many other qualities, peculiarly valuable to the rearer, in certain circumstances, that are altogether compatible with those here fo much prized. This fubject, therefore, has yet been only imperfectly confidered; and though this country is under great, obligations to Mr. Bakewell, and to his diftinguished competitors, for what they have already done, it would be wrong to fuppofe that they had carried the improvement of domeftic animals to the ne plus ultra. Much yet remains to be done; and we are, perhaps, but on the very entrance into the wide improveable field, that remains to be cultivated for the benefit of pofterity.

We must not stop to particularize all the means that have been here adopted for producing these improvements. Referring to the volumes for particulars, we can only remark, that they have, in general, been effected by a careful felection of thofe individual animals, at first, which were found to poffefs the defirable peculiarities, and by preferving them from intermixing with others, after they had once been obtained.

A neceffary confequence of this principle has been, that he who had procured a breed poffeffing the qualities coveted, had cbtained a treasure which was much defired by all his rivals, and which he has found it his intereft to keep up as long as he could. The great point of emulation among these breeders, feems to have been to fecure to themselves the beft breed of females; and by keeping thefe folely to themfelves, to let out for hire their beft males, at a high price, to improve the breeds of others. By using also the best males for their own fuperior females, they always ftrive to preferve their own fuperiority. This fyftem, like most other new practices, was attended with but fmall fuccefs in the beginning, but has now risen to be an object of vaft importance. At first, the price, of the let of a ram for a feafon, was fmall in comparison to what it now is. Mr. Bakewell, we are told, was the first who introduced this practice. About forty years ago, he let a ram at Leicester fair, at the price of fixteen fhillings, which is the first instance of letting rams in this diftrict, that can be traced.

From the first letting, to the year 1780, the price kept gradually rifing, from fifteen fhillings to a guinea, and from one guinea to ten. In 1780, Mr. Bakewell let feveral at ten guineas each.

From that time, to 1786, Mr. Bakewell's stock rose rapidly, from ten to a hundred guineas; and, that year, he let two thirds of one ram, (referving one third of the ufual number of ewes to himfelf,) to two principal breeders, for a hundred guineas each; the entire fervices of the ram, (for that feafon only) being rated at

*We particularize this fpecies of live ftock, because the improvements have been carried fartheft on them.

three

three hundred guineas! Mr. Bakewell making, in that year, by letting twenty rams only, more than a thousand pounds!!

Since that time, the prices have been ftill rifing. Four hundred guineas have been repeatedly given. Mr. Bakewell, this year, (1789,) makes, I understand, twelve hundred guineas by three rams, (brothers, I believe,) two thousand of feven, and, of his whole letting, full three thoufand guineas †!!!

Befide this extraordinary fum made by Mr. Bakewell, there are fix or seven other breeders, who make from five hundred to a thou fand guineas each. The whole amount of monies produced this year, in the midland counties, by letting rams of the modern breed, for one feafon only, is estimated, by those who are adequate to the Fubject, at the almost incredible fum of TEN THOUSAND POUNDS."

That this eftimate is rather under than above the truth, we have reason to believe; as the writer of this article was affured, from what he efteems the beft authority, that the whole fum thus drawn in this district was not under twelve thoufand pounds, in the last feafon.

We mark this fact with particular fatisfaction, as it will tend to convey to foreign countries a ftriking idea of the spirit for enterprize that diftinguishes this nation: nor do we note it as any peculiarity inherent merely in the people of this island, but as an inftance of that energy which is the natural result of freedom. In other countries, princes and great men endeavour to compel their fubjects to attempt arduous enterprizes; or they allure them by infignificant honorary rewards. Here, the only, and the all-fufficient ftimulus, is the certainty that a man cannot be deprived of the fruits of his labour or ingenuity, by the exertions of the king himself, or of any one elfe. He is, therefore, at liberty to ruminate on the probable benefits which his own family may derive from bold and novel attempts at improvement. Hence they are contrived by individuals, without the intervention of government, and are carried into effect without national support of any fort.

We regret that our limits forbid us to follow the author through his very judicious accounts of the four different kinds. of domestic animals above enumerated, that have been brought to their prefent unrivalled ftate in this diftrict, particularly fheep; with regard to which very useful animal, we might here fpecify many curious particulars that would be highly intereiting to our readers: but, as we prefume that no

Not, however, by individual breeders: three hundred have been given by an individual.'

+Mr. B. lets nothing now under twenty guineas; a welljudged regulation, which will probably be beneficial both to himfelf and his customers.'.

one who wishes to be fully acquainted with this fubject, will be contented without perufing the work itfelf, we quit it with the lefs reluctance. In taking our leave of this article, we fhall only remark, that though Mr. M. has evidently been in a great measure unacquainted with the subject of improving the breeds of domeftic animals, before he went into this diftrict, and has therefore been naturally led to lean toward the particular opinions here generally received on this subject, yet his own native good fenfe induces him to fufpect, from observation, that they may in fome refpects be fallacious, fo as to lead him to a neceffary degree of fcepticism. This is particularly obfervable in respect to his obfervations on the improvement of wool ;-a fubject which, evidently, he has never ftudied deeply, but which, it is plain, he would very soon understand, had he opportunities of making the neceffary obfervations. He often points toward the right path, without diftinctly perceiving whither it would tend.

