ting the propofed mill, they would foon ird their charges re-imburfed with interSuch machines would be of peculiar e at the various hofpitais, infirmaries, and poor-houses, as well as at cottonills, or other manufactories where a nber of children or work-people are applied with provifions by the owners. One obftacle to the introduction and vility of the mills proposed, would arise from the barbarous remains of the feudal iws in this kingdom, by which the lords d manors, iu fome places, claim a right to compel all the house-holders within their respective jurifdictions to grind their corn andy at the lord's mill. Where, therefore, fach a custom prevails, private mills of aay kind would be useless; and the inhabitants must quietly fubmit to be impofed upon as ufual, for fear of innovations, which, in thefe days, are faid to be peculiarly dangerous, and to carry the fure mark of the Beast upon them. But fuch local, injurious customs are not very numerous, and are unworthy of general at

tention.

In your last number, Mr. Robinfon has propofed fome very excellent hints for reAfter mengulating the price of corn. Fioning the quantity of oats confumed by the troop-horses, he might have added the quantity, too, which is more wajiefully confumed by the race.horses, hunters, and hounds of our great men, for no valuable purpose whatsoever; but which, on the contrary, tends to corrupt the public morals, to injure private property, and to encourage a spirit of favage cruelty towards the inferior animal creation.

After all, the most rational and effectual plan for reducing the price of corn, would be by incloning our vast tracts of waite lands, under the sanction and authority of a bill for that purpose. By referring to your vol. abovementioned, p. 3, in the note, it appears, that Yorkshire alone contains "265,000 acres of land capable of cultivation!!!" Now, fuppoing these acres to be cultivated, and to produce one quarter each of wheat or osts, what a vaft addition of food would that county enjoy! and what an "incalculable benefit" would thereby refult to the nation at large! How abfurd, then, and purblind the policy, to import that corn which we might grow ourselves, and thus to encourage foreigners to improve their walte lands at our expence, and while ours is moft unaccountably and culpably neglected? Your's E. My.

Lincoln, Jan. 8, 1890.
P S. Your correfpondent R. vol. iii. p.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

N looking over your laft Monthly Agricultural Report, I am happy to obierve, that you advert to the milchievous confequences attendant on an alarm of fcarcity; the effects of which, a few years And I am back, cannot be forgotten. anxious that you should hit upon fome method of impreffing it on the minds of your numerous readers. Tell the benevolent inquirers after the most effectual means of relieving the poor at the prefent crifis, that, beyond their own perfonal attention to their wants, the best answer they can receive, is that which the old Bourdeaux merchant gave toColbert Leave us to ourselves. Tell the legiflator, that of all the acts yet framed relating to grain, their afhes given to the winds would more benefit his country than any he could fubftitute in their place. Tell-But I am afraid, Mr. Editor, that you may tell all this in vain.-Some few centuries more muft yet pafs; and, in the mean time, we thall continue to amend corn-laws; to fix the price of labour; and to patronize charitable inftitutions. Of the latter it has been afferted that Great Britain can boast more than any other nation. Perhaps with truth. And the judge that held truth as a libel was perfectly right; for a more fevere libel on the British Conftitution was most affuredly never published. I am, Sir, With fentiments of esteem, Dec. 11th. A POOR NORTHUMBRIAN.

the number for November last, it is truly obferved, that it owes not its rife to the revolutionary government of that country. But I think it a fact not generally known, that, though the plan has been perfected by the French in the prefent day, the noble idea of introducing the ftandard they have adopted, originated with an Englishman near two centuries ago. I mean Mr. Wright, who, in a publication in 1610, entitled, "Correction of certain Errors in Navigation," fuggefted the principle which France has now reduced to practice. Portfea,

Dec. 11th, 1799.

W. H. N.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

"S'il eft quelque moyen legitime et für de fubfifter fans affaire, fans dépendance; c'eft, j'en conviens, de vivre du travail de fes mains en culti vant fa propre terre." Emile, tom. iv. P. 161.

S your miscellany poffeffes the advantage of an extenfive circulation, and you yourself appear folicitous for the diffufion and advancement of knowledge, I beg leave to lay before the readers of the Monthly Magazine a plan immediately connected with the best and dearest interefts of the nation.

The diftreffes refulting from a fcanty harveft, on the prefent, as well as on many former occafions, have induced every confiderate man in the kingdom to look forward to a remedy; and it is obvious, that nothing promifes fairer than the encouragement of our agriculture. It is with this view that Sir John Sinclair, although no longer at the head of a Board particularly dedicated to the confideration of this important object, has lately circulated "Propofals for establishing, by Subfcription, a Joint Stock Tontine Company, for afcertaining the Principles of Agricultural Improvement." It is the opinion of this gentle man, that to complete the fyftem of melioration, fo happily commenced, "Experimental Farms ought to extend from one corner of the island to another; if poffible, ought to be established in every county of it, and, at any rate, ought to include the leading diftinctions of feil and climate." But, as a very large fum of money is indifpenfa. bly requisite for an undertaking of this kind, the idea is here fuggefted of uniting private benefit with public advantage. Sir John accordingly propofes, that a number of public-pirited individuals fhall form themielves into a fociety, with a capital of 70,000l. and as fuch a bank would furnish

the means of proceeding on a grand scale, he thinks, that their immediate attention ought to be turned towards experimental farms and plantations.

