der to judge of it fairly, it fhould be planted properly. All perennial plants, which have top roots, as the lucerne and burnet have, fhould be raised in nurferies, and tranffplanted. The burnet should from the nurfery be tranfplanted in rows; the plants (tanding at least atthe distance of four inches. It may be planted fo thick that it may fill the furface of the ground. Lucerne requires a greater diftance, because the ground muft at all times be kept clear of grafs and weeds. During the first two years, the burnet should be kept clear of grafs and weeds. It is fo ftrong and bufhy a plant, that, after that time, it will defend itself, and will thus afford plentiful crops for years. It has a quality not fufficiently attended to. It feems to yield more nourishment than any other plant; for creatures fed on it are fooner fatiated than on any other plant. I remember a particular inftance of this. When Mr Rocque first offered it to public notice, a gentleman planted a fpot with it in his park, and hurdled it in. When it had grown to have the appearance of a crop, he ordered fome Theep to be put to feed on it. The fheep were obferved to lie down on it much more than was ufual with them; the fervants therefore begged they might be fet at liberty, left they might be ftarved. The gentleman infifted that they might be kept on it as long as they had plenty of food. The food continued much longer than was expected; and, to difcover what condition the fheep were in, a butcher was called in to examine them, who found they were fatter than other sheep which fed at large in the park. It had the fame effect on a youth who ufually breakfafted on milk; he found he was fatiated with little lefs than half his ufual quantity, when he had the milk of a cow fed on burnet. Its continuing to fupport the fheep fo long and well may be owing to its fpeedy and alVOL. XI. No. 63. most imperceptible fprouting out. On this account it must have the fame effect on all animals fed on it. At the time it was introduced into ufe by Mr Rocque, the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, inftituted in London, offered a premium for the culture of it and I remember one of the candidates, who lived, I think, in Lincolnshire, informed the fociety, that in the autumn of that year, which had been very rainy, many of his fheep were in fo bad a condition as to health, that he feared they would die; he however put them to feed on the burnet; and, greatly contrary to his expectation, they were by Christmas, in as good a condition as any of his flock. Other inftances of its good effects might be produced; but I hope thefe are fufficient. Let me add, that it continues in verdure most part of the winter, and fprings very early. As many may grudge the labour and expence of rranfplanting burnet, they may, by the addition of many plants, improve the pafture in the following manner: after the hay is taken off the ground, or after the grafs is eaten very close, they may run the ground over with a harrow, which will tear up the old and decayed roots, or foggage, and in fome degree open the furface. It need scarce be mentioned that the tines fhould be kept clear of the decayed matter they take up. A due quantity of burnet-feed may then be fpread on the ground, and covered with a coat of dung and the rain, frequent a bout Lammas, will enable the feeds to take root; and the tearifying and dung will at any rate greatly improve the grafs. I know a gentleman, who, during the war, acted with great spirit and judgment, and now that peace is reftored, like a Roman conful, and as becomes a good citizen, has turned his fword to a plowfhare, and feeds a con a confiderable flock of fheep with potatoes farmers may now ufe fuch fucculent fubftances to advantage, as they may, much to their profit, add dry hay, or even ftraw, with the potatoes, by means of a much improved chaff-cutter, one of which may be feen in the repofitory of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. in London. The gentleman here al Juded to has made fhades in his ground, into which his fheep may retire in hot gleams in fummer, and to fhelter them from rhe feverity of win ter ftorms. In confequence of thefe measures, he fells his wool at a better price than his neighbours. As both potatoes and turnips are liable to be deftroyed by fevere froft, the farmers may now have a fuccedaneum, which may be depended on, even as late as April, when there is no other fucculent food, viz. the tur nip-rooted cabbage, which may be relied on as an excellent food, when it is cultivated with care and judgment, by tranfplanting it in the autumn. The burnet alfo ftands the winter, and fhoots early in the fpring; but does not at an early feafon afford fo plentiful a crop as the turnip-rooted cabbage does. Though not perhaps properly belonging to this fubject; yet let me conclude by obferving the advantage that roots have over hay, as a food for cattle and fheep. The hay is liable to be frequently greatly damaged by rains, whereas roots are benefited by it. This fhould be particularly attended to by the inhabitants of hilly countries, where rains are more frequent, and falls heavier than in flat champaign countries. JASON. SIR, To the Publifher. WITH pleafure faw in laft month, an advocate for the race of thofe harmless, pleasing, and ufeful birds, the Swallows it is amazing to fee fo many unthinking boys of all ages, from 10 years old to 40, facrificing their time and powder in fuch amufement, fo detrimental to our own intereft and conveniency: if any of them will obferve the bird they have fhot, they will fee fpiders, &c. crawling out of their mouths after the bird is dead not one bee, efpecially from that fpecies called the Swift. If they were not deftroyed by the birds the Author of Nature hath fent for that benevolent purpofe, we