other, till, at length, fcarcely are any to be found of less than 2001. and great numbers of 500l. 900l. or even 1000l. per annum. Few uninterested people, who are converfant in thofe matters, will, I think, contradict me, when I fay that 1000 acres, divided among ten farmers, produce more than if occupied by a single perfon. A man who rents but from 50 to 100 or 150 acres, cannot afford to lose any crops from neglect. He must make every foot of land turn to account, and this, from the fize of his farm, he is enabled to do; but when 1000 acres compofe but one farm, the occupier is too opulent to care fo much about this, even if he was able to do it, which is almoft impoffible. To every part of his extenfive premises he cannot pay a proper attention. The little farmer feizes many opportunities, which he muft in part lofe; and he certainly has not fo much manure, in proportion, as the former has. When I say that a farm of 1000 acres produces lefs grain by one fixth, than if the fame had been divided among nine or ten farmers, I think, I rate the lofs at the lowest. Nothing, perhaps, is lefs fubject to monopoly than corn; but that it can be monopolized and with-held from market, the preceding year has afforded too many examples. But by whom? chiefly by the rich and overgrown farmer. The man who rents but a moderate farm cannot do this: he fells his grain at the ufual times, to pay his landlord, and his current expences; and of this very grain the other is too often the purchaser, which, in a few months, he fells again at a very advanced price. Another great mifchief, which refults from large farms, is, that they employ fo fmall a number of labourers in proportion. The confequence is, the increase of the poor; for the attachment which common people have, as I may call it, to the plough, is well known. That this is the cafe, is often proved by inclofures. Before this, a parish is, generally fpeaking, divided among many proprietors, and, confequently, into small farms ; but at the inclosure, one proprietor buys of another, and one farm is added to another, till, at length, the whole parish is occupied by a few individuals, and the poor's rates then become almost double. Formerly, an incitement was held out to industry. A poor man, if, by any fortunate event, or by his own labour and frugality, he could scrape together 40 or 50l. hired a little farm, which comfortably maintained him in his old age. But now, this is not the cafe, for fuch a bargain as it may be called, is fcarcely to be found in a large diftrict, and the money, which might have been faved for the purpose of stocking it, is too often spent in drunkenness and debauchery. Befides, the prefent fyftem of letting eftates, deftroys that gradation of ranks, fo juftly the boaft of our happy conftitution. There is now a much greater difference between a farmer and his labourers, than there is between him and his landlord. He now never condefcends to put his hand to the plough. No, he rides round his grounds, for they are too extenfive to be walked over; and at home, his wife and daughters study fashions and read novels! Another confequence of large farms is, that the poor are unable to procure milk, and the extravagant price of poultry is very juftly attributed to the fame caufe. I think, however, I have faid enough to prove that large farms are highly injurious. I am, &c. A. Q. Q. L. ON AT SIR, ON THE CULTIVATION OF INDIAN CORN. Ta time of fo great fcarcity, every hint which may have a tendency to increase the food of the labouring poor, must be acceptable; and as feveral perfons have, in the public papers, recommended the cultivation of Indian wheat, the following is a practical account of its cultivation in England:-The land fhould be a loamy fand, very rich.In the beginning of April, the grains fhould be fet like hops, at two feet distance, fix or eight grains in a hill, each grain about an inch deep in the ground. The feed from New England is the beft. In the beginning of May, the alleys fhould be hoed, and the hills weeded and earthed up higher. At the latter end of that month, all the fuperfluous ftalks should be taken away, and only three ftems of corn left in each hill. By the middle of June it will cover the alley. It grows much like bulrushes, the lower leaves being like broad flags, three or four inches wide, and as many feet in length; the ftems Thooting upwards, from feven to ten feet in height, with many joints casting off flag leaves at every joint.Under these leaves, and close to the ftem, grows the corn, covered over by many coats of fedgy leaves, and fo clofed in by them to the ftem, that it does not show itfelf eafily, till there burst out at the end of the ear a number of ftrings, that look like tufts of horse-hair, at firft of a beautiful green, and afterwards red or yellow. The stem ends in a flower. The corn will ripen in September; but the fun at that feafon not having ftrength enough to dry it, it must be laid upon racks, or thin open floors, in dry rooms, and frequently turned, to avoid moulding. The grains are about as big as peas, and adhere in Upon regular rows round a white pithy fubftance, which forms the ear. An ear contains from two to four hundred grains, and is from fix to ten inches in length. They are of various colours, blue, red, white, and yellow. The manner of gathering them is by cutting down the stems and breaking off the ears. The ftems are as big as a man's wrift, and look like Bamboo cane; and the pith is full of a juice that taftes as sweet as fugar.The joints are about a foot and a half distance. The increafe is upwards of five hundred fold. a large fcale, to fave the expence of hilling, the feed may be drilled in alleys like peas; and to fave