1 796. | 
whofe curiofity or humanity may have 
led them to make enquiries on the fub- 
ject. It was not carelefsly, and without 
previous enquiry, that I lately, in an ad- 
drefs to the landholders of this county, 
ftated a confiderable decreafe in its inha- 
bitants ; a circumftance which you, fir, . 
I obferve have noticed, under the head 
of “ Provincial Occurrences,’ in your 
Second Number; but, probably from che 
aukward manner in which it was ex- 
prefied, muftated at two-thirds. The 
words I made ufe of were: ‘I have 
‘reafon to believe the bamlets and villages 
of the county of Northumberland, con- 
tain not two-thirds of the inhabitants they 
did towards the beginning of this cen- 
tury ;’’ by which I meant to affert, that 
a decreafe of full ove-rhird*-had taken 
place ; and which affertion I now beg 
Jeave to repeat, having met with nothing 
to induce me to retraét it. Had any one 
been in the poffeifion of a fingle inftance 
of a village where (agriculture their 
employment) the inhabitants had in- 
creafed, that inftance might have been 
brought forward with eclat, as honoura- 
ble to the proprietor of fuch village ; 
but mine is an ungrateful office, and I 
can only fpeak inthe general; for were 
I to adduce particular inftances, I fhould 
be regarded as a kind of incendiary. 
The village, the hiftory of which I am 
beit acquainted with—having had it 
from a worthy father, who died at an 
advanced age, and had not paffed through 
life without obfervation, is a ftriking, 
but, alas! no folitary infiance of depopu- 
lation. Within the period of his recol- 
JeGtion, it contained jfty-tqvo families; 
five. of which were /armers, who, with 
their dependents, kept upwards of one 
bundred milk cows; manured and culti- 
vated the ground in the beft manner the 
knowledge of the times admitted of ; 
fold the produce weekly in an adjacent 
market, and lived at eafe within them- 
felyes, and in good humour with their 
neighbours. Inthe courfe of laft year, 
I had occafion to vifit the place which 
was once the confiderable village I have 
defcribed: where cottages had formerly 
ftood, few traces now remained, whi.ft 
others lay, mournfully, in ruins; the 
ground uncultivated, being now only 
grazed; confifting only of one farm, which, 
indeed, has been the cafe for the laft 

* By ftating the decreafe at one-third, I 
hope to avoid incurring the cenfure of exagge- 
yation; for were } not to make a very liberal 
allowance for doubtiul information, 1 fhould 
be warranted iy, lating it at one-half, 
4 , . 
Decreafe of Population, 
$25 
forty years; the number of families re- 
fiding upon it exaétly ¢hree/ and that of 
milk cows kept, I believe, feven. Nor 
does this farm content its prefent occu- 
pier (whom I would not be underfteod 
to cenfure for purfuing his own intereft) ; 
he is poffeffed-of others in its neigh- 
bourhood, on which refide neither maz, 
qwman, nor child; being only occafionally 
rode over by himfelf, and walked over 
by his thepherd and his dog. But then 
it muft be admitted, that he annually 
difpofes of a quantity of wool, which, 
no doubt, give annual employment to 
two or three pale-faced Leeds manu- 
faéturers; and cf aconfiderable number 
of prime fat bullocks, ungalled by the 
yoke, which may probably be deftined 
to feed a few of our brave tars on board ' 
aman of war. Our woollen manufac- 
ture has always been termed by our poli- 
ticians the wealth; our fhips of war, the 
defence and glory of this country: it 
would appear, then, that depopulation ~ 
is a coniequence of our country’s prof- 
perity, and a juft tribute paid to its 
glory! Be it fo. Moft men are very 
willing to let others.think for them; but, 
for my part, fir, I always take the 
trouble of thinking for myfelf; and, 
what is fill more abfurd, generally the 
liberty of {peaking what I think. Now, 
in this cafe, I think, till it can be proved 
that we might a// conveniently and ad- 
vantageoufly turn weavers, and dyers, 
and dreflers of cloth, that even the 
woollen manufacture may be carried too 
far; and I never, at any time, hefitate 
both to think and to call fhips of war 
‘{tupendous monuments of human folly 
and depravity: neither fo large nor fo 
lafting indeed as the pyramids, to denote 
the former, but certainly far better cal- 
culated to exhibit the latter. Pofterity 
can {mile when they view the one; but 
they will thudder with horror and detef- 
tation when they fhall read the diabolical 
hiftory of the other. But to return to 
this hamlet, once a village: I cannot 
hold it to public view by zame without 
cafting a reflection, at leaft indirectly, 
on its proprietor, an aclive magiftrate, 
and a worthy man, who, in many peo- 
ple’s opinion, if not in mine, has effentially 
ferved his country. I believe, fir, there 
are few men, if any, who do not with 
to ferve their country; they only differ 
about the method of doing it. Whether 
the landholders meant to ferve their 
country by this fyftem of letting fo many 
farms to one man, I {hall not take upon 
ine pofitively to determine; but,~ I 
a think, 

