thus the grape increafed in propor. tion as the grain diminished."" **This was partly the flate of Portugal when king Jofeph appointed Senhor Carvalho, afterward marquis de Pombal, his prime minifter. The administration of this great fatefman forms an epoch in the annals of Portugal. He endeavoured, and not in vain, to direct the attention of the people to their real intereft; the landholders were compelled to diminish their vineyards, and appropriate a third part of them to grain and other fpecies of culture. This wife regulation was attended with fuch falutary effects, that to this day it is confidered one of the most beneficial acts of his adminiftration. As the natural refult of agriculture is population, he prepared em, ployment for the rifing generation, by establishing manufactories of different kinds; industry thu's excited, the country began to wear a new face: the merchant engroffed the trade heretofore carried on by foreigners, and the farmer fed and d clothed himfelf and his family with the produce of his native soil, **The marquis' efforts, thus far crowned with fuccefs, urged him to further exertions; he endeavoured to propagate a fimilar spirit of induftry among the colonists, who had long felt the inertia of the mother country. But knowing how vain it was to expect either activity or induf try from a people groaning with the + B 7 1 chains of flavery, he published an ediet, whereby the inhabitants of Brazil, and of the other colonies appertaining to the crown, were to be reftored to their freedom, and to enjoy, the fame immunities as the na tives of Portugal. An act so replete with juftice and humanity, is fuffi cient to expiate many of the political fins imputed to the marquis de Pombal, and is a lasting honour to Portu gal, which was the firft among the modern nations of Europe that enflaved mankind, and the first that set the humane example of their emancipation. It was also the first that taught Europe navigation and com merce upon a comprehensive scale: had not prince Henry exifted, we fhould not, probably, have ever heard of Columbus. It is to the difcoveries of the Portuguese in the old world (fays Voltaire) that we are ins debted for the new." They were, in fact, the first that explored the coaft of Africa, that fuggeffed the existence of the western world, and difcovered the road to India. A peo ple who have been thus early in fo many enterprifing purfuits, and exhaufted their vigour when most of the furrounding nations were but waking from their flumber, might reasonably be allowed to take a refpite. They are now but commencing their career anew; and it must be left to time to determine whether they will ever more re-establish the once refpectable name of Lufitanians.'or MINUTES OF AGRICULTURE, FROM THE REPORTS OF THE AGRICULTURAL BOARD. DULUT [CONTINUED FROM OUR LASTİN ÜMBER, PAGE 44L]bolang whispered in their ears, are oppofed a fecond time, for many miles in a to the intereft of the public, it would betray an ignorance of the frailty of human nature, to conclude that the balance of the fcale would not bear to the ufual quaiter, . It frequently happens, that the hor zible demon of difcord, that deftroys the peace of almost every neighbour, hood at contested elections, fallies forth upon thefe occafions. If the great man, who generally takes the lead in laying out the turnpike road, has no immediate intereft himself, he has often a friend to oblige, or an enemy to mortify, by fending the road Hp hill, to fave the land of the one, ar through the middle of a meadow, to hurt the other. A tippling houfe on the top of a hill, or a favourite piece of land at the bottom, compels the husbandman, at this day, in many parts of this kingdom, to keep one third more castle in his team, than there would otherwife have been occafion for. In the courfe of pretty long experi ence, I have, very rarely, feen a great man take it into his head to ruin a turnpike road, who did not fucceed, in the face not only of reafon, but of facts reducible to mathematical demonftration Pride, more than intereft, often influences the conduct on fuch occafions. A majority of gotes, at a turnpike meeting, keeps up the fpirit of the party, and ferves to intimidate the enemy, The fame party fpirit is fometimes yifible, in paffing the road, by the commiffioners after it has been made. If the contractor be of the strong party, three or four inches of gravel will do in place of twelve, to which bis con, tract bound him; but if he gave his yote with the weak party, woe be to him!' The notoriety of thefe facts is unquestionable, and the evil refulting from them is now found to be fo infufferable, that in many parts of the kingdom they are making the roads ftretch, and thereby loading the pub This evil might be removed by an act of legislation, empowering government to appoint furveyors, with falaries moderately competent to make it worth the attention of men of character. Twenty might be fuffi cient over the whole island. That no bill, for a new turnpike, fhould be received by the Houfe of Commons, until the furveyor of the district tranf mitted an affidavit to the house, that he had marked the intended road on the ground; and that it was, in his opinion, the hortest and the levelleft that could be laid out be tween the two ends of the district through which the road paffed. Should it be made appear by mea furement, and taking the elevations, that a fhorter or a leveller road