But this table gives by no means a sufficient idea of the distress at present arising from this heavy tax; as in a variety of instances, the farmers who lately paid to these rates, have been obliged to give up their farms, and are actually become paupers themselves, receiving parochial allowances like other paupers; and this increased burthen in many other parishes occurs, while farms are unoccupied or run waste; and, in the cases the most favourable, the burthen falls with increasing weight on the landlords. The letters contain many complaints, that while the manufacturers, who have occasioned the chief burthen,

pay scarcely any thing to the rates, the accumulated weight falls on the occupiers of land.

The complaints almost universally made of the increase, heavy burthen, and most mischievous consequences to the industry of the people, which result from poor-rates, form a conspicuous feature among the complaints of the correspondents; insomuch, that many apprehensions are expressed of this system being permitted to continue, and increase till it will absorb, in union with tithes, the whole rental of the kingdom, leaving nothing more to the landlords of it, than that of acting as trustees and managers for the benefit of others.

But the surprising circumstance of this result, is the increase being so general at the very period in which, from the reduced price of provisions, a directly contrary effect might have been expected. To find that rates have risen, while the principal object in the support and nourishment of the poor has fallen in price above 100 per cent. seems to be extraordinary; nor could such a result have been found, but in an administration liable to so many objections. We cannot be surprised at a great number of these correspondents calling with anxiety for regulations in a system which tends directly to the annihilation of all industry.

The extreme burthen arising from poor-rates, is a subject which can never have too much attention paid to it; and its nature can be well understood only by reference to particular cases : thus, it deserves attention, that this tax has been collected in cer2 H 2

tain

tain districts of Wales, in kind, if the expression be permitted, that is, the substances necessary for the support of the poor, taken instead of the value in money ;—it may be presumed, through a want of circulating medium. The amount to which this tax can rise, may be understood by referring to the case of Halstead in Essex, where it rises to 5s. 6d. in the pound for one quarter of a year, taken at one-fifth under the rack-rent; and at Coggeshall, in the same county, much higher: and in a parish near Sandwich in Kent, it amounts to 22s. per acre. Such facts require no comment. The abuses to which this administration is liable, may be felt from the Somersetshire case, of parish paupers becoming claimants as creditors on the effects of a bankrupt.

58

31

draining-brick ..

Letter, the Bank of England

The great object of the Board in these inquiries, has been to collect facts. If it be asked, what conclusions are to be drawn from these facts? Such will, of course, suggest themselves with the greatest clearness to the members of the legislature. With this expectation before us, we cannot but be surprised at the anxiety felt, and the apprehensions expressed by many of the ablest persons (being magistrates of extensive jurisdictions) amongst the Correspondents, whose letters are the basis of this general result: but the Board cannot forbear making one observation, as it may be extremely important to the future state of the country, when it is considered that the tracts absolutely uncultivated are of considerable extent, and that a great number of farms are thrown upon the landlords' hands in a period when it must of necessity be extremely inconvenient to attempt their cultivation, in many

cases heavily burthensome, and in some ruinous; it must be evident, that the management of these farms may probably be so very imperfect, as to occasion a great defalcation in the produce of corn. Of the same tendency is another circumstance mentioned in the letters, the preparation for the next crop of wheat being extremely deficient. It may also be observed, that among the circumstances mentioned in reply to the Fourth Query, is that of a very general neglect of all purchased manures, together with a discharge of labourers formerly employed, to an amount that must considerably affect the future cultivation of the soil. These points, if duly considered, may afford no slight reason for apprehending a considerable declension in the amount of future productions; and should such an effect arrive, it may come at a time in which the pressure will be more severely felt.

CHARACTERS.

Biographical Account of Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia; by David Hosack, M.D. F.R.S. &c. &c. of New York, From Dr. Thomson's Annals of Philosophy, vol. viii. No. 2.

R. RUSH was born Dec. 24,

about 12 miles from the city of Philadelphia. His ancestors followed William Penn from England to Pennsylvania, in the year 1683. They chiefly belonged to the society of Quakers, and were all, as well as his parents, distinguished for the industry, the virtue, and the piety, characteristic of their sect. His grandfather, James Rush, whose occupation was that of a gunsmith, resided on his estate near Philadelphia, and died in the year 1727. His son John, the father of Dr. Rush, inherited both his trade and his farm, and was equally distinguished for his industry and ingenuity. He died while his son Benjamin was yet young, but left him to the care of an excellent and pious mother, who took an active interest in his education and welfare.

In a letter which I had the pleasure to receive from Dr. Rush, a short time before his death, and which was written upon his return from a visit to the tomb of his ancestors, he thus expresses the obligation he felt for the early

of piety he had re

ceived from his parents:

"I have acquired and received nothing from the world which I prize so highly as the religious principles I inherited from them; and I possess nothing that I value so much as the innocence and purity of their characters."

But this was not the only source of that virtue and religion for which he was so eminently distinguished. His mother, as if influenced with a presentiment of the future destinies of her son, resolved to give him the advantages of the best education which our country then afforded. For this purpose he was sent, at the early age of eight or nine years, to the West Nottingham Grammar School, and placed under the care of his maternal uncle, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Finley, an ex

cellent

cellent scholar and an eminent teacher, and whose talents and learning afterwards elevated him to the Presidency of the College of Princeton. At this school young Rush remained five years, for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, and other branches necessary to qualify him, as preparatory for a collegiate course of study. But under the tuition and guidance of Dr. Finley, he was not only instructed in classical literature; he also acquired what was of no less importance, and which characterized him through life—a habit of study and observation, a reverence for the Christian religion, and the habitual performance of the duties it inculcates; for his accomplished and pious instructor not only regarded the temporal, but the spiritual, welfare of those committed to his care.

At the age of 14, after completing his course of classical studies, he was removed to the College of Princeton, then under the superintendance of President Davies, one of the most eloquent preachers and learned divines our country has produced.

At College, our pupil not only performed his duties with his usual attention and success, but he became distinguished for his talents, his uncommon progress in his studies, and especially for his eloquence in public speaking. For this latter acquirement he was doubtless indebted to the example set before him by President Davies, whose talents as a pulpit orator were universally acknowledged, and were frequently the theme of his pupil's admiration.

Dr. Rush received the degree

of Bachelor of Arts in the autumn of 1760, at the early age of 15. The next succeeding six years of his life were devoted to the study of medicine, under the direction of Dr. John Redman, at that time an eminent practitioner in the city of Philadelphia. Upon commencing the study of medicine, the writings of Hippocrates were amongst the very first works which attracted his attention; and as an evidence of the early impression they made upon his mind, and of the attachment he had formed to them, let it be remembered that Dr. Rush, when a student of medicine, translated the aphorisms of Hippocrates from the Greek into his vernacular tongue, in the 17th year of his age. From this early exercise he probably derived that talent of investigation, that spirit of inquiry, and those extensive views of the nature and causes of disease, which give value to his writings, and have added important benefits to the science of medicine. The same mode of acquiring knowledge which was recommended by Mr. Locke, with the very manner of his commonplace book, was also early adopted by Dr. Rush, and was daily continued to the last of his life. To his records, made in 1762, we are at this day indebted for many important facts illustrative of the yellow fever, which prevailed in, and desolated the city of Philadelphia, in that memorable year. Even in reading, it was the practice of Dr. Rush, and for which he was first indebted to his friend Dr. Franklin, to mark with a pen or pencil any important fact, or any peculiar expression, remarkable either for its strength or its elegance.