CHAP'TE Le mu)

4 AN INQUIRY INTO

Agriculture, or the art of raifing corn, having increafed po- pulation, and greatly contributed to extend the ftrength and power of Great Britain, it may be worthy of the attention of the community, to enquire into its rife, to contemplate its pro- grefs, to inveftigate the caufes of its decline, as well as of its profperity; and as far as pofhble(avoiding thsory) to point out to the legiflature, from the experience of paît times, thofe circumftances that have moft materially contributed to its fuc-

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cefs, or to its depreflon.

The period appears to be very diftant when agriculture was firit introduced into Great Britain; for when the Romans in- vaded the fouthern parts ofit, they found the fields full of corn, and the inhabitants in pofleflion of trained horfes and chariots 6f war, which they managed with great dexterity*. And although the other parts of the ifland were inhabited by people, who lived by pafturage or by hunting, and clothed themfelves in the fkins of their cattle, or of their game, yet, having been initiated by the Romans in the arts of civilized khfe, they foon began to cultivate their fields, and to raife corn.

After the departure of the Romans, the inroads of the Scots and Piéts, the invañon and conqueft by the Saxons, their heptarchy, and military appointments, were all unfavour- able to agriculture; and che invañons and fuccefles of the Danes, and the immenfe fums which they carried out of Eng- land, continued its depreffionf.

* Cæfar’s Commentary, lib. 4. 28. and lib. 5. 10. Clarke’s edit. + Flor. Wigorn. Brad. Hift. Eng. vol. 1. p. 123.3; Cartes Hift. of England, vol. 1. p. 3345 Hume’s Hit, Eng. vol. 1. p. 93.&c.