" Has been the pleasure that our grief repays ;

When drinking every gall from kindred earth
As redolent of youth's refreshing days
Fancy the wonders of her heart displays;
And o’er each object we in absence mourn'd,

Shedding the richness of her fairy rays,
Bids e’en the little hedgerow that we scorn’d,
Rise in a mellow light by some new charm adorn'd.”

a

a

és Had the hard feen my very thoughts, and in his own beautiful language thus honoured them in expreflion, he could not more exactly have painted my situation and sensations. And it is sweet to me to know, that we must both have felt and thought alike under similar circumstances. It justifies one's self, love, which is often a very virtuous affection, to trace a resemblance of one's own mind and fancy in that of another, who has given proof of a tender dis. position : it may truly be called meeting with a congenial fpirit."-" That these feelings will be easily understood by those in whom the business or the pleasure of the world has not extinguished sensibility, is the remark of a most elegant mind. There is a silent chronicle of past hours in the inanimate things amidit which they have been spent, that gives as back the affections, the regrets, the sentiments of our former days; that gives back their joys without tumalt, their griefs without poignancy; and produces, equally from both, a penfive pleasure which men who have retired from the world, or whom particular circumstances have somewhat estranged from it, will be pecu. liarly fond of indulging."-" There is a certain attachment to place and things, by which the town, the house, the room in which we live, have a powerful influence over us. He must be a very dull, or a very dissipated man, who, after a month's absence can open his own door without emotion, even though he has no relation or friend to welcome him within.”—“. It has been observed, that this attachment to inanimate objects, discovering itself in a ļort of filent converse with an old accustomed chair, for instance, or bed, or any other piece of furniture to which we have been long used, is charactersitically Britifh. But the “Sirmio” of Catullus seems to prove, that the old Bomans had hearts to feel the fanie domestic sympathies."

* Catullus faw, once more, the lucid tide,

Arourd the green banks of his Sirmio roll,
And hail'd his tranquil home now dim-descried;

Happy at length, his labours laid afide,
Amid his oliv'd island to repose !

• Here, on my old couch,' (the master cried)
Shall I dismiss a train of wakeful woes ;

Here, in delicious sleep, my heavy eyelids close." We cannot, in justice to Mr. Pratt, conclude this article without congratulating him, as we most sincerely do, on his success in corresting various errors, which we had conceived to be attached to his literary character. We are happy to find, that we were, in fome degree, mistaken. We here perceive no unbecoming badinage; no improper levity. We have no freaks or grimaces, exhibited to en

a

liven dullness; no sentimental jargon; no unnatural description. Both the sentiment and the language are easy and graceful. On the whole, we recommend the work before us, as one of the most ufeful of Mr. Pratt's productions; and not the least entertaining. It is true, there are some exuberances; but it is very difficult to check, at all times, a too luxuriant fancy.

Pp. 122.

An Enquiry into the Necessity, Justice, and Policy of a Commutation

of Tithes. By Morgan Cove, L. L. B. Prebendary of Hereford, and Rector of Eaton-Bishop, Herefordshire. 8vo.

Rivingtons, 1800. OUR

UR readers are not now to be told, that the subject of this in

quiry has long engaged our most earnest and profound attention; nor are they yet to learn, that our efforts have been strenuoully directed to ftem the tide of popular clamour, popular error, and popular invective, on a topic on which ignorance and malevolence seem to have joined hand in hand, in order to impose on the thoughtless, and to stimulate the disaffected. We premise thus much, merely to Thew, that the opinion which we have formed on the tract before us is not the rash and hasty decision of prejudice, but the cool result of deliberate investigation, the well-weighed sentence of impartial judgment. We have one word more to say on a topic which we confider as one of infinite importance. Unfashionable as our notions may be deemed, incompatible as they may appear with the most approved maxims of modern liberality, we shall ever be ready to defend tithes on the ground of their divine right, as we are to defend government on the ground of its divine origin ; though both of them may be successfully defended on grounds much more congenial with the spirit of the age. Notwithstanding the arch (neer of the philofophift, the fardonic grin of the dissenter, and the contemptuous ribaldry of the man of reason, we fear not to declare, that the divine right or divine origin of any institution is with us an additional motive to afford it protection and support; and that such an institution has stronger hold on our feelings, stronger claims on our duty, than any which is founded on rights, or which can be traced to an origin, merely human. We shall, no doubt, be censured for this gratuitous declaration ; but, bafore we are condemned, we shall beg to be understood ; nor will such request be deemed either unnecessary or unreasonable by those who have closely watched the current of human affairs, during the last few years, and who, of course, have seen, in some important points of religion and politics, decision precede conviction, and condemnation underlanding.

