; 1797-4 OF Dr. Farmer...Myr. Thompfon on the Tithes of Wajfte Lands. ; 3 
3 ftion, I will anfwer, that Dr, FaRMER did 
receive fuch fubfcriptions, and that the 
book is not yet publifhed. But let me 
add, that the very refpeétable dignirary 
here called in queftion, more than tweaty 
years ago advertifed in the St. James’s 
Chronicie, that he had devlined the un- 
dertaking, and that the fubicription .mo- 
ney was ready to be returned. Should 
any one doubt this affertion, I am ready 
to give the beft proof of it, by repeating 
the fame offer in the do&tor’s name. You 
may, therefore, fir, affure your readers, 
~that if, by chance, there fhould be ftill 
any one or more fub{criptions outftanding, 
‘the money will; on demand, be returned by 
Red Lion Paffage, Your’s, &c. 
Fleet-fireet, Fuly 3. een PNINTOHOLS. 
P.S. In his “ Effay on the Learning of 
Shakfpeare,” 1789, p. 95, Dr. FARMER 
fays: “ This work (the Hiftory of Lei- 
cefter) was juft begun at the prefs, when 
the writer was called to the fuperintend- 
ance of a large college, and was obliged to 
decline the undertaking. The plates, 
however, and fome of the materials, have 
been long ago put into the hands of a 
gentleman who is every way qualified to 
make a proper ufe of them.” 
* a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magexine. 
: STR, 
It has lately been afferted, in fome pub- 
lications in vindication of TitHeEs, that 
wafte land, when converted into arable 
land, is not liable to pay tithes for feven 
years after it is inclofed. There is no 
dotior but that it was intended, by the*zd 
and 3d Edward VI, to exempt from 
tithes, for feven years, when ploughed, 
fuch lands as are commonly meant by 
“barren heath or wafte ground.” But 
the words of the aét were too indefnite 
to be fo conftrued, when brought into the 
alembic of the law ; and lord Coke (Intt. 
ii. 656) fays, that if land be not /uvapte. 
maturé barren, it is not within that a&. 
** The determinations on the aét have 
“all been agreeable to lord Coke’s com- 
«¢ ment, where the rule laid down is: If 
“* land is, 7m its own nature, fo barren as 
“not to be proper for agriculture, it fhall 
“not pay tithe for feven years after it is 
“‘ improved; but otherwife, it fhall.— 
“« There is an expence in gaining land 
*« from the fea, yet no feven years are 
« allowed, although the land. was over- 
*¢ flowed time out of mind.’’—Vez. Rep. 
In my pamphlet againft tithes **, 1 have 
o 

* Tithes Indefen. page 37. 
afferted, that very little, ifany, fuch bar- 
ren or wafte land is to be found in Eng- 
land, as, by the 2d and 3d Edward VJ, 
is exempted from tithes, when converted 
into arable land.-> ! 
If any gentleman will inform me, 
through the medium of your Magazine, 
er -otherwile, of any inftance in which, 
after the inclofure or improvement of bar- 
ren or wafte land of any kind, the ftatute 
of Edward VI was fuccefsfully pleaded 
in a court.of law, as an exemption from 
tithes for feven years, I fhall be much ob- 
Il am, Gr, 
Your’s, &e. 
Tuo. THOMPSON. 
liged to him, 
Hult, 
Suly Sth, 1794. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
S, at prefent, there is no fubjeét about 
which mankind.in general appear to 
be more miftaken than that of happinefs, 
Tam not farprifed to find in your .corre- 
fpondent Sinboron, an advocate’ for the 
happinefs of youth, and the fuperiority of 
fentual gratifications to the reiined plea- 
fures of ingelleé. 
This, like all other erroneous opinions, 
is the confequence of unfcientific habits ; 
of thinking without method, and reafon- 
iaz without accurate definition. To de- 
termine the queition, what animal, or 
what period of the life cf any animal, is 
moft happy, it is furely neceffary, in the 
trft place, to have a clear conception of 
happinefs in general, and, in the next 
place, of the nature of the animal whofe 
felicity is the fubjeét of enquiry. With- 
out in the leaft attending to this fcientific 
Manavement, your correfpondent Sinbo- 
ron defends the vulgar opinion, “ that 
childhved and: youth are the appropriate 
feafons of happinefs ; that fenfual grarifi- 
cations, whilft they are the moft tranfitory, 
are the moft intenfe of any; and that 
pleafures can be eftimated only by their 
intenfity and duration.” 
To prove the erroneou(nefs of thefe 
pernicious conclufions, let us, in the firtt 
place, attempt a-definition of happinefs, 
which fhall be found to be true, in all its 
numerous gradations. I define happinels, 
then,.to be the proper perfection of a vital 
being 3 or, in other words, If affert, that 
every vital being 1s then bappy when tt ac- 
guires the proper perfection of its nature. 
For felicity is doubriefs prefent to an 
animated bein n nothing is wanting 
which its nature is capable of receiving. 

As different animals, therefore, have dif- 
ferent perfeétions, their felicity alfo is 
B 2 different’; 
