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the other portions of the eastern continent. It was the bold and 

 independent land-holders, who compelled the tyrant John to sign 

 the great Charter of England ; and they have stood ever since, 

 in the midst of the nation, a colossal political Janus opposing 

 with stern defiance the attempted encroachments of the monarch 

 on the one side, and restraining the licentiousness of the stormy 

 multitude on the other obliging each to respect the Constitu- 

 tion and the laws. The proprietors of the soil have ever prided 

 themselves in participating in the useful avocations, comforts, 

 embellishments and amusements of a country life. There they 

 expend their vast incomes in a manner which gives the greatest 

 encouragement to rural industry. The experiments which they 

 have made in field cultivation, for improving the breeds of domes- 

 tic animals, extending the bounds of horticulture and ornamental 

 planting their liberal expenditures in the erection of private 

 and public edifices, in the construction of roads and canals, and 

 their generous endeavors to alleviate the condition, elevate the 

 character and promote the prosperity and happiness of all class- 

 es, in their multifarious vocations, and to advance the public 

 weal, have had a powerful tendency to excite emulation, and 

 give an activity, determination and elevation of character 

 to the entire population, unprecedented in the annals of the 

 world. There we behold the indispensable and useful, studi- 

 ously combined with the ornamental, from the barronial estab- 

 lishment, to the thatched-roof cottage. A taste universally pre- 

 vails for giving either a more magnificent, picturesque, beautiful 

 or neat appearance to every estate, while the necessary and 

 profitable labors receive the most careful consideration and exact 

 attention. The refinements of the arts are blended with all the 

 possible comforts of each habitation, whether it rises, in anti- 

 quated battlements, from the heights of a princely domain, or is 

 the dearly cherished home of him, who is but the tenant out of 

 a rood of land. 



What more interesting inquiry can there be presented to the 

 statesman, than the intimate connexion which exists, between the 

 political and agricultural histories of England. Are they not 

 striking illustrations of the reciprocal influence of each, upon 

 the character and condition of the people, in their domestic and 

 national relations. We have only to look into the annals of the 

 past and examine the present condition of Great Britain, Spain 



