of the slaves, as to their tasks and punish-upon a jackass. The free regiment, men- There were still at Bonaire a few remaining of the original inhabitants; and three or four aged people at Curaçao; with these exceptions the natives had become extinct. There are hardly half a dozen families of whites, who have not intermarried with Indians or negroes, or the intermediate castes. At Williamstad there is a Dutch reformed church, a Lutheran church, a Roman Catholic chapel, and a Jewish synagogue. Houses are built so near the walls of the fort, that a ladder from the upper stories would be sufficient to get within the walls. A remarkable blunder of the engineer is noticed, who, in building a stone battery, turned the embrasures inwards instead of outwards. In the front of that battery of the fort which is intended to command the entrance of the harbour, a range of warehouses has been built, which are not only themselves exposed to the fire of an enemy, but impede the use of the guns of the fort, which would first have to level those warehouses to a certain height, before their shot could reach a hostile force. The powder magazine was placed at a distance from the fort, and in such a situation as to expose the road or access to it, to the fire of any ship coming round on that side., 250, is the only body of militia, and is under It is most probable that our countrymen CULTIVATION OF WASTE LANDS. Letter from John Fordyce, Esq. to Lord Binning, Chairman of the Committee of Distillery, containing Remarks on the Cultivation of Hemp, &c. and the General Improvement of the Waste Lands in Britain. My Lord, I recollect that in the description which I gave of our county of Berwick, in answer to the questions put to me by your lordship, I thought only of the cultivated part of the county, omitting altogether the wastes of Lammer Moor and Coldingham Moor, which you know are pretty extensive. Af though in the county of Berwick there prevails generally among the gentlemen and farmers as The town, harbour, and fort, are, how-mitch of an enterprising spirit of improvement, ever capable of being made impregnable by any force attacking them from the sea side; yet they would still be greatly exposed on the land side, and there are several places on the shores of the island where an enterprising enemy might find means to effect a landing with small craft. These spots ought, therefore, likewise to be forufied, and a garrison ought to be maintained, numerous enough to dispute the ground foot by foot; which, in such a rocky island, abounding with difficult passages, and defiles through the broken rocks, could easily be done, and an enemy, however strong at their landing if they should effect it, would be exhausted by a well contested retreat, before they could reach the chief settle ment. A body called a corps of cavalry, was principally used to convey messages, which, it is stated, was generally done so tardily as to be useless; because these soi-disant troopers were mostly old men, were destitute of horses, and when one of them is dispatched from an outpost to give notice at the fort that a large ship is in, sight, the ship has generally auchored in the harbour long before, the arrival of the coplice, who, at most jogs on his way joined with skill in agriculture, as I believe wastes. It remains the general opinion that the attempts made have not been so profitable as to induce them to employ much of their capital and industry in that manner. Much has, however, I know heen said and published on the cultivation of the wastes, as being the means of removing the necessity of importation of corn from other countries; but judging from my own experience and observation, though on other accounts a most desirable object, and well deserving the attention of government, I am not of opinion that, in this way, it would have much effect. The cultivation of waste land is, I appre heud, justly to be considered as an enlargement of territory, and certainly any addition to the produce and population of the country must be of importance; but it is so on that general ground only, and not as being likely to prevent the necessity of importing corn from abroadhe 1 For it is to be considered that more labour must be required for the first cultivation of waste land, than for carrying on the usual cropping of land of equal extent in the rest of the country that was before in culture, and that the produce will be less. In other words, besides the expence and labour of inclosing and draining, more men, more horses, more manure, and consequently more carriage will be required for the first bringing the wastes into culture than can be necessary in the management of the old lands, and yet the crops will not be so abundant. really believe more than half of the land formerly sown with barley, was rapidly turned to the produce of wheat sown in Spring, and to oats; and that the farmers, instead of being injured, were supposed to have profited by the change; and the rent of land in that country actually rose in consequence of it. It has, indeed, been thought by some, that on account of the superior profit they had carried the change too far; but I have never met with any body of opinion that a change to the extent of even much more than 1-7th part could have been objectionable. As it is known that there is a great annual. importation of wheat and oats, there will be a ready market found for all the additional quantity; it is, indeed, a national object, that a greater supply of those kinds of grain should be provided in this country. During the first cultivation, therefore of waste lands, little spare produce is to be expected from them so as to lessen the importa tion before found to be necessary and when afterwards those first expences cease, they will gradually get into the state of the rest of the country; the saine arts, manufactures, But the supply of Hemp is another great and commerce, will be carried on there, and national object which calls for as much attenthe same manners will prevail; the population.