59 We felect the following Article from the First Number of a new Periodical Publication, intitled the "FARMERS MAGAZINE," a work exclusively devoted to Agri culture and Rural Affairs; to be published Quarterly. GENTLENEN, I ON THE SUBSETTING OF LAND. Addrefled to the Conductors of the Farmers Magazine. Perufed your profpectus with a great deal of pleasure, and rejoice that the nineteenth century is to be introduced with fuch an useful publication. I trust it is an evidence of the progrefs of knowledge, which is faft spreading amongst all ranks, and hope that you will experience a liber. al fupport from the cultivators of the foil, both in this and the fifter king dom. Among the benefits which our profeffion will receive from a work exclufively devoted to their information and inftruction, is the opportunity it affords of difcuffing every fubject connected with rural economy. In Newspapers and Magazines of a mifcellaneous nature, thefe fubjects were formerly overlooked, as people thought it unneceffary to convey their remarks through fuch precarious and neglected channels. Your publication, however, presents a fure road to attention, a circumftance of particular importance to those whofe intereft is affected by the fubjects difcuffed. Under this impreffion, I beg leave to tranfmit you fome obfervations, upon a question which I confider as materially connected with the profperity of agriculture in this and every other country: Namely,-Whether tenants ought to be allowed liberty of fubfetting their farms, where they have not agreed to denude themselves of that liberty. That they have not fuch a right by common law, is a doctrine lately advanced, and I believe partially confirmed by a few decifions of our fupreme court; but taking the matter in the abftract, thefe decifions, unfupported as they are by Statute law, cannot have fur ther weight against the right, than merely what ought to be attached to the collected voice of an equal numé ber of individuals of the fame knowledge and information. In the agricultural furvey of an eastern county, highly celebrated for fuperiority in rural fcience, the learned and refpectable perfonage employed to draw up the work, fays, (p. 128 of the Quarto edition,) "it is now an understood principle at common law, that unless the tenant fhall. ftipulate this power, and that there fhall be a fpecial covenant to that effect in the lease, he can neither affiga nor fubfet; or, in other words, if the leafe fhall be filent upon this point, the tenant has no fnch power :" and he afterwards adds, that "the principles upon which this rule has been established, feems to me to be grounded upon good fenfe and found policy." By the word now in the first part of the quotation, it appears that this rule has been but lately established, and that the law of Scotland was formerly interpreted in a different manner. But by whom has the alteration been introduced? Was it enacted by the three eftates in parliament affembled? No: but by the will of perfons who are themfelves proprietors of land, and who probably have imbibed old feudal prejudices, which prevents them from obferving that fuch a rule, (for we will not call it a law,) contributes to fink the spirit of the tenantry, and to stop the progrefs of agricultural improvements. Mr Erskine, in his Inftitutes of the law of Scotland, feems to entertain a different opinion upon this point, and I and it is furprising that the jurifdiction act, which abolished the old feudal rule, that a vaffal could not be received on an eftate without the confent of the fuperior, did not also abolish the feudal claufes in leafes, prohibiting a fubfet of land, or in other words, do away the power retained by proprietors, to prevent any perfon from poffeffing land, whether they had their permiffion or not, which is ex actly fimilar to the feudal rule, that a vaffal could not be received without the confent of the fuperior. In this refpect the Ruffian boor is fuperior to the British farmer, for, according to the ingenious Mr Tooke, it is perfectly indifferent to the owner of the eftate, in what manner and by what means the boor procures his livelihood, fo he do but regularly pay his obrok, or rent; and that under this adjuftment the latter is in fome fort his own master, being free to dispose of his activity, as well as of the fhare of the foil committed to him. Were tenants in this country allowed in like manner to alienate their property, and to change their fituation, they would certainly poffefs no more right than is already enjoyed by the reit of the community. But what injury would the landed intereft fuftain from the exercife of fuch a right? Would the rent be lefs fecured, or the preftations of the leafe more imperfectly implemented, when the tenant alienated and difpofed his leafe in favours of another? An unprejudiced perfon would rather be led to think that additional obligations would create additional fecurity for the faithful difcharge of the burthens originally contracted, than that any injury would be fuftained by the alienation of the leafe, and the change of the tenant. We come now to the remark, that the withholding a right to fubfet is founded in good fenfe and found policy; and we may enquire where the fenfe or the policy of the refusal is to G be found. In no refpect can the landlord's intereft be injured; on the contrary, as already faid, it is additionally protected, by two or more perfons being concerned in the tranfaction. The refufal, therefore, is rather an inftance of a lack, than a proof of fenfe, and as for the policy of withholding the right, it is equally undiscoverable. It is obvious