"FIRST, by affording a great and ready market for the rude produce of the country, they gave encouragement to its cultivation and further improvement. This benefit was not even confined to the countries in which they were fituated, but extended more or less to all thofe with which they had any dealings. To all of them they afforded a market for fome part either of their rude or manufactured produce, and confequently gave fome encouragement to the industry and improvement of all. Their own country, how ever, on account of its neighbourhood, neceffarily derived the greatest benefit from this market. Its rude produce being charged with lefs carriage, the traders could pay the growers a better price for it, and yet afford it as cheap to the confumers as that of more diftant countries.

"SECONDLY, the wealth acquired by the inhabitants of cities was frequently employed in purchafing fuch lands as were to be fold, of which a great part would frequently be uncultivated. Merchants are commonly ambitious of becoming country gentlemen, and when they do, they are generally the best of all improvers. A merchant is accustomed to employ his money chiefly in profitable projects; whereas a mere country gentleman is accustomed to employ it chiefly in expence. The one often fees his money go from him and return to him again with a profit: The other when once he parts with it, very feldom expects to fee any more of it. Thofe different habits naturally affect their temper and difpofition in every fort of bulinefs. A merchant is commonly a bold; a country gentleman, a timid undertaker. The one is not afraid to lay out at once a large capital upon the improvement of his land, when he has a probable profpect of raifing the value of it in proportion to the expence. The other, if he has any capital, which is not always the cafe, feldom ventures to employ it in this manner. If he improves at all, it is commonly not with a capital, but with what he can fave out of his annual revenue. Whoever has had the fortune to live in a mercantile town fitusted in an unimproved country, must have frequently obferved how much more fpirited the operations of merchants were in this way, than those of mere country gentlemen. The habits, befides, of order, economy and attention, to which mercantile business naturally forms a merchant, render him much fitter to execute, with profit and fuccefs, any project of improvement.

THIRDLY, and lastly, commerce and manufactures gradually introduced order and good government, and with them, the liberty and fecurity of individuals, among the inhabitants of the country, who had before lived almost in a continual state of war with their neighbours, and of fervile dependency upon their fuperiors."

Speaking of the fituation of our own country in this respect

he lays.

66

England, on account of the natural fertility of the foil, of the great extent of fea coaft in proportion to that of the whole country, and of the many navigable rivers which run through it, and afford the conveniency of water carriage to fome of the most inland parts

of it, is perhaps as well fitted by nature as any large country in Europe, to be the feat of foreign commerce, of manufactures for diftant fale, and of all the improvements which these can occation. From the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth too, the English legiflature has been peculiarly attentive to the interefts of commerce and manufactures, and in reality there is no country in Europe, Holland itself not excepted, of which the law is upon the whole more favourable to this fort of industry. Commerce and manufactures have accordingly been continually advancing during all this period. The cultivation and improvement of the country has, no doubt, been gradually advancing too: But it feems to have followed flowly, and at a diftance, the more rapid progress of commerce and manufactures. The greater part of the country must probably have been cultivated before the reign of Elizabeth; and a very great part of it ftill remains uncultivated, and the cultivation of the far greater part much inferior to what it might be. The law of England, however, favours agriculture not only indirectly by the protection of commerce, but by feveral direct encouragements. Except in times of fcarcity, the exportation of corn is not only free, but encouraged by a bounty. In times of moderate plenty, the importation of foreign corn is loaded with duties that amount to a prohibition. The importation of live cattle, except from Ireland, is prohibited at all times, and it is but of late that it was permitted from thence. Those who cultivate the land, therefore, have a monopoly against their countrymen for the two greatest and most important articles of land-produce, bread and butcher's meat. Thefe encouragements, though at bottom, perhaps, as I fhall endeavour to fhow hereafter, altogether illufory, fufficiently demonftrate at least the good intention of the legislature to favour agriculture. But what is of much more importance than all of them, the yeomanry of England are rendered as fecure, as independent, and as refpectable as law can make them. No country, therefore, in which the right of primogeniture takes place, which pays tithes, and where perpetuities, though contrary to the fpirit of the law, are admitted in fome cafes, can give more encou ragement to agriculture than England. Such, however, notwithftanding, is the state of its cultivation What would it have been; had the law given no direct encouragement to agriculture befides what arifes indirectly from the progrels of commerce, and had left the yeomanry in the fame condition as in moft other countries of Europe? It is now more than two hundred years fince the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, a period as long as the course of human profperity ufually endures."