digging, the ground may be ploughed and harrowed, which will anfwer very well. It will grow upon all kinds of land. The ears which grow upon dry fandy land are less, but harder and riper. The grain is taken from the husk by hand, and when ground upon French stones, makes an excellent flour, of which it yields much more, with much lefs bran, than wheat does, and exceeds it in crust, pancakes, puddings, and all other ufes except bread; but a fweetness peculiar to it, which in other cafes makes it agreeable, is here nauseous. It is excellent for feeding poultry and hogs, and fattens both much better and fooner than peas or barley.The ftems make better hedges for kitchen gardens than reeds do. It clears the ground from weeds, and makes a good season for any other kind of corn. Pifo, and other Spanifh phyficians, are full of the medicinal virtues of this grain. It was the only bread-corn known in Ame. rica when first discovered by the Spaniards, and is there called Maize. Leicestershire. J. A. 37 THE HISTORY OF JEWS IN ENGLAND. HE church of England, jealous from its infancy, had obtained, in the feventh year of James I. an act, which prevented all perfons from being naturalized, unless they first received the facrament of the Lord's Supper, according to its own peculiar and exceptionable mode of commemoration. This act effectually excluded the Jews from being naturalized; till, in the year 1753, a bill was brought into the Houle of Lords, and paffed there without oppofition, which provided, that all perfons profeffing the Jewish religion, who have refided in Great Britain or Ireland for three years, without being abfent more than three months at one time during that space, may, upon application for that purpofe, be naturalized by parliament, without receiving the facrament of the Lord's Supper. But all perfons profefling the Jewish religion, are, by this act, difabled from purchafing, or inheriting any advowfon, right of patronage, &c. to any benefice or ecclefiaftical promotion, fchool, hofpital, or donative whatfoever. On the 16th of April, this bill was fent down to the Houfe of Commons, ordered to be printed, and on the 7th of May read a fecond time, when a motion was made for its being committed. Lord Barrington, Lord Duplin, Robert Nugent, Efq. and Henry Pelham, Efq. were among most eloquent advocates; Lord Egmont, Sir Edmund Isham, among its more zealous opponents. The bill was fupported by the petitions of a few merchants, chiefly diffidents, and countenanced by the miniftry, who argued : its That it would increase the numbers and wealth of the people, upon which depend the national ftrength, the ability to encounter future difficulties, and atchieve ufeful undertak ings-and by which pofterity would eltimate the wifdom and utility of our frame of government. That, by receiving the Jews into our community, and admitting them to a participation of our civil rights, they would contract a warm attachment to our conftitution and country, and gladly divide with us the public burdens. That a great portion of the funds belonging to foreign Jews, it was our obvious intereft to induce them to follow their property, and to expend here an income which was yearly exported to a clear loss. That, connected as the Jews were with the great bankers, and monied interest of Europe, their refidence here, would, in future wars, give us a great command of capital, and facilitate our loans. That even their prejudices, as a fect, would operate in our favour, and occafion our ma, nufactures to be difperfed among the multitudinous Jew-fhopkeepers in Europe, who now recurred to the Jew-merchants of Holland and the other tolerant countries. That Poland had never rifen to fo high a pitch of civil, literary, and commercial diftinction, as when her policy was most liberal toward Socinians and Jews; and that the sect, itfelf, had always abandoned its offen. five prejudices in proportion to its good ufage. On the other fide, it was urged, that, born as we are to privileges and exclufive rights, we did not, by this bill, fell our birth-right, like Efau, for any confideration, however inadequate, but 'foolishly gave it away. That if the Jews, about to be naturalized, belonged to the numerous claffes, we fhould import vagrants and cheats to burden our rates, or fupplant the induftry of our lefs parfimonious poor-if to the wealthy claffes, who cannot procure a fettle a fettlement elsewhere, they would become the highest bidders for our landed eftates, difpoffefs the Chrif tian owners, attract around them, their butchers, bakers, and poulterers, (for they can eat nothing of our killing,) and, bye and bye, would endanger our religion itself. That the rites of the Jews will for ever refift their incorporation with other nations, for any common purposes, while their early marriages and frequent divorces promote fo rapid an increase of their numbers, that they might become, like the bitch in the kennel, too strong for their hofpitable patrons. That it had a tendency to embroil us with foreign powers: we must reclaim, for inftance, as a British subject, any Portuguese Jew who fhould come over to be naturalized, and by indifcretions, expofe himself to the inquifition. That the Jews were not given to manufactures, and, if they fhould open fhops, would interfere with the profits and maintenance of Chriftians; for the number of fhops being adequate to the confumption, could only be increased with injury to the establish ed. That Jewish nationality would intrigue all the trade into their own hands that they were enemies upon principle to all Chriftians: and that it was flying in the face of the Almighty to gather together a fect of which the bible foretold the difperfion. The trumpet of