that the majority of fubfets would proceed from the inability of the original tenant to keep his poffeffion, or from a defire to change his fituation in life. In the first cafe, the farm cannot be properly cultivated, and in the other, the tenant may leave the premiffes under the management of a fervant, against which practice no law has as yet been established. In both cafes the property may be deteriorated, and at any rate it will not be improved; whereas if a subset had been allowed, a fuperior tenant might have been procured, whofe capital was fufficient for the undertaking, and whofe inclinations led him to follow after rural affairs. Again, in the first cafe, a perfon is obliged to continue in poffeffion till his affairs are totally embarraffed; and in the other, he muft abide like a fixture upon the premiffes, or commit his affairs to the direction of others. Let these things be duely confidered, and the impolicy of withholding the right contended for will be clearly difcernible. Under every view of the matter, the landlord cannot be injured by the exercife of this right. It may be faid he is entitled to chufe his tenant, and that by fubfetting he may get a difagreeable perfon upon his estate. Thefe objections have little weight, for whoever is the tenant in poffeffion, the original Leffee is bound for the faithful obfervance of all the preftations; and if these are performed, the landlord can have but small concern with the occupant. Befides, even under the ftricteft prohibition, the choice of a tenant is not in a land2 lord's lord's power, while the leafe goes to heirs general, and it may run through as many hands this way, as if it were permitted to pafs to affigns. Even the difpofition of the original tenant may change during the courfe of a tack, and a greater alteration of conduct may be experienced, than what would have proceeded from the introduction of a third perfon. In a word, we confider it as found and equitable doctrine, that if a perfon has not renounced a right to fubfet, he is, according to the principles of justice, upon which law is certainly founded, entitled to the exercise of that right. If, on the contrary, he has specifically bound himself not to exercise it, he of courfe is not entitled to complain, as he has made a law for himself; but upon the general queftion, whether it would be found policy to allow every tenant to alienate his leafe, in the fame manner as is done with every other fpecies of property, we are clear that fuch a liberty would not prove prejudicial to the landed intereft, while the public good would be greatly benefited, and improvements forwarded with increafed rapidity. I am, Your's, &c. A Friend to Improvements.. CHARACTER AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE TUSCANS. From the firft Volume of Selections from the most Celebrated Foreign Literary Journals. THERE THERE is not a country in Italy which nature has fo richly endowed with all the properties that have an influence on the happy formation of man as Tufcany. It is bounded towards the north and caft by the Apennine mountains, which not only fhield it from the frofty winds, but water it with rivers and ftreams and falubrious fprings. Eververdant hills and dales in alternate undulations form the furface of the country from one end to the other, becoming thus alone one fcene of delight both to the bodily and the mental eye. This charming interchange of elevation and defcent, of hills and vallics, is every where richly productive of all for which the leffer Afa and the ifles of Greece are fo cele brated, as affording the most valuable nutriment to mankind; and as to the wines. they are partly improved. What else may be wanting to the comfort of life is fupplied by induftry and commerce. As the inhabitants of this favoured climate neither breathe the watery exhalations of the flimy Po, nor the fteams of Vefuvius, fo keeping the mean betwixt the fluggish dul nefs of the Lombards, and the fiery. enthusiasm of the Neapolitans, they are fitted by nature for whatever requires understanding and dexterity. As far as hiftory reaches, they have ever taken the lead of all other European nations in arts and fciences. To the Romans they taught religion, the theatrical art, manufactures and commerce; and, on the return of light, after a universal darkness of feveral ages, not only the imitative arts, but likewife hiftory, poetry, and rhetoric, mathematics and phyfics, here found their firft reftorers. Florence is both the centre and the capital of this renowned nation. He that traverfes Italy, and furveys this city, with its circumjacent territories, is immediately convinced that a totally different genius here prevails among mankind. Regulari. ty, ornament, and fine tafte, pervade their public places, ftreets, and villas, the ftatues, libraries, and galleries both in public and private edifices. The people are every where civil ; and though, in their expreffion, one hears a disagreeable aspiration, more or or lefs, according to the various di- mico fopra la Tofcana, than the offi cers of juftice; and nothing does fo much honour to the wifdom and benignity of the reigning grand duke, as the abolition of capital punishments among so tractable a people. The difference remarked by Plato between Athens and Thebes in Greece, holds good in fome measure in Tufcary between Florence and Pifa. Perhaps this may be partly attributed to the vapours arifing from the numerous canals and dikes that run through the plains of Pifa; perhaps too the weft-winds, fo prevalent here, and blowing from the islands that abound in iron, may contribute to it. Certain it is, that