raging the production of an article is to diminish its price. If the price of meat has increased more than that of corn, will not this circumstance induce the farmer to cultivate the articles which bring the best price, in preference to those that are of less proportional value? Should he say that the low price of corn manifested that the quantity of it brought to market more nearly supplied the demand than that for meat, which indicated that corn was produced in more abundance than cattle; is not Mr. H. aware that, though our corn market may be supplied from the produce of other countries, our flesh-market must be supplied by our own farmers alone? Live cattle, sheep, and hogs, cannot be imported from abroad, as is undoubtedly the case with regard to corn. The increased price of meat, then, only tends to prove that, in spite of all his exertions to supply it, the British farmer has not yet been able to succeed; and that he must still go on in abstracting more and more land from the plough, until the price of corn shall rise so high as to enable him to derive more profit from his ploughed fields than from those that are left in grass.

That butchers' meat may now be confidered as the staff of life, by persons of every description in England, and not bread, as it was in former times, cannot be doubted by any intelligent person who reflects seriously on the subject. Consequently, the same quantity of corn is not consumed by the same number of people now as formerly, but a much greater quantity of meat. Few persons having as yet adverted to the consequences of this change in the diet of the people, on the means of finding subsistence for them from a given extent of land, we shall venture to state a few facts which will tend to throw some light on the important subject of our present disquisition.

Mr. Mackie, in the treatise that Mr. H. has here attempted to refute, has ascertained, with much ingenuity and seeming precision, the quantity of various kinds of vegetable and animal food which are required to make a sufficient meal for one person in good health; and, in p. 247, he states the amount of the produce of ground under various crops, and the number of meals for a man that each could afford. From the data there given, we have calculated the number of persons who could be maintained by the produce of one acre of fertile land, under the following different crops:

The produce of one acre under potatoes will be sufficient to sustain one man 5625 days, or a little more than fifteen men and a half for one year.

The produce of one acre under wheat would sustain one man 915 days, or two men and one-half nearly for one year. REV. DEC. 1797.

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The produce of one fertile acre in pasture, consumed by eattle or sheep, would sustain one man 72 days, or somewhat less than one-fifth of one man for one year.

Hence it appears that the produce of five aeres of fertile grazing land will be required to sustain one man, who lives entirely on butchers' meat, for one year :

That the same five acres of land, if cropped with wheat, would sustain 12 men and one-half for one year; and

That the same five acres of land, if cropped with potatoes, would sustain 77 men and a half!!!

From this plain statement, it will appear very obvious that, however profitable it may be for the farmer and the landlord to convert corn ground into pasture, it must prove highly detrimental to the public, when the mode of finding subsistence for a given number of people, from a given extent of land, is the object in view. The lowest estimate which we can make is, that, on an average of crops, the same extent of land under tillage would sustain 15 times the number of people that it could feed if converted into grass; and that, by extraordinary exertions, the cultivated land might be made to sustain more than four times the number last specified.

When these circumstances are considered, we shall find that the increased demand for butchers' meat, by all classes of people, of late years, has greatly raised its price ;—that this augmentation of price, concurring with the rise of agricultural wages, and with other economical considerations, has induced the farmers to turn their attention chiefly towards supplying that demand; that, in consequence, many tracts of good corn land have been converted into grass: that the change thus produced tends to diminish the quantity of grain grown in this island, in a much higher degree than it tends to increase the quantity of animal food: that thus a great defalcation in the quantity of corn wanted for the supply of this island is occasioned, which must be made up by importation from abroad: that all these effects would be experienced even if the popula tion and general prosperity of the island remained stationary, but that they must be experienced in a yet higher degree if that population be increasing, and the general wealth and prosperity of the people be proportionally augmented: that, if this prosperity shall continue, the same pressing demand for butchers' meat must also continue, and with it the same exertions of the farmer to supply it: that the capability of this island to afford food for all its inhabitants will be thus daily di minishing, till at last the impossibility of finding sufficient animal food will raise the price of that article to such an height,

as

as will compel the inhabitants once more to the use of vegetable food in a greater degree than they now take it: that the price of grain, when we must depend on foreign nations. chiefly for our stock, will be variable, and the supply precarious that this will occasion not an increase of price only, as we saw of late, but a real scarcity, which may terminate in actual famine; and that then, perhaps, we may begin to turn our attention to the plough, and give to agriculture that encouragement which self-preservation ought now to dictate.

It is much to be regretted that a respectable man like Mr. Howlett should have adopted, as in the present pamphlet, a mode of writing which may be characterised as consisting of vague assertions, delusive reasoning, and disguised facts. Zeal, we know, will often outrun judgment; and several passages occur in this work, which strongly indicate the cause of that bias which has perverted the judgment of the author on this occasion. Be this as it may, however, the petulant air that runs through the whole, the extravagant assertions heaped on each other without probability or proof, and the material ignorance of the subject discoverable in almost every page, induced us to mark, as we proceeded, many passages which were reprehensible and absurd: but the greatest part of these passages we have chosen to suppress, as the selection of them would tend merely to cherish a splenetic humour, without answering any good purpose. In their stead, we have brought forwards some facts and deductions, in which general utility has been our sole object.

