cupied feparately. But there must be a period in the fize of farms, at which this advantage must end; and beyond which, a farm may be too big to be managed properly or profitably.

The fize of a Wiltshire farm fhould be, therefore, fuch as the master's eye, and one principal servant in each department, can manage properly; and for this, one head carter, with fuch a number of boys as may occafionally be wanted, and one head fhepherd, with affiftance at feafons of urgency, will generally be fufficient. Perhaps, the loweft fize of a Wiltfhire down farm, that can be managed to advantage, is a good fix horse bufinefs, and the higheft, a nine horfe bufinefs, or ten, at the utmoft. Beyond this extent, two men are required in each of thefe fubordinate capacities; a jealoufy is excited between them; the master's eye is infufficient to manage them, and a bailiff is neceffary. This bufinefs becomes then, to all intents and purpofes, two farms; and would certainly be better managed if in the occupation of two farmers. It is not meant here to fay, that all the farms in this diftrict, of a smaller defcription than a fix horse business, fhould be confolidated. That would be cruelty as well as impolicy.

Where there are buildings proper for the occupation of farms in that ftate, and where tenants are fettled on them, and, from peculiar circumftances, can live on them, and pay a rent equal to their value, they ought to be allowed to remain. It is only meant to apply to cafes, where new farms are to be made at the owner's option, and is rather intended to point out the proper extreme of largeness, than the extreme of fmallness; but, at the fame time, with every deference to fituations and circumftances, which will always furnish exceptions to all general rules in agriculture. In agriculture, as well as in manufactures, it fhould always be remembered, how indifpenfable a fufficient capital to manage a bufinefs properly, is to the fuc

cefs of that business; and no man fhould engage in a concern, to which his capital is not fo far equal, that he may not be obliged to fell his commodities in a finking market, or be prevented, by want of money, from buying, when he fees a proper opportunity.

Waste Lands. Although the greateft part of this diftrict appears to be inclofed, and it contains no very extenfive entire tracts of wafte land, yet there are numerous fmall commons in almof every part of it, in a very negglected, unimproved ftate: and there are many parishes, in which there are ftill common-fields; and those in a very bad ftate of hufbandry. The greater part of the common-fields lie on the ftone-brash land, on the northweft fide of the county; and others in the deep, ftrong land, from Calne to Broadtown, toward Highworth ; but the commons lie chiefly in a northeast line, from Westbury to Crichlade, through the center of the richeft land in the diftrict. There are numerous inftances, in which the common-field arable land lets for less than half the price of the inclosed arable adjoining; and the commons are very feldom reckoned worth any thing in valuing any eftate that has a right on them.

Although great part of this district appears to have been, at no very remote period, in a commonable state; and although the improvement on the lands, heretofore inclofed, has been fo very great, the progrefs of inclofure therein has been very flow during the last fifty years. The reafon seems to have been, the very great difficulty and expence of making new roads in a county naturally wet and deep, and where the old public roads were, till within the last few years, almost impaffable. But this reafon having now nearly ceafed, by the introduction of feveral new turnpike roads through the diftricts, and by the fpirit which now fo generally prevails, of making good the approaches to them from the interior villages; it is to be hoped,

that fo great an improvement as that of inclofing and cultivating the commonable lands, will no longer be neglected.

The tract of commons which are mentioned to lie in a line from Weftbury toward Crichlade, are detached and difperfed in numerous pieces, and belong to a variety of parishes, but the whole content of them is fuppofed to exceed three thousand acres. And though the greater part of them at present turns to very little account, not only from the wet, rotten state in which they lie every winter, but from the unprofitable kind of stock that are ufually kept on them; they want only inclofing and draining, to make them as good pafture land as many of the furrounding inclosures.

The improvement by inclofing them might, in many inftances, be taken at from fifteen to twenty fhillings per acre; and, indeed, inclofures of commons of this description frequently improve, not only the commons themselves, but also the adjoining enclosures, by preventing the occupiers from continually mowing the latter, and carrying off the hay.