the Pifans are very diftinguishable from the Florentines by a certain ferocity. and hardnefs apparent on all occafions. Throughout the whole of the Florentine hiftory no inftance can be fhewn of fuch an extraordinary cruelty as that with which the Pifans deftroyed count Ugolino della Gherardefca, with his innocent children. They have often given evident proofs of their hard difpofitions, fince the fea-fight off the tower of Melora, in their well-known bridge-plays or ráther murderous games, which are happily now abolished. The fpirit and rage of party, they used to exhibit on thefe occafions, was of a peculiar nature. For more than a month, as long as the preparations and the play lafted, hufbands parted from their wives, and fathers abandoned their fons, whenever they adhered to different parties. Completely armed in a coat of mail, and with a fwinging bludgeon in their hand, they Among fo contented and indeftri- came upon the bridge across the Arous a people great crimes are exceed no, one party at one end and the oingly rare. A man must have refid- ther at the other, both inspired with ed many years in Florence and in ge- a furious thirft of flaughter; and neral in Tufcany, if he can fpeak of whoever did not fubmit or yield by three or four murders or confiderable force of heavy blows, was either felrobberies. Nothing seems more ufe led to the ground, or caft headlong lefs here, fays the famous count Car- into the river. It frequently happeni, in his Saggio politico ed econo-ed that the combatants could not of it. They are contented with a little, and are immoderately difpofed to joy. Half a dozen of wretched ponies, or a couple of old-fashioned chaifes run ning a race, or a match at tennis, is a grand fpectacle at Florence, and fufficient to make the town elate with pleafure. Happy the prince who has fuch a people to govern! It cofts him but little to attain his wishes, and to change every difcontent that may a rife among them into pleasure and fatisfaction. hear hear the voice of them that yielded, for very fury; and then the blows were repeated by the victors till the vanquished gave up the ghost. Such a cafe actually happened, when the reigning grand duke was for the first time prefent at this favage spectacle. Siena, the capital of a particular duchy, is extenfive, thinly peopled, and poor. Yet the pure air of the hills on which it ftands, infpires its inhabitants with a chearful and lively fpirit. Plays and games of chance, diverfions, and dancing, leave them no leifure for thinking on their po verty or repining at their wretchednefs. Poetry, metaphyfics, and worka of ingenuity, have ufurped the place of the fpirit of commerce, of arts and manufactures, of courage and wealth, for which they were formerly fo confpicuous. They ftill boaft of the imaginary phantom of their ancient greatness. To be a member of their grand council, to bring into the world a handfome poem, or to folve an ingenious question, can fo inflate the imagination of a Sienefe, that he fhall actually conceive himself to be a great and happy being. Hence arofe the taunting proverb, aver bevuto a fonte branda, to have an overweening imagination. Lippiñings, in his poem, Malmantile racqui ftato," canto iv. 26. relates of a Sienefe, of the name of Perlone, that he almoft thought himself to be dead, and ac counts for it thus: ac "Perch' egli e un di quei matti alla Sanefe, he could wish, that the Sienese wamen would marry with men of Pifa, and the Pifanefe women take hufbands from the men of Siena. The rest of the towns, containing mines, in Tufcany, fuch as Volterra, Arezzo, Cortona, had nothing diftinguifhing enough for rendering them famous and rich, before they were defpoiled of their liberty by the Florentines. Nature has endowed thefe people with an eminent capacity for arts and agriculture. If they had only proceeded, as they began, to profit by the advantages their wife law-giver granted them for the encouragement of agriculture and trade, they would have had no need to palliate their fplendid indigence by the ftudy of Etrufcan antiquities and ufelefs genealogies. Peltoia, Prifcia, Prato, and this whole valley, nourish an industrious people, who beneficially employ themfelves in agriculture and manufac tures. All the other districts of Tufcany increafe the materials of the national commerce by the culture of land, vineyards, and filk, and in every corner people are found, expert in promoting the particular and the general welfare. To what a height of profperity might not such a country arife, the inhabitants whereof are fitted and difpofed to the particular arts of life! where the nobility, who in the other ftates of Italy are only employed in contriving how they may waste their lives in idleness and fleep, contribute their utmost to the general profperity! The Tufcan nobility is very nu Ch' han fempre mefcolato del cattivo. Siena has, notwithstanding, produced in all men of ages fame in li- merous. great terature, in the army, and in the church; and it cannot be denied, that its inhabitants excell many other nations of Italy in intellectual capa. city, and mental endowments. Count Richecourt, who many years governed this country in the name of the late emperor, ufed to fay, that for forming a perfect species of mankind, They do not here confine themselves merely to the peculiar ufe of a peerage in all governments, in being the intermediate class between the prince and the people, in promoting arts, manufactures, and commerce by their luxury, in ferving as a restraint upon the people by their dignity and the reverence that is paid them, and in providing fuch perfons for |