PREFACE.

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'E have now to make our Periodical Address to Our “ Readers, for the Yavourable Reception of the Tenth Volume. Since the commencement of our Work, we fAuave Seen with increaSing pleasure, the 7egard our Peucijal Subject has attracted from all orders,of men in his coun?ry. It has formerly been applied as a Stigma to the national taste, that while our inzular Situation has Mmeouraged the pursuits of trade and navigation, we have neglected the improvement of Agriculture, We do not admit that this censure has at any time been applicable to öhe people of England; but the tongue of calumny must be For ever Silenced, now that it is discovered, that every department of Science and Plalosophy is rendered Subser- wient to the duiies and occupations öf the field. It was not expected by jureigners, that a great Commercial Nation, Wwhiose marine reposes on the yielding bosom of the ocean zw every part of ihe globe, Should for a while SuSpend the Spit oj adventure to attend to the more permanent ad- vantages of ihe rural art. The economists of a neighbour- ing State, Since the time of the great Colbert, have never rightly appreciated the comparative merit.of the'mercan-= tile and agricultural Systems: it is to us'a Subject of“ con grafülation and of triumph, that in this Monarchy, neither of these have received the derogatory distinction of the un- productive class, or have been. degraded by any humili- atimg appellation. .“Tt will be recollected with pleasure, that in the course of the dJast tlaärty years, a mean of communication has beein establishe! by canals, which renders every part of the coun- bpy accesSible for ali ile Species of produce; and Supplies ihe bounties of“*nature on equal terms at the door'of every man in the kingdom. Thus twelve maritime distriets have been formed, by which the export and import of grain have been regulated, and a large increase of the bounty has been

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