'^4 Revieiv of Middle/ex Survey. Jan. 



London attornies ; and points out the diara£ler of a perfon 

 fit for fuch an office. In the firft part of the obfervation we 

 heartily agree with him ; for the agency of attornies has not 

 only laid the foundation of much trouble and litigation to 

 both landlord and tenant, but, by the abfurd covenants they 

 have introduced, have impeded the progrefs of agriculture in 

 a very great degree. When he details the qualities neceffary 

 to be pofTefled by perfons to whom the direction of eftatcs 

 fliould be intruded, he, in a great raeafure, reduces the farmer 

 to a cypher. In (hort, he v/ifhes to inveft the agent with a 

 power, which no perfon whatever ought to pofTefs over the 

 affairs of another; and allures proprietors to give them this 

 power, with a promife, which certainly is very tempting, no 

 lefs than that of doubling in moft inftances the value of their 

 eftatcs, without laying out a fingle halfpenny more than pay- 

 ing the falary of an agent. "The proprietor^ ivho refufes to have 

 his revenue doubled upon terms fo eafy^ mujl be blind indeed to bis 

 oivn interejl. 



The chavafter given by Mr Middleton, of the Middlefex 

 farmers^ is illiberal in the higheft degree; and we truft will 

 be omiired In the future public<!tions upon the rural economy 

 of that county. It requires' no ordinary opinion of one's felf, 

 to warrant the fpeaking of others in terms fo difgufting and 

 difrefpeftful : In Ihort, this part of the furvey ought to be 

 expunged. 



When charadlerifing the rural artificers, he fays, page 54— 



** The ordinary wheelwrights and fmiths of Middlefex have no 

 ideas of machinery, nor have they a capacity for executing any thing 

 from drawings or fpeclfications. The generality of the farmers la- 

 bourers are equally ftupid, and unwilling to execute their work in 

 any way to which they are not accuftomed. Hence, the difficulty 

 of introducing any thing new in the implements or praftice of huf- 

 bandry, is almoft infurmountable. Even the moft trifling alteration, 

 or deviation from the old fyftem, is refifted, both by the artificers 

 and labourers, and every poffible obftruftion thrown in the way of 

 the farmer, to prevent what they deem an unjuftifiable innovation on 

 the eftablifiied ciiftoms of the place. It is abfolutely impoflible to 

 get a plough, a thrafhing-mill, a winnowing machine, or indeed any 

 other implement of hufbandry, made on the beft principles, by the 

 country artificers of Middlefex ; and it is not much lefs difficult to 

 induce the labourers to ufe them, when they are brought from any- 

 other parts. Thus, the farmer is reduced to the difagreeable neceffity 

 of treading in the fteps of his grandfather, though the practice may 

 be, and in many points frequently is, at war with his own judgment 

 and inclination. " 



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