1825. ] 
mummery, derived from the different 
castes that gave them birth. The most 
remarkable features in the character of 
these people are bravery and generosity, 
to which I may add pride, vanity, and 
superstition. The whiter cavalieros 
affect to treat their blacker brethren 
with arrogant superiority. These are 
also determined not to be behind hand 
in retaliating on their less sable com- 
panions. 
Towns.—La Ciudad, or the City of 
Alvalea, the capital, is rapidly rebuild- 
ing, and is the residence of the governor 
and bishop, also of the principal inhabi- 
tants; possessing wood, water, and every 
other conveniency to build. The only 
river on the island runs through it; 
although it is asserted by geographers, 
that there are other rivers, but they 
are only stagnant pools. 
Soil and Climate.—The soil is incredi- 
bly fertile, and well adapted to the 
growth of all tropical plants, perhaps 
superior to any of the West-India islands; 
but the little trade here does not stimu- 
late the natives, being principally carried 
on, via St. Thomas’s, by the Northern 
Yankees; as Great Britain, by a strange 
oversight, is paying very little attention 
to cultivating a good understanding with 
the New Western hemisphere. 
Commerce.—Sugar, coffee, rum, and 
all other West-India products, may be 
had at Juan Griego, on more reasonable 
terms than in any of our British West- 
India colonies, in return for our manu- 
factures, &c. 
The present population is estimated 
at twenty thousand, being an increase 
of eight thousand since the year 1815. 
The militia of the island amounts to 
eight thousand, capable of carrying arms, 
every male being enrolled, from sixteen 
to sixty. As riflemen, or sharpshooters, 
they excel; and are well adapted to 
defend their own country. Their fide- 
lity to the cause of independence and 
freedom is as proverbial as their impla- 
cable hatred to the Spaniards, all over 
the Spanish Main, where they fought. 
The climate of Margarita is unhealthy, 
and ill adapted to Europeans; owing, 
perhaps, to the exhalations and vapours 
arising from the low, fenny parts of the 
island, and the prickly pear and bramble- 
bush by which it is overrun, From its 
fertility, medical men have given it as 
their opinion, that better cultivation 
would produce valuable and salutary 
erops. 
Comparative View of French and English Agriculture. 
507 
For the Monthly Magazine. . 
Comparative View of French and English 
Agriculture: principally suggested by 
the perusal of an Article in the Revue 
Encycrorepique (No. 69), on the 
“Annales Agricoles, par M. Dombasle.” 
T must excite the surprise of those 
who reside any length of time in 
France, to witness the imperfect state of 
agriculture in that country, and the rude 
methods by which the necessary labour 
of cultivation is performed, when com- 
pared with the agricultural operations of 
the best farming districts of England. 
Various causes might be assigned as 
having contributed to the defective sys- 
tem of agriculture in France. Ist, The 
operation of the feudal system previous 
to the Revolution, by which the occupy- 
ing farmer was placed in a station very 
little removed from that of a serf to the 
soil. 2d, The severe exactions of the 
clergy. 3dly, The numerous holidays 
according to the Romish calendar, so 
productive of idle habits among the pea- 
santry. And, 4thly, The state of abject 
ignorance in which the lower classes are 
kept, by the policy of the Roman Catho- 
lic dispensation. 
It would require more space, Mr. 
Editor, than your miscellaneous columns 
could afford, to examine the operation 
of each of these impediments to agricul- 
tural improvement. I shall therefore 
dismiss the three former causes in a few 
words; considering the latter view of 
the question as one of the greatest im- 
portance in the present state of France. 
The French Revolution must be ad- 
mitted as having produced, among its 
many horrors, a considerable ameliora- 
tion in the condition of the inferior 
classes. 
With the abolition of the tythe sys- 
tem, also succeeded (to a certain extent) 
the abolition of the Romish holidays, or 
rather the necessity for observing such 
days, by devoting them to idleness, ac- 
cording to the discipline of the Romish 
church. 
But although, in addition to these 
advantages, the sale of the national 
domains had the effect of creating a 
numerous, and perhaps a valuable, class 
of landholders ; yet the abolition of the 
primogeniture law in France, though a 
very specious measure in the first in- 
stance, is now beginning to operate most 
seriously on the state of society in 
France; the infinite subdivision of pro- 
perty produced by this system, rendering 
the smaller classes of land-owners even 
too poor to cultivate their own lands. 
3$T 2 But 