The fecond volume, as in his work on the Rural Economy of Norfolk, confifts of minutes on detached fubjects, written by the author as they occafionally occurred: a most useful mode of procedure by a candid enquirer. In these minutes, the obfervations and opinions of the writer are fet down for future examination, and anfwer the valuable purposes of preferving important facts from falling into oblivion, of impreffing opinions, and of recording hints, on the mind, that deferve a more careful examination, to be either confirmed or rejected by experience. They have the farther advantage of exhibiting the ftate of the country, and the manners of the people, more clearly than it could be done in any other way, as well as the true ftate of the writer's knowlege :—but this mode of writing is attended with the peculiar disadvantage, of laying the author more open to cenfure, than, perhaps, any other method could do. It is like a man uttering a foliloquy, which is overheard by others; his mind is exhibited in all its nakednefs. Few writers, that we know, could ftand this trial fo well as Mr. Marshall: yet a captious critic might here find feveral things to which he could object: for our own part, knowing that perfection does not belong to man, we are fenfible that there is not one in a thousand, among those who fhould find this author treading a path, at a particular time, with which they were better acquainted than he was, who would not very foon, if they accompanied him, find themselves thrown out. Even when he enters on a new path, he advances with a firm and cautious ftep, which indicates that a little practice would foon be fufficient to make him well acquainted with it.

As a fpecimen of this part of the author's work, we shall infert the following extract:

Minute 134-March ift. Yefterday, took down three remarkably thriving elms.

The number of rings, twenty-nine, befide the inner bark; thirty years old: an age which is corroborated by living evidence. Two of them but more than two feet diameter; and measure, at four feet high, more than eighteen inches.

6

What a produce! Thefe two as large, but not larger, on a par, than eight more left standing, measure forty-four feet, timber meafure, including bark; about forty feet of fale timber, worth a fhilling a foot, £. 2 о O 5 4

16 fencing pofts and rails, 4d.

9 feet of cord-wood,

40 fpray faggots,

These trees ftand not quite eight yards from each other; confequently each may be faid to occupy two rods, or fquare perches of land; and their produce an acre a year may be easily calculated.

From the almost uniform fize of the rings, these elms appear to have been fill in full growth; and might perhaps have continued fo ten or twenty years longer, provided the distance between them would have admitted air and head-room. But their tops already interfered, and their roots, in all probability, had reached each other; it is therefore unlikely they would long have continued to make a fimilar progrefs; and a doubt, perhaps, whether they would longer have paid for land-room. Befide, the grafs, though already injured, will foon recover itself, and the roots of the elm rotting in the ground, will become new refreshment to it. thefe trees being "ftocked," (the roots cut off close to the buts,) the ground disturbed in taking them down is fmall: a hole about three feet in diameter, which half a load of earth would fill up; the furface of which being fown with grafs feeds, the entire ground would revert immediately to grafs land *.

And

Not the soil only, but the PLANTS from which thofe trees have been raised, appear to have been good. Each tree was fur nished with ten or twelve horizontal roots, fet regularly round the

* I do not mean to recommend, in general terms, the planting of rich, deep, fandy loams, worth, as old grafs land, twentyfive or thirty fhillings an acre, (as the land under notice is) with elms; yet, from this incident it appears, that there may be fituations in which they might be planted on rich grafs lands with profit.

It is here obfervable, however, that in another inftance, on this eftate, in which elms have been planted on a lefs rich foil, and on a cooler, more retentive fubfoil, they have made a flow progress.'

REY, DEC. 1790,

Ff

but,

1

but, each about the thickness of the thigh: the downward roots few; merely a bundle of wiry fibres, refembling a birch broom.”

From the obfervations that follow, we meet with proofs that the oak is a very profitable tree :-but for these, and for many other interefting particulars, we refer to the work itself.

Planting timber trees feems to be a favourite pursuit with Mr. Marshall; and his directions on that head are very particular. He is here, however, but a learner himself.

The work is concluded with a lift of rates of different kinds of labour, a gloflary of provincial words, as ufual, and is preceded by a map of the diftrict.

We think this performance contains rather more interesting matter than fome of the author's former works

not that it will add to his well-earned reputation.

and we doubt

ART. IX. Sermons, by William Leechman, D. D. late Principal of the College of Glasgow. To which is prefixed fome Account of the Author's Life, and of his Lectures, by James Wodrow, D. D. Minifter at Stevenston. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 450 in each. 12s. Boards. Cadell. 1789.

IT

is one of the moft agreeable parts of our office, to pay a tribute of refpect to the memory of eminent men, on whom public opinion has ftamped the character of uncommon merit. Dr. Leechman has long been known and respected as an eminent divine, an able preceptor, and an excellent man. His name is revered in the univerfity of Glasgow, where his judicious and faithful fervices, firft in the theological chair, and afterward as principal, obtained him univerfal esteem; and his writings, though few in number, and wholly confined to one fpecies of compofition, (that of fermons,) have gained him a degree of reputation in the literary world, which many more voluminous writers have not attained. The few difcourfes, which he published during his life, have been much read, and ftill continue to be admired as models of that kind of popular addrefs, which, at the fame time that it arrests the attention, and interefts the feelings, enlightens the understanding.

Thefe difcourfes, which are, On the Character of a Minifter, On Prayer, On the Wisdom of God in the Gospel Revelation, and On the Excellence of the Spirit of Chriftianity, are here republished* in nine fermons. The editor has fubjoined others from Dr. Leechman's manufcripts, all of the practical kind, which, though they were not prepared by the author for the prefs, will not difcredit his memory: they appear to have been the natural and eafy productions of an enlightened mind, and a pious and benevolent heart. Several of them were preached before the

See our General Index.

university,