and it is difficult to keep it out, when it is once used to go into a cellar where milk is kept. It has been seen eating milk out of the fame dish with children, without biting them, though they often gave it blows with the fpoon upon the head, when it was over greedy. I never heard it hiffing. It can raise more than one half of its body from the ground, in order to look about it. It skins every year; and its skin is faid to be a remedy against the cramp, if continually worn about the body. Moft of the people in this country afcribed to this snake a power of fafcinating birds and fquirrels, as I have described in feveral parts of my Journal. Mr Peter Cock, a merchant of this town, affured me that he lately had himfelf been a fpectator of a fnake's fwallowing a little bird. This bird, which from its cry has the name of Cat bird, (Mufcicapa Carolinenfis. Linn.) flew from one branch of a tree to another, and was making a doleful tune. At the bottom of the tree, but at a fathom's distance from the ftem, lay one of the great black fnakes, with its head continually upright, pointing towards the bird, which was always fluttering about, and now and then fettling on the branches. At first it only kept in the topmost branches, but by degrees it came lower down, and even flew upon the ground, and hopped to the place where the snake lay, which immediately opened its mouth, caught the bird and fwallowed it; but it had fcarce finished its repaft before Mr Cock came up and killed it. I was afterwards told that this kind of fnakes was frequently obferved to purfue little birds in this manner. It is already well known that the rattle-fnake does the fame. The rattle-fnake often devours the fquirrels, notwithstanding all their agi lity. This unwieldly creature, is faid to catch fo agile an one, merely by falcination. I have never had an opportunity of seeing how it is done: but fo many credible people affured me of the truth of the fact, and afferted that they were prefent, and paid peculiar attention to it, that I am almoft forced to believe their unanimous accounts. The fafcination is effected in the following manner: the fnake lies at the bottom of the tree upon which the fquirrel fits; its eyes are fixed upon the little animal, and from that moment it cannot escape it begins a doleful outcry, which is fo well known, that a person paffing by,on hearing it, immediately knows that it is charmed by a fuake. The fquirrel runs up the tree a little way, comes downwards again, then goes up, and now comes lower again. On that occafion it has been obferved, that the squirrel always goes down more than it goes up. The fuake still continues at the root of the tree, with its eyes fixed on the fquirrel, with which its attention is fo entirely taken up, that a perfon accidentally approaching, may make a confiderable noife, without the foake's fo much as turning about. The fquirrel, as before-mentioned comes always lower, and at last leaps down to the snake, whofe mouth is already wide open for its reception. The poor little animal then with a pitious cry runs into the fnake's jaws, and is swallowed at once, if it be not too big; but if its fize will not allow it to be fwallowed at once, the fnake licks it feveral times with its tongue, and fmooths it, and by that means makes it fit for fwallowing. The fame power of enchanting is afcribed to the black snake, and it is faid to catch and devour squirrels in the fame manner as the former *. Extract * It has been obferved, that only fuch squirrels and birds as have their nefts near the place where fuch fnakes come to, make this pitiful noife, and are fo bufy in running up and down the tree and the neighbouring branches, in order to draw ff the attention of the fnake from their brood, and often they come fo very near in order to fly away again, that being within reach of the fnakes, they are at last bit, poisoned Extract from the Scots Farmer, a new Publication. THE HE tenure, by which tenants hold their farms, deferves a very ferious confideration. The great charm which fets industry every where in motion, is the acquifition of property, and the fecurity of it when acquired. Where tenants hold by a precarious tenure, and are removeable at the will of their masters, or after a fhort period; then, undoubtedly, their labours will be fpiritlefs and languid, as they have no inducement to enter upon improvements, of which they have no certainty of reaping the immediate benefit. If from native activity and a defire to thrive, a tenant is induced to labour hard, to bring his farm into good order by any lafting operations, without fuch fecurity, he runs the greatest risk of being obliged foon either to remove, or to pay