iSoo. View of the Agriculture of Northumberland. 309 



receiving fatisfa£l:ory information concerning the important 

 matters therein mentioned ; but we confefs rhat we have been 

 utterly difappointed. This defultory and eccentric writer on- 

 ly tells us, that prices of beef, mutton, &c. are greatly in- 

 creafed (ince 1760, when he commenced bufinefs -, "a thing 

 we are already practically acquainted with. The caufe of 

 this, he attributes to the great number of calves and Iambs 

 which are now killed -, and fuggefts no other remedy than to 

 prohibit fuch practices, which he thinks would render the 

 market for cattle and fheep as plentiful and cheap as for- 

 merly. 



Hark ye, Mr Matthews I do you fuppofe, when luKury is 

 fo vaftly increafed, that the like quantity of provifions will 

 fatisfy the national confumption, as was fufficient in the year 

 1760, when you opened fhop at Bath ? Or do you think that 

 a pound weight of beef and mutton can be fold at the price 

 then current, feeing that rent, labour, and public burdens, 

 are now doubled ? Let us try the queftion by the price pre- 

 fixed to your book. In 1760, a bookfeller would have been 

 well paid with three (hillings for 2^4 pages odlavo j and yet 

 you modeftly demand double that fum for a work of equal 

 fizc. If a page of print has rif:n in price, why fhould not a 

 pound of beef rife alfo ? 



The work is dedicated to Mr Pitt, who is reprefented '* to 

 have had greater embaraffments to encounter, owing to great 

 fallings off of income to the revenue, and perhaps greater out- 

 goings, occafioned by fcarcity and dearnefs of cattle, than any 

 of his predeceflbrs." And, in the body of the work, p. 161. 

 thofe in power are fervently exhorted, if they pojfefs Chrijiian 

 charity^ to attend to the next calving feafgn ! ! ! 



General l^enx) of the Agriculture of the County of Northum- 

 herlandy with Observations on the Means of its Improve- 

 ment, Drawn up for the consideration of the Board of 

 Agriculture, by J. Bailey and G. Culley. 209 pages 

 8vo. Sold by Messrs Robinson arid G. Nicol, London ,■ 

 Bell, Newcastle ,• ajid Symington, Editiburgh. 



This work is chiefly of a practical nature; and proceed- 

 i;ig from two fuch eminent agriculturifts as Meflrs Bailey 



E e 3 and 



