258 Ox Inclsfure 
znd would not then the mail-coaches, and 
every other, travel much more fafely and 
expeditioufly > Future times may probably 
fee this improvement. 
Mr. CRAWSHAY is, perhaps, the great- 
ef commercia} adventurer, ~and at the 
fame time the meft fuccefsful, of any in 
the kingdom. He prides hin-felf in hav- 
ing begun life without a fixpence; yet, 
by addreis and induitry, raifing a princely 
fortune, and becoming the firft iron-mat- 
ter in the world. 
It is rather remarkable, that the fa- 
mous WILKINSON fhould have fet off at 
firf under fimilar circumftances—in a 
fmilar line—and meet, at laf, with near- 
Ty fmilar fuccefs. ‘The piebeian metal 
feems aufpicious to plebeians. 
Every thing that Mr. CRAWSHAY un- 
dextakes is carried on with a peculiar de- 
ree of fpirit. An overfhot-wheel has 
Fately been confiruéted by him, beyond 
compare, the largeft in the world: it Is 
above fifty feet in diameter ; made entire- 
ly of caft iron, and coft four thoufand 
pounds. The water that turns it is 
brought from a ftream in the hills about 
five miles off, on a platform of wood, 
fapported' chiefly by ftone pillars: in one 
part, however, where it eroffes a bridce, 
at has fupporters of wood; here, for the 
fpace of three hundred yards, it is ele- 
vated eighty feet above the bed of the 
river. ‘Fhis forms a very fingular and 
feblime appearance. 4t is hardly worth 
mentioning, but as-2 trait of a remark- 
able charaSter, that Mr. CRAWSHAY 
Tately- attempted to eftablith a porpoife 
fifhery in, the river Severn; but his- ufual 
fucceis did not attend this undertaking. 
"Fhe fith were found too large to be taken 
#N a met, and too {mall to be harpooned ; 
in a fhort time, therefore, and after 
fome trifling expence, this fcheme was 
apandoned. | 
“Pam, Sir, &e- "A: B. 
é 
SEE . 
be Editer of the Monthly Magazine. 
7 OU know very well, that the preju- 
ice amongft the lower claffes of 
gainft the inclofure of commons 
3 very powerful and is almoft univerfal, 
is idle to talk to fuch perfons about 
the general advantages to fociety which 
miuft necefiarily reiult from converting an 
wncuitivated heath into an arable farm; 
they tell you that their portion of thofe 
advantages will be imperceptibly fmall, 
that a bird in the hand is worth two in the 
-bufh ; that they relinguifh a certain and im- 
mediate good fer one that is diftant and 
of Commons. [*May 
precarious. If yow retort, that they de- 
ceive themfelves refpecting the benefits 
which they derive from a common, and 
tell them that the hours which their wife 
and children wafte in wandering about for 
a few Ricks or a bunch of furze, might be 
more profitably employed at home 5 or if 
you tell them, (as has been afferted in one 
of the county reports for the beard of 
agriculture) that if one man turns a cow 
upon a common in the fpring of the year 
for nothing, and his neighbour gives 
eighteen pence a week to fome farmer for 
keeping in his inclofure another cow of 
equal value; that when both are driven to 
market at Michaelmas, the difference of 
rice will more than reimburfe the latter 
fo his expence, befides the additional 
quantity of milk which his cow will 
yield, in confequence of her better food, 
they will laugh at your reafoning, deny 
the truth of your ftatement, and, like many 
wifer people, as they fancy themfelves, 
prefer living in their error to running the 
rifk of being undeceived te their coft. 
For my own part, I have always 
thought it rather unfeeling to make argu- 
ments fer other people, and afterwards 
act upon them whether they admit their 
validity or not: what folly it is to tell 
thofe poor creatures that the benefits they 
derive from a common are merely ideal, 
and therefore not worth attending to! 
and what cruelty it ison this account to 
make them relinquifh ‘heir: imaginary 
benefits, and force our own on them 1n ex- 
change! who is prepared to ftate the pre- 
cife difference between a real and imagi- 
nary benefit? In fhort, what imaginary 
benefit is not real to him who enjoys it? 
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple fing, 
The fot a hero, lunatic a king.. 
The ftarving chemift in his golden views 
Supremely bieft, the poet in his mufe. 
From what fountain flows the ftream 
of happinefs more copioufly than imagi- 
nation? But I am wandering [ know rot 
whither. What I mean to obferve is, 
that we ought to give the poor cottagers 
fomething more fubftantial in exchange 
for the benefits, whether they be called 
real or imaginary, which they derive from 
their common, than the hope of partici- 
pating with the mais of fociety in the 
general advantage which will refult from 
the inclofure. That I am not fingular 
in this opinion, is evident from the 
claufes which have been inferted in various 
private inclofure bills for the extra previ- 
fion of fmall proprietors: thefe are of 
different natures, according to circum- 
ftances and fituations. Being miyfelf at 
prefent concerned in the inclofure of a 
- - €OMMON, 
r 