might have been made, the furveyor fhould be difmiffed from his office, as incapable; and if it fhould be found that partiality had influenced his conduct, the ufual punishment in cafes of perjury fhould be inflicted. These re marks allude to the kingdom at large, and not to the district under review in any exclufive degree. Inclosures Inclofures. Although the inclos fure of common fields will no doubt put the land, in a way, by proper management, of producing double the quantity of food for fociety that they do in their prefent ftare, yet all this, in the eftimation of found policy, will avail very little, if upon investigation it fhall be found that inclofures, even in the smallest degree, give countenance to the introduction of fo dangerous a canker worm as that of leffening the number of our people. At Grft view, inclosures do undoubtedly authorize fuch an idea. For let us fuppofe a township that contained 500 acres of common aráble fields, befide its portion of pasture, to be inclosed, and the whole let to one man, who turns all the arable land into feeding pasture ground, and stocks it with bullocks and theep. Allowing five perfons to every 100 acres of tillage, the former inhabitants amounted to twenty-five perfons, but now that the land is inclosed and stocked with live flock, five perfons will be fufficient to look after them. Here we fee twenty perfons fent adrift into the wide world, without any employment or visible means of fubfiftence. The man who could behold this without being much affected, muft poffefs a very convenient portion of taciturnity. Thefe 500 acres are now fo far loft to the community at large, that no perfon but the proprietor and the occupier can poffibly reap any advantage from them. So far the picture is unquestionably gloomy, and any further, upon this fubject, the genes ral run of philofophets do not extend their fpeculations.vel presadi year: 200 hides to the tanner, to the currier, to the leather merchant, and to the shoemaker; who again will find a fale for the buckle makerš goods, befide the tallow-chandlers, &c. The cofheep, at feven pound a fleece (3500 pounds of wool,) will contribute a little to the maintenance of the wool merchant, the woollen manufacturer, the comber, carder, fpinner, weaver, tucker, dyer, colourman, dreffer, woollen-draper, tał lor, and button-maker; all thefe, to gether, with their journeymen, ap prentices, families, and the respective tradefmen which they are enabled to employ, again will partake of, and reap an advantage from thefe 500 acres, which in a paroxyfm of miftaken patriotif we had given up in a great measure as loft to the com munity at large. Were we to make a minute enquiry into the number of our people, that now make bread from these five hundred acres, we fhould probably find it to be double to the twenty-five that it had maintained while in tillage, most of them bringing up young familiesin comfort, while by the taxes upon the various articles they confume, they contribute infenfibly their mite toward the ne ceffary expences of fupporting that government by which they are pro tected. While the wool, hides, and tallow of the produce of thefe 500 acres, furnith the various tradesmen, employed in the manufacturing of them, with an opportunity of getting money: nature has laid out the whole fyftem fo wonderfully exact, that the machine is an kept in motion, for 6 And part of the wealth acquired by the manufacturers of thefe articles, finds its way back to the original growers of them thro' the hands of the butcher." hem thro' the hands of But let us fee to what use the own er of occupier of these foo acres of tillage has applied them. To feed oxen and fheep. Well. Perhaps two hundred head of cattle, and five hundred fheep may compofe his stock By MP Holt's Two hundred carcaffes, to pafs thro throGram the butchers hands, will find bread for fome people through the whole Grain The grain principally cul tivated is oats, which when ground to meal, and is the food of the labouring clafs, clafs, particularly in the northern and eastern borders of the county, made up in bread cakes, of which there are varieties prepared by fermentation with four leaven-others without lea ven, and rolled very thin; alfo wa ter, boiled and thickened with meal into porridge; and this eaten with fuet, or butter-milk, fmall beer fweetened with treacle, or treacle only, was in many families, about forty years ago, both the breakfast and fupper meal. This custom was fo rigorously obferved by a certain family, three brothers, batchelors, the last of whom died only in 1792, that upon Sunday morning it was the conftant practice to make a double portion of porridge, one half of which was fet by for the fupper meal, and, to keep warm during fo long a fpace, was put within fide of a bed, and carefully covered up with the clothes; and this was for the general accommodation of the three brothers, who each went to a feparate religious meeting-houfe, and the female domeftic, to a fourth; fa that, when any one of the family came home, they might find immediate accommodation, by the meat already dreffed. These three brothers were men of landed property, had little fociety with mankind, and lived chiefly upon the produce of their own land: they very much depreciated the custom of felling butter, to accommodate folks who indulged in tea, an article which probably none of the three brothers ever tasted. "I wish the butter may