Of the fecond volume of this celebrate and inftructive performance we shall give an account in a future review.

ART. II. Philofophical Tranfactions, giving fome account of the prefent undertakings, ftudies and labours, of the Ingenious, in many confiderable parts of the world. Vol. LXV. for the year 1775, Part II. 4to. 7s. 6d. Davis.

In conformity to the method, in which we firft proposed to give an account of thefe Tranfactions, we prefent our readers with the contents of this fecond part of the volume for laft year.

"AR XVI An abridged state of the weather at London in the year 1774, collected from the meteorological journal of the Royal Society." By S. Horfley, LL.D. Sec. R. S.-XVII. Extract of a meteorological journal for the year 1774, kept at Bristol, by Samuel Farr, M. D. -XVIII. Extract of a register of the barometer, thermometer, and rain, at Lyndon, in Rutland, 1774. By Thomas Barker, Efquire. Communicated by Sir John Pringle, Bart. P. R. S.-XIX. An account of fome thermometical obfervations, made by Sir Robert Barker, F. R. S. at Allahabad in the East Indies, in lat. 25° 30' N. during the year 1767, and alfo during a voyage from Madras to England, in the year 1774. Extracted from the original journal by the Hon. Henry Cavendish, F R. S.-XX. A fecond effay on the natural history of the fea anemonies. By the Abbé Dicquemare, member of feveral academies, and profeffor of natural philofophy, &c. at Havre de Grace.-XXI. Account of the fea-cow, and the ufe made of it. By Molineux Shuldham, Efquire. Communicated by the Hon. Daines Barrington, F. R. S.-XXII. The process of making ice in the East Indies. By Sir Robert Barker, F. R. S. in a letter to Dr. Brocklefby.-XXIII. Of the houfe-fwallow, fwift, and fand-martin. By the Rev. Gilbert White, in three letters to the Hon. Daines Barrington, F. R. S.-XXIV. Account of a machine for raifing water, executed at Oulton, in Chefhire, in 1772. In a letter from Mr. John Whitehurst to Dr. Franklin.-XXV. Extract of a letter from Mr. Lexel to Dr. Morton. Dated Petersburg, June 14, 1774.-XXVI. An investigation of a general theorem for finding the length of any arc of a conic hyperbola, by means of two elliptic arcs, with fome other new and ufeful theorems deduced therefrom. By John Landen, F. R S.-XXVII Obfervations made at Chislehurst, in Kent, in the year 1774. By the Rev. Francis Wollaston, LL. B. F. R S.-XXVIII. Of triangles described in circles and about them. By John Stedman, M. D-XXIX. De polygonis areâ vel perimetro maximis et minimis, infcriptis circulo, vel circulum circumfcribentibus. Auctore S. Horley, LL. D. R S. Sec. XXX. An account of an extraordinary acephalous birth. By W. Cooper, M. D. in a letter to William Hunter, M. D. F. R. SXXXI. Obfervations on the state of population in Manchester, and other adjacent places, concluded. By Thomas Percival, M. D. FR. S. and S A. Communicated by the Rev. Dr. Price, F. R. S. -XXXII An account of the effects of lightning on a house, which

*See London Review, vol. II. page 66.

