26 OBSTACLES TO

infertile foil. It was by means of fuch exertions, that Paleftine of old, from being one of the moft infertile regions on the globe, had become, in the{trong language of the fcriptures, a land flowing with milk and honey; and was capable of then fupporting within itfelf, a population at leaft an hundred times greater than it can do in its prefent ftate, after it has been fuffered to revert to its original condition merely by with: drawing the induftrious exertions of man. There are many inftances, in our own country, where a field has been, in the courfe of a few years, made to yield a thoufand times its original pro- duce. But in a country where commonage uni- verfally prevailed, this favoured gift, of reafoning, would, in this inftance, have been conferred on man in vain. He can then only trample under foot a forlorn waite, which, though it polleffes the capability of being made to afford him in- numerable comforts, he jis effectually barred from indulging the cheering hope of being ever permitted to enjoy. He is indeed debarred from ever being able to ameliorate the foil, and thus fo augment its produét to the ftate; but he is not prevented fo effectually from deteriorating it. While in the fate of a common,‘the furface of the ground may be broken by him in fuch a