Mr. Cove has evidently studied his subject with the attention which its consequence imperiously claimed from him. The scope of his argument may be clearly comprehended from the following short passage :

6 On

« On no subjeet, perhaps, have more erroneous notions been more in, dustriously circulated, or more hastily believed, than on the effect of Tithes on Agriculture ; nor has any subject, poffibly, been more wilfully misrepresented, or more generally misunderstood. An inquiry, therefore, into the operation of Tithes upon Agriculture, is ablolutely requisite; and it is prefumed, that in the prosecution of it, fufficient evidence will arise to shew, that neither the rights of the tithe-holders, nor their general conduct in the exercise of those rights, are, or have been, unfriendly to agricultural pursuits; that no immediate interest of the land-occupier, nor future prudential interest of the land-proprietor, can sanction an alteration in the present property and form of lithes; and that an abolition or commutation of them is not defensible on the principles of neceflity, justice, or policy."

The proofs which he adduces in support of this fundamental position are such as may be cavilled at, but can neither be destroyed nor invalidated ; they are full, cogent, and conclusive. Speaking of a plan for the sale of the tithes, and for confequently rendering the clergy pensioners of the state, a plan fo strongly and fo justly deprecated by the late Mr. Burke, in his admirable reflections on the French revolution, a plan which, we are bold to say, even the boasted omnipotence of parliament is as incompetent to enforce, as it is to convert all the landed estates of the country into a funded property, the author extracts the following pointed remarks from a contemporary writer.

“ To convert the stipend of the clergy to a money-payment, and vest their property in the funds, is the wickedest idea a profligate and unprincipled mind ever seriously conceived. The author of the project is every day sinking into contempt; and it is unnecessary to warn my country against the dangers of a single individual, more distingujshed by low cunning than profound knowledge-by pliability to the bent of interest than folidity of judgment—more by periness of plausibility than found reasoning and extensive information.*"

Of the sacredness of this species of property, on which we have fo often and so strongly insisted, it is most truly observed

.. The clergy, and the lay-impropriators derivatively from them, held their tithes by a more ancient and indefeasible title, than attaches, perhaps, to any other landed property in the kingdom ;-a title invariably recognized by the laws and constitution, fanctioned at the important æra of our civil liberty by Magna Charta, which declares the Church of England to be free, and that she shall have all her rights and liberties inviolable, and most expressly confirmed at the establishment of our ecclesiastical liberty by the act of the 27th of Henry VIII. which declares tithes to be dųe unto God and Holy Church."

The gradual decreafe of our exportation of corn, and the consequent gradual augmentation of our import of it, our author imputes to four grand causes; the increase of population; the use of an enormous multitude of horses; the extended consumption of malt liquor ; and the custom adopted of late years by the lower classes of

Thoughts on Non-residence, Tithes, Inclosures," &c. P. 39:

people,

people, of eating wheaten bread only. To which he adds several subordinate caufes, all of which contribute, in a greater or less degree, to promote the fame end. But he has also proved, that if the tillage of corn had not increased with our population, our impurts must have been just double what they have been.

Mr. Cove agrees with us, in our opinion of the recent labours of the Board of Agriculture ; he quotes some of our observations on them, and adds some just remarks of his own; some of which we shall select.

"In the formation of the first sketches of the County Agricultural Reports, drawn up for the use of, and dispersed by the Board of, Agriculture, the several surveyors were left at liberty to note down such information and remarks on all relevant fubjects, as were dictated by their knowledge, judgment, and observation ; but in the improved Reports of each County, already or hereafter

; to be republished, they are confined to an express form of compilation, and are obliged to give opinions upon subjects which they might with to avoid, or upon which they might not think themfelves competent to decide.

“ In consequence of this regulation, nearly a fourth part of the writers of those firft sketches of the English and Well counties, are compelled to appropriate a chapter to the consideration of tithes, if not absolutely to point them out as an obstacle to agricultural improvements ; though these writers had originally either declined mentioning them, or slightly noticed them, and in some instances spoken in favourable terms of tithe-holders in general.' And at the same time that these reports are thus re-modelled and re-published under the plan and fanction of the Board of Agriculture, it is pretended that the Board of Agriculture does not consider itself as responsible for any fact or observation therein contained : so that these improved reports (leaving the reconcilement of the paradox to the honourable Board itself,) are re-published with and without its approbation and authority..

