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In the east part, the four-course husbandry is practised; the land being ploughed up for wheat, after the first year layer on the clover stubble: this district consists chiefly of a good loam, but in those parts of it which are lighter, the six-course husbandry prevails.

In the west, north, and north-west, which, comprise the most considerable part of the county, the six-course husbandry, with few exceptions, is adhered to: first, turnips; second, barley or oats, laid down with clover and grasses; third, clover and grasses mowed; fourth, grasses fed; fifth, wheat; sixth, barley or oats. This excellent system, the best adapted for the soil, which consists chiefly of a sandy loam, ought never to be deviated from: and as in these districts, the quantity of pasture and meadows is inadequate to the arable land to that in the south parts, a greater quantity of stock can

be fed.'

After having thus detailed the different courses of cropping, the author proceeds to explain the method of managing a Norfolk farm throughout the year; premising, however, that his observations relate The form of a more especially to the last-mentioned course. calendar is adopted; in which he commences with the month of September, and ends with that of August. Directions are given for sowing stubble-turnips, winter-tares, and rye for spring-feed; for sowing rye and wheat for a crop ; for top-dressing young wheats and grasses; for ploughing fallows for turnips, and wheat-stubbles for barley or oats; for claying and marling; for dibbling beans and pease; for sowing summer-tares; for first and second ploughing of turnip-lands for barley; for sowing barley and grasses; for managing yard-dung and compost, and for treating clover-plants which are to stand for seed; for sowing hemp and buck wheat; for hoeing turnips; for cutting and harvesting different crops, &c. &c.

From this partial enumeration of the subjects noticed in this Calen dar, it will be perceived that it promises to be useful to those who wish to be instructed in the true Norfolk system.

EDUCATION.

Art. 17. A History of France, from the Commencement of the Reign of Clovis, in 481, to the Peace of Campo Formio in 1797. After the Manner of The History of Eng and, in a Series of Letters from a Nobl man to his Son. 12mo. pp. 444. 5s. 6d. Boards.

Darton and Co. 1809.

This history is written in a clear and lively manner, the principal events of each reign are detailed with perspicuity, the dates are carefully specified, and the author has even found room to embellish his work with many judicious remarks and entertaining anecdotes. As a book of reference, it would have been improved by the addition of an alphabetical index. In its present state, however, it is well calculated for the instruction of young persons; and in this point of view we approve the manner in which it is arranged: each division being of a reasonable length, and not so much extended as to exhaust the attention or fatigue the memory. Yet since it is impossible to suppose that the History of France should really have been detailed in a series of familiar epistles, we can find nothing sufficiently animatREV, DEC. 1810,

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ing in the commencements of My dear Boy.' or in the conclusions of Your's affectionately,' to reconcile us to this little subterfuge. Art. 18. Guy's School Geography, on a new and easy Plan, comprising not only a complete general Description, but much topographical Information, &c. By Joseph Guy, Author of "the Pocket Encyclopedia." &c. 12mo. 38. bound. Cradock and Joy. 1810.

The different parts of this work are arranged with judgment aud perspicuity; and while the larger print comprehends every thing which it is absolutely necessary for the young geographical student to learn, the smaller type contains much valuable and amusing information. The price is very moderate, the size of the book is not alarming, and we think that it will prove an useful acquisition to those for whose assistance it is intended.

Art. 19. Lessons for Children, by Mrs. Fenwick, in Three Parts. 12mo. 1s, each. Godwin. 18c9.

These little stories are progressive; and those which are contained in the first part are adapted to the comprehension of very young children, whose amusement has not of late been so much consulted as that of their elder brothers and sisters.

The tales are both moral and entertaining; and the type is large and clear.

MEDICAL, &c.

