bar to improvement in Scotland. The result has already been happy in many localities. Money is now willingly expended both by landlords and by tenants, where the husbandry of the district had long been stationary through the operation of the tithe; and we are quite certain that the good effects of the change will be more and more manifest as the desire for improvement becomes more diffused, and the means of effecting it are more generally understood. Second among recent and existing causes of progress, we class the establishment and exertions of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. The line which this youthful Society has taken is something different from that along which the older Highland Society of Scotland has hitherto gone-more adapted to the wider field of its exertions, to the special state of the soil and husbandry, and to the general state of advancement of the practical agriculture of England, and of the minds of its practical men. England is a wide country, and scarcely any one-tenth of the rural population knows what any other tenth of the same class is doing what their soils, their crops, their returns, their practices; or what the local reasons for the adoption of methods different from their own. The Royal Agricultural Society, therefore doing again what Sir John Sinclair and the Board of Agriculture did a quarter of a century ago-is collecting, publishing, and circulating among its members, carefully prepared reports of the existing husbandry of the several counties of England. These are intended not so much to gratify curiosity as to awaken interest to call forth such reflections as- If this be done in Nottingham, why may I not do it in Essex ?'- If this prae'tice succeed in Northumberland, why may I not try it in • Gloucester ?'— If this crop pay on the clays of Sussex, why 'should it not pay on mine in Oxford ?' To improve one district by showing what is done in another-to diffuse over the whole land the knowledge possessed in the most improved districts, is the laudable object of this branch of this Society's labours. Then, as the most striking, most immediate, and most universally practicable and intelligible increase of productiveness in the English soils is to be brought about by a general drainage, the means of accomplishing this, in the cheapest and most efficient manner, has engaged much of their attention; and as the most backward land is also strong clay-of which there are vast breadths in different parts of England-for the working of which clod-crushers and cultivators are of great value, they have been led especially to encourage the manufacture and improvement of such machines. This has naturally turned their attention to other agricultural implements, until at length they have gradually slid into an almost exclusive patronage and encouragement of what may be called, by way of distinction, the mechanical methods of improving the soil. The show of implements at their annual meetings is indeed a very instructive sight-one which can be seen nowhere else in any part of the world—and which, to the instructed observer, conveys a very clear idea of the actual condition of English agriculture, and of the kind of advancement it is now making. It may be inferred that those implements, of which the greatest numbers are exhibited-of which the greatest number of improved modifications compete for the premiums--are also those for which there is the greatest demand among practical farmers. And as those only are in demand which are required for general and profitable use, the purposes they are respectively intended to serve, will indicate very clearly the kind of operations to which the attention of improving English farmers is at present especially directed. The value of new and improved tools to the husbandman is not generally appreciated even by agriculturists themselves; and the national importance of placing them in his hands is understood by very few men among the other classes of society. But the economical advantage likely to follow from the general introduction of the thrashing-mill alone, as calculated by Mr Brown of Markle many years ago, places this point in a very clear light. According to this high authority, the thrashing-machine, if generally introduced, would effect a saving of one-twentieth of the whole grain produced in Great Britain-then twenty-four millions of quarters. This one million two hundred thousand quarters he calculated to be left in the straw, and annually thrown away; which, at 40s., were worth L.2,400,000. The saving of expense in thrashing he reckoned at one shilling a quarter, or L.1,200,000making in all an annual saving to the country of L.3,600,000. It is not necessary to adopt the above numbers of Mr Brown as strictly accurate, in order to satisfy us of the national and economical importance of generally introducing a better and more numerous selection of implements among practical farmers. The English Society deserves well of the whole Empire, therefore, for endeavouring, by the exercise of its great influence, to promote this important object. The reader will observe, that, in Scotland and England, the lines of agricultural force, so to speak, are tending in different directions. The mechanical means of improvement are fixing the especial attention of the English Society; the generally scientific and chemical means, that of the Scottish improvers. We do not say that Scotland has yet done enough to the mechanical part, but the line she is now taking, through her Chemical Association, indicates a further stage of advancement than that which is followed in England. Both are pregnant with good results to both countries; but England has still to enter zealously, openly, and as a distinct branch, upon the Scottish walk of applied science; and, no doubt, she will find some one at the helm of her agricultural affairs, who will be able to guide her in this new and higher direction. That this is certain to take place, we are satisfied, by the existence of a circumstance which we regard as the third among the important special means by which English agriculture is henceforth to be promoted. We allude to the establishment of the Agricultural College at Cirencester, and the Yeoman School at York-the introduction of agricultural instruction into the training-schools at Durham and elsewhere-and the other similar methods now in course of being adopted in different parts of central and northern England, for affording the means of a more or less