440 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIRs 
HROUGH you I wifh to congratu- 
late the Agricultural Society at 
Chelmsford. for their laft premium, ad- 
vanced and held up in continuation for 
the encouragement cf future candidates 
in that arable county. I find myfelf more 
readily difpoftd to a congratulation, from 
being an early announcer, I believe* the 
earlieft, of the praétice of dibbling wheat, 
near where it firft originated, and which 
hath continued to difufe itfelf to and be- 
yond the utmoft limits of Norfolk, that it 
now feems queftionable if one-fixth part 
of the wheaten arable of this county is 
feeded in any other mode ; and to this eco- 
®Momic and preduétive practice of dibbling 
I cannot but afcribe the greater product of 
this fuperior grain; for, in thofe alarming 
years of dearth that we lately nationally 
witnefled, it has been candidiy acknow- 
Jedged by divers of our large growers of 
this grain, that they have not been def- 
cient beneath their ordinary product. This 
being the cafe (as I believe it is) they are 
meafurably indebted for their fuccefs to 
the reverfed flag cherifhing within the de- 
cayed trefoil-roots the much leflened por- 
tion of feed dibbled therein, and which 
mot only cherifhes, but affords a future 
aliment to the growing blade: their due 
and regular diitance affords the early 
fpring-hoce the conveniency of opening 
and cleanfing the intervals, which at once 
deftroys the early-{fprouting weeds,enlarges 
the fpace for the wheat to dilate irfelf, 
and, being feconded by a fmaller hoe, a 
few wecks afterwards, extirpates the re- 
maining weeds, whence a renewed tillering 
of the wheat fucceeds ; fo that the ad- 
vancement of fpring prefents, even fuper- 
fic:ally, a profpeét as promiling as if three 
bufhels of {ced had been frewed over ar. 
acre, and this perhaps without the necel- 
fity of hand-weeding during the fummer. 
Other advantages might be a!cribed to 
ahis mo<e of culture ; but, 2s the farmers 
of Effex ftand high in agricultural repu- 
tation, and are favoured in foil and 
climate above mof of the counties 
of England, with the additional circum- 
fiance of their county extending near the 
pa i TEA LSS RGN 28 i iaekle oa MTU Te Fin OE 
* The praétice, then newly begun, is 
particularly defcribed in the Annual Regifter 
‘of 1775, in the fame terms I had invited the 
farmers of Norfolk, &c. to attend to its pro- 
cefs; and which was publifhed in two or 
three provincial papers; from one of them it 
was extracted, and, I prefume, ufefully pro- 
mulgated. 
Dibbling Wheat—Defence of Machiavel. 
[June 1, 
metropolis, they enjoy ample opportunt- 
ty of beimg yet more diftingu:thed ex- 
amples to promote national prolperity 5 
bufhel of wheat faved from every acre of 
the wheat-arable of the kingdom, would be 
more than a fufficient quantity, without 
a foreign importation, ror the annual 
fupply of Mark-lane. Jj. W. 
Babough, near Norewich, 1§02. 
To the Editor of the. Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 3 
URNING over the Harleian Mifcel- 
lany a few days fince, my curiofity 
was excited and gratified, by reading an 
article, entitled ** Machiavel’s Vindica- 
tion of Himfelf and his Writings againt 
the Imputation of Impiety, Atheifm, 
and other high Crimes; extracted from 
his Letter to his Friend Zenobius,” 
(Harl. Mifcel. vol. i. p. 55.) 
The article is too long, Mr. Editor, to 
be inferted in yotr Magazine, but I fhall 
make a few extracts from it, exculpatory 
of the character of this much-injured 
man. 
It is well-known, that, although Ma- 
chiavel has ever been confidered by the 
profanum vulgus (which, in this infance, 
comprehends the learned and the titled, 
as well as the unlettered and plebeian, 
rabble) as the impudent unblufhing ad- 
vocate of monarchial tyranny, in all its 
extravagance of cruelty, oppreffion, and 
perfidy, yet fome few penetrating {pirits 
have iufpeéted that the real object of his 
moft celebrated book, THE PRINCE, was 
diametrically cppofite to its oftenfible one ; 
that the author intended, when he laid 
down for abfolute princes thofe execra- 
ble and moft diabolical maxims by which 
alone he contended they could preferve 
their power in its integrity, to exhibit be- 
fore the people, not an idol for their ado- 
ration, but amonfter, expofed with all his 
hideoufnefs, trom which they muft fhrink 
wih horror and detettation. 
Thoie who are acquainted with the hif 
tory of Florence will not afk why Machi- 
avel fhould conceal his principles under a 
veil of irony, which’ was almoft impene- 
trable: Machiavel was deepiy involved 
in the confpiracy, as it is ufually called, - 
cf the Soderini, by which, in the year 
1494, the three fons of the Great Loren- 
zo de’ Medici, Piero, who fucéeeded ‘his 
fa: her in the government of Florence, and 
his two brothers, Giovanni and Giuliano, 
were proeciaimed enemies to rheir country, 
and obliged to flee from iis juft vengeance, 
In 
