OF FRUIT AND FOREST TREES. 377 



out the kingdom, to be actively solicitous in 

 planting and preserving oak-timber, the native 

 growth of their country ; that Great Britain may 

 never be under the dangerous as well as disagree- 

 ble necessity of trusting the safety of her seamen 

 to the inferior texture and less durable quality of 

 foreign growths ; while the hardy oaks of England, 

 which for ages past have been considered as 

 affording the best timber in the world for this 

 building, and may have been said to have brought 

 home victory and commerce from every part of 

 the globe, are no longer suffered to diminish, as 

 they have done of late, to the manifest detriment 

 and dishonour of our country. 



Such an evil (and it is of no common magni- 

 tude) proceeds from the negligence and inatten- 

 tion of the landed men, who from a spirit of 

 patriotic ambition, as well as private interest, 

 should pay a very vigilant attention to the 

 maintaining of a succession of healthy, well- 

 growing timber, for the service of their country, 

 nor any longer suffer the internal resources of the 

 kingdom to fail in furnishing materials for that 

 great national object, the support of the British 

 navy ; as well as for the many various demands of 

 domestic utility. By making such a provision for 

 the public wants, they will add to their own 

 immediate wealth, as well as to the fortimes of 

 those who come after them : and, while 1 express 

 my wishes that such general good designs may be 

 put in universal practice, I may express my belief. 