his landlord the price of his own labour, in an additional rent. Mr Harte's obfervations on this head, are well worth transcribing. "When any confiderable improvements are made by a farmer, we are often perfuaded to raise his rent too foon; and like eastern monarchs, tax his industry, and punish him for growing wealthy. This is unkind as well as impolitic ufage; for the more fuch a hufbandman gains, the more generally fpeaking, he becomes vigilant, frugal, and induftrious. In proportion as the farmer thrives, the land improves: and this is the meaning of the French proverb, Tant vaut l'homme, tant vaut la terre. Such a man being placed above the fear of want, has the means of hiring better fervants, and maintaining a larger ftock of cattle; making or purchafing manures; trying experiments, or devifing improvements. In propor tion as he cultivates more land, he acquires more knowledge, and gains greater profit; till at length he begins to love husbandry, and values himself on a profeffion which encreafes his little ftores, and gratifies his vanity into the bargain. Under fuch a cultivation, you fee, in one place, wafte lands rendered arable, or converted into artificial pafture: this is a true conqueft; an acquifition and appropriation, which enriches his landlord and himself, but injures no man! in another place he fertilizes a parched foil by floating it, or bringing little ftreams to run through it, feed and cloath it with wholfome verdure; or elfe drains moraffes, where abundance of the fame water is a nuifance; and decorates the foil with rich crops of ufeful vegetables: as flax, hops, cole and rape; inftead of flags, mofs, rushes and brambles: fuch a tenant ought to be patronized, and not difcouraged; for every estate brought thus into heart, as the countryman expreffes it, may be̟ continued on the fame, or a like footing, eafily and cheaply, for a confiderable number of years; fo that the rent of the eftate, when occupied by another at this man's death, may be encreased in all probability, 10 per cent. It is therefore of dangerous confequences to perfuade great men, minifters and princes, that poverty is advantageous to poor farmers; and that want and diftreffes animate their activity; that neceffity will make them docile and tractable, and that they may pass through the ftage of life beft when they are laden with the heaviest burthens; whereas, it is well-known, that the poor hufbandman can fteer his courfe fuccefs. fully enough, without carrying fuch a weight of ballaft. Let us therefore, charitably place this matter in another light; and, if farmers, who literally fupport poifoned and devoured; and this will, I believe, perfectly account for the powers of fafcinating birds and fmall creatures in the fnakes. This obfervation is made by Mr Forster, the tranflator of this ingenious work; but is not warranted either by any circumftance that appears in the original, or by the author's private opinion. fupport the heat of the day, are fo unhappy as not to share the esteem cf the nobility and gentry, yet they have a claim at leaft to the favour of ministers, and the protection of princes: for tho' there may be fubjects of more confpicuous talents, yet two thirds of mankind will be found less useful to fociety." And a little after, he fays, "I have ever looked upon the poor industrious hufbandman, as a most useful being in all focieties; and happy would it be if we could contribute to enrich him, and the land poffeffor at the fame time; which must always happen if husbandry is carried on in the manner it ought to be. I am here fpeaking chiefly of the loweft clafs of husbandmen, the little farmers who rent 301. or 40l. ayear. Such a man works and fares harder, and is, in effect, poorer than the day labourer he employs. An hufbandman thus circumftanced, is, beyond difpute, a worthy object of our commiferation and affiftance. He is an ufeful, though invifible wheel in the machine of ftate." Thefe obfervations are juft and true, and require no commentary. The author mentions farmers of 30 1. or 401. a-year as the loweft clafs in England. But in many parts of Scotland, these would be reckoned great farmers: in the greateft part they are of the midling clafs; and great numbers will be found poffeffing farms of not a third of that rent, while they confift perhaps, of three or four times the extent of ground, the greateft part of which lyes in a ftate of nature, or fubject to that most irrational and infrugal divifion of infield and outfield.