completely defeated by the royal troops commanded by Huntley. A reconciliation took place between the King and Douglas. But the King's jealoufy, and the new Earl's power and refentment, prevented it from being of long continuance."

In 1454 a rebellion arofe in which English affairs had confiderable influence. The difputes between the houses of York and Lancaster were beginning to rife to civil war. James was intimately connected with Henry. York is fuppofed by Mr. Pinkerton to have affifted in exciting the rebellion of Douglas, to prevent James from interfering in the affairs of England. The internal caufes of the rebellion of Douglas are ably stated by the hiftorian, and must evidently have operated independent of any external aid :—

"When to the aid of York," fays Mr. Pinkerton, " are added the internal caufes, the native ambition of the houfe of Douglas, unfatiated even by the highest honours of regal favour; its latent, but deep, enmity, excited by the deftruction of two of its chiefs, during the prefent reign, and by other injuries and mortifications, its confcioufnefs that no monarch could ever fincerely pardon a family, which formed one nursery of rebellion, which defpifed the laws, and rivalled himself; its apprehenfions from the recent ruin of its power in the north, that if effectual refiftance were not inftantly oppofed, the annihilation of the ftem and other branches might follow. When these confiderations are weighed, the fources of this grand rebellion may not perhaps appear obfcure. The inflammatory principles had long excited, and were deeply and widely fcattered: the power of York, the money and protection of England, the overthrow of Moray and Ormond, and the confequent ftings of apprehenfion and revenge, were only temporary circumftances which fet fire to the train that shook Scotland to its centre."

James finding the Douglaffes making preparations, called together his own forces, advanced towards the rebels with forty thousand men, Douglas's numbers being nearly the fame. The King proclaimed an amnefty to those who fhould return to their duty. Such was the effect of this measure that Douglas, in one day, found himself deferted by the greater number of his forces. Douglas himself filed fift to the fouth of Scotland and afterwards to England. James completely crushed the rebellion, and the vaft poffeffions of Earl Douglas were annexed to the crown. The remaining part of James's reign was devoted to the reduction of the enormous power of the aristocracy, for the promotion of agriculture, and the regular administration of justice. The vigour of his character, encouraged by fuccefs, would have probably produced a very great change from the feudal fyftem, had he not been fuddenly

NO. IX. VOL. II.

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killed by the bursting of a cannon at the fiege of Roxburgh. He was in the twenty-ninth year of his age and the twentyfourth of his reign.

To one obfervation, made by the hiftorian refpecting the political views of the Scottish Kings, we can by no means accede. "That (he fays) our monarchs were ftrangers to the fixed plan of humbling the ariftocracy, imputed to them by theoretic writers, is fufficiently clear." It appears to us that the facts stated by the hiftorian himself constitute undoubted evidence of a regular fyftem commenced in the reign of James I.was formed for humbling the nobles, and very fuccefsfully carried into execution in this very reign of James the Second. To fupport our opinion we refer to his own detail, and to the fummary of the illuftrious Robertfon, in his retrospect introductory to his reign of Mary. If Dr. Robertfon be one of those whom Mr. Pinkerton ranks among the theoretic writers, his general account of this fubject is justified by Mr. Pinkerton's narration.

James III. was eight years old when he afcended to the throne. During his minority, Bishop Kennedy had the chief management of affairs under Mary of Gueldres, Queen Dowager and regent, and had the conduct of the young King's education. "This prelate, by the beft influence, that of talents and probity, and political fkill, had acquired an authority before unknown to any churchman in Scotland; a country (fays the hiftorian) always more remarkable for the moderation of its clergy than for their ambition." We frequently find, in Mr. Pinkerton, remarks that may be just in the particular circumftances of the cafe, but which he applies much more generally than fact juftifies. His own narrative is far from bearing out this obfervation concerning the moderationof Scotch prelates, even in the times which he himself defcribes, much lefs will the hiftory of Scotland prove its clergy to have been always remarkable for moderation. Cardinal Berthem,the catholic minifter of James V. ArchbishopSharpe, the epifcopal proteftant, primate, and minifter of Charles the Second's oppreflive cruelty; and, though last, not leaft John Knox, the prefbyterian demagogue, were not very striking inftances of moderation, in their refpective circumstances and conditions. In the last century we cannot altogether apply the epithet of moderate to those puritanical clergymen who stirred up rebellion against Charles I. whofe fermons produced the covenant. We mention thefe few circumftances to fuggeft to Mr. Pinkerton the caution which hiftorians ought to employ in making general reflections.

T

During the minority of James, the poor harmless prieftridden, wife-ridden Henry VI. driven from his throne, fought, and found, refuge in Scotland. Affifted by the Scotch, and alfo by Louis XI. his enterprifing queen, Margaret, made an irruption into England, which was concluded by the defeat of her forces at Hexham. Mr. Pinkerton, fpeaking of Mary of Gueldres makes an obfervation, to which we cannot give our unqualified affent. The Queen had been fuppofed not to be altogether virtuous," a widow (he fays) in the bloom of beauty, and vigour of youth, it would not be a matter of furprize that her chastity was dubious; and even this stain would difappear in the fplendour of her merits, for nothing can be more unjust than to infer, that, the lofs of female modesty is the lofs of every virtue."

(To be continued.)

ART. VII. The Art of floating Land, as is practifed in the County of Gloucester, fhewn to be preferable to any other Method in Ufe in this Country, with a particular Examination of what Mr. Bofwell, Mr Davis, Mr. Marshall, and others have written on the Subject. Minute and plain Directions are afterwards given for the Formation of a floated Meadow, with Three defcriptive Plates. By T. Wright, Author of large Farms recommended. 8vo. Pp. 95. Scatcherd, London. 1799.