Mr. H. ought not to think that the tone of reprehension which we have been obliged to assume is derogatory to his moral character; nor that it indicates more than a blameable inconsiderateness on his part. In another walk, he may be fitted to excel, but here he is quite out of his place. It is as if a grave philosopher should enter a ball-room in his nightcap and slippers, and attempt in that dress to lead up a dance; there he would be justly an object of ridicule, though in his study he would command a greater share of respect than perhaps any one of the company.

N. B. We have not thought it necessary to pay particular attention to the note which Mr. Howlett has inserted, respecting ourselves. Having seen no reason for altering any thing that we before said, we judged it better to illustrate some other points than to dwell on one which we did not consider as requiring any additional illustration.

ART. XI. Discourses on different Subjects; by George Isaac Huntingford, D. D. Warden of St. Mary's College, Winchester. Vol. II. 6s. Boards. Cadell jun. and Davies. 1797.

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To

o counteract the poison of infidelity, which is spreading its baneful influence among the ignorant and inexperienced, we sincerely recommend to the public a second volume of discourses by the learned Dr. Huntingford *. The subjects of these compositions are judiciously adapted to the present period; and they display soundness of argument expressed with energy, and a dignified eloquence formed after the model of the antient classics; though popular and flowing language does not seem to have been the writer's object : for, like painters of the higher and graver style, he works with a severity which "Catches not at applause by inferior qualities." Those who may differ from Dr. H. in some points of doctrine cannot but admire his zeal in what he feels to be the cause of God and pran; and they must at the same time perceive that benevofence which evinces a heart good without weakness, and pious without enthusiasm.

In the notes are frequent allusions to the best antient and modern classics, selected with the taste and judgment of the true scholar.

Perhaps the following analysis of the discourse on false philosophy, which we select on account of its obvious application to present times, may enable our readers to form some judg ment of the merit of this publication.

TEXT, Beware lèst any man spoil you through philosophy. Col. ii. 8.

In this discourse, the inexperienced are guarded against the delusions of a specious philosophy, which may mislead them into the most pernicious errors under the mask of good quali ties; they are therefore instructed to be very cautious how they depart from generally received principles and established customs, lest they may actually be instrumental in occasioning some of the worst evils that can befall human society. True philosophy is a noble science, because it is consistent and corresponding with the nature of man: but false philosophy is contrary to the nature of man and his several relations to society and to his Maker. The deceits, the forgeries, and the inchantments of this vizor'd impostor are thus detected and exposed:

This philosophy is false, in asserting that man in society retains all his natural rights; because, in exchange for the principal blessings of society, which consist in more certain

* For the 1st vol, see Rev. N. S. vol. xviii. p. 262.

subsistence,

subsistence, in protection and assistance in necessity, man relinquishes his savage liberty of roaming at large for his prey, his private vengeance, and the following without controul his brutal and ferocious passions.

It is false in maintaining that all men are equal; because inequality is evident from the disparity of bodily and mental faculties, both in the savage and civilized state; if in the civilized state there were no superior minds to direct, no possible government could exist.

It is false in its arrogant opinion that man is perfect; because the history of man in every state plainly demonstrates that man is imperfect, and all laws against crimes are in conse quence of the crimes and imperfections of man.

It is false in expecting that any human institution can be perfect; because every work of man must more or less bear the signs of that imperfection which is inseparable from the nature

of its author.

It is false in proposing to endanger the whole for the sake of attempting to improve a part; for it would be ignorance or madness to endanger the vital parts of the body natural, in order to make an experiment in healing the extremities.

It is false in conceiving that, since the use of any thing is good, therefore the abuse must also be good; because liberty of action is good, but, if carried to the excess of anarchy, it is a dreadful evil; liberty of speech also is good, but, if used in slander and blasphemy, it is impious and injurious.

It is false in supposing that the operation of the same principle should always proceed in the same direction; because liberty, civil and religious, is a virtuous principle: but if one proceeds to despotism and the other to persecution and atheism, the proper direction of the principle is altered.

It is false in denying the difference of things; because, by nature as well as by his improved faculties, man distinguishes right from wrong. We naturally admire the humanity of T tus, and abhor the cruelty of Domitian;-the innocent naturally feels indignation at being charged with crimes which he abhors. This is an involuntary impulse of the mind, which is exasperated at the idea of having been thought guilty of a base act, and resents the injustice of a suspicion not merited: this is a double proof of the power of discerning right from

wrong.

It is false in teaching to do evil that good may come of it; because, on this principle, there would be no security of rights, which is one of the essential blessings of society; nor could there be any confidence in man; and without confidence, society must be dissolved. It is said, do evil to individuals,

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