opinion on many important points, and particularly upon those in which the expense of planting is chiefly concerned, takes the freedom to consider. Mr Monteath's useful and interesting treatise with reference to his own experience, and the facts which that experience has suggested.

Every one will own that the subject is of the most momentous interest to this country. It is long since the wisdom and patriotism of the late Lord Melville sounded the alarm on the subject of the decay and destruction of the national forests, announcing the immense increase of the demand for oak timber, the advance of the price of fir timber, the inadequacy of the present forests long to supply the increasing demand, and the apathy with which government omitted to provide for evils which seemed rapidly advancing, although the possibility of doing so appeared plain from his lordship's state

ment:

"It is supposed that, exclusive of the royal forests, there are in Great Britain and Ireland, probably more than eighty millions of acres, of which, perhaps, no part is yet brought to the highest state of cultivation, and that certainly not less than twenty mil lions are still waste. If, therefore, a comparatively very small part of the land of the kingdom is thought essential to be appropriated to the purpose of securing the continuance of our naval strength and pride, it would surely be a very shortsighted policy which should suggest to this maritime country the expediency of trusting to a commerce for the supply of our dockyards with timber; when, without any real risk to the subsistence of the country, and by a sacrifice comparatively small, we can avoid for ever putting to hazard the supply of an article, on which, confessedly, our strength, our glory, our independence, even our existence as a nation, must now and at all times depend."-LORD MELVILLE'S Letter to MR PERCIVAL, on the subject of Naval Timber, published in July, 1810.

While these facts are granted, it must, at the same time, be admitted, that the time of peace is that in which we can best recruit the resources of the nation, and strengthen her sinews for future wars; and that at present, therefore, the country has few more important subjects of consideration, than those which refer to providing a stock of timber for future emergencies. A patriotic spirit, therefore, might be supposed sufficiently rewarded by preparing for the future conquests of the British navy, and for the ornament of his native land; covering sterile wildernesses with the most magnificent productions of the earth, and exercising, slowly indeed but surely, such a change on the face of nature, as the powers of man cannot achieve in any other manner. Yet we cannot trust to such motives to overcome the inertness of many landholders to induce them to part for a time with a portion of their yearly income, and be at the outlay of a very moderate sum per acre, we are aware that we must talk to them of pence as well as of patriotism, and indicate a certain return for their advances; since in preaching to them only on the subject of adding to the beauty of the landscape, or the prosperity of the country, we should expose ourselves to the answer of Harpagon to the eulogium of Frosine upon his mistress's perfections: "Oui; cela n'est pas mal; mais ce compte là n'a rien de réel. Il faut bien que je touche quelque chose." We will, therefore, endeavour to convince those who lean to this view of the subject, that the increase of the value of their own rentals and estates

is equally concerned in the considerations to which we invite them, as the interest of the country at large.

The subject naturally divides itself into plantations raised chiefly for the purpose of ornament, and those which are intended principally for profit. The division is not, however, an absolute one; nor is it possible, perhaps, to treat of the subject in the one point of view, without frequently touching upon the other. No very large plantation can be formed without beautifying the face of the country (although, indeed, stripes and clumps of Scotch firs or larches may be admitted as deformities); and, on the other hand, the thinnings of merely ornamental plantations afford the proprietor who raises such, a fair indemnity for the ground which they occupy. But, though this is the case, the two kinds of planting must be considered as different branches of the same art, and we will, accordingly, take leave to consider them distinctly, confining ourselves, for the present, as far as we can, to that in which utility is the principal object.

The most useful style of planting, that which can be executed at the least expense, and which must ultimately return the greatest profit, is that respecting large tracts of waste land, which, by judicious management, may be converted into highly profitable woodland, without taking from agriculture the value of a sheaf of corn, or even greatly interfering with pastoral occupation-so far as that occupation is essentially advantageous. For we suppose it will be admitted, that in any

case where a stately and valuable forest can be raised by the restricting a few hundred score of sheep to better and richer pasture than they formerly enjoyed, great advantage will accrue to the landlord, and no loss will be sustained either by the tenant, or the poor animal, who now picking up his grass by piles at a time in a howling wilderness, would then be better supported, and more free from accident of every kind.

The scheme of which we are about to show the easy practicability, if it be only undertaken boldly and upon a large scale, by the persons principally concerned, will be found as advantageous to the poor as the rich; providing for the over-population, as it is called, a hardy and healthful occupation, the object of which is the improvement of their native country, while the manner in which it is conducted is equally favourable to their comforts and to their morals. Neither are the landed proprietor and his dependents the only parties benefited. The cheapness and plenty of wood, as it is essential to our shipping, becomes, in that point of view, indispensable to our mercantile and manufacturing interests. But we feel ourselves, unintentionally, again drawn back to the public and political views, which it is almost impossible to separate from this great national subject: we will, therefore, proceed to enter upon it at once, cautioning our readers, that in repeating the truths which we have collected from others, and which have been corroborated by our own experience, we do not pretend to more merit than that of acting as flappers, again to

solicit the attention of the public, and in particular of landed gentlemen, to this most important topic.

The hills of Wales-those of Derby, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Northumberland, and part of Yorkshire and Lancashire, together with the more extensive wastes and mountainous regions which compose by far the greater part of Scotland, have, in general, the same character, presenting naked wildernesses of rock, and heath, and moorland, swelling into hills and mountains of greater or less elevation, and intersected by rivers and large lakes, many of them navigable: in short, pointed out by Nature as the site of lofty woods, with which, indeed, her own unassisted efforts had, at an early period, clothed them: for nothing can be more certain than that the sterile districts we have described were, in ancient times, covered with continual forests. History, tradition, and the remains of huge old trees and straggling thickets, as well as the subterranean wood found in bogs and mosses, attest the same indubitable fact. It is not to be supposed that these woods grew at very high points of elevation, on the brow of lofty and exposed mountains, and in the very face of prevailing winds yet it is astonishing, when the declivities and dales of such a region are once occupied by wood, how very soon the trees, availing themselves of every shelter afforded by the depths and sinuosities of the glens and ravines which seam the mountain side, appear to have ascended to points of altitude where a planter would rationally have despaired of success.