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[ 33* ] 



Queen Elizabeth, and continued them down to 

 the Commonwealth. But notwithftanding the 

 great merit of this writer, and the eflential fer- 

 vice he had rendered his country by his writings, 

 the public ungratefully fuffered him to ftarve and 

 perifh in the flreets of London, nor had he a fhirt 

 on his back when he died, 



Samuel Hartlib, a celebrated writer on agri- 

 culture in the laft century, was highly efteemed 

 and beloved by Milton, and other great men of 

 his time. In the preface to the work entitled his 

 Legacy* he laments that no publick director of 

 hufbandry was eftablifhed in England by autho- 

 rity; and that we had not adopted the Flemifh 

 method of letting farms upon improvement. 



This remark of Hartlib's procured him a 

 penfion of iool. a year from Cromwell; and the 

 writer afterwards, the better to fulfil the intention 

 of his benefactor, procured Dr. Beatti's excellent 

 annotation on the Legacy, with other valuable 

 papers from his numerous correfpondents, 



* It muft be liere obferved, that the famous work attributed to 

 Hartlib, and called hh Legacy, was not written by him. It was 

 only drawn up at his requeft by one R. Chilos, and after under- 

 going Hartlib's correction and revifal, was publifhed by him. h 

 tonfilts of a general anlwer to this queftion; " What are the ac- 

 U tual defects and omimons, anpl what the pofiible improvements, in 

 « EngUm, hufbandry." 



The 



