1805.] 
fitted to the weaknefs of their frame nor 
the delicacy of their habits and manners. 
Judge then how I was furprized to fee a 
few days after, in a new!paper, an ac- 
count of the yearly meeting of the Bath 
Agricultural Society, in which among 
the premiums given by that refpectable 
and polite body for the year 1805, I re- 
marked the following—‘* For Women- 
plowing.’ I own my curiofty is greatly 
excited to learn the motive of this fingu- 
Jar attempt to give a new direétion to the 
activity of one half of the fpecies. Is it 
that the confumption of human lives made 
by our fleets, and our armies, and our de- 
vouring manufaétures, have really not 
Jeft men fufficient for the purpofes of agri- 
culture? If fo, I fear that, asa nation, 
we are not altogether in the profperous 
ftate which the flow of wealth and the dif 
play of f{plendor would feem to indicate. 
It was eiteemed one of the moft unequi- 
vocal figns of the exhaufted and miferable 
ftate to which France was reduced in the 
latter days of Louis the KIVth. that in 
many provinces they had only women left 
for the offices of hufbandry ; and in all 
ages and countries, to have only women 
to till the ground, or gather in the fruits 
of the earth, has been thought to prefent 
a ftriking pi€ture of defciation.. The 
country is poor, whatever elfe is plentiful, 
where men are fcarce; ** I will make a 
man more {carce than gold, yea, a man 
than the gold of Ozhir,” fays the pro- 
phet. But Iam willing to believe this 
{carcity does not exit with us: the evil 
is rather, that the men have begun by 
taking the departments. of the women. 
If we afk where are the robuft frames 
that ought to be toiling in the winter's 
froft and fummer’s fan, we fhall find that 
fome of them are ftationed in warm car- 
petted rooms, handing tea toa circle of 
idle liitlefs ladies and gentlemen; others 
are lifting up and down their long legs, 
and painfully trying to accommcedate their 
pace to the fhort trip of a delicate young 
lady, who walks before them, or the flow 
pace of an infirm old cne: fome are car- 
rying out lap-dogs to air ; [ome with white 
fleeves and aprons are making cheele- 
cakes; fome with a piece of tape are mea- 
furing the fize of a young lady's waift, and 
the contour of her bofom ; and hundreds 
are flationed the live-long day behind 
counters, forting thread, and meafuring 
lace and ribbon. Let then the fervants’ 
halls give up the idle that are in them, 
and the pafiry.cooks and haberdafhers’ 
fhops the idle that are in them, and we 
fhall havea fufficiency of ftout recruits for 
_ed together. 
Male and Female Labour compared. 3 
the plough, without taking the women 
from their appropriate employments. 
Indeed they cannot atteid both, and if 
the wives are to be in the field, their huft 
bands muft ia return wafh the linen, rock 
the cradle, and drefs the dinner. 
After viewing the propofal in a poli- 
tical, we may contemplate it ia a pictu- 
refque light. Our rural poet Thomfon 
has defcribed in glowing colours the hay- 
making Jafs, placed by the fide of her 
lover, and with all 
Her kindled graces burning o’er her cheek ; 
but I queftion if he would have been 
equally plafed with the idea-of a fturdy 
las ftcoping over the plough, and whift- 
ling to the norfes. But iadeed before the 
effect can be well afcertained, we cught 
to know with more accuiacy what is in- 
tended ; for ic does not appear, by the 
ftatement in the paper, whether the fe- 
male is to guide the plough, or to be yoked 
to it. The latter, though novel here, 
would not be altogether unprecedented, 
fince we are informed by a late wriser, 
Mr. Barrow, that in China, a country 
which does not yield in politenefs even to 
Bath, it is not uncommon to fee a hufband- 
man plough with a woman and an afs yok- 
This is an age of improve- 
ments; and if the -Chinefe cufiom were 
adopted, it would no doubt be a great fav- 
ing in the labour ef that noble quadruped 
the horfe, and would correfpend to the 
fcale of excellence of fome philofuphers 
I have lately converfed with, who hold 
that man is of a more_perfeé&t and beau- 
tiful form than his female companion, and 
a horfe more perfect. and beautiful than 
either of them. Your’s &c. 
j B.D. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HEN I commenced my remarks 
on the Flora Britannica, I was 
nut aware that they would fwell to fo 
Jarge a bulk as they have fince attained. 
It was indeed my original intention to 
have communicated them from time to 
time through thechannel of yourMagazine; 
but fince the publication of the few which 
I have already contributed, they have 
increafed fo unexpectedly both in quan» 
tity and importance, that I have been 
induced, at the fuggeflion of a very judi- 
cious and intelligent friend, to arrange 
them in a form. calculated tor feparate 
publication. In the profecution of this 
{cheme I purpofe to form a Commentary 
onthe Flora Britannica, with occafonal 
£2 reference 
