118 
the deaths bears to the whole population ; 
but how does M. N. get at this propor- 
tion but by alcertaining the proportion cf 
births to deaths ; and when this has been 
alcertained, is it not ftriétly true that the 
degree of mortality will affe& the propor- 
tion that the excefs of the births above the 
deaths bears.to the whole population. Is 
not Mr. Malthus’s illufration by an in- 
ftance (page 237) firiétly ia point, and 
fivicily true. In fa& it feems to have 
been quite neceflary to introduce the firlt 
tahle as well as the fecond ; becaufe the 
fir table contains a fet of particular in- 
ftances, fhewing the manner in which the 
general table is to be applied; and if 
M. N. had in the leat underftood the fub- 
jest, he would have feen that in order to 
make ufe of this general table or of Dr. 
Price’s theorem in any particular inftance, 
he muft go througha procels fimilar to 
that defcribed in the fir&® table, and muf 
find out the proportion of births to deaths, 
and the mortality in each particular coun- 
-try, In which the period of doubling is 
fought. | 
I have purpofely avoided taking any 
notice of poor cavils and unfounded im- 
putations which have been already ex- 
_pofed by your other correfpondents, and 
Tam fure your readers cannot with to fee 
any arguments advanced againit the very 
liberal and unphilofophical declamation 
which prefaced M. N’s particular accu- 
fations again Mr. Malthus. Argument 
can only be addrefied with propriety to per- 
fons who are in the habit of being influenced 
in their: conviétions by reafon, and muft 
therefore be entirely thrown away on thefe 
who avowedly regulate their belief or dift 
belief by their likes or diflikes, and think 
it a fufficient proof of the falfiry of a 
theory that they don’t envy thofe who are 
convinced of its truth. GT; 
Cambridge, Dzc. 10, 1804. 
— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N compliance with my promife, I fend 
you an account of Village Scenes, ex- 
tracts from which, with remarks, you 
have inferted from me in your Magazine. 
My profeiional avocations firft brought 
me acquainted with Mr. Batchelor in OSo0- 
ber,1803. Being infarmed he poff-fied poe- 
tical talents, I requeited a perufal of his 
pyems. I received from him fome de- 
tached pieces of poeiry, of which I {poke 
in terms of praife. Some months after 
this, the {mall volume now publifhed was 
prefented tome by the author. As the 
Account of Mr. Batchelor, by Dr. Yeats. 
[March 1, 
postry was chiefly omrural fcenery and» 
rural economy, I felrno (mall degree of > 
apprehenfion left imitation, fo deftruétive 
in general to the {pirit of genuine poetry, 
fhouid have betrayed the author of Vil- 
Jace: Scenes into an abortive and fruitleS ° 
attempt to emulate the fame of Thom- 
fon and of Bloomfield. My fears, how- 
ever; very foon fubfided ; for the perufal 
of the poetry gave me a high idea of Mr. 
Batchelor’s povtic gesius, and erafed the 
unfavourable imprefiion from my mind.— > 
I immediately formed a clefer acquaint- | 
apce with the author, and, from the cor- 
refpendence which has pait between us, it » 
"appears that Mr. Batchelor had) written . 
Village Scenes at the time Mr. Lofft was : 
perufing the MS. of the Farmer's Boy.* 
I feelthe greater pleafure in ftating this, 
becaufe the fame which Bloomfield has 
juttly acquired by his delighiful ftrains,. - 
could not have prompted Mr. Batchelor 
to write his Village Scenes; and thus alf- 
idea of imitation is precluded, if any fuch 
had appeared to exilt. The author of the 
volume of poetry whieh I have recom- 
mended to the notice of the public, isa 
young farmer refiding’ at Lidlington, 
about feven miles from this place, a te- 
nant of his Grace the Duke of Bedford. 
His connections have been very confined, 
his education: trfling and circumfcribed, 
and his difadvantages, of every defcrip- | 
tien, great ;—-circumftances which will, ' 
no doubt, with a difcerning public, add 
to the merit which his poetry poffefles,— | 
In a letter which I received from him in * 
December, 1803, he obferves, «¢ Ihave 
never known .one literary man in Bed- 
fordthire, nor indeed ia any other county ° 
or city, not an individual who was autho- 
rifed to fay, this ine is a bad one, this is 
tolerable, this thought is puérile, this may ' 
make a thift, &c. : If I wrote ungram- 
matically, IE was aequainted with no 
frieud who could point it out. If I blun- - 
dered againft an expreffion which was not 
familiar, no one could fatisfy my dowbts 5 » 
no one could clear away any intellectual © 
clouds-which occafionally dim the fight of °— 
moft of the fons of Adam.’? With the 
candour and modefty of the author on his © 
own productions, I am well acquainted ;- 
that winning diffidence, fs confpicuous in 
thofe whofe minds receive their richeft 
fiores from the gifts of nature: they inte- | 
refted me much in his faveur. He had 
” 
* Mr. Lofft received that MS. in Novem- 
ber 1799 ; the poem of Viilage Scenes was ~ 
begun in March of the fame year, and finifh. ~ 
ed in November following. Pik, 
ae fhewn 