By

Art. 20. Cursory Observations on the Causes, Prevention, and Treatment, of Fever occasioned by the recent Appearance of an Epidemic Disorder in Aylesbury, and its Neighbourhood. D. Uwins, M. D. 8vo. 28. Tipper. 1810. Although Dr. Uwins commences by observing, that physicians have been occupied for two thousand years in investigations relative to fever, and are still a long, long way behind demonstration, both as to its essence and cause,' yet he is not disposed to give up the point in despair; since he still conceives that a few truths of considerable importance have been established, and expects that, from the present improved state of science, their number will be daily increasing. Owing to the occurrence of an epidemic fever in the town in which he resides, he was led to attend particularly to the mode of its propagation, and hence to speculate on the nature of contagion in general. The present state of medical opinion on this most important question is remarkably unsettled: so that, while by one party the contagion of fever is discarded as "a bugbear" and "a preposterous phrase," others maintain that every genuine fever must have been produced by a specific poison generated by a patient labouring under the same disease. Dr. Uwins briefly reviews and remarks on these contending opinions; and he concludes, as probably every candid man must do, that the truth lies between the two extremes. Obscure as every thing connected with the doctrine of contagion appears to be, still one fact the author regards as proved by a series of experiments made upon the most extensive scale, and with the happiest issue.' This fact, and the consequence deduced from it, are thus an nounced:

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The matter generated in one individual, and having power to impreg nate the system of another, has no such power except at an exceedingly small di tance; three feet at the very farthest; perhaps not more than as many inches, from the patient from whom it proceeds; and that consequently, by keeping on the outside of this very limited space, a person may breathe in the apartment of an infectious fever, with as little danger of being infected by it, as if he were at the same time breathing among the antipodes to his friend, his acquaintance, his relation, or his patient.'

With the restriction which the author afterward assigns to his position, that the air in the sick chamber must have free entrance and egress,' we believe that the remark is correct; and we coincide with him in thinking that it is one of the most important facts that has ever been discovered in the annals of medicine.' The Doctor then proceeds to make some observations on the supposed method in which the air prevents contagion from exercising its influence: but here we cannot follow him in his speculations. We have always regarded much that has been said about the properties of oxygen being destructive of infection, as entirely visionary. The only thing on which we can depend is a change of air, whether it be produced by simple ventilation, or by the generation of gas in what are called the acidfumigations. Wherever ventilation can be procured, we should deem it far preferable but in some confined situations, the formation of the acid-gases may be an useful adjunct in the displacement of the foul air.

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POLITICS.

Art 21. A Letter containing Observations on some of the Effects of our Paper-currency, and on the Means of remedying its present and preventing its future Excess. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Cadell

and Davies. 1810.

pp. 6.

This is a production of a very mixed character, containing a variety of erroneous opinions united with some that are well founded. The author's great object is to impute all the evils of high prices to an excess of paper-currency, and to recommend a plan of confining the issue of notes to a national bank, acting under the direction of the Legislature. In arguing these points, he falls into several of the popular errors in regard to the effect of bank-paper; making no adequate allowance for the influence of taxation in raising prices, and adopting the vulgar belief that our foreign commerce has brought large money-balances into the country. In addition to all this, he ventures (p. 28.) to express a notion, which fortunately has no foundation, and which we believe has very little currency, that the Bank of England has not the ability to supply the funds required to purchase the specie that would be necessary for the resumption of its cashpayments. All these false positions are maintained in a tone of no little confidence and vehemence. On the other hand, the writer sometimes shews that he has a title to rank above the ordinary crowd of declaimers, by observations of a different character occasionally scattered through his pages; such as (p. 54 ) the picture of the evils attendant on a fall in the value of money; and (p. 9.) the explanation

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of the manner in which the progress of manufactures and commerce tends to lower, and not, as is vulgarly supposed, to raise the price of commodities. In another point, also, we must agree with him ;— viz. in regard to the probable emigration, at a peace, of a great number of annuitants; of that injured multitude, who, in consequence of the excessive price of all the necessaries and comforts of life in this country, would seek to enjoy them in another; who would either dispose of their capital in the public funds, on mortgage or elsewhere, and flee with the amount in silver and gold; or, from time to time, obtain remittances of the dividends and annual produce of that capital in the same form.'

On the whole, this writer is possessed of considerable abilities; and his labours might be productive of public utility, were he to take pains in collecting information and time in digesting it.

Art. 22. Analysis of the Money-situation of Great Britain with respect to its Coins and Bank Notes. 8vo. pp. 22. Is. 6d. Mackinlay.

1810.

