Miscellaneous essays. 



185 



/Vt-aste and desert state, ieing /ally 

 planted, that we need not have the 

 kast apprehension of a supply. — 

 That the royal navy is safe in this 

 respect, we have the hisjhest autho- 

 rity to assert ; for we Icnrn, by the 

 report of the commissioners of the 

 crown-lands, that tlie price of oak, 

 in the king's yards, has risen no- 

 thing in the last thirty years. This 

 is, of all others, the most decisive 

 proof, either that the quantity has 

 not declined, or that the foreign 

 supply is fully adequate. He, who 

 has viewed as much of Fi-ance as I 

 have done, will know, that a coun- 

 try may support a great navigation 

 and an immense navy without 

 growiug oak, which is scarcely seen 

 in that kingdom of a capital size. 

 . It is sometimes contended, that 

 timber is such a necessary of life, 

 that it ought to be raised at home, 

 I grant that it is necessary, but 

 that does not prove, that we ought to 

 produce it at home j facts speak a 

 directly contrary language ; for let 

 it be remembered, that, from one 

 end of the kingdom to the other, 

 all buildings, of any consequence, 

 are erected of fir, imported from 

 the Baltic, the scantlings of which 

 are cut to so little loss, as to be much 

 cheaper than any products of our 

 own. . The kingdom has been, for 

 more than fifty years, and, in a 

 good measure, for a hundred, using 

 foreign wood ; or, to adopt the 

 common language, dependant on 

 foreigners for this undoubted neces- 

 sary ; and who has yet found any 

 inconvenitnce in so doing ? Why 

 then affect such feart and alarms at 

 a situation which we have actually 

 been in a constant habit of for so 

 long a time, wdthout the smallest in- 

 couvenietjce ? 

 Vol. XXXVL 



No doubt can be entertained of 

 the superiority of well-inclosed and 

 well-managed plantations, when 

 compared with wastes fed, in com-» 

 mon, by a vi^retched breed of starved 

 sheep. But this is ever a most idle 

 comparison : the parallel ought to 

 be drawn between such wastes en- 

 closed, improved to the amount of 

 the expence of planting, and fed 

 with the best breed of sheep the 

 land then would carry ; in which, 

 case, I believe the superiority would 

 be found on the other side of the 

 question. 



All these reasonings, therefore, 

 of a supposed want of timber, or 

 fuel, are founded upon very insuffi- 

 cient data, even for the purpose of 

 a fair argument ; but when they 

 are made the basis of propositions, 

 that must affect the greatest and 

 most important interests of the na* 

 tion, they surely ought to be re- 

 ceived with abundant caution ; they 

 Ought to be sifted with the most in- 

 quisitive solicitude, and examined 

 with the most close attention to 

 every collateral circumstance. 



Forest countries consider wood 

 as a nuisance, and their idea of a 

 well-improved country is one well 

 cleared; perfectly denuded of trees, 

 as Dr. JohnscSl expressed, rural na- 

 kedness : when they are told, that 

 we, on the contrary, look at woods 

 and plantations as capital improve 

 ments, they have reason to think 

 that we act on principles which to 

 them appear marvellous. 



At first sight, the contrast of the 

 application of the soil to feed peo- 

 ple, or to raise wood, is so strong— 

 the one apparently so important— 

 the other seemingly so inconsidera- 

 ble, — that the difference should de- 

 cide the question. But this con- 



C c trass 