-The circumstances which it is necestion will in the same way advance; the pro- sary to state, to make the urgency apparent. duce, owing to the same causes, will become are nearly as follows: insufficient for the sustenance of the inhabitants; and those who expected to obtain, by those means, such a supply as to make the importation of corn unnecessary, will be disappointed. I have understood that the quantity of barley used in the distilleries in Great Britain and Ireland is about 700,000 quarters; and four quarters being reckoned about the average produce of an acre, it follows, that about or rather more than 170,000 acres of ground must be employed in the produce of barley for the distillery. I have also understood that, from the accounts of the excise, it will appear that the barley and malt used in the distillery does not exceed 1-7th, some say it is not more than 1-5th part of the whole of the barley and malt used in the country, in the brewery or otherwise; and consequently that only 17th part, or less, of the land now producing barley will be necessarily turned to some other purpose, and must, during the proposed prohibition of distillery from barley, be cultivated for wheat, oats, or some other crop. It was found by the enquiries made by the Commissioners of Naval Revision, and is stated in their Reports, that the quantity of hen annually imported almost entirely from Russia to England and Scotland is about 33,000 tons, besides what is imported into Ireland. Those commissioners have, indeed, also reported to his majesty, that by means which may be taken in our American colonies, in the East Indies, and in other countries, and by the improvement of peat bogs and other waste land in this island, in Ireland, and in the Hebrides, a sufficient quantity will probably in time be obtained for all our purpo ses, without encroaching on the land employed in the produce of food for the inhabitants; but those improvements will require some years to accomplish; and there can be no doubt of the necessity which must exist, for at least four or five years, to have a great part of the Hemp necessary for our navy and for the other purposes of the country from our cultivated lands. : The usual computation is, that a ton of Hemp is got from four acres on land of superior quality I understand that one and a half ton has grown. Supposing the quanting imported into Great Britain and Ireland to be 40,000 tons, of which about 16,000 tons are required for the royal navy; the extent of ground required, according to the ordinary mode of reckoning, would consequently be about 160,000 acres for supplying all the demands of the united kingdom." I am sensible that a considerable part of the land usually sown with barley, particularly in the county of Norfolk, is not of a kind fit for other crops; but I am persuaded that this description does not, in the kingdom at large, extend to so much as 6-7th parts of the barley land; and that the sowing of other crops on the remaining 7th part, which proportion will, I have no doubt, be found adapted to wheat, oats, or other grain, would not there fore prove a violent injury to the land-owners. I was confirmed in that opinion by what had happened in Berwickshire; where, in consebe, quence of the last addition to the duty on malt, a much greater share than 1-7th, I The price of hemp is now said to be £81 or £82 per ton. The value of the crop. therefore, on land of middling quality must at the present prices, more than £20 an acre; the value of the crop on fine land more than £30, Four quarters per acre may, as has been stated, be reckoned about the average crop of barley, and the price cannot be reckoned at more than 40%. perquarter; a middling crop of barley may accordingly be computed at £8 per acre, or on ne land 12.4. It is true that hemp is understood to require more manure than barley; but the difference can hardly be supposed to cost more than 4 or £5 an acre. FIR-BUILT SHIPS: To the Editor of the Literary Panorama, SIR,-Everything relating to the public good claims the particular attention of a work so truly devoted to the common wealth as yours is. If the following observations on Fir-Built Ships should suggest any new ideas The crop of hemp would, therefore, do much to your nautical readers, relative to the more than compensate to the landed interest Wooden Walls of Old England," I shall generally for the crop of barley lost by the pro- be happy in having put them into English. hibition of its distillation, independent of its Yours, SCRUTATOR." being essential to the safety of the country to have hemp for four or five years from our cultivated lands at home; and I think it will hardly be said by any well informed man, that it would be wise, in the present state of Europe, to apply 160,000 acres of our cultivated lands to the growth of any thing but grain, without making room for it by the saving of the crop of an equal quantity of land, and I know no way by which that saing can be made, except by stopping the distillery from barley.. I have not, in any thing I have stated, taken notice of the attention due to the claims of that part of our fellow subjects, who have their property in the West Indies; because, it cannot, I know, be doubted, that the landed proprietors of this country would most gladly relieve them, if that relief could, in their opinion, be granted without very material injury to their own interests. I have very briefly given my reasons for thinking that stopping the distillery of grain would not have that effect. I shall only add my perfect conviction, that our estates at home would suffer much more considerably by the ruin of the planters, if that should unfortunately be the consequence of a refusal to afford them some effectual relief, than by the temporary prohipition of the distillery from barley. I beg your excuse for consuming so much of your own time, or of the time of the comminee, if you shall judge it proper so submit this letter to its perusal. Ithought myself in some degree called upon to state what I have said, in consequence of having been a member of the Board of Naval Revision, in whose reports, lately presented to his Majesty, the opinions here given, both Tespecting the effect to be looked for from the caltivation of waste land, and respecting the necessity of raising hemp at home, are contained. I have the honour to be, &c. "I built," says M. Ducrest, "at