32 
ticularly with their manners at that time 
—for twenty years, have made many 
changes—and as few foreigners can ac- 
quire this knowledge, the perufal of the 
&« Progre/s of Dullnefs” cannot be expected 
to intereft the European reader in any re- 
yoarkable degree. 
Mr. TRUMBULL fefigned his tutor- 
fhip in 1773, and repaired to Bofton. His 
criginal defign was to devote himfelf to 
literature: but his father, judging, per- 
haps, more prudently for his fon, obliged 
him to make choice of a profeffion; and 
Mr. TRuMBULL having determined in 
favour of the bar, he was placed under 
the diretion of Mr. Apams, then a dif- 
tinguifhed advocate and counfellor in 
Bolton, now prefident of the United 
States.. But though he was now con- 
demned to a purfuit little congenial to 
one whofe inclinations continually tempt- 
ed his feet to ftray into the pleafaut paths 
of poctry, Mr. TRUMBULL did not for- 
et the Mufes; and an occafion foon pre- 
fented itfelf worthy of his pen. 
acquitted himfelf may be feen in his 
eElesy on the Times,” firit publithed at 
Bofton, in 1774. On his admiflion to 
the bar, Mr. TRUMBULL returned to 
ConneSticut ; and after no long time fet- 
tled at Hartford, where he has ever fince 
continued. Here he foon became one of 
the ableft and moft popular advocates ; 
and till within a few years, (when his 
health had been fo much impaired as to 
oblige him to decline the exercife of his 
profeffion) he was confidered as the ableft 
counfellor in the county, and among the 
abiett in the ftate. His domettic habits, 
which feldom permitted him to mingle 
much in fociety at large; and, perhaps, 
the fear of his fatiric talents prevented 
that eager intereft in his behalf, among 2 
large body of men, which would have 
carried him forward into public life; 
and it is owing, perhaps, to thefe feden- 
tary habits, and to this seclufion, that he 
has become the victiin of hypochondriac 
and nervous affections, which now impair 
his ufefulnefs and poifon his felicity. 
Mr. FRuMBULL has been the fole 
or part author of numerous periodical 
publications, on literary, moral, and po- 
litical fubje@ts, all of which have com- 
mianded great refpect. Of thofe, in which 
he was concerned with others, none has 
attracted more applaufe than a ferics of 
papers, fomewhat on the plan oF "Dbz 
Rolliad,” and executed with equal wit, 
imtituled, §¢ American Antiquities,” and 
extracts from ‘ The Aarchiad,” originally 
publifhed in the New-Haven Gazette for 
Memoirs of Mr. Fobn Trumbull, an American Poet. 
How he 
[ Aug. 
1736 and 1787. Thefe papers have ne- 
ver been colle&ted ; but they were repub- 
lithed, from one end of the continent of 
America to the other, in the newfpapers 
of the day. ‘They were the joint work of 
Mr. TRUMBULL, Mr. BarLow, Col. 
Humpureys, and Dr. HOPKINS. 
But the work which has:moft contri- 
buted to eftablith the reputation of this 
poet, is the poem of “M‘Fingal; & 
poem which has been favourably received 
in Europe, and which was read with rap- 
ture in America. 
Mr TRuMmBULU has publifhed— 
3. M‘Fingal, a modern epic poem, in four 
cantos, printed in 1784—lait American edi- 
tion in 1796. 
2. The Progrefs of Dullnefs, 
in 1772—laft edition in 1794- 
3. Elegy on the Times, 1774. —colleGted 
with his fmaller ferious poems, in American 
Poems, vol.i. publifhed at Litchfield, Con 
necticut, 1793- 
It is faid that Mr. TRUMBULL is pre- 
paring a complete edition of his works, 
‘llu(trated with notes, and comprifing 
many unpublifhed eilays and poems. 
June, 1798. 
firft printed 
H. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
MONGST the various topics frona: 
time to time brought forward in 
your valuable Mifcellany, there can be 
none more truly intereiting than that 
which refers to experimental! agriculture. 
In this {cience, many very important 
difcoveries have been made within thefe: 
twenty or thirty years paft, and much, 
very much remains to be explored. The 
culture of bread-corn, about which fo 
many millions of hands are conftantly em-. 
ployed, is very remote, if I milftake not, 
from the point of perfection. 
But the culture of another article, 
namely, the potatoe, which, in my eiti- 
mation, is nothing inferior to the former, 
feems for the moft part to be, as it were, 
in its infancy—at leaft in thofe diitriéts 
with which Iam acquainted—and im- 
provement advances with tardy eps. 
I have, during a period of feveral years, 
direfed much of my attention to the cul- 
tivation of this efculent vegetable—and 
forne occafional remarks of mine, on the 
fubject, have been inferted in feveral pe- 
riodical publications. But having it at 
this time in contemplati6n to publifh 
an exprefs treatiie, I fhould be glad to 
trace, in future numbers of your repo: 
fitory, fuch obfervations as might con- 
duce to render the defign more perfect in, 
its 
