l8oO. Review of Middlejcx Survey. 85 



by roads, woods, hedge-rows, and water, or as pleafur.e j^round j 

 and thefe, by his own computation, amount nearly to four mil- 

 lions of acres. If we add the commons and waltes, which, 

 in fome counties, are one fourth, and even, in Middkfex, are 

 one tenth, of the whole land, and which rcqtiire a very trif- 

 ling flock, it will be found, that agricultural capital is moftly 

 laid on about 20 millions of acres, and that the amount of 

 this capital will not much exceed one half of what is here com- 

 puted. We fufpe£l much, that Mr Middleton led the Premier 

 aftray, when he founded upon his calculations. Political a- 

 rithmetic is a deceiving fcience. The firfl figure is ufually 

 drawn from an hypothefis, and the fmalleft error at the out- 

 fet renders the whole calculation delufive and fallacious. 



The greateft part of the next chapter (viz. the 17th, and 

 entitled Mifcellaneous Obfervations) may be termed a molt 

 ingenious romance; and we give the author great credit for the 

 fertility of his imagination. The fedion concerning the de- 

 predations committed upon the farmer's property, by game and . 

 vermin, exceeds any thing we ever faw in the calculation line. 

 A very fair and well v/ritten account is made out, and figures 

 are ufed to prove, that the farmer fuftains an annual lots of 

 ten millions, from moles, mice, fparrows, rooks, magpies. Sec. 

 If we add to this another lofs, being 4s. per acre on all the land 

 in England, which the author computes is fuftained from thiev- 

 ing, &c. it will appear, that nearly twenty millions Sterling is 

 the total amount of the damage fuftained by the landed intereft 

 annually. After this, who will fay that farming is a good 

 trade ? or rather, who will not be furprifcd that the whole of 

 the farmers of the kingdom have not long ago been ruined i 



The attempt to eftimate the quantity of arable land in 

 South Britain has merit ; but, from a deficiency of fa£l:s, it 

 proves little. For inilance, the fuppofed extent of arable 

 land is firft ufed to afcert^in the number of horfes employ^ 

 ed in agriculture ; and the quantity of corn neceflary for 

 fupporting thefe horfes, is then brought as a proof of the 

 number of acres of arable land ; vyhich is certainly a molt 

 ingenious mode of calculation. 



Our author thinks, that one fifth of the arable land in Eng- 

 land is every year under fummer- fallow, or in a non-produc- 

 tive ftate ; but we are confident he is miftaken in this opi- 

 nion, and that the quantity is not fo extenfive by one halt- 

 In feveral counties, there is fcarcely fuch a thing as plain fal- 

 low ; and, unlefs it be upon the common fields, fuch fal- 

 jows are much lefs frequent than formerly. Even in the moll 

 of places where the tenant is taken bound to have one tallo\y 

 for two crops of corn, turnips are lak n ia its place. h\- 



K ^ ; ftead, 