—Where an eftate confifts of many fuch farms, it cannot be expected that the landlord, though he were to dedicate his whole time and attention to its improvement, can extend his operations to any confiderable part of it. The bulk must be left in the hands of tenants; and where fuch is the cafe, nothing can be propofed that appears more propitious to the interefts of both landlord and tenant, than letVOL. II. ting out the lands upon long leafes, or for a certain number of years, to terminate with one or more lives. This method would in a great mea fure fupercede the neceflity of fettering the tenant with a great number of conditions and obligations, many of them perhaps, inconsistent with the nature of the farm, and many of them capricious. An obligation on the tenant, to have his whole farm inclosed and subdivided within a certain number of years; to have, at the termination of the leafe, a certain quantity of ground in fummer-fallow, or what in modern practice is found by experience to be equally advantageous to the ground, and more profitable to the tenant, in clover or fallowing crops; preferving the fences and buildings; and fome fuch fimple obligations that may be confiftent with the condition of every foil or fituation, may fupply the place of the moft anxious covenants that ingenuity can devife, or an excess of anxiety can dictate. The tenant would naturally be as forward as his landlord's wishes, to commence his works, and to perfevere in them with affiduity, from an affurance of the future profit that is to redound to his family: the barren heaths would be converted into arable or pafture grounds; the abfurd and infrugal diftinction of infield and outfield grounds, the bane of Scots agriculture, would be obliterated; and the whole farm brought equally into heart; whereby a real acquifition would be made, not only to the private eftate of the land lord, but to the community. If a life or lives are fuperadded to the definite term of years, this would become an additional fecurity to the landlord, that the farm is to return to his family in the best condition and under the beft culture. The ftricteft obligations on the tenant that can be contrived, though they may prevent his hurting the farm, by a courfe of what they call fcourging crops, near the end of his leafe, which is generally and juftly complained of; they cannot, however, P prevent prevent him from relaxing in his labour, his industry, and his vigilance. But when the poffeffion is to have the fame termination with the life of the tenant, which the Author of nature has wifely concealed from mankind; that portion of hope, which, by our conftitution, is mingled in the cup of life, and all along had animated his labour, will keep his industry and attention awake, fo as to preferve the farm in the fame good con. dition, in which he would always wish to poffefs it. Is it not furprising then, when this method of letting lands is apparently pregnant with fo many advantages, and has been fo long and warmly recommended, that it has never obtained among us; notwithstanding that our neighbours in England have long fet us the example, and owe their most confiderable improvements to it? ESSAY ON HYPOCRISY.. O mishes was, that he had perfectly NE of Julius Cæfars great blelearned the arts of diffimulation and hypocrify, for though he pretended to love and honour Pompey, yet he fought and accomplish'd his deftruction. When Cicero publickly reproach'd him, he would neither answer him, or feem to be angry with him; and yet, at the same time, pushed on Clodius against him, and caufed him to be banished. If he thought any man his enemy, he would feem out of greatnefs of foul to contemn and defpife him, as an incompetent adverfary; but would never fail to gratify his own malice, and be revenged on him by fome other hand, while he was bid behind the curtain that gave the blow. POETRY. To SOLITUDE. ARENT of mufing! fober matron, hail! PARE May I prefume with humble ftep t' approach Thy private veftible? Difdain not thou. To bid a ftranger welcome to thy board! For gueft, like me, thou didst ne'er entertain, So fimilar in all things to thyself. Lov't thou the church-yard walk, where graves, tho' mute, Speak truths inftructive? Lov'st thou the gloom Of copfe thick hazel'd, where from mould'ring ftump Magnificent with fhade, on whofe tall top The cawing rook with bufy forefight builds His airy tenement? I too can love Within itfelf collected: much reflects, And much compares deducing good from ill; Till more exalted, heav'n and it afcends, And measures out, with fuper-human joy, Its future fky path to eternal glory. The TEA POT and SCRUBBINGBRUSH. A FABLE. A Tawdry tea-pot, a-la-mode, Where art her utmost skill beftow'd, Was much efteem'd for being old, And frightful fish,and humpback'd trees. And laid, in infolent pofition, Or cleanse an horfing block or plank, P 2 Train'd |