“ Thus, in the first sketches of the Middlesex, Somerset, Norfolk, and Nota tingham Reports, the surveyors had been wholly filent on the subject of tithes. But in the improved Report for Middlesex,* the subject is taken up (by a new surveyor, the old one, perhaps, not having been fo pliant and accommodating,) with such unfeemly warmth, invidious invective, and raking up of old stories, as, in the opinion of candid and dispassionate men, inuft wholly disqualify lim from judging of the actual operation of tithes in kind upon

*

* - This work has been quoted with approbation. But, according to ftatements (apparently very accurate, in Beeke's Observations, it is moit noa torivusly incorrect in some of the most important parts of our internal economy. And, if its credit be thus impeachable in points of the first consequence, surely it is not judging unfairly of the whole work, at least to doube its credibility in other respects; and to question the moral and juitifiable tendency of Come particular paffages in it. In a copious review of the chapter on tithes, the author is charged with petulance, folly, ignorance, misrepresentation, abuse, and malice; and the cases of oppression (as he is pleased to call them,) cited by him in relation to tithes and the collection of them, are shewn to do honour to the clergy, and to reflect disgrace on their abuser-Anti-Jacobin Review, Tol, vi, P. 89.

our

our agriculture, whatever may be his imaginary merit in other branches of political economy. On the contrary, in the improved Report for Somerset, the original Surveyor, though he begs leave to wave the discussion of the dif. ficult, though important, subject of tithes, says, that, in respect to their influence on the agriculture of this district, (he north-east part of the county

I fee but little to complain of: both the clergy and lay-impropriators have been so moderate in their demands, and, in general, have agreed to so reason. able a composition, that the progress of improvement has received but little check on this account.' So, again, in the improved Report for Norfolk, a county most highly and expenlively cultivated, and, in proportion to its size, productive perhaps of a greater quanticy of corn than any other county in the kingdom,--the original surveyor expresses himself greatly to the credit of the clergy and lay-impropriators, and states very obvious reasons for afcribing the causes of most tithe disputes to the land occupiers, and that it is folly and injustice to make farmers believe they should have their land cheaper, if they could get rid of tithes; and that, though tithes may be a discouragement to new improvements, he doubted whether, in order to a total extinction of tithes, it would not be extremely difficult to settle such a proper equivalent as should keep pace with the times.' And, again, in a similar strain of credit to the clergy and lay-impropriators, in the improved Report for Nottingham, the original surveyor, perhaps, too independent in principle and situation to disguise or be over-awed in his sentiments, says, in two different places, • Tithes are in many places taken in kind, but are more frequently compounded for, at a much lower rate than they could be valued by any surveyor.' And, afterwards, in ftating actual facts, and the almost certain consequences of any compensation for tithes, he adds, "Some persons have considered tithes as a great obstacle to improvement, and a law to compel a general conpensation for them, as a money or corn rent, as a remedy. I muit, however, beg to offer

my

doubts as to the propriety or the efficacy of it. The right of tithes in the clergy or lay-impropriators is as much fixed and guarded by law as any other property; and, consequently, no alteration should be attempted against their inclination, but for very cogent reasons indeed. It must be allowed, that the taking tithe in kind tends to impoverish the lands of those who pay it, by depriving them of so much straw for manure, whilst it enriches those of the Rector, or Impropriator, or their Lessee. It may, likewise, sometimes discourage the growing of some particular valuable crops, though in that case the Rector will generally find it his interest to come to a compofition. The Legislature has, indeed, interfered ; and, for the encouragement of valuable crops, fixed a certain sum in lieu of tithes, as in the case of madder. But what weighs most with me, is, that in this, and, I believe, in molt other counties, more tithes are paid by compofition than in kind. The com pofitions, from the desire of Clergymen to live well with their parishioners, and partly perhaps from habit, are much lower than the real value of the tithe. If therefore a general compensation is to be fixed by law, which must necessarily be by understanding persons upon oath, I apprehend much the greater part of the occupiers would, instead of being relieved, find themselves charged with a much heavier expence than before; and, consequently, instead of a general satisfaction, a general complaint would ensue."

We shall be re add one fact which has recently occurred to prove how very oppresive to the farmers, how very injurious to agricul