There are a few heaths in this diftrict, and but a few, which might be improved by plowing. There being but few inftances where there are alterative manures, fuch as lime, chalk, marle, &c. which are properly adapted to them, to be got very near them; the greater part of them, particularly thofe about Bradon Foreft, would, in general, pay better for planting.

Very great improvements might be made, by inclofing the common-fields in this district; and particularly thofe which are in need of draining, fuch as thofe in the deep, cold vein of land about Broadtown, Elcombe, &c. many of which would be much more valuable, if turned into pasture land, than in their prefent arable ftate. Even the common-fields in that part of the district, which is apparently the driest, viz. the north-weft part, are fo much in need of draining, that few of them are fafe for sheep in a wet autumn.

This can only be remedied by inclofure; and no greater proof can be adduced of the neceffity of it. In fact, the open lands of this district, fmall as they appear to be, when compared with the land already inclosed, yet, being capable of fuch vaft amendment by dividing and draining, hold out a fource of future improvement to the landholders in this district, of many thousands a year; for the neg'lect of which, there seems, at prefent, very few reasons.

With respect to the decrease of population, already felt in confequence of former inclofures, or to be apprehended from future ones, it has been already observed, that the extinction of life-hold tenures, which has been gradually taking place from the last century, tends, undoubtedly, to decreafe the number of farmers; and that, though this event may be fometimes haftened by inclofures, yet that it may, and frequently does, take place without them. But in this part of the county, where land is in general fo valuable, the effect of confolidating fmall farms will not be fo vifible as in South Wiltshire. The vaft improvements made on the lands in confequence of inclofure, particularly by draining, and by the laying down to pafture fuch land as was too wet for arable, has increased the rental of the country fo much, that there will, probably, be always land fufficient for the occupation of the inhabitants of it.

It has been already ftated, that there are a great number of small

freeholders in this part of the county; and as thefe divifions of property have generally happened in the inclosed parts, it has tended to retain those inhabitants, who would have been otherwife driven out by the extinction of lifehold tenures.

In many parts of the diftri&t that are ftill in a common-field ftate, the landholders would be much greater gainers by an inclosure, than it is pof fible they can in many parts of the fouth-eaft diftrict of the county; as there are so many parts of the land,

that, when inclofed, may be applied to the purposes of a small farm, without the neceffity of keeping a flock of fheep to manure it; viz. by keeping that part which will be neceffary to remain in arable, on a turnip system, either for feeding cattle or sheep, or for wintering theep for the down farmers; by laying down the wet parts to grafs, either for the dairy or for fe ding; and, by applying the fand lands on a garden fyftem, to railing efculent vegetables. While on the thinner and poorer parts of the northweft parts of the county, which muft neceffarily co tinue in an arable ftate, the improvement to be obtained from inclosures, must be derived from putting the occupation into fewer hands, and making farms of fuch a fize, as can be managed to the greateft advantage of the tenant, the landlord, and the community.

With refpect to the decrease of labourers in this part of the county, there is very little to be apprehended from inclofures. So little manual labour is done to the uninclosed land, in its prefent state, that every alteration that has improvement for its object, muft increafe manual labour, and, of courfe, the number of labourers. The fencing and draining the land, and making and keeping good roads, in a country naturally fo deep and wet, will be a perpetual fource of employ for labourers. These are the improvements which have already fo wonderfully increased the value of land in this district; and as fo much remains to be done, there will probably be, in future, more complaint for want of labourers, than for want of work to employ them in, especially in the neighbourhood of the manufacturing towns.

