1803. Hints for the Jmpvovemeni of the H/ghlanJs, ^6^ 



eftabllfhments, which amounted to above 200 millions more. 

 What happy elTedls might not have been expeciled, had only 

 a fmall proportion of thofe funis been dedicated to domcilic im- 

 provement ? 



Lord Bacon, whofe works throv/ as much light on politics as 

 on philofophy, in a work entitled, * Certain Conliderations 

 touching the Plantation in Ireland, ' or the new fettlements 

 begun in that country, written in the reign of James I , thus 

 flates his opinion regarding the means of promoting domellic 

 colonoziation. 



* I will never defpair but that the Parliament of England, 

 if it may perceive that this a6lion is not a fiafli, but a folid 

 and fettled purfuit, will give aid to a work io religious, {q 

 politic, and fo protitable. And the diftribution of charge (if 

 it be obferved) falleth naturally into three kinds of charge ; and 

 every of thofe charges refpe£lively ought to have its proper 

 fountain and iiTue : for as there proceedeth from your Majeiiy's 

 royal bounty and inunificence, the gift of the land, and the o- 

 ther materials, together with the endowment of liberties ; and 

 as the charge which is private, as building of houfes, flocking 

 of grounds, vicinal, and the like, is to reit upon the particular 

 undertakers ; ^Of whatever is public, as building of churches, 

 walling of towns, town-houfes, bridges, and caufeways, or 

 highways and the like, ought not fo properly to lie upon parti- 

 cular perfons, but to come from the public eflate of this king- 

 dom, to luh'uh this ivork is like to retur?i fo great an addition of 

 glory ^ frengthy and commodity . ' * 



The principles which Lord Bacon thus eftabliihed, were ac- 

 tually carried into effect by tlie celebrated Frederick of Pruflia, 

 who, fortunately for his kinc^dorn, having no diftnnt pofTeffions 

 to attend to, was led to dedicate hi? active mind to domeftic 

 improvements, promoting the cultivation of wafles, the intro- 

 duction of new fettlers from foreign countries, (inftead of per- 

 mitting emigrations from his own), the building of cottages, 

 the draining of marflies, the forming of canals, the divifion 

 of commons, (for the encouragement of which premiums were 

 given), and other objects of a hmilar nature. The fum he an- 

 nually laid out for thofe purpofes, (a particular detail of which 

 will be found in Count Hertzberg's works), was very confider- 

 able for the narrow refources of his kingdom, amounting to no 

 lefs a fum than 300,000!. fterling/'^r annum ; but inilead of be- 

 ing impoverifhed by fuch liberal grants, he thereby increafed 

 his revenue fo much as to leave behind him a treafure in fpecie, 



to 



* See his worj^s in folio. Vol. iv. p. 406, 



