C 217 ] 



a iaetter; celibacy was thereby aboliihed, and the 

 clergy in part reftored to their natural rights ; they 

 were permitted to marry and become the fathers of 

 perhaps a numerous offspring. Had the clergy been 

 alfo permitted to farm lands, a privilege which their 

 local fituaiions peculiarly entitle them to, and not 

 been confined to the narrow limits of their glebes* 

 they would thereby have been enabled to employ 

 and provide for their children. Agriculture, in the 

 hands of men of learning and abilities, would long 

 ere now have been reduced to a fcience 5 and the 

 farmers of this clafs would have known and avoided 

 the confequences of throwing impediments in the 

 way of others engaged in the fame purfuits. 



Neceflity, combined with the wretched ftipends in 

 many parts of Wales, compels fome of the clergy 

 there to turn farmers in defiance of law, and bring 

 their fmall capitals into a<^ion, before they are ex- 

 pended in a maintenance which their clerical pro- 

 feffion does not afford. I have feen, and can give 

 ample and honourable teflimony of, the publick good 

 refulting from the examples given by thefe truly 

 apoftolick teachers, in a country where praflical ex- 

 amples of good hufbandry are much wanted. I 

 traverfed the county of Herts in queft of able far- 

 mers, to prefent them to this honourable Board, and 

 fame led me by the hand to the reftor of Hatfield. 

 The birth, talents, and conne<^ions of that gentleman 



give 



