a vast supply of timber; as did the cutting of many delightful avenues through them.

Thus the earl, in this preliminary work, united what are generally deemed incompatible, beauty, utility, and profit; for the environs of the castle were rendered infinitely more charming by these judicious openings; timber was obtained for the projected buildings; and the sale of the overplus added a very considerable sum to that before appropriated to the purpose.

During the winter the earl had leisure to digest his plan, and in the spring he began, and unremittingly continued, the execution of it. The two first years he employed in building two regular streets; in deepening the channel of the stream, and pouring into it every rivulet in its vicinity; in directing to it the drainings of his morasses and swampy vallies; in erecting upon its upper part a mill; and in constructing on its banks, wharfs and warehouses.

With these works the agricultural improvements kept pace. The drained marshes grew rich in pasturage; the manured heaths waved thick with corn. The improved soil parcelled out into small farms, upon which proper houses, barns, &c. were erected, had sober industrious peasants placed in them, supported and directed by the earl; and firm and safe roads were made from each farm to the town.

At the end of the second year the town was peopled; for the earl established in it, at his own expence and hazard, a linen and woollen manufac

tory, from the preparation of the raw materials, to the weaving them into those cloths, stuffs, and linens, which are worn by the lower ranks; and his lordship found it requisite to become also miller and coal-merchant, that his new colony might be supplied with every thing necessary for their subsistence and comfort.

In his mercantile character, the earl played a very losing game; but, like a skilful gamester, he was content to sacrifice smaller matters that he might with greater certainty secure his grand point; and in that he was in a short time abundantly successful; for where employment to the industrious, and ease and comfort to all, were so liberally administered, multitudes crouded, and he was soon obliged to add new streets to his town.

Petty merchants and manufacturers, who had been unsuccessful in other places, soon offered themselves, and by the earl's assistance were, after a short time, enabled to fill their several departments, and take the most disagreeable part of the burthen off his shoulders. He gradually built on both sides the river, over which he threw a bridge, and erected a new church in a more commodious situation than the old one.

The population of this town, the chaplain informs me, every year increases; its river affords it the means of no despicable commerce; and supplies it, by a communication with Solway Frith, with sea as well as fresh-water fish. The merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen flourish; the lower ranks

find that constant employment which brings plenty into their houses; the young are nurtured and educated; the old and disabled decently maintained; early marriages are promoted, and vice and immorality discountenanced. The whole demesne of the earl wears a cheerful aspect: his farmers grow rich ; his peasantry are comfortable; and wherever he goes he is hailed by all as the beneficent author of all these blessings.

To the exquisite mental pleasure of having contributed so largely to the expansion of human happiness, this nobleman has united the more gross, but by no means despicable one, of having added to his fortune by a very great and permanent revenue: for the improvements in agriculture have enlarged the income of his estates beyond conception; and the town, which has now been peopled about twentythree years, has long repaid its original expenses, and now brings him a yearly accession of wealth, but which he protests shall never enter his coffers, but be expended in works of general utility; and I find he has erected several little villas, to which he has drawn some of his earlier acquaintance, who were wearied with the world, or had too much exhausted their fortunes to live in it with their accustomed splendour.

The countess, possessing a soul congenial with his own, has in all things concurred with her lord; and this truly noble pair have largely gratified the princely propensities of their spirit, not only without ultimate expense, but with vast pecuniary profit.

What an example, my Elizabeth, to the nobility and gentry possessing estates in the poorer and depopulated counties! Few would, indeed, afford s ample a field: yet, on a smaller scale, much might in most be done by their owners, at once for their own emolument, and the happiness of mankind*.

* If the statements in this interesting tale should be, as it is repeated they are, founded in fact, what a lesson does the con. duct of this nobleman furnish to his equals in life! whose views are either the monopoly of estates for condensing into large farms, or the oppressing and impoverishing of their industrious tenantry, that they may pursue their excess of dissipation in the metropolis.

The size of farms on land of a good quality ought in no case to exceed the rental of 5001. per annum, and from that to descend to 51. which would enable every poor cottager to keep a Thus would every acre of land be turned to the best advantage. This project might be easily accomplished in time of war; for, as Dr. Smith has shewn in his Wealth of Nations, "as the market rate of interest rises, the price of land falls.”

cow.

In other parts of Europe, except Britain, it has often been found convenient to secure tenants both against heirs and purchasers. Before the revolution in France a very absurd law existed in this respect. There a lease was sacred as between the proprietor and tenant, but a sale by the proprietor broke the lease, which no longer held with the new proprietor. The Duke of Orleans let the whole of the Palais Royal in different arcades, receiving 72,000 livres for each lease, to the amount of near 100 leases: he no sooner had the money than he sold the whole building, and thus realized, by a species of robbery, a sum of near three hundred thousand pounds sterling. What laws, and what a prince!! Very long leases are perhaps as hurtful to a country as very short ones. The improvements in agriculture in Scotland followed renewals, and seldom preceded them.

INTREPIDITY OF GEORGE in.

GEORGE III. King of England, the best and most po- . pular of sovereigns, has been three times in danger of assassination. Once by an unfortunate woman in a state of lunacy. The king, who immediately perceived the unhappy condition of the woman, ordered her to be treated with humanity and every possible care. The second attempt was made when his majesty was going in great state to the house of peers. A ball, supposed to be aimed from an airgun, passed through the carriage within a finger's breadth of the king's face. The Earl of Westmorland and Lord Onslow, who were in the coach with his majesty, being greatly agitated, he exhorted them to be composed; and being solicited on his return, to enter another carriage, and pursue another route, he rejected both propositions, saying, "that the same Providence which had shielded him on his way thither, would also protect him returning." The third attempt happened at the theatre. At the moment of the king's entrance, amidst the loudest acclamations of a crouded audience, who thus testified their joy at the appearance of their sovereign, a pistol was fired from the pit, and the ball passing close by the king, entered the ceiling of his majesty's box. The general confusion and uproar that succeeded, is not to be described, but the king remained perfectly composed; and the same evening, at his