was

was furnished with a pointed conductor, at Tenterden, in Kent. In two letters from Richard Haffenden, efquire, the proprietor of the house, to Mr. Henley. To which are added fome remarks by Mr. Henley.-XXXIII. Of the torpidity of fwallows and martins.. By James Cornish, furgeon, at Totnefs, Devonshire, in fundry letters to the honourable Daines Barrington, F. R. S. and M. Maty, M. D. Sec. R. S.-XXXIV. Defcription and use of a portable wind gage. By Dr. James Lind, phyfician, at Edinburgh.-XXXV. Aftronomical obfervations made at Leicester. By the rev. Mr. Ludlam, vicar of Norton, near Leicester. Communicated by the aftronomer royal.-XXXVI. Remarks and confiderations relative to the performance of amputation above the knee, by the fingle circular incifion. By Benjamin Gooch, furgeon at Norwich XXXVII. Concerning aneuryfms in the thigh. By Benjamin Gooch, furgeon at Norwich.-XXXVIII. An account of further difcoveries in air. By the Rev. Jofeph Priestley, LL. D. F. R. S. in letters to Sir John Pringle, bart. P. R. S and the Rev. Dr. Price, F. R. S-XXXIX. An account of the gymnotus electricus. By John Hunter, F. R. S.-XL. Some obfervations upon myrrh, made in Abyffinia, in the year 1771, and fent to William Hunter, M. D with fpecimens, in February, 1775. By James Bruce, Efq. -XLI. An account of a curious giant's caufeway, or group of angular columns, newly discovered in the Euganean Hills, near Padua, in Italy. In a letter from John Strange, Efq. F. R. S to Sir John Pringle,Bart. P. R. S.-XLII Obfervations on the difference between the duration of human life in towns and in country parishes and villages. By the Rev. Richard Price, D. D. F. R. S. communicated by Dr. Horfley.-XLIII. Experiments on animals and vegetables, with refpect to the power of producing beat. By John Hurter, F. R. S.-XLIV. A comparison of the heat of London and Edinburgh. By John Roebuck, M. D. F. R. S. in a letter to William Heberden, M. D. F. R. S.-XLV. Experiments in an heated room. By Matthew Dobfon, M. D. In a letter to John Fothergill, M. D F. R. S.-XLVI. Calculations in fpherical trigonometry abridged. By Ifrael Lyons. In a letter to Sir John Pringle, Bart P.R S-XLVII. Further experiments and obfervations in an heated room. By Charles Blagden, M. D. F. R. S. -XLVIII. A propofal for measuring the attraction of fome hill in this kingdom by aftronomical obfervations. By the Rev. Nevil Mafkelyne, B. D. F. R. S. and aftronomer royal.-XLIX. An account of obfervations made on the mountain Schehallien for finding its attraction. By the Rev. Nevil Maskelyne, B. D. F. R. S and aftronomer royal.

It has been long a doubt with the naturalifts whether fwallows and martins remain in a torpid ftate during the winter, or are birds of paffage and emigrate to the fouthern climates.* The determination

* In the account given of the houfe-fwallow, fwift and fandmartin by the Rev. Mr. White, in Art. XXIII. that gentleman

mentions

1

termination of this point may be regarded, therefore, as a grand defideratum in natural Hiftory; which appears to have. been attained by the affiduity and prefeverance of Mr. Cornifh of Totness; whofe obfervations are contained in the thirty third article. His letters to the Hon. Daines Barrington, on this fubject, will, we doubt not, he acceptable to our readers. "Sir, I fhould not have deferred a fingle poft acknowledging the receipt of your favour of the 19th it. if I could fo foon have procured a fecond petufal of your very interesting paper, published

in

mentions a fingularity in the colour of the fwift, which militates against the notion of their emigration; and, of course against that of all the fpecies of the birundines, "There is a circumftance, fays this naturalift, refpecting the colour of fwifts, which feems not to be unworthy our attention. When they appear in the spring they are all over of a gloffy, dark, foot colour, except their chins, which are white; but by being all day long in the fun and air they become quite weather-beaten and bleached before they depart; and yet they return gloffy again in the fpring. Now if they pursue the fun into lower latitudes, as fome fuppofe, in order to enjoy a perpetual fummer, why do they not return bleached? Do they not rather, perhaps, retire to reft for a feafon, and at that juncture moult and change their feathers, fince all other birds are known to moult foon after the feafon of breeding? Swifts are very anomalous in many particulars, diffenting from all their congeners not only in the number of their young, but in breeding but once in a fummer; whereas all the other British hirundines breed invariably twice. It is patt all doubt, that fwifts can breed but once, fince they withdraw in a very thort time after the flight of their young, and fome time before their congeners bring out their fecond brood We may here remark, that as fwifts breed but once in a fummer, and only two at a time, and the other hirundines twice, the latter, who lay from four to fix eggs, increafe at an average five times as fast as the former. But in nothing are swifts more fingular than in their early retreat. They retire, as to the main body of them, by the 10th of Auguft, and fometimes a few days fooner; and every ftraggler invariably withdraws by the zeth, while their congeners, all of them, ftay till the beginning of October, many of them ftay all through the month, and fome occafionally to the beginning of November. This early retreat is mysterious and wonderful, fince that time is often the fwecteft feafon in the year. But what is more wonderful, they retire ftill earlier in the most foutherly parts of Andalufia, where they can be no ways influenced by any defect of heat; or, as one might fuppofe, by any defect of food. Are they regulated in their motions with us by a failure of food? or by a propenfity to moulting? or by a difpofition to reft after fo rapid a life? or by what? This is one of thofe incidents in natural history that not only baffles our fearches, but almost eludes our gueffes 1.