‘ 
1796. ] 
which I hope will be marfhalled in your 
‘next Number. | : 
I wifh he may think it proper to fhow 
why sis adjectives alone may plead an 
exemption from comparatives ; but fhould 
he think it proper to exclude thefe de- 
grees entirely from our language, he 
will doubtlefs enfure the thanks of every 
{chool-boy. I muft confets, I think he 
-has reduced himfelf to a dreadful alter- 
native, the totalexpulfion of compara- 
tives from our grammar, or the continu- 
ance of them as “ as cuftom wills in all 
things.” 
Augufi 10, 1796. ANTI-SINBORON. 

To the Edlor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Stk, 
UCH has been faid of late for and 
againft large farms, but the grand 
objectisns to them {cem to have been un- 
noticed. As I live in a part cf the coun- 
try where the farms in general run {mall, » 
and have feen, for fifty years together, 
great mifchiefs arifing from their being 
engrofled, my thoughts are fent you on 
that head. 
In the firft place, a monopoly of farms 
is a difcouragement to indultry, fru- 
gality, and fobriety, in fervants of huf- 
bandry. ‘Pheir grand ambition is to oc- 
cupy afmall farm; when that profpect is 
taken away, the generality of them have 
no inducement to faving; the money, 
which heretofore was hoarded up with 
that view, is {quandered away at. ale- 
houfes, in rioting, drinking, and gam- 
bling. By fuch means a habit of idlenefs 
is contratted , they become enervated, 
and lefs capable of work, and their morals 
are corrupted. »* 
secondly, if feme few, of a better dif- 
pofition, are fo provident, as to lay by 
fomewhat for a rainy day, what is the 
comfequence >. Vhey at length marry, and 
become labourers te fome wealthy mono- 
polizing farmer, in the neighbourhood. 
In confequence of having got a little 
before-hand to begin the world with, 
they live better for'a few years than 
others, who have nothing but their 
labour to depend upon. By this time 
they have probably got two or three chil- 
dren, when, the man finding himfelf no 
longer able to live by his labour, applica- 
tion is made to the parith for relief, 
Could he, at firft fetting out, have pro- 
cured a fmall farm, he probably by his 
own and wife’s induftry, might have con- 
tmued to live comfortably throughour 
fife, and have {upported a family of five 
Arguments in Favour of Small Farms. 
or fix children, without any expence to 
the public. ; 
Again; the children of the little far. 
mer are in common fuficiently inftruéted 
.to make ufeful members of the commy- 
nity, when thofe of the labourer, through 
want of ability in their parents to give 
them any education, too frequently turn 
out an offence to decency, and become a 
nuifance to the public. The former of 
thefe, too, by having fome property, ac~ 
quire an attachment to the Englifh con- 
ftitution ; the latter, having nothing to 
lofe, become indifferent who governs 
them: I may better myfelf, but cannot 
be worfe off, is the common language of 
thefe people. Prat 
Such are fome of the mifchiefs attend- 
ing the agricultural part of the fociety ; 
but there are others, of no fmall moment, 
that affeét the community at large. Ina 
neighbouring parifh, as I am informed, 
no lefs than thirteen farms are occupied 
by three perfons only, not one of whom 
keeps more than three cows, and all the 
butter they make is:{fpent in their own 
families. When they were in {eparate 
hands, cach farmer was able to maintain 
two cows on an average, and three-fourths 
of the butter, at leaft, went to market. 
What an amazing lofs is here tothe pub- 
lic, in one fingle article! All the' poultry 
they bring up 1s for their own table ; but 
under the occupation of different tenants, 
five times the number, on a mode 
computation, were bred by them, and 
all the chickers, together wath the eges, 
were fold toothers. But we are told, in 
the Reply to Mr. Wright’s Addrefs, it is 
bad management in the holders of {mall 
farms to rear fowls, as by the mifconduét 
of their wives, in fquandering away the 
barley, they are often fold at a lofs. This 
opinion indeed feems to be countenanced 
by the engroffing farmer, who feldom 
breeds more than can be fupported at his 
barn door. But, if the one can, in this 
manner, rear up enough for his own ufe, 
furely the other, without any wafte being 
committed, can maintain fome for the 
ufe of others, 
But the little farmer, this anonymous 
writer tells us, are as bad managers of 
their affairs, as their wives are of their- 
chickens; they cannot go to market to 
buy a fingle beaft, without being at as 
great, nay, greater expences, than the 
great one, who buys twenty. This how- 
ever he will find much difficulty to prove. 
Zs it not poffible for him to purchafe one 
cow in his neighbourhood, without going 
te any market? Bat fhould he be reduc- 
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