1810.] 
portant: the poor people universally paid 
a fair rent for their land, supported them- 
selves through the two scarcities without 
the smallest assistance from the parishes, 
and were commended by their employers 
as the most industrious and moral of the 
labouring class. The poor-rates in the 
districts which this system pervaded, 
were from three-pence to one shilling 
and sixpence in the pound; whereas in 
districts adjoining, but not under this 
Inanavement, they were six, seven, and 
ten, times as much. I will venture to 
assert, that had the board never. per- 
formed any other service to the public 
than this single exertion, it would well 
have inerited every shilling that was.ever 
voted to 1. 
Their next exertion was on the subject 
of draining, The uncommon success 
which attended Mr. Ejkingtou’s practice 
in many considerable drainages, executed 
on principles unknown, or but obscurely 
hinted at by others, and practised by 
none but hunself, very justly attracted 
the attention of the board. They pro- 
ceeded in this business as they had done 
in every other: they began by procuring 
all the information that was to be had; 
and being well satisfied of the importance 
of the discovery, they recommeided him 
to the beneficeace of parliament, who 
voted to hijn one thousand pounds, But 
this was not all: that man, so ingenious 
on the spots demanding his skill, was 
astonishingly confused and obscure in 
explaining his ideas; to such a degree, 
indeed, that there was no slight danger 
of his art dying with him. To prevent 
this, the board employed a person of 
skill and ingenuity (Mr. Johnston) to 
take a considerable journey with Mr, 
Elkington, for the purpose of examining 
on the spot the chief drainages which 
had been effected, and of having the 
principles duly explained. The under- 
taking was very successful: Mr. John- 
ston nade himself master of the art, and 
reported it to the board ina treatise, 
which has been published for perpetua- 
ting a discovery that would have been 
lust, but for this well-imagined precau- 
tion of the board. 
The deficiency of the crops in 1799, 
furnished the board with another oppor- 
tunity of manifesung their vigilance for 
the public good. On my arrival in town, 
the beginning of November in that year, 
I found the president (Lord Somerville) 
not returned to England from Portugal, 
whither he had gone for the recovery of 
his health; and a sufficient number of 
Monsuty Mac, No. 197. 
| Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
a ee 
members not attending to form a board 
before the adjournment, I thought it was. 
my duty to write a letter to Mr. Pict, to 
that purport in which I[ conceived the 
board would have addressed him had it 
assembled. I stated, from ample in- 
formation, the deficiency of the late 
crop, which I conceived was much 
greater than was supposed at that time, 
and earnestly recommended to him, to 
take immediate measures for the intro= 
duction of rice from India. In March 
1800, Lord Carrington was elected to 
the presidency, and his lordship urged to 
the minister the same measure. After 
much consideration on the subject, no 
remedy occurred so certain, sate, and - 
economical, for supplying the expected 
deficiency, as the portation of a.suffi- 
cient quantity of rice from India; from 
some cause or other, however, the crie 
tical period for effectual encouragement 
was suffered to pass by, and though a 
bounty on the importation was subse- 
quently offered, the rice did not arrive 
till after the abundant harvest of 1801. 
The article, in consequence, became a 
mere drug, and the government was 
called upon to pay no less a.sum than 
three hundred and fifty thousand pounds, 
to perform the parliamentary guarantee 
to the importers. This is sufhcient to 
prove, that whether the board was ate 
tended to or disregarded, its merit with 
the public remained the same.: Two 
millions and a half might have been 
saved, had the board been listened to. 
On occasion of the first scarcity, the 
board had ample reason to be convinced 
of the great importance of potatues, as a 
remedy for that deficiency under which 
the. nation laboured. It was proposed 
at one of their meetings, to offer a pre» 
mium of one thousand pounds to the 
person who should make the greatest 
exertions in that branch of cultivation ; 
but the sum being found too great for the 
finances of the board, the scheme drop- 
ped, not however without some effect ; 
for a newspaper erroneously reporting 
that the board had actually made the 
offer, occasioned exertions in various 
parts of the kingdom, as we afterwards 
found, by applications from individuals 
for information relative to the mode of 
reporting the experiments; and the 
meetings at that time were ‘convinced, 
that had such a premium been offered, 
the effect of it would have been very 
considerable. 
Another effort tending to the same 
eud, was that of offering premiums in the 
i year 
wae 
