I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



551 



the soups of charity. Every human interest 

 inhabits a human heart, and every human 

 heart pants for wealth or competency. 

 Ought Agriculture to be indifferent to bless- 

 ings considered by her sisters as essential 

 for human happiness, or remain ignorant of 

 the extent to which their wishes may be 

 gratified, without injury to her rights; may 

 she not at least be permitted to consider, 

 whether bounties to expel competition un- 

 like premiums for exciting it, are likely to 

 beget industry, perfection and economy; or 

 idleness, want of dexterity and profusion? 

 whether the English policy of forcing their 

 manufactures into a competition with those 

 of all the world, or the policy of protecting 

 ours against a competition in industry even 

 with Agriculture, is most likely to compass 

 the end which both countries have in view ? 

 Every social interest to flourish, must know 

 whether it buys benefits or scourges. If 

 Agriculture has determined whether an 

 equal or an unequal distribution of rights 

 among men, or between interests composed 

 of men, is most suitable to her nature, or 

 most likely to advance her prosperity, she 

 has solid ground to stand on for making this 

 enquiry. If her political ignorance is like 

 a narcotick administered to a confiding 

 virgin, no physician who wishes to see her 

 vigilant in the preservation of her treasure, 

 can disapprove of her acquiring an intimate 

 knowledge of her own interest, and an acute 

 discernment of such measures as may ad- 

 vance or obstruct it. How can she gain a 

 capacity for this discrimination, so essential 

 to her prosperity, but by an industrious ex- 

 ercise of her best talents through the medi- 

 um of the press ? 



In a struggle for empire, even among the 

 true, sound and virtuous social interests, 

 ought Agriculture to relinquish her pre- 

 tensions to equality, if not to pre-eminence, 

 and tamely yield up a prize, to gain which 

 she so largely contributed? Perhaps a free 

 and candid discussion of her claim to justice, 

 may disclose some less worthy competitor, 

 whose prowess may evince the necessity for 

 a coalition between those interests, founded 

 in principles of mutual right and pure 

 friendship. Are not the consequences of 

 such an union to private happiness and pub- 

 lic prosperity, worthy of a dilligent en- 

 quiry? Laws may affect Agriculture as 

 well as commerce or manufactures; and 

 hence, as powerfully require the attention 

 of a Society confined to that special object, 



as laws affecting commerce or manufactures 

 require the attention of Societies for their 

 improvement. Would not a resolution by 

 a Society for promoting commerce, manu- 

 factures or internal improvements, to disre- 

 gard legal favor, justice or injury, and to 

 repose in legal ignorance, be a renunciation 

 of the source of success, and prophetic of 

 its fate? The patriotic advocates for inter- 

 nal improvements, far from confining them- 

 selves to mathematical discussions, contend, 

 that legislation constitutes the source of 

 their prosperity or decay, and laboriously 

 investigate its influence upon inferior ob- 

 jects. Are these enquiries irrelative, or 

 ought the cardinal internal improvement to 

 be prohibited by its advocates, from acquir- 

 ing a species of knowledge, even necessary 

 for the prosperity of her handmaids ? Is 

 not a fair competition in industry under the 

 shield of equal laws between the interests 

 which cover all, as necessary to excite emu- 

 lation and to produce improvement, as such 

 a competition among associated individuals? 



Supposing that the maxim "ne sutor ultra 

 crepidam" is as applicable to a science as 

 to a cobbler, and that the votaries of Agri- 

 culture ought to stick to the plough, and 

 continue to " whistle as they drive it for 

 want of thought," whilst her friends and 

 her foes are encouraged to become deeply 

 learned in the subtleties of legislation ; yet, 

 as one denies to them the knowledge and 

 skill necessary to make good crops, because 

 all eat, it is superfluous to consider whether 

 verbal communications and local examples 

 or essays and books constitute the best 

 means for effecting the end, since all may 

 be united, and each may operate in its own 

 sphere. Agriculture has certainly flourished 

 most in those countries where the press has 

 been most extensively employed as an aux- 

 iliary to example. Its great efficacy may 

 possibly be owing to a quality of the mind, 

 neither unfrequent nor inoperative. It is a 

 quality often offended by the wisest lecturers 

 and the brightest examples; but soothed 

 by the appropriations it can make from 

 reading, and delighted by a display of ac- 

 quirements drawn from the common reser- 

 voir of knowledge. To copy example, it 

 looks upon as a species of plagiarism ; and 

 therefore, the most beautiful agricultural 

 experiment unrecorded, would be frequently 

 as ephemeral as the tints of the butterfly. 

 To yield to verbal lecture, it abhors, as a 

 confession of ignorance; and the excellence 



