588 A N N U A L R E G I ST E R, 17^4 



ceipt ; but this is abundantly difFcr- 

 erit with every other production ; a 

 plantation of fir or larch, that, at 

 fifty years growth, shall be worth 

 401. and consequently shall have 

 paid i'Os. per cent, per annum, 

 may be felled for 'JOs. or 30s. and 

 the tops faggotted perhaps for 

 twice as much more. If fenced 

 in large divisions, a mere trafic in 

 repairs for ten or a dozen years ; 

 the labouring poor might, there- 

 fore, in 20s. come in for Is. or 

 Is. 6d.; and there ends the statis- 

 tical account : no farmer — almost 

 no labourer — no artizan — the land- 

 lord reigns the solitary lord of the 

 silent desert, as unconnected as the 

 roaming savage, and as free from 

 the support of human industry, ?s 

 the. Siberian or the Tartar. To 

 raise his produce, demands little 

 assistance; to work up and con- 

 sume it, affords still less employ- 

 ment. Such is the state of the soil 

 to which so many would, ly 'way of 

 improvement, ve^ncG us! Such the' 

 amelioration for which honorary' 

 premiums are offered ! 



But, however right I may think 

 it to condemn planting, with the 

 views of a crop, much is to be 

 said in its favour, when" intended 

 merely for sheltering cattle j I say 

 nothing of ornament ; howCvcr, 

 plantations with this view, aie hot 

 usually very extensive, nor do all 

 situations want them ; they are en- 

 tirely removed from the Sussex sys- 

 tem of surrounding small enclosures 

 with wood, to a degree that almost 

 excludes the sun and wiitd from 

 all power of drying wet soils, and 

 renders critical sersons at harvests 

 doubly pernicious. Such a system 



*]^See'ihe eneomiurfis collectecl by Phiscai^ 



is destructive to the tenant; a cir-* 

 cumstance of some consequence to 

 a landlord when' he lets a farm. 



The comparative authenticity of TacU 

 ,tiis and Suetonius, illustrated by 



the question, " whether Nero -ivas 



the author of the memorable, con- 

 flagration at Rome,'' by Arthur 



Bro'wne, LL.D. S. F. T. C. D. 



and M. R.I. A. From the Irish 



I rans actions . 



SO much has been said of the 

 candour of Suetonius, and of 

 his work being the most accurate 

 narration extant of the lives of the 

 emperors, that it is worth the 

 pains to enquire, how far their 

 praises are due. Others are said 

 to have been actuated by hatred, 

 or slaves to adulation j he is repre- 

 sented alone as fair and uninflu- 

 enced. * For my own part, 1 so 

 much differ from this opinion, that 

 I have ever considered the rank 

 alltitted to Suetonius, in the scale 

 of historical merit> as elevated much 

 beyond his deserts. I am not in- 

 clined to trust either his candour or 

 his accuracy, particularly when op- 

 posed to, or compared with, his ri- 

 val historian. We are accustomed, 

 ITcnownot how, at an early age, 

 fi-oti'. contemporary' studies, to unite 

 the names of contemporary histori-' 

 ans, and from thence perhaps in- 

 sensibly to infer a similarity of ex-' 

 ccHence. The authors perused 

 treat of tire same facts, they are 

 read at the same time, and the 

 intnd is yet too young for accurate 

 discrimination. INIay not such as- 

 sociations have had some effect with 

 respec^ to Suetonius and Tacitus ? 



iiffiieprtftceto his edition of Suetonius. 



But 



I 



