600 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



and gives to the mariners of all nations renewed health and 

 refreshment. Its expeditions have interchanged the produc- 

 tions of different climes, equalizing the fruits of the earth, and 

 scattering variety and plenty. Even by the icebergs of the 

 Northern pole, have its providence and watchfulness been ex- 

 tended. Wherever, in those scenes of desolation, a bare spot 

 shows itself, for a brief space, amid the eternal snows, the re- 

 luctant sun warms into doubtful life the seeds which have been 

 left by friendly hands, that succeeding wanderers may be 

 cheered by these kindly tokens of sympathy. 



Great as has been the progress of agriculture in England, it 

 has not reached that point of culmination from which every 

 movement is descending. There seems yet much to be done. 

 A distinguished writer* of that country says, " the single alter- 

 ation of substituting the kitchen garden husbandry of Flanders 

 in our plains, and the terraced culture of Tuscany in our hills, 

 for the present system of agricultural management, would at 

 once double the produce of the British islands, and procure am- 

 ple subsistence for twice the number of their present inhabit- 

 ants." And another! states, that "at least three-fourths of 

 the whole arable land in the country is under very indifferent 

 culture." 



What is said of England, equally applies to the other highly 

 cultivated countries of Europe, it being conceded that there is 

 no one whose productiveness might not be increased to the 

 necessities of its population. Yet, worn-out civilization broods, 

 despondingly, over the apparently exhausted elements of fertil- 

 ity, and covering the seas with the superabundance of the old 

 world, extends an unbroken line of emigration towards the set- 

 ting sun. It comes to spread itself over this new land of prom- 

 ise. It comes, with the antiquated usages of past generations, 

 to renew, on a virgin soil, the hopes which have withered in 

 ceaseless and unrequited labor. It comes to demand, from the 

 reclaimed earth, food and raiment and shelter; to seek comfort, 

 independence, protection ; to trust to an unknown land for the 

 peace and subsistence denied in the much-loved places of its 

 nativity. It comes to clear the forest, drain the morass, open 



" Al'iKon's Principles of Population. f James SmiiJi. 



