116 RUTA EAGA CULTURE. Part I. 



come a religious fanatic, and this in so desperate a 

 degree as to leave no hope of any possible cure. 

 In the pride of our health and strength, of mind as 

 well as of body, we little dream of the chances and 

 changes of old age. Who can read the " Travels 

 in France, Spain, and Italy,'''' and reflect on the pre- 

 sent state of the admirable writer's mind, without 

 feehng some diflidence as to what may happen to 

 himself! 



119. Lord Hardwicke, who is now the Presi- 

 dent of the Board, is a man, not exceeding my ne- 

 gro, either in experience or natural abihties. A 

 parcel of court-sycophants are the Vice-Presidents. 

 Their Committees and Correspondents are a set of 

 Justices of the Peace, Nabobs become Country-Gen- 

 tlemen, and Parsons of the worst description. And 

 thus is this a mere political job ; a channel for the 

 squandering of some thousands a year of the peo- 

 ple's money upon worthless men, who ought to be 

 working in the fields, or mending " His Majesty's 

 •'High Ways." 



120. Happily politics, in this country, have no- 

 thing to do with agriculture ; and here, therefore, 

 I think 1 have a chance to be fi\irly heard. I should, 

 indeed, have been heard in England ; but, I really 

 could never bring myself to do any thing tending 

 to improve the estates of the oppressors of my 

 country ; and the same consideration now restrains 

 nie from communicating information, on the subject 

 of timber trees, which would be of immense bene- 

 fit to England ; and which information 1 shall re- 

 serve, 'till their tyranny shall be at an end. Cas- 

 tiereagh, in the fulness of his stupidity, proposed, 

 that in order to find employment for " the popula- 

 tion,'''' as he insolentlj^ called the people of England, 

 said, that he would set them to dig holes one day 

 and fill them up the next. I could tell him what to 

 pla7it in the holes so as to benefit the country in an 

 immense degree : but, like the human body in 