1. OF EXPERIMENTAL FARMS.

Mr. Arthur Young, Dr. Francis Home, and a great many others, have pointed out the advantages likely io refult from thefe; and an establishment, indeed, of this kind has been already attempted, although not effected, in the County of Northumberland, for the purpose of ascertaining,

1. What is the best mode of cultivating arable land?

2. What is the beft fyftem for the management of grass-land ?

3. What are the most useful implements of husbandry?

4. What are the most profitable breeds of animals? And,

5. What is the best plan for rendering walte or barren land productive?

The worthy Baronet thinks, that experimental farms ought to be established both in the lower and upper parts of a country, and flates the capital neceffary for one of them, as follows:

This fum of 253,000k is about four times the original capital fubfcribed; and as the inftitution is to be established on the principles of a tontine, the amount divided among the furviving members, or those having a claim in right of nominees, will be very confiderable. "On the whole," fays Sir John, "permit me to afk, whether it is poffible to lay out fuch a fum as 70,000l. in a manner more likely to prove advantageous to the public, both from the important truths it will afcertain, and the valuable examples it will furnish? And whether there is not every reafon to hope, that it will ultimately be productive, not only of indemnification, but of profit to the fubfcribers? For my own part, I am fo thoroughly convinced of the fatisfaction that must refult from carrying fuch a plan into effect, of the fuccefs that must neceffarily attend it, and the certainty that it will yield a handfome recompence to thofe who engage in it, that I fhould not hefitate to riik the whole capital that may be required, had I the neceffary funds at command; but as that is not the cafe, I flatter myfelf, that there will be found a fufficient number of public-fpirited individuals, who will co-operate together in venturing a part of their property (if any one can fuppofe there is any hazard in the proposed undertaking) for the purpose of carrying through fo important a meature, and one fo materially connected with the general improvement, the political ftrength, and the most effential interefts of their country."

Annexed to the pamphlet alluded to, is 1. A plan and elevation of a manufacturing village, confifting of twenty houfes, to be placed in the centre of a field of twenty English acres. 2. Plans and elevations of circular cottages, fuggested by the author, and fo admirably calculated as to endure for many years without the neceflity of repairs. And 3. a plan of an Experimental Farm, confifting of 400 acres, divided into eight departments of 50 each.

As the circulation of the plan may contribute not a little to its fuccefs, your immediate infertion of this letter will oblige, Sir, your very humble fervant, London, Jan. 18, 1800.

For the Monthly Magazine.

VIEW OF THE STATE OF THE STAGE IN GERMANY, BY A CORRESPONDENT AT WEIMAR.

WHO can attempt the task of mus

and among the nations of Germany, Thalia's ftandard? In this point, too, does Germany wear the badge of her conftitution, pieced out into fo many small and even petty states. And Leffing, when engaged for the German ftage at Hamburg, when he wrote his excellent work the Dramaturgia, purchased with much uneafinefs of mind the conviction, that among the people who fpeak German no real National Theatre can be established and fupported. For want of a fingle metropolis, there can be only one particular national ftage, in Mannheim, in Vienna, or in Hamburg. But, even if the German Theatre be deprived of all those perfections and advantages which, above all things, the concentration of one large metropolis offers in a very high degree to the Drama in feveral other kingdoms; fill, for that very reafon, do the annals of the chief theatres deferve, not merely the attention of fellow-artifts and real connoiffeurs, but also in a more univerfal point of view the obfervation of the ftatefman, of the hiftorian, and, on the whole, of the philofophical observer of the manners of the moft enlightened age. For, in anfwer to the queftions, "What is the Public?" And, "Does Germany ftill poffets a public?" before many other common inftitutions, the theatre, as Herder has fo beautifully fhewn in his Letters towards the Advancement of Humanity and polite Learning, fhould come first into confideration.

The four chief theatres, each of which with a louder or a more gentle voice lays claim to the honorary name of National Stage, are thofe at Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfort. At Vienna, where Thalia in the boulevard-stages of the fuburbs, under the management of the famous Shickneder and the Tyrolian Merry. Andrews Gafperle, often receives more bleffed confecration, than in the chief temples of its theatrical Mufes, was Kotzebue (called from Livonia by the Baron Brown, manager in chief of the Burghtheatre) feveral months ago the cause of a ferious difpute. His well-directed spirit of reform, the objects of which were highly neceffary improvements, threatened to lafh the folly of fome ftrutting felfconceited actors in a Theatrical Journal, which, by a deep-laid fcheme of knavery, was fmothered in its infancy, and could be but poorly fupplied by criticisms on the theatre, officially inferted in the Court Gazette. Mr. Kotzebue engaged fome

were Mr. Koch and his lovely daughter