral character is impeached most outrageously.

* Many alfo on oath.

+ A whimsical prefs error produces a fentence which bears a laughable double fenfe; in page 9, antifceptic is printed for antiJeptic, and the author fays, "laft winter was far advanced before I myfelf was fully fatisfied of the antifceptic powers of Fiorin Hay." The Doctor has not yet found it antifceptical, but we think he will.

Gg

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXVI. NOV. 1810,

"This

"This treatment, I apprehend, will juftify me for calling thefe irritable gentlemen to the bar of the public; and for trying the comparative merits of the two fchools upon each feparate point, by which the value of hay crops is generally estimated.

"I fhall meet them too, on terms of perfect ecuality, without claiming any indulgence in confequence of the difadvantages under which we labour, and the privations to which we fubject our. felves.

"QUANTITY and QUALITY feems to be the leading circumftances upon which the value of hay crops chiefly depends; I fhall, therefore, meafure fwords with the old school upon each of thefe points feparately; and, as I have not yet fheathed my lo. gical weapons, I fhall difcufs each question both à priori and à pofteriori.

"QUANTITY OF PRODUCE.

"That Fiorin crops when mowed in our feafon, should à priori be more abundant than thofe of any other grafs, is a neceffary confequence from the nature and habits of this vegetable.

"Other meadows have an acmé, a point of perfection, beyond which they never increase; as they advance towards this they improve; as they recede from it they decline, growing daily worfe and worse.

"This property is fo general with meadows, that the old school has precipitately pronounced it to be univerfal; it is from this erroneous judgment that the invaluable qualities of fiorin grafs have remained fo long undiscovered.

"But now we know that this grafs, instead of stopping in its growth like other vegetables, when it comes to flower, continues fteadily to lengthen its ftrings, that is, to ingreafe its quantity; hence it follows, that give this grafs time (our object in late mowing), and its crop bonld far exceed in quantity that of any Stationary grafs. Q. E. D.

"That it actually does fo, we are now to prove à pofteriori, from facts.

"Simple infpection has long fatisfied me, and I have fome. times in confequence ftated, that Fiorin crops were more abun dant than thofe of any other hay.

"This question was first brought to iffue at Portrush last fummer (1808), when my mower declared upon oath that my Fiorin crop was the bet he had cut that year, and alfo that he did not recollect ever to have cut fo fine a crop.

"The magiftrate, too, who adminiftered the eath, certifies, it was nearly double the quantity ufually had on fo much ground; yet, could I have afforded to let that crop ftand, it would have continued to increafe for fome months longer." P. 18.

Mr. Arthur Young, the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, having made rather a rafh affertion, that all cattle will rather forse thun touch the Agroflis Stolonifera," which is

the

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