fhould fuck them in with our breath. It may seem strange that fpiders are fuppofed to float in the air, but the above obfervation will prove that it is fo; I fuppofe, broken off by rain and a gust of wind, from the fubftances : to which they appended; and their fmall firing of webb keeps them floating. Thefe thoughts carry me to that active, fprightly, little bird, the Tom-tit or Team-noop; which will foon fuffer by the watchful ill judged feverity of moft gardeners, at the approaching feafon, when plumb and cherry trees are putting forth their bloomy buds, thinking them inimical to the fruit; any one harbouring fuch an opinion, will foon have an opportunity of removing it, by obferving under each tree, at the time of the bloffoms putting forth, the ground with the fragments of buds and blcffoms, which appear alarming; but let the obferver take up any of these buds fo torn off, and he will discover a finall spect, where a worm hath been bred, which the bird hath taken out; and thofe trees fo apparently divefted will fill retain a proper quantum of bloffoms for fruit unblemished. After the feasons when fmall worms and infects are formed by the fun, you will find this bird, with the Robin, Wren, Hedge-fparrow, White-throat, Red-ftarts, and others, peeping behind every leaf, and feed ing upon the infects beneath. The beaks of fuch birds are not formed for harder food; indeed I must obferve, the Tom-tit's beak is calculated for opening the buds before mentioned; but after this feafon he feeds with the others. Reflections on the Dominion of England UPPOSING that Henry Plant over Ireland as a conquered country*. no right to refift him; because it is Sagenet had been in the ftricteft fuppofed that the right is decided by fenfe the conqueror of Ireland, and that he had reduced the whole nation to unconditional obedience to his government, andthat the Irifh, inftead of becoming his vaffals had become his fubjects, and of courfe, that he became as well intitled to the ftyle of King, as of Lord of Ireland, then let us examine what rights were conveyed by this conqueft, to him and his fucceffors. Conqueft is force. Force is a phyfical, and right a moral quality: and between effences thus diftin&t there can never refult the relationfhip of caufe and effect. For though force may inveft with power, it can no more convey a right than the found of a trumpet can produce the taste of honey; or the colour of scarlet the fmell of a rofe. If right could be fuppofed to be the effect of power, the immutable nature of right and wrong would vary, according to the phyfical momentum of force. For if a power be ftrong enough to change he poffeffion of a property, then the tight would follow the power, as the rffect its caufe. Of course, weakness eould be divefted of all its rights, wd there would be as many rights as anwers to claim them. Then a vilpo, with dagger or a pistol at my Jainft, would have a right over my brean or property, if he can fubdue perfoand I, if weaker, would have me; the prepollence of force. Many ponderous tomes have been written to afcertain the rights of war. As if murder and devastation, things effentially wrong, could be reduced to right by fyftem. For what is war, but theft and robbery on a great fcale? As burglary is nothing but a fiege in miniature. Yet I do not find that the rights of theft, robbery, murder, and burglary have been as yet defined. The numbers concerned in any aggreffion, are fo far from diminishing the guilt of the action, that they increase it, in proportion to thofe numbers, becaufe they can do more mifchiefthan a few. But leaving philofophy to weep that the confequences of this doctrine (fo fhocking to every moral inftinct, fo repugnant to every rule of recttitude) may be traced in all the great tranfactions of the univerfe, we must confefs that it would be no eafy matter to prove that it was not the intention of nature that the ftronger fhould govern the weaker: for why elfe does the diftribute her powers and talents in fuch unequal meafures and proportions to the children of men? and though it be true that power can never convey a right, yet it is equally true, that all focieties, however conftituted, are governed by force. By force the father governs the child, the husband the wife, and the Z2 mafter *From Campbel's Strictures on the Ecclefiaftical and Literary Hiftory of Ireland, mafter the family. ftate in miniature. I will add, that it is unwife to argue (as many writers have done, and particularly profeffor Blackftone), that Henry II. derived his title to Ireland from the right of conqueft. For if force was his only title, then a fuperior force can at any time annihilate that title. And, if ideas of natural right are at all to enter into fuch difcuffions, it follows a fortiori that a conquered nation is more juftifiable in fhaking off a foreign yoke at any time it feels itfelf in force, than the conqueror was in laying it on. But I shudder at the confequence of a doctrine which univerfally abfolves A family is a Here commences fubordination. Vain is it to recur to a virtual compact for the origination of fociety. Mankind is, and ever has been, even in its moft favage ftate, uniformly found in fociety, and under fubjection. The animal Man may be found in folitude, but man the Species is focial. The word law involves in it the idea of a fanction. The fanction is force. And let the fovereignty of a fate be lodged where it may, the firft magiftrate bears a fword, though not always a fceptre. All focieties then are governed by force, without being much controlled,uations from their allegiance, whenby principles of metaphyfics. Had the Irish invaded the English nation, and had Henry II. come over, as he did, by way of retaliation, then his right of conqueft could not be called in question. But this was not