6 PROPOSALS: FOR

may be said to lie, virtually, in a state of waste; and while the parts, which are now in cultivation, are under-produc- tive; by reason of defective practices; arising from a want of the improvements of which, even, the best practices of the present day are capable.

Within every one’s recollection,—but a very few years past,—this island expe- ‘rienced little less than actual famine,— even under the present flourishing state of commerce: and the country is of course liable to a return of the calamity,—even under the meridian influence of a full- blown commerce. What evils, then, may not be expected, when the bubble bursts! and the agriculture of this small speck of

earth shall have the deluded victims of.

half the world’s commerce to support.*

* This was written before the present more ear- nest threats of famine were perceptible; and at the moment when the commerce of this island stood on tiptoe, eying all the world, and claiming it as her own!