MR. Wright published a "Treatife on watering Mea

dows" in the year 1789, which was well received by the public, especially by practical farmers, and the edition has long been out of print. The prefent work cannot, with any propriety, be confidered as a new edition; for the "Art of Floating Land," illuftrates the Gloucestershire fyftem by new defcriptive plates, contains not only much additional matter, but a reply to Mr. Bofwell's obfervations, a particular examination of the opinions of other agricultural writers, and an enumeration of many additional facts to corroborate the pofitions formerly made by this author. The object for which Mr. Wright principally contends are "the fuperior effects of thick or muddy water over fpring water," to fhew that "nothing great or valuable can be accomplished in this or any other agricultural procefs without manure in fubftance;" the advantages by his fyftem in procuring a depofit of manure from the floated water, in sheltering the land from the severity of the winter, and to prove that the quality of the grafs produced always depends on the nature of the water flowing over

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it. He is far from adopting the refined notions of fome modern chemists, that "water is the food of plants," and that water imbibed by plants is tranfmutable into earth, "for the practical farmer (he obferves) has a more compendious and fafe method of forming his judgement, by reafoning from effects rather than causes, than thefe theoretical refinements can offer." In this treatise, alfo, Mr. W. reviews the obfervations of Mr. Bofwell on his former publication, in a candid, manly reply. He acknowledges his inaccuracies when convicted of them, and "fincerely returns him thanks for the conviction of a real error into which he had fallen," (P. 52,) relative to the expence of forming a floated meadow, which he now eftimates at from three to fix pounds per acre, according to the inequality of the furface; but he wishes Mr. B. instead of infinuations

"Had proceeded to direct animadverfions, or open contradictions, where he thought me erroneous. This appears to me the mode beft calculated to bring forward and establish the truth; which, on all occafions, great or fmall, is too valuable to be facrificed to the complai fance of fcribblers."

If the produce of land can afford a criterion by which we may judge of the fuperiority of one plan to another, in the mode of cultivation, the Gloucestershire fyftem of floating is far fuperior to the Dorfetfhire; and Mr. W. contends that the excellence of the land does not

"-arife from the difference that fubfifted in the quality of the foils before they were floated; for the foil of the best of our meadows, is, in general, of that very kind which Mr. B. feems almost to contemn; I mean ftrong clay and boggy foils. The best meadow in the parish to which I allude is entirely a ftrong cold clay; and the hay that is cut from this meadow will fat an ox as foon as the best upland hay in the neighbourhood, though it is an excellent grazing country. This meadow is the best in the parish, merely, I prefume to say, because it is the higheft upon the ftream, and, being well attended to, is the first that receives the water, after it is enriched by the wash of the streets, &c. of the town of Cirencefter. There is, I ought to obferve, another parith intervening between South Cerney and Cirencefter, that has feveral large meadows, which, when they have due attention paid to them, are ftill more fertile than that above mentioned, and are perhaps, at this time, the beft floated meadows in the kingdom. I will venture to fay that thefe meadows, in this wet and very favourable feafon, provided they were floated, as they ought to be, at the beginning of November, are, at the time that I am writing this, namely the twenty-fourth day of December, 1798, covered with a crop of grafs at leaft four inches deep and this grafs, we may reasonably fuppofe, will receive additional ftrength and firm

nefs

nefs before the beginning of the month of March, when, it will afford an ample pasture for ftock, if the season be tolerably temperate."

We fhall exhibit another

66 SPECIMEN OF THE ADVANTAGES OF FLOATING.

"On the advantages of floating, I hope, it is no longer neceffary to expatiate; but I have lately met with fo pregnant an inftance of its fuperior excellence fallen in my way, that I fhould by no means do juftice to the fubject if I withheld it from the public. It is an inftance which tends to place the most engaging feature of this practice in a ftriking point of view, and gives to the production of early green food its proper weight and worth. Indeed the most valuable, and, I had almost faid, the only, improvements of magnitude that have of late years been made here, in agriculture, have been made in the various provifions of green food, afforded for the neceffity of winter, and for the more preifing wants of the two first months of fpring. In this feries of improvements I beg leave to clafs this relative art, which, though it cannot, in every fituation, be fo widely extended as the cultivation of turnips, rape, cabbage, lucerne, &c. yet, where it can be fully executed, it will in no wife difgrace the relationship in which I have placed it, but will afford it abundant aid and fupport. For floating meadows not only require no manure from the farm yard, but liberally encourage the plough, by affording an annual extra fupply of manure and although, by this practice, the farmer cannot provide green food for all the months of winter, yet he can, thereby, confiderably fhorten the wintry void; for in March and April, which are the two moft trying months to the farmer, these meadows are covered with grafs enough to receive any kind of stock, if the weather will permit.

"The ftrong proof of the great utility of this practice, which I above alluded to, is this. Having heard that the proprietor of an old floated meadow, in the village which I have had occafion to mention before, had difpofed of the produce of it, in the year 1795, in a way that was well calculated to ascertain its real value, I wrote to a perfon who refides on the fpot, requesting him to fend me a particular account of the product of the meadow, and I received the following statement:

"In order to make the moft of the fpring feed, the proprietor kept the grafs untouched till the fecond day of April, from which time he let it to the neighbouring farmers, to be eaten off in five weeks, by the undermentioned ftock, at the following rates per head a fheep od. per week, a cow 3s. 6d. a colt 4s. The quantity of the land is eight acres.