alarm was firft founded by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the city of London, who, in a petition to Parliament, expreffed their apprehenfion, that the bill, if paffed into a law, would greatly tend to the dishonour of the Chriftian religion, and endanger the excellent conftitution. no real danger; because it enhances, for the time, the perfonal importance of each individual. It flatters his love of confequence to be called upon to ftand up for his church and king, when he is not likely to be expofed to the ruffle of contest, or the humiliation of defeat. Accordingly, a zeal, the most furious, vociferated in the pulpits and corpora tions againft the bill, and, by the next feffions of Parliament, inftructions were fent to almost all the members to folicit a repeal of it, The minifter did not attempt to refift the torrent, but was among the foremost who fpoke in favour of the repeal: he was answered, with much force of reafoning, and a truly liberal fpirit, by Thomas Potter, Efq. to whofe fpeech a very elegant reply was delivered by Sir George Littleton: and the Jew bill was repealed, by an act which received the royal affent the fame feffion. Attempts too were made, but fuccefsfully oppofed, by Mr Pelham and Mr Pitt, to repeal fo much of An Act for naturalizing foreigners in America, as did not exclude Jews, Such was the fpirit of intolerance which the parliamentary leaders of the people were not ashamed to fofter. that time, the legal condition of Jews in England has not altered: but the people no longer view them with rancor, or miftruft, or unbro, therly emotions. POSTSCRIPT. From The Jews have been fingularly unfortunate. They fhared the oppreffion and contumely, which the Chriftian fects underwent, as soon as the jealoufy of the Pagan priefts and emperors was excited by the progrefs of their monotheifm: but they in no degree partook of the fecurity or triumphs conquered for the church by Conftantine. Their incredulity was confidered by orthodox and heretics as of all others the most cri3 A The Earl of Egmont became their mouth piece; who, in an artful fpeech, countenanced and inflamed the ungenerous bigotry of the multitude. The English have always enjoyed a cry of alarm, when there is Ed. Mag. May 1796. minal minal, nor was it till after the Mahomedan conquefts, that they obtained, in part of Afia, along the fouthern shores of the Mediterranean and in Spain, a refting place for their feet. In modern Italy, the earliest haunt of reviving literature and philofophy, the first attempts were made to prepare the European mind for the toleration of Judaifm. Simone Laz zurato, of Venice, is mentioned as a pleader of their caufe. The friends of the Socini were thought to entertain fentiments very favourable to the Jews; but the interference of the inquifition in 1546, to fupprefs the celebrated club of Vicenza, an event preparatory to the exile and difperfion of all the rational Chriftians of Italy, defrauded them of rifing advocates. In the feveral Italian republics, the Jews enjoyed only a contemptuous protection. Their fate was fomewhat more favourable in Poland, and much more favourable in Holland, where Bafnage, and, no doubt, others, wrote of them becomingly. In Germany, Gotthold Ephraim Leffing, a celebrated dramatist, by his philofophical plays, Nathan the Wife, and the monk of Libanon, attacked the prejudice against Judaifm in its fortrefs, the public mind; while his friend, Mofes Mendelfolm, was illuftrating the fect, both by his elegant writings and by a well-argued Defence of general toleration, published under the title Jerufalem. C. W. Dohm, a Pruffian, offered, in 1781, to the German public, two fmall volumes of Remarks on the Means of Improving the Civil Condition of the Jews, which called forth feveral pamphlets on the fame topic, among which thofe of Schlötzer and Michaelis, no doubt, deferve conful tation. In France, the prejudices of Vol. taire against the Jewish religion, proved a powerful obftacle to the advances of the philofophic party, in an equitable difpofition towards its profelfors. In 1788, however, the academy of Metz propofed as a prize question: Are there means of rendering the Jews in France ufefuller and happier? Zalkind Hourwitz, a Polifh Jew, M. Thierry, a counsellor of Nanci, and the Abbé Gregoire, fhared the prize, but not the public fuffrage. The work of the latter, on the moral, phyfical, and political regeneration of the Jews, has obtained the more impreffive publicity. Among his most diftinguished coadjutors in obtaining a legal improvement of their condition, the conftituting affembly of France numbered Mirabeau, Clermont-Tonnerre, and Rabaud, In our own country, the well-intended conduct of the English government, under the protectorate of Cromwell, and under the adminiftration of Mr Pelham, were alike defeated by the fanaticism of the people. Mr Toland's naturalization of the Jews in England, is the best antidote of elder date that has def cended to us. Tovey and Ockley have alfo ftored up information on thefe topics. Of late, Priefly's Letters to the Jews, a work which, probably, under the mask of purfuing their converfion, had for its object to do away the ungrateful prejudices of religionifts against their parent-fects, has rendered to them, in the devout world, the fame fervice as Cumberland's comedy of the Jew in the polished. There can fcarcely remain any apprehenfion among thinking men, that the flighteft popular odium would now be incurred by the legislature, if it repealed every law which incroaches upon the political equality of this and other fe&ts. It may not, however, have been amifs to bring within a fmall compafs, fuch particulars of the fortunes of this people in our |