others in the seas near the north pole.-They sailed in june 1773: they landed on Spitzbergen: and, having passed Hactluyt's Headland, they proceeded as far as the 81st degree of latitude, where they were arrested by the ice, and with difficulty disengaged themselves; the thermometer at that time standing at 37 degrees 46 minutes.-The result of this voyage, the journal of which is a narrative of difficulties, hardships, and dangers, corresponded with the subsequent report of Cook; "that no passage would "ever be found practicable in that direction."-Even in these remote regions nature has bestowed on her works beauties of a peculiar kind, the description of which will be gratifying to those who are disposed to such contemplations. The narrator of this voyage thus describes the country near Smearingburgh harbour, in the 81st degree of latitude." The country is stony, and, as far as can be seen, full of mountains, precipices and rocks. Between these are hills of ice, generated, as it should seem, by the torrents that flow from the melting of the snow on the "sides of those towering elevations, which being once congealed, are " continually increased by the snow in winter, and the rain in summer, "which often freezes as soon as it falls. By looking on these hills, a "stranger may fancy a thousand different shapes of trees, castles, churches, "ruins, ships, whales, monsters, and all the various forms that fill the "universe. Of the ice-hills there are seven, that more particularly attract "the notice of a stranger. These are known by the name of the Seven Ice-burgs, and are thought to be the highest of the kind in that country. "When the air is clear, and the sun shines full upon these mountains, the prospect is inconceivably brilliant. They sometimes put on the bright glow of the evening rays of the setting sun, when reflected upon glass, "at his going down; sometimes they appear of a bright blue, like

66

sapphire, and sometimes like the variable colours of a prism, exceeding in lustre the richest gems in the world, disposed in shapes "wonderful to behold, all glittering with a lustre that dazzles the eyc, "and fills the air with astonishing brightness."

Among the naval enterprises of the English, the means employed by government for the introduction of the breadfruit tree, which had been found at Otaheite, into the West India islands, is very deserving of notice. -Sir Joseph Banks having given it as his opinion that this tree might be successfully

successfully cultivated in them, captain Bligh sailed in the autumn of 1787 with a vessel destined to bring a cargoe of them to the West Indies.-The ship being laden with them, the captain took his departure from Otaheite april the fourth, 1789.-But twenty-three days after, when the ship was in the midst of the Pacific, steering its course for the Moluccas, the crew mutinied, and put the captain and eighteen of the crew who would not join the mutineers overboard into the ship's boat, with only an hundred and forty pounds of bread and thirty of meat, to shift for themselves.-Fortunately, they were provided with a compass and quadrant: with the assistance of these, they, in forty days, during which there was almost continued rain, reached the Dutch settlement of Timor, which was calculated to be 4000 miles from the place where they were embarked.

This disaster did not, however, prevent the execution of the design."After several unsuccessful attempts, the introduction of the bread fruit,” says Mr. Edwards, "was happily accomplished, in january 1793, by the "arrival at St. Vincent, of his majesty's ship providence, captain W. Bligh, " and the assistant brig, captain N. Portlock, from the South Seas; having "on board many hundreds of those trees and a vast number of other "curious plants, which have been properly distributed through the islands "of St. Vincents and Jamaica, and have already afforded the pleasing prospect that his majesty's goodness will be felt in the most distant periods."

THE LIBERAL ARTS.

Although the fine arts are much cultivated and encouraged in the present age, yet the manners and circumstances of it are not favourable to a high degree of excellence in them.

The age of Leo the Tenth and Francis the First was not an age the general character of which was marked with a taste for expence. However men in the highest ranks might rival each other in splendour and magnificence, those in lower stations had no such temptations to expence. -Luxury not being the general taste of the age, the wants of artists, as of others in the middle and lower ranks of life, were comparatively few. Moreover,

P Ann. Regist. 252 of App.

9 Pref. to Mr. Edward's Hist. of the West Indies.

Moreover, most men of distinguished character in it sought for fame by the patronage of arts and letters. The modest and amiable Corregio, who lived and died in low circumstances, followed the bent of his genius, because his desires were bounded within a narrow compass, and a passion for his art superseded every other in his breast: and if the wants of his cotemporary Leonardo da Vinci were greater, they were supplied by a succession of munificent patrons. The object of both was fame, not pecuniary emolument.