run through the bottom of their bafkets,' was theirufual expreffion. They brewed their own ale,, and were proud to bring a cup to cheer the heart of a friend, and to hear their ale praised. Spirituous liquors were unknown in their manfion. A couple of fwine, fed and flaughtered by themfelves, fupplied the family the whole year with flesh-meat except occafion-, ally fome neighbour might kill a beaft di for fale. Conftant attenders upon vine fervice, they brought home the texts of the different preachers, and the news of the foregoing week. The eldest brother would take an excurfion, generally to the fair at Manchefter, held upon Whit-Monday. He fauntered through the market for cattle, looked through the ftands erected for the display of toys for sale, purchafed a pennyworth of gingerbread, and regaled himself with a pint of ale, then returned home, and related the adventures of the day. Manufactures-Manufactures have been carried on to a very confiderable extent in Lancashire. The cotton manufactory through all its branches, which includes a number of leading trades, bleachers, dyers, printers, &c. has become of astonishing extent and importance. The first piece of cotton, manufactured from British growth, was at Manchester; from cotton grown in the grounds of J. Blackbourne, Efq. M. P. of Orford, in Lancashire; feven yards and a half, of one yard and a half yard-wide muflin, from four ounces of raw material. It was a most beautiful piece of cloth, proposed to have been made, up into a drefs for Mrs Blackbourne, in which the intended to have appear ed at court, June 4, 1793, but was prevented by a change of drefs occafioned by the lofs of a relation.. To what a degree of perfection the mullin manufactory is arrived, the following may ferve to convey fome idea. In the year 1791, a fingle pound of cotton was spun to a finenefs of ninety-feven poft miles in length; the muflin, after being fpun, was fent to Glafgow to be wrought, and after that was prefented to her Majefty. Three pound of cotton, which, in its raw ftate, coft 7 s. 6d. coft the fum of 221. in this stage, when it was wrought into yarn only. It was fpun by one Lomat, at Manchefter, upon the machinery called Mules. The 2 The other manufactures are the been noticed: becaufe they are the filk-trade, from the raw filk, through fame in all counties where navigation its fubfequent branches-the woollen is carried on. With refpect to the manufactory, through all its branches good or bad effects that manufactures -hats the fame-cast iron, copper- may have had upon agriculture, this works, paper-manufactory, pins and important question merits much atneedles. An incorporated company tention; the anfwers to which, in for making plated glafs, vitriol works, fome letters, have been concise, and glafs works, ftockings, glue, lamp. difcharged by one fingle word; ex. gr. black works, white-lead works, falt- one anfwer has been advantageous;' works, nailers, tobacco-pipe-makers, another anfwer injurious;' but withtobacco and fnuff manufactories, black, out either argument or proofs to fupand brown earthen ware, English port thefe laconic affertions. porcelain, clock and watch-makers, tool-makers, for both these branches for all the world, fugar refiners, long bow, &c. makers. A large manufactory, for the fabrication of fancy goods, has lately been established at Tildesley, by Thomas Johnfon, Efq. where a village has been built fince the year 1780, which had then only two farm houses, and nine cottages, -and has, in 1793, 162 houses, and a new chapel erected. The village contains 976 inhabitants, which employ -325 looms. -- Manufactures have wrought a change in the agriculture of the county; the growth of grain is annually and gradually on the decrease. The importation from foreign countries is, of courfe, upon the advance; the diminished state of cultivation is one caufe, and the increafing population is another; and by the joint operation of these two, the impor tation of grain and flour, uled chiefly in this county, is almost incredible. The advance of wages, and the preference given to the maManchester, being the principal re-nufacturing employment, by labourpofitory for thefe manufactures, has ers in general, where they may work become the great center, to which the piece, and under cover, have not only the country retailers, to forfake the fpade for but induced i merchants, from all quarters of the the fhuttle, and have embarraffed the kingdom, and foreigners refort; and "farmers, by the fcarcity of workmen, this has induced feveral capital wool- and, of course, advanced the price of len houfes to fettle at that town; and labour. The poor rates, with equal this mart is chiefly confined to one burden, fall upon the farmer, as upon street (Peele-street) in which a fin- the master manufacturer. The water gle room frequently lets from fifty to is fometimes fo damaged by dyeeighty guineas per annum. Two cel- houfes, and other works, erected uplers were let in October 1793, one on rivers, as to be rendered not wholefixty-three yards fquare, and the other fome to the cattle, and deftructive to feventy-eight yards fquare, for eighty fifh. On the other hand, the advanguineas per annum. tages that have been held forth, have been an increase of population; as that which conftitutes the riches and ftrength of a country. The trades and different occupations, upon which the maritime ftate depends, have not on this occafio |