OSTAZEM BILLAH, the laft calif of the muffulmans, furpaffed all his predeceffors in pride and haughtinefs. Such was the excefs of his folly, that the rest of mankind, as well as his own fubjects, he confidered merely as flaves, born only to obey the dictates of his fupreme will and pleafure. One day, efcorted by all the parade of oftentation, and contemptuously lolling in his chariot, he was vifiting the environs of his capital, when, being attracted by the ruins of an ancient temple, he obferved an aged man feated on the fragment of a column, and deeply occupied with a kind of globe, to which his knees ferved as a kind of fupport. The fun was then quitting the eaft, and Moftazem thought not of returning to his palace till the glorious orb of day had funk below the horizon, and was about to enlighten other countries. The fame old man, always very early in the fame fpot, and con

ftantly in the fame attitude, continued inceffantly to contemplate the fame object. Struck with fuch a fingular conftancy, and unable to refift his impatience to know the real object of fuch intenfe application, the calif leaped from his chariot, and approaching the motionless obferver, faid, What art thou doing? What hast thou got there? Great God! Bones? A skull !' -The old man, ftarting from his meditation, and knowing the prince, thus anfwered: Sublime majefty! guided by the firft light of day, I came into the midst of these ruins, in which a religious filence reigns, in order to invoke our holy prophet. With one of my feet, I happened to turn up this human head; and I have ever fince exhausted myself in fruitless efforts to difcover, whether it were the head of an illuftrious fovereign, like Moftazem, or of a wretched old dervife, fuch as I am !'

Sir,

N°

O fubject has been more frequently attacked by thofe, who have declared war againft abfurdity and error, than dependence. It has been ridiculed for its meannefs, and lamented for its mifery. It has been reprefented as a degradation of the human character, and a proflitution of intellectual talents. And yet we find that there are a certain clafs of men to whom a ftate of dependence is really no affliction, who prefer it, 'with all its chances of difappointment, to the more tedious and laborious means of acquiring riches; who can wait, and bow, and cringe, and fawn, and utter or swallow lies and courtier-like promises, in hopes that their fufferings will be rewarded in fome lucky moment of their patron's caprice. Nay there are even fome parents who endeavour to teach their children the duties of dependence, which are patience under infult, humility without felfrespect, esteem, which they cannot feel, and profeffions which, in any other cafe, they would fcorn to put in practice.

That kind of dependence, which has for its object the fucceffion to wealth after the death of the poffeffor, has been fo aptly fatirized by your correfpondent A. L. in your Magazine for September, that it is not neceffary for me to enlarge upon the fubject. There is another kind, which may be termed a perfonal dependence, or the depending upon one's perfon for fuccefs in the world, and this is frequently to be found among the younger fois of opulent families, and fometimes among other families, where the parents have been amufed with tales of heireffes running away with young men, who had nothing to recommend them but a handfome exterior.

With dependence of all forts there muft neceffarily be united a confiderable degree of meanness, a want of

dignity of character, and an affumption of qualities which the dependent does not poffefs, or a neglect of thofe accomplishments which form an amiable character. In nothing is this fo remarkable, as in the case of perfonal dependents, and accordingly we generally find them to be young men of frivolous under landing, or of great artfulness and cunning. Inftructed, too often by their parents, to affume the appearances by which female caution may be deluded, and taught to think themfelves irrefiftible, they put on thofe airs of coquetry, which in a woman are not very amiable, and in a man are perfectly contemptible. Their whole ftudy is the decoration of their perfon, and their whole care, that it be exhibited in the most favourable light, and on the most favourable occafions. To hide the unhappy union of pride and poverty which the garb of civil life might betray, their friends procure them an inferior commiffion in the army, the dress of which, alike pleafing, howy, and even graceful, prepares them for the conquefts they are to make, and the triumphs they are to enjoy. Thus equipped, they place themfelves in array before the unfufpecting heirefs, and watchful aunt, and by practising thofe attentions which it is no great merit to acquire, they fometimes fucceed in infpiring the love which they cannot return. A hafty and imprudent marriage concludes the adventure, and what is begun on the man's fide in fraud, ends, on that of the woman, in difappointment. Thefe inftances, however, are but rare; the arts of the perfonal dependent are now better understood than formerly; women have grown wifer by experience, and he who expects to gain upon them by his perfon only, is most commonly either doomed to fwell the triumph of coquetry for a time, or be difmiffed with indignation