But the circumstances of artists in the present age are very different. From the taste of the age for expence, their wants are numerous: and, although they have many purchasers, they have few patrons. Though they may be endowed with genius and actuated by the desire of fame, instead of pursuing it by labouring to produce what is perfect in its kind, and best calculated to give them lasting celebrity, they are obliged by their wants to consider what is most saleable or most easily produced.

Even under these disadvantages the liberal arts are at present flourishing in Great Britain, and receive all the encouragement that is compatible with the state of society. In 1768 a royal academy was established with his majesty's patronage, for the study and encouragement of the fine arts, under the direction of forty of the most eminent artists in the kingdom. Its first president was sir Joshua Reynolds, a man who did honour to the society and his profession.

(1765.) In a cause relative to the copyright in engravings, the question whether the force of an act passed in the late reign in favour of the inventors and designers of them extended to portraits was decided in their affirmative.—This decision could not but be gratifying to all who were interested in the prosperity of the fine arts; who consider them as of the same family, and administering to each other's success; and who think the nation honoured in having produced a Woollet, a Hall, and a Boydell, as well as a Reynolds and a Gainesborough.

Annual Register. 87.

AGRICULTURE.

AGRICULTURE.

Very little has been done by general acts of the legislature, for the advancement of agriculture, during this period, because little was seen to be necessary; but much has been done by individuals, under the protection of a free government.-No country in the world, perhaps, ever made such rapid advances in agricultural improvements in the course of half a century. These appear to have been chiefly derived from the following

causes.

The foundation of them, as of every other source of national prosperity, is the security of person and property afforded by our happy constitution, -Another cause is the certainty of our market; which has been increased by an act of king William's reign, importing, "that when malt or barley is "at one pound four shillings per quarter, or under, rye at one pound "twelve shillings, and wheat at two pounds eight shillings, then it shall "not only be lawful to export the same, but the exporters shall receive "the following bounties: viz. two shillings and sixpence per quarter for "malt or barley; three shillings and sixpence for rye; and five shillings "for wheat."-Another cause is the practice of laying lands in severalty; which enables the occupiers in some instances to double their product by a proper succession of crops. Another is the practice of letting estates upon leases of such length as may afford the occupiers a sufficient inducement to make such improvements as the land is capable of. A person who rents an arable farm for a term of twelve years will be encouraged to improve it by expensive manures, and to introduce restorative crops, in the beginning of his lease, by the rational prospect which he has of reimbursing himself in the last years of it: whereas one who is at rack rent, or has a very short lease, especially if he be fettered by a tenantry field, will impoverish his land by a continual effort to procure immediate profit.-These causes combined have induced men of substance to employ their capitals in agriculture; and have produced another cause of its present flourishing state in the respectability of the present body of farmers.

The effects of our improvements are seen in our increased products.—

VOL. IV.

2 Q

By

By a comparison of the late with preceding surveys, it appears that the population is increased within the last century by a fourth part. And the number of horses is increased in a much greater proportion.—Moreover, in estimating consumption, we ought to observe, that the number of persons who eat meat and of horses which eat corn, the most expensive subsistence, is increased in more than an equal proportion to the total increase of population. Men of property, in general, consume the produce of a greater quantity of land than the poor: and there is added to the property in land, within a century, the property arising from the funds, and a vast increase of property from trade and manufactures. And yet, notwithstanding the increase of population is great, and of consumption much greater, the excess of our average imports to our exports of corn is trifling. Although our improvements in agriculture are to be ascribed chiefly to these causes, the legislature has not, in the mean-time, been inattentive to this object. By two acts of the twenty-ninth and thirty-first of George the Second, it was enacted, "that any lords of wastes and commons, with "the consent of the major part in number and value of the commoners, may inclose any part thereof, for the growth of timber and underwood." -An act has since been passed to facilitate the laying common fields in severalty; which, unfortunately, has not been seen to produce the desired effect.

Agriculture has, during this period, not only received the encouragement arising from the attention of men of fortune and the repute in which it is held, but has been honoured with the express countenance of the state.. -A society had some years since been established, under the denomination, of The Bath and West of England Society, for the purpose of encouraging improvements in husbandry and dispersing agricultural information. But. the state, deeming it proper to give so important an object its patronage and assistance, in 1793, with the sanction of the legislature, instituted a board for the purpose of making and forwarding agricultural improvements; an institution which may be of benefit to the community, if the attention of its professors be directed, as, no doubt, it is, to such minute. experiments as cannot be made by practical farmers; particularly on the properties of manures, and of soils, and the effects of different manures. upon different soils..

The