275 



SECTION XI. 



EXPENSE ATTENDING THE FOREGOING OPERATIONS. 



On more than one occasion, in the course of this Essay, I 

 have ventured to state, that the art under discussion laid 

 claim to be one of " practical utility." But it would ill 

 support that pretension, if the principles it unfolds, and the 

 practice it recommends, for giving Immediate Effect to Wood, 

 involved an extravagant expenditure. For an art to be 

 generally useful, it must produce something better than the 

 gigantic feats, and the costly wonders of former ages. If the 

 art in question possess any one merit above another, it is 

 that of lessening the expense of both present and former 

 practice, and bringing it within the reach of any person of 

 moderate fortune. 



Of all the rural luxuries which the landowner may enjoy, 

 there is certainly no one more exquisite, than that of ob- 

 taining at pleasure the command of wood ; and every one, 

 we should think, would rejoice at the endeavour to render it 

 a cheap luxury. The efforts, therefore, of those must appear 

 the more surprising, who, for some years past, have laboured 

 to mislead the public, by exaggerating the expense attending 

 the preservative system ;* and as their opportunities of 

 information onight be supposed the best, so it places in a 



* See the Report of the Comjnittee of the Highland Society, which is 

 given in the Appendix. 