complete agricultural education, to the various ranks of the rural community. In the establishment of agricultural Colleges, England has taken the lead. In this, Scotland and Ireland must follow her. At Cirencester there are already about a hundred young men engaged in the study of those various departments of knowledge, a certain acquaintance with which is necessary to the preparation of an accomplished agriculturist. Should these hundred young men hereafter become agents upon as many different estates, how great a boon would be conferred upon the country by their education ! Of the necessity of this special instruction, through special schools, many are still unconvinced. Our views upon the subject are briefly as follows: The surface of Great Britain as a whole is capable of being greatly improved; but this improvement can be effected only by the application of new knowledge to the soil. This new knowledge must therefore, by some means, be brought within the easy reach of the rural classes. The schoolmaster is the only permanent instrument by which this can be effected. Our elementary schools, without any new machinery, may constantly diffuse a certain amount of this knowledge, as is now done in many of the Scotch and Irish schools but the higher, more advanced, and more perfect agricultural education will still be wanting. Where is this to be got? Will any of our higher schools and colleges incorporate it with, or add it to their usual and special courses of instruction? We believe not. They do not understand it. Their habits, and the ; rules of their Institutions are opposed to novelties in education. In an old Institution the new branches would struggle with the old at a constant disadvantage, were they even formally introduced. The easier, speedier, and more effective method, therefore, is to found special schools for this special object; and this in all the three kingdoms will, we believe, sooner or later be done. Mr Blacker, an Irish improver, whose exertions in that country are beyond all praise, works through the instrumentality of peripatetic agriculturists. His attention is chiefly directed to the improvement of the existing race of farmers. Our desires are fixed more on the future generations. His ambition is to push them on, as a man may make the hands on the clock-face go forward, by standing behind and moving them. We do not undervalue this mode of moving in the mean-time; but we are anxious to attach machinery to the pointers, to connect them with a mainspring, and to wind it up that they may move alone. The heads of our rural population contain the machinery we are anxious to employ instruction is the mainspring; and we would have the schoolmaster to wind it up once for all. We have at present little more to add. We have in some degree assumed that British agriculture, up to the present time, has continued to make progress, about as fast as the population itself. We have run hurriedly over the Island, and have every where observed marks of still active and advancing improvement. Looking at it in another light, we have satisfied ourselves also that the soil in its existing state possesses undeveloped resources on which long years of successful labour may still be profitably expended. We have likewise adverted to many facilities which now exist in both ends of the Island, likely, we think, hereafter to hasten forward the general body of British agriculturists at an accelerated pace. In all this, therefore, we see not only a very cheerful, but a very reasonable prospect, both of abundant food and continued employment, for an increasing people, and of longed prosperity to the farmer. pro The change of the Corn-Laws will act, we hope, as it ought to act, upon British minds, not as a depressing, but as a stimulating influence. If it call new energy and intelligence and new means into play, it will prove an almost unmixed good. Whatever art can extract of enlarged crops from foreign soils may equally be reaped in Britain. The capital, aided by the mechanical skill, and applied science which we possess, ought, therefore, if made generally available, to place our farmers beyond the reach of any protracted successful competition, in the home market. Larger returns, in all branches of husbandry, without a proportionate increase of cost, are what the soil promises to the application of increased skill. This is the very result by which the comfort and existing position of both landlord and tenant are to be maintained. Cast despondency away, therefore-let new exertions be put forth, and this new end will be attained. The same cheering view, also, we would take of the late visitation which has befallen our potato crop. We believe it will be only temporary; but whether so or not, it ought not to depress us. Afflictions of this kind lead to good, if they arouse to new exertion. The gift of new knowledge to the people will inspire them with new hope; and, in times of trial like the present, will provide them with new resources. Par le CHEVALIER ART. VI.-L'Inde Anglaise en 1843-44. WE E had never seen nor even heard of the work of M. de Warren, although he states in his preface that it has been noticed and even translated by the English Press, until we were informed by what all would consider very high authority, that its misrepresentations regarding the government of British India had made a great impression upon the Continent. We can easily believe it. The work is written with considerable ability. It professes to be, and probably is, the testimony of an eyewitness, as respects matters of personal observation. And statements so startling and criminatory as many of those to which it gives publicity, are sure to attract attention; as long as nations, like individuals, feel pleasure in the exposure of the real or alleged follies and faults of their neighbours. Others are Some of these statements are more or less true. altogether erroneous, or so much distorted and coloured as to produce a false impression. And truth and falsehood are strangely intermingled. Indeed, the mind of the author-if the volumes before us have not, as we much suspect, more than a single father-appears to be singularly constituted. He is candid and fair, for the most part, in the inferences which he draws from facts within his own knowledge; but he swallows with the utmost credulity the grossest calumnies derived from other sources of information. We will not make such a charge without proving it. His personal experience appears to have |