University of Virginia Library

Sir John Fielding the active Police Magistrate of that day.

Coe's father, the blacksmith of Cambridge.

At that time my bailiff in Sussex.

Alluding to the Bill I introdueed into the House of Lords to prevent cruelty to animals.

The Chancellor has no criminal jurisdiction.

I surrounded my Cottage for shelter, which was before entirely exposed on almost the summit of a high hill, by taking beeches out of my woods of a very considerable age and height, where they have since stood, till very lately, rigged during the winter like ships to hold them against storms that sometimes blow in at my windows and threaten my roof, but have hitherto spared my navy, which has rode out many tremendous gales without the loss of a cable, and now braves them without support: all the trees having taken root and flourished.

Mr. Coke of Norfolk—the most enlightened agriculturist, the soundest politician, and one of the honestest and best men this country ever bred.—Every British Statesman should once, at least visit Holkham, at the Annual Meeting called the Sheep Sheering— they would there see the erroneous policy of too extensive a system of colonization, and the folly of encouraging the emigration of our people, whilst so many millions of acres, in our own island, are lying waste. The subjeet is much too large and important for a note, but I owed this homage to Mr. Coke.

It may be necessary here to come under the poet's licence, otherwise vermin of all descriptions, however manifestly destructive in our gardens, ought to be permitted to lay them waste.—The cconomy of nature throughout the minuter gradations of animal life mocks all investigation; yet Providence must undoubtedly have intended that all created beings should be fed as their instincts direct. Trees, therefore, of all kinds bear their fruits and seeds in a thousand times greater quantity than are necessary for their reproductions, and which must obviously have been intended for animal subsistance.—When they grow in a wild state innumerable tribes of birds and insects take their allotted proportions without interference, and man is contented with what remains, whatever it may be; but in the resorts of luxury he will bear no partnership.— The peaches and nectarines on his walls bring an hundred times what would come to his reach if they grew in the desert, yet he will not spare one of them, but hangs his honeyed bottles on every branch, when wasps and other insects surround them; not, indeed in their natural number, but multiplied by the allurements of human monopoly. —In the same manner, when men congregate in large cities, and amass greater wealth than is, perhaps, consistent with a wholesome state of society, thieves and robbers abound in proportion; and the judge at the Old Bailey, like the gardener in the orchard, has a duty imposed upon him to keep them down.

Cowper, in his Task, has given the rule for our conduct to the lower world in almost a word; and the latitude he allows to man's acknowledged dominion, is surely amply sufficient.—

The whole subject of humanity to animals is so beautifully and strikingly illustrated in this admirable poem, that no parents ought to be satisfied until their children have that part of it by heart.

For myself, my opinion is, that we rarely succeed in a war of utter extermination against animals we proscribe; and even if we could prevail, others more mischievous than those we destroy might multiply, perhaps, from their destruction.— We ought, therefore, to be contented to destroy the individuals or masses of them, when they grievously offend, rather than carry on a systematic war against them for their total annihilation. It is thought by many well-informed persons, that the destruction of weasels, and creatures of that description, for the preservation of the game, has increased the number of the field-rat in many parts of England: an animal more dangerously destructive. It is extremely difficult, besides, if not quite impossible, to subdue whole classes of innumerable and scarcely visible insects—witness the ineffectual attempts, by lime, by soot, and by all that chemistry could bring into action, to overpower the Turnip Fly, that unrelenting enemy to every farmer.—This little Epicure feeds on its first leaf, which is soft and smooth, shewing itself in a few days after sowing, but when the second or rough leaf appears, their repast is over, when they either die or remove in search of other food; many ingenious contrivances have been invented to carry on against them an exterminating hostility, but their incalculable numbers and dexterous instinct of self-preservation have always defeated them. Mr. Coke, who in all his experiments seems to follow after the pattern of nature, and to be aware of the folly of systematically counteracting her, pursues a more natural and a more successful course: he sows more than double the quantity of turnipseed usually sown by others, or which could possibly come forward to a crop.—At this extraordinary feast the flies are left undisturbed, and before the superfluous and otherwise useless vegetation can be consumed, the rough leaf appears, when they instantly emigrate to his neighbour's territories, with probably four or five generations of their families, where, if there be only an ordinary sowing for their support, they eat up the whole in a day, and leave the farmer nothing. —The fact is, that they often move from place to place, and are occasionally billetted upon us by nature upon their march, and we must provide for them the allotted cations under the common penalty of a distress.

Frederica, Duchess of York, Princess Royal of Prussia at the time of her marriage, and niece of Frederick the Great.

Amusing myself often with poetry, but, as I have said in the preface, at no time aspiring to the name or character of a poet, I never should have regretted the insignificance of this little fable, but for the accidental allusion in it to Her Royal Highness. The exalted rank and retired habits of this excellent Princess confining the knowledge of her talents, manners, and distinguished accomplishments within the contracted circle of a few, I should have been more desirous to record them in unfading numbers; but no man can add a cubit to his stature, and I must, therefore, content myself in this note to express my affection, admiration, and respect.

The “Farmer's Vision” was written immediately after the battle of Leipsic, whilst Europe was following up the advantage of that great conflict, and the victory of Waterloo confirmed this prophetic vision. It cannot, therefore, be considered as flattery, nor even partial regard, to remark, how greatly the skill and unwearied attention of the Commander-in-Chief of our army contributed to the glory of that memorable event;—since, as great performers on music must have the finest and best tuned instruments to draw out their extraordinary execution, —so, the most accomplished officers must have the highest disciplined troops to secure their genius in the tremendous crisis of such a battle. Such British troops the illustrious Wellington commanded when, in a single day, he re-edified a world almost in ruins. I shall never therefore think that our national character for generosity and justice is wound up until some public reward is conferred by Parliament on the Duke of York.

These destructive insects, particularly in lands newly broken up, devour every thing before them; but a large flock of rooks will in half a day destroy a number of them equal, perhaps, to all the inhabitants of Great Britain: yet, I have no doubt that the wireworm was created for some salutary purpose, since the balance of animal life appears thus to be preserved by natural means, without our frequently vain effort to preserve it.

Lord Egremont, by his judieious improvements in Sussex, has set a most useful example in our county, which, not with standing its vicinity to London, is at least half a century behind any other that I am acquainted with; and its appearance in many parts, from neglect of cultivation, roads and canals, has been cast mistakingly on the land, to the great injury of landed proprietors in the valuation of their estates

It is the general opinion of naturalists that numerous classes of insects are brought into life by the action of the sun, and, having laid the foundation of a new generation, sink again for ever in the first shade of night. My friend William Spencer mentioned to me a remarkable instance of these ephemera in a whitish moth, which he had frequently seen on the banks of the Neckar, near Heidelberg. In the morning the air was thronged with them rising on the wing, but they fell like the withering leaves of autumn, when the sun was going down.