The author of this pamphlet appears to have adopted the comfortable notion that the question about the state of our currency lies in a nut-shell and believes that it is in his power to discuss in a few pages all that is attempted in the formidable folios of the BullionCommittee. His publication is consequently a very short and imperfect production. Here and there, however, we meet with a just idea; such as (page 7.) on the impolicy of prohibiting the export of coin, and the folly of expecting comprehensive views from men of mere mercantile routine. The purpose of this little tract is to contend that the present state of things is not owing to the increased issue of Bank of England notes, but to the anomalous and unprecedented situation of our foreign trade.

Art. 23.

1810.

A Letter addressed to the Right Honourable Lord Grenville, by a Briton. vo. pp 174. 45. Vernor and Co. We apprehend that this letter was written soon after Lord Gren. ville's election to the Oxford Chancellorship. It is dated from Carlisle, and launches into as large an assemblage of topics as can be supposed to occur to a cultivated but unrestrained imagination. To exhibit an analysis of this long and desultory? production, as the writer himself terms it, would far surpass our critical powers; and we suspect that few readers will have patience to peruse it thoroughly; yet those few, while they regretted the author's excentricity, would acknowlege his acquirements, and be occasionally pleased with the justice and liberality of his sentiments.

Art. 24. Miscellaneous Observations for the Benefit of the Empire, with Annotations on Steam Engines; and Remarks on the Distillation of Spirits a Dialogue between Buonaparte and the Author, &c. &c. By Arthur Balbernie, jun. 8vo. 3s. Ed. Johnson, Cheap

vide.

We have been induced to admit the title of this production into bur pages, for the sake of warning our readers that it is a miserable -ferrago, abounding in errors even of grammar, orthography, and typography.

MISCEL

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 25. The Argument of Randle Jackson, Esq. before the Lords of the Privy Council, on behalf of the Trustees, New Renters, and other Parties interested in the late Theatre Royal, Drury lane. Published by Order of the Committee of New Renters. pp. 48. Cawthorne.

8vo.

Mr. Randle Jackson, who is perhaps better known to the public as an orator at the Bank and the India House than as a barrister, happens to appear in the present case in his professional character. The pamphlet begins with a copy of the petition of Mr. Cumberland and others for a new theatre; which briefly states that the population of the metropolis has been nearly doubled in the course of the present reign, and that the sum of 200,000l. is ready for subscription, on obtaining a grant of a charter. This is followed by the counter-petition on the part of the Drury-lane proprietors, setting forth that the re-building in 1792 cost 150.000l.; that, notwithstanding the increase of the population of the metropolis, the receipts both of Drury-lane and Covent-garden shew that neither House is on an average more than half filled; and that, consequently, the grant of a charter to a new theatre would necessarily prevent the rebuilding of Drury-lane again. After these documents, de part et d'autre, comes, in due form, the harangue of Mr. Jackson. rie gives a kind of history of the stage; informing us (page 42.) that an order of people, who had emigrated from the Roman territories, where they were called Mimicks, spread themselves, many centuries ago, over Europe; and that in this country they were called Mummers, and delivered extemporaneous harangues, reading and writing being rare attainments in those ages. They were great favourites with the people, but grew at length to licentious, that in the time of Edward Ill. it' became necessary to abolish them. The opposite extreme was then displayed; all, henceforwards, was to be piety and purity, and the performance of the Mysteries came into fashion. These Mysteries' consisted in the representation of passages from scripture, chiefly miracles, but gradually degenerated into such profaneness as to indace the suppression of them. Next came the Moralists, whose em ployment was to personate dramatically the better as well as the baser passions, and thence to draw maxims and lessons favourable to the practice of virtue. These lasted to the time of Henry VIII; when, following the tissue of moral promise and moral failure exemplified by their predecessors, they became intolerable from their licentiousness, and were prohibited. Soon afterward, a new æra began, under the immortal auspices of Shakspeare, and the theatre retained, with little variation, the form which he had given to it, tilk the festive reign of Charles II.; during which the play-houses had so much increased in number and degenerated in conduct, as once more to call for reform from the hand of government. At this reform, Davenant and Killigrew came forwards as the instruments; and they were encouraged to establish two regular houses and companies by a patent, declaring that all other theatres should be forbidden, and that none other should hereafter be sanctioned by the King or his

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