the army, and the tackling of the navy, must all be paid for to the owner of the soil, as the ultimate receiver. All things in the world are originally the produce of the ground, and there must all things be raised."

If agriculture be the nurse of the arts, she is also the parent of population, and the promoter of what is most estimable in human character, or important in the condition of human society. The labours of the field are calculated to breed a hardy, an athletic, and a temperate class of men. Without adopting the fanciful theory, that the heathen legends were altogether allegorical, we may be permitted to suppose, that the poets did not, without an important meaning, assign the culture of the earth as the appropriate employment of mankind during the golden age, the reign of peace, of innocence, and of happiness. No one can be ignorant of the influence of this occupation upon the ancient Romans, and how it conduced to the aggrandisement of the republic. Not only were her armies formed and recruited from the fields; her legislators, her generals, her dictators, were often called from the plough to preside in the senate, or lead forth the levies to victory, or save their country in the most perilous crisis. In our own country, no classes of the community are more respectable, independent, and en

lightened, than the yeomen of England and the peasantry in Scotland. As they promote the fixed wealth, so they constitute a considerable portion of the aggregate wisdom, virtue, and valour of the nation.

Than Hindostan, no region on earth more powerfully invites, or more liberally rewards, the industry of the husbandman. Genial in climate, and rich in soil, its fertility has been proverbial from age to age. The Panjab in the interior, and the plains of the Ganges toward the coast, have been celebrated by all writers from classical times; and if, owing to the want of foreign commerce, or the fruitfulness of neighbouring kingdoms, India has not proved, like Egypt, the granary of the world, it may yet be entitled to the appellation bestowed upon it by Persian writers, "the paradise of nations." But, with all its natural advantages, the state of agriculture in this country is extremely rude. To this imperfection of the primary art of life, various causes have contributed. Necessity is the mother of invention; and it is not in countries which yield a plentiful produce almost spontaneously, but in those which are comparatively barren, and where the inhabitants are compelled to wring, by skill and industry, from niggard nature, the wealth she does not easily bestow; it is in the latter that the culture of

the soil has been carried to the highest degree of perfection. Britain, placed under a sky by no means propitious, and possessing a soil originally far from prolific, surpasses all the world in the arts of husbandry *. Besides, in India, the husbandman wants those encouragements to increasing exertion and ingenuity, which arise from a home consumption greater at all times than the supply, and from ready access to a near foreign market; the former of which incitements is always, and the latter is occasionally, felt in this country. Above all, the depressed condition of the peasantry†, who, by the impolitic arrangement of the casts, are herded together in the lowest class of society except one; the want of capital; the deductions made in kind by the proprietor and zemindar+, which, being undetermined, are ever liable to be raised; the inactive character of the nation; the simple manner in which the natives subsist; the privation of animal food enjoined by their superstition; the want of fences and roads; and the unsettled state of the country, have operated as obstructions to the progress of agriculture in Hindostan.

Some of these evils suggest their own remedy, and to

* Vide Note O.

+ Vide Note P.

‡ Vide Note Q.

others, expedients already proposed will apply. But to meet the case fully, additional measures will be necessary. Let the government shew that they hold the Ryot in high estimation, and that he possesses, in their view, an honourable rank among the members of the community. Let him be exempted, by a commutation in money, from those exactions in kind, which, wherever they may have existed, under whatever name, have still retarded the progress of agricultural improvement. Let him be encouraged with the sense of full security in holding his property, and the assurance of reaping the entire fruits of his labours. Let him be furnished also with those superior instruments of husbandry, suited to his soil and climate, which the skill of our agriculturists has invented. And, if some of the latter are invited, by adequate rewards, to settle in Hindostan, and teach the simple natives the use of these implements, together with the application of manures, the succession of crops, particularly the advantages of green crops, in short, the practical details of our husbandry, the happiest effects might ensue. With improvement, population, and homeconsumption, the demand would all necessarily increase; and markets might be established, in various places, for the facilities of interchange or of sale. Premiums for superior ex

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cellence in the art, which, at a small expence, have, of late years, produced a wonderful rivalship, and a rapid improvement throughout this country, might also be proposed and awarded in a public and impressive manner. And, as the ancient Romans were accustomed to introduce into their system of warfare every military practice, or add to their own accoutrements every piece of armour, which they could borrow with advantage even from their enemies, so it could not be justly conceived as either derogatory to the wisdom, or beneath the dignity of a British governor, to imitate the example of the princes of Persia in former times, or of the emperor of China in our day, in bestowing an honourable notice upon the state of agriculture in his dominions, and conferring suitable rewards upon those who may attain eminence in an art of such national importance and utility. The historical relations of China mention a ceremony of opening the grounds, which the emperor performs every year. "The design of this public and solemn act, is to excite the people to tillage. Farther, the emperor is informed every year of the husbandman who has distinguished himself most in his profession, and he makes him a mandarin of the eighth order. Among the ancient Persians, the kings quitted their grandeur and pomp on the 8th day of the month called