grub up the hedges, and lay out the land in fields of convenient size by means of deep ditches and quickset hedges; the whole of the land was then drained (chiefly with tiles), broken up and subsoil-ploughed, and a brook which ran through the farm was straightened and deepened so as to carry off the increased flow of water from the drainage of the land. A rotation of a six- and eight-field course of cropping was then adopted, by which turnips and clover would return at longer intervals than in a four-field course. About forty acres only were left as permanent pasture. The results up to July 1842, when the second report appeared (though of course the advantages of the improvements could have been only very partially developed), are as follow; the expenses incurred in the permanent improvement of the farm were Roads and bridges ....... Levelling and general permanent improvements ... Fences and walling.... Subsoil-ploughing Liming......... Building Gross expense of permanently improving the farm £ 8. d. 451 3 4 576 15 6 2066 6 11 837 19 5 110 15 11 181 2101 625 17 6 2978 9 8 £7828 11 3} This outlay is at least equivalent to the purchase of another farm of equal value with that of Whitfield farm in its original state. It is proper to notice however that the large item of 29787. for buildings is explained by the fact that these have been purposely made large enough for a farm of double the extent, in order that additions may be made to the farm without the necessity of erecting additional buildings: about 2281. were also spent in trials and experiments on the machinery erected. The question naturally arises, how has this expenditure answered? The new rent of the farm will in future be :- The original rent £ 8. d. 200 0 0 30 0 0 Rent of about 15 acres of land added to the farm... If, therefore, the farm is now worth the rent of 6217. 88. to an incoming tenant, the outlay has been a profitable one to Lord Ducie as landlord; but if this advantage be permanent, no greater interest than 3 per cent. should be charged upon the outlay, inasmuch as that is the highest interest which could be obtained by an investment in a new purchase. This would reduce the rental to 5047. The farm is still in Lord Ducie's own occupation; but in 1840 it was valued for a poor-rate by Mr. Sturge at 1607., who estimated the gross value at 200l. The same valuer revalued the farm in 1843 for a poor-rate at 5047. as the assessable value, and its gross value was 5641. The expenditure has thus been most profitable as a mere investment, while a foundation has been laid for great future improvements by means of a long continuing course of good husbandry. The benefit which such improvements must confer upon the labouring classes of the locality are incalculable. It is too soon to look for a full return upon the farming capital employed, but the account of that part of the outlay is not less promising than the return on the landlord's expenditure, for it shows a clear profit of 1617. 16s. 3d. after allowing 10 per cent. per annum on the capital employed in farming (at Ladyday 1842 amounting to 40697. 15s. 11d.) and 5 per cent. per annum on the value of the dormant capital, which is thus estimated to be replaced in fifteen years. Now a tenant with this amount of capital and a twenty-one year's lease, would obviously have a very advantageous bargain in this farm. The live stock now consists of 412 sheep, 32 Hereford oxen, 3 cows and 10 horses, while in 1841 an old arable field produced forty-five bushels of "Shirreff's" wheat to the acre; and of forty acres of wheat threshed out, being the crop of 1841, the average was above forty-one bushels an acre. Twenty-seven tons of Belgian carrots and twenty-three tons of mangold-wurzel and swedes have been the usual growth to the acre, though the land has hitherto not been sufficiently pulverized for growing root-crops to the best advantage. A more striking example of what the soil of England is capable of in the hands of an improving landlord and a spirited tenant it would be difficult to meet with; and what has succeeded in one district is equally certain to succeed in others. Thus we find that Mr. Hayter, M.P. for Wells, who is well known as an improving landlord and an enterprizing agriculturist, by a spirited but judicious outlay upon a farm of his own in Buckinghamshire (the details of which are given in the January number of the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal,) has realized even a higher interest for his permanent investment than Lord Ducie. We have left ourselves no space to touch upon the experiments (for as yet they are little more than experiments) which are going on with a view to apply chemistry to agriculture and physiology, or to notice the many and important advantages which have accrued to those farmers who have adopted the improved breeds of cattle, sheep and swine. In both departments there is a field in which the educated and observant agriculturist may reap a harvest no less abundant than he has done by a generous outlay and judicious rotations of crops. ARTICLE VI. 1. Ion, a Tragedy in Five Acts. By T. N. TALfourd. Moxon. London, 1836. 2. Glencoe, or The Fate of the Macdonalds, a Tragedy in Five Acts. By T. N. TALFOURD. Moxon. London, 1840. 3. A Legend of Florence, a Play in Five Acts. By LEIGH HUNT. Moxon. London, 1840. 4. Money, a Comedy in Five Acts. By the Author of "The Lady of Lyons," "Richelieu," &c. London, 1840. 5. Gisippus, a Play in Five Acts. By GERALD Griffin, Esq., Author of the "Collegians," &c. London, 1842. 6. Love, a Play in Five Acts. By J. SHERIDAN KNOWLES. London, 1842. 7. The Rose of Arragon, a Play in Five Acts. By JAMES SHERIDAN KNOWLES. London, 1842. 8. Old Maids, a Comedy in Five Acts. By JAMES SHERIDAN KNOWLES. London, 1841. 9. The Star of Seville, a Drama in Five Acts. By Mrs. BUTLER (late Miss Kemble). London, 1837. VOL. XVII.-No. XXXIV. 2 L 10. Strafford, a Tragedy. By JOHN STERLING. Lond. 1843. 11. Bells and Pomegranates. By ROBERT BROWNING, Author of "Paracelsus." Nos. 1-6. Moxon. 1844. 12. Catherine Douglas, a Tragedy. Pickering, 1843. 13. Henry the Second, an Historical Drama. Pickering, 1843. IT is one of the privileges of the present century to have witnessed a revival, more or less complete, of nearly every species of poetry. We have regained the whole circle of lyrical verse, from the ode and the sonnet to the ballad and the dirge. An epic poem is still indeed among the artes deperdite, and its elements and conditions belong to a system of society so different from our own that its restoration is problematical. But Mr. Tennyson's versions of parts of the 'Mort d'Arthur' show that we have at least one poet who can narrate epically; and, in his 'Genoveva,' Mr. Trench has so well embodied a medieval legend, that we trust, leaving doctrinal apologues to inferior hands, he will again