TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 115 



SECTION XVIII. 



Calculator's Confessions; — and his Opinions on the new Husbandry at 



St. Helena. 



To the Editor of the St. Helena Register. 

 Sir, 



1 HAVE been amused, and I hope you will find edified, by your 

 correspondent K's conversion of Mr. Homespun, as related in your 

 last month's Register. I confess to you that I had long been a 

 downright branch of the Homespun family : I have had my 

 strong prejudices to old custom, and I verily believed it was 

 totally impossible to surpass our home practice : but I have lately 

 witnessed some things that have actually made nty hair stand on 

 end ; 1 see the ploughs, with two or three horses, managed by 

 two men, doing more work in one day, than any ten of my best 

 slaves could perform in ten days ; besides these fellows, Mr. 

 Editor, cost me a deal of money, for after the first purchase (dear 

 enough, to be sure) I must feed and clothe them ; and after all, 

 they are sometimes very saucy and idle. Now, thinks I, if I 

 could only teach Ciesar and Pompey, my two best men, to manage 

 this new machine, and if I were to clap-to a couple of my best 

 oxen, or horses, I should get more work from these two men, in 

 one day, than I could otherwise get from the whole of my gang : 

 and my cattle would not be a hair the worse for it. 



I am a man of figures, Mr. Editor, and I can make calculations ; 

 lean uuiltiply pounds, shillings, and pence into each other, which, 

 i/ou will allow, is no snmll proof of my abilities ; and, therefore, 

 you will readily admit I am not ignorant of the connnon rules of 