Copen hagen, in 1799, a vessel of 500 tons entirely of fir-planks an inch and a half thick. For three years successively it has navigated the North Seas, which are reckoned the most boisterous in Europe; and it weathered a tremendous gale in the Baltic in Nov. 1801, when a great number of merchant-ships perished. On entering the port of Havre, the following year, it struck on the pier and no one on board expected to be saved. However the ship righted, and entered the harbour without having staved a single plank, or sprung a rail. "The expence of building this vessel was just half what it would have cost, bad, it been built of oak. The hull does not weigh above half of that of a common merchants man, which, when of 400 tons burthen, is said to weigh 200 tons. Thus by diminishing the weight we should have, with the same cargo, vessels which, when well constructed, ought to sail as fast as the best frigates. Ap objection having been made that vessels thus built could not last long, as the intermediate planks, by wanting air would heat and soon rot, I had one of the ports opened and found that the inside planks were much sounder than the others. The "Building with fir-planks is incomparably more solid than building with squared tim ber; and by being as cheap again, we might employ our immense forests in the Pyrennees and the Vosges to great advantage. danger arising from springing leaks is entirely avoided: and by the lightness of the timber, our armed vessels might be made to sail as fast as our present frigates. In short, the use of oak timber might be entirely confined to the navy, consequently we should have it much cheaper; and the economy in the construction of merchant-men is a very material objeci, as they might not require any repairs for twelve or fifteen years. Though line-of-battle ships could not be built of fir, yet the navy might use it for vessels armed en flute, and for hospital-ships attached to a squadron." M. D. does not state whether the Red or White Fir is preferable. ON POPULATION. why we cannot procure any thing satisfact tory! What, in short, regards births and deaths s they like the rest are of a similar tenor. There is no exactness; every thing is referred to conjecture. This method may be employed, perhaps, with some success, to investigate the population, of any given city. But ought this conclusion to be extended from one city to another, to the country as well as to cities, and lastly to whole kingdoms where mortality Thus the principles are too much, at variance to authorize a general and analagous decision The means, generally employed in different countries, to ascertain the real state of population are, the number of hearths, the number of communicants, births and deaths, and consumption of provisions. The last is preferred to ascertain the population of large Cities. Mr. Eton has adopted this method to determine the number of souls in Constanti-varies so much by the differences of climates nople, which, contrary to all expectation and much below all former accounts, he fixes at 300,000. The uncertainty of this Süsmilch, in the well-known work God enumeration is very evident. For if a given ly Ordinance," has established the following number of bushels is reckoned per head, and proportions with regard to mortality For from the total of corn or meat consumed a villages and the country 1-40, for small cities fixed number of souls is deduced, yet the in- 1-32, for large ones as Berlin 1-28, for capiference can only be an arbitrary pre-supposi-tals like Rome, London, and Paris 1-24 or tion; for the consumption is very much re- 1-25. The mean number in, large or small gulated by circumstances, by years, prosperi-cities he fixes at 1-30, and in large provinces, ty, religion, by more hardy or effeminate1-35 or 1-36. However the bills of mortality customs of the consumers, and even fashion, in different cities and countries may agree with or otherwise By scarcity or superabundance of the rules laid down in his work; yet we find certain provisions; for example, the culture in those rules no incontrovertible and decided of potatoes has, no doubt, lessened the con- law of nature. This and every other scale sumption of corn. We remark also, that can, at all events, hold good only, until a more accounts, never differ more from each other accurate one is discovered. However, we than when the subject of the population of must use it with caution if we desire cor our great capitals or erroneous, if by means is discussed. This method rectness; but this, and the exposition of would still be what is true or false in it, can only be effectof it the population of a whole state were to ed by annual enumerations frequently and: be taken, because the principles, which sup-accurately repeated. These alone can give the port the whole reckoning, would be still true proportion between births and deaths, more dissimilar.!! with the law which nature follows to that end in a given tract of country. In short, to attain to a higher degree of certainty, it only remains to count a nation whose numbers are required. But few countries can enjoy that privilege. There are some certainly where: the inhabitants are counted, and the result publicly known. But the last numbering always discovers the errors of the preceding one, which therefore gains, but little confidence; and naturally gives cause for conjecture, that an object so important has only been superficially handled, and that much has been neglected in the main point, as t But the hearths afford no sure result. For they are capable of an annual increase or decrease, and therefore should be carefully chunted every year, which would seldom be the case. More important difficulties arise from the preceding question and investigation, as, how many men should be reckoned to one hearth?" Our political calculators are not at issue on this question. We may take what we please, yet it always reverts to an estimate which never gives the true state of the case. At each enumeration the difference, so worthy of observation, between city and country, between large and small fa-well as in the method... milies, will always be lost sight of, and every thing will be reckoned by an arbitrary medium. - 