the cafe, the English were the first invaders; and, of courfe, their fuperior force could give them no rights over the perfons or property of an unoffending people, and much lefs over their pofterity, Wars cannot be juft on both fides, and they are generally unjust on both. The Irish ftood upon the defenfive, and therefore are not to be blamed. Confequently, the invafion of Ireland, by the king of England, can never be juftified on the principles of right; aud yet it cannot be much condemned, by the moft fqueamish politician, upon the maxims of the world. For what is the hiftory of any country, but a reflected image of human depravity, a painful detail of violated rights, a frightful regifter of wars, undertaken upon the fame principle that Leviathan swallows up the fmaller fish? But it does not from hence follow that one nation acquires a Right to govern another natión, because it is able to fubdue it, and to compell its people to enter into fubmiffive compacts in order to obtain peace. And ever they can find an opportunity to withdraw themselves from an enforced fubjection. Yet this right of conqueft was ve hemently urged against me by Dr. Johnfon, in a converfation I once held with him refpecting the affairs of this country. The converfation appeared to my dear friend Dr. Watkinfon, (to whom I repeated it, within an hour or two after it paffed), fo extraordinary, that he gave me pen, ink, and paper to fet it down immediately; for, fays he, it deferves to be recorded, as a teft of his political principles. I therefore give it here with the lefs reluctance, as upon the whole it difcovers the original rectitude of a warm heart, biaffed by national prejudices. But firft let me premife a circumftance or two 2 Having spent the winter of the year 1777 in London, I had been honoured (and it is my pride to acknowledge it) with his familiarity and friendship. I had not feen him from that time till the 11th of June 1781, when I went to pay him a morning vifit. I found him alone, and nothing but mutual inquiries refpecting mutual friends had paffed, when Barretti came in. Barretti, more curious than the Doctor, foon afked me if the Disturbances in Ireland were over. The question, I own, furprised me, as I had left all things quiet, and was not at firft altogether aware of the tendency of his queftion. I therefore, in return, afked what disturbances he meant, for that I had heard of none. What! faid he, have you not been in arms? To which I answered categorically, Yes! and many bodies of men continue fo to be. And don't you call this Disturbance? rejoined Barretti. No! faid I, the Irish Volunteers have demeaned themselves very peaceably, and instead of disturbing the repofe of the country, have contributed moft effectually to preferve its peace. The laws were never fo well executed as fince the Volunteers arofe. The Irish are, I own, a turbulent people, and in many places, whenever they before could, they have refifted even a Juftice of Peace's warrant; but this is now all over, the people, even the rudeft of them, are every where amenable to law. You have heard of part of our country being infefted with a banditti called White-boys, but now we hear nothing of them in Ireland, but as of a tale that is told. Mr. Barretti! you have received wrong impreffions of these Irish Volunteers, you conceive them to be the drofs and dregs of our country; but undeceive yourself, the reverfe is the truth; they are compofed of the most affluent and refpectable inhabitants of the kingdom, from the knights of the fhire to the moft trufty freeholders in each parish. You are acquainted with English opulence, and know how distasteful it would be to Englishmen of condition, or even farmers, to ferve as militia men; but take off your eyes from this gorgeous fcene, and behold a poor nation not habituated to the conveniences of life, and you may understand why the lowest man that ferves in the volunteer ranks is fomehow exhalted above thofe who do not. To be a Volunteer in Ire land is an object of ambition, and that ambition is principally checked by the poverty of the people. For however ftrange it may appear to you, he must have been, for Ireland, a man in eafy circumftances who could afford to be a Volunteer. The honour is attended with more expence than even fome of them are able to bear: a handfome uniform, accoutrements, field-days, &c. are all attended with great cofts and charges to them. Yet as they are, nevertheless, the moft rich, most civilized and refpectable members of the community at large, and of the feveral parifhes to which they belong, you cannot fufpe&t that they would be the people most prone to raise disturbances in their country. On the contrary, the fact is, that a decency, a fobriety, a principle of honour is already visible where it was not before to be feen. Dr. Johnfon, who all this while fat filent, but with a very attentive ear to what paffed-and much more then paffed than I fet down-at length turned to me with an apparent indignation which I had never before experienced from him-What! fir, don't you call it Disturbance to oppofe legal government with arms in your hands, and compel it to make laws in your favour? Sir, I call it rebellion, as much as the rebellions in Scotland. Doctor, faid I, I am exceedingly forry to hear that declaration fall from you, whom I always confidered as a friend, fometimes partial, to Ireland: but this I can fay, that we have always confidered ourfelves as among the moft loyal of his Majesty's fubjects, at the fame time that, though obliged to fubmit, we have always denied allegiance to the fupremacy of a British Parliament. We have a feparate and diftinct legiflature of our own, and that we have never difcovered any inclination to refift. Sir, fays the Doctor, you do owe allegiance to an English Parliament, |