1 In no state is this precipitation more apparent, than in our country (Germany); out, geographical and statistical works generally Besides, with regard to communicants, reckon the whole population above thirty mil-, adults only would be reckoned, and all chillions. But have the authors of these books dren of a certain age would be entirely omit-considered, that the very least German states ted. For adults best answer the views of should be numbered, and that even in Ger government, as they generally tend to ascer- many, in the strictest sense of the word, tain the number of men capable of bearing there are countries still unknown? How arms, and subject to taxation. Hence neither then can they prepare and prove their lists ? great perfection, nor too much exactress are And this is rendered more difficult by not what is pro required; and this may be the very reason knowing, and not being agreed what i perhaps, as our present accounts of popula-perly Germany, and what countries ought tion are so uncertain in every other respect, therefore to be reckoned. Certainly, if Bo hemia, Moravia, Silesia, and the Low Countries are to be included in Germany; then it increases in the mass of population, as its superficies is extended; and whoever is so inclined, cannot want either materials or opportunity. Besides, by a prior right, Germany should include Alsace, Lorraine, the county of Burgundy, with part of Switzerland, Savoy, with the imperial Italian Fiefs and many other countries. According to this it must appear very precipitate, to determine the population of a state, whose extent and circumference are so indefinite, by the above-mentioned positive method; and to speak of the population of Germany, before one knows what ought to be reckoned with Germany. To obtain the end of a more accurate enumeration than hitherto, as the subject appears to me (says the author), all former impediments should be removed, and the fo!lowing points accurately attended to: Ist. In few countries are the value, the importance, and great consequences of numbering the people clearly understood. Many governments even do not appear to be convinced of it to its fullest extent. A still greater impediment arises from the mistrust of the subjects, who regard such an enumeration much more as an infringement on their rights, than as a real advantage. To this end, sometime before the business is begun, the political writers should be required to illustrate the true advantages of an accurate enumeration, and to awaken the national pride. The clergy and teachers, in their pulpits and schools, should co-operate to combat the prejudices, and bring the neces sary ideas under discussion. 2d. The enumeration should take place annually, and 3d. Certainly throughout the country, at the same time, on a particular day previously appointed. To this intent, 4th. The houses in the country' as well as in the cities should be numbered. The proprietor of every house numbered, is responsible for a most accurate list of each inmate, and for this purpose a printed schedule should be sent to him every year to fill up, and deliver on the appointed day to the clergyman, or to the civil officer. 5th. The ecclesiastical and civil powers must be properly enjoined, under pain of the strictest responsibility, to draw up special lists of their districts, and deliver them at their respective offices, that the result of the total population may be settled and communicated. 6th. This result should then, the following year on the day of enumeration, or at any other convenient time, be communicated to the nation as a very great event. The discovery of an increase of population must be joyfully received by the people, if they are animated with the true spirit of patriotism. To this end, 7th. The day of numbering, as well as that of public notification, should be regarded as a very great fête, and celebrated with dancing and all kinds of rejoicing. And in fact, why should not the day, on which a whole. nation appears en masse, on which it learns its strength or decrease, be more properly a day of public and general festivity, than so many other unmeaning holidays? An enlightened government might by these means, privately though invitingly, attain still further aims. In a military state, for example, in stead of the shocking system of conscrip tion, the young men would be called cut and made effective. Were all this observed, and seriousness changed into mirth; then all those, who had hitherto evaded the numbering would flock to it. The numbering annually repeated would serve as a check to the preceding ones, and their errors, with the causes of them, be discovered. This would oblige the subalterns to a greater degree of diligence and attention; and the more so, if every error was seriously investi gated and punished. By these means we might ultimately hope to procure such lists, as in future times would lead to important discoveries respecting the whole human race. FRENCH CUSTOM-HOUSE OFFICERS, An army of custom-house officers is kept on the frontiers to prevent the entry of contraband goods. Custom-houses are built at small distances from one another, several being under the direction of one chief, and their officers are perpetually out on the watch. They are all taken from the interior of Fratice, and are picked men, tall, strong, and alert. Their manner of life is hard: they seldom sleep in a bed; most of them indeed have none. They are out by night as well as by day on the wild heath, or other places where the smugglers are expected to pass, with dogs, which are generally more watchful than themselves. When a poor fellow is taken with his load, he is condemned to three months' imprisonment; the second time to three years at the gallies; and the third to the gallies for life. The half of the seizure becomes the property of the officer, and only one sixth goes into the public purse, the rest being appropriated for the general expences of the customs. It is principally cotton goods, tobacco, and the produce of the West Indies, that are smuggled into France. Sheets of tin are also much in request, and at an enormous price; for these is not on the French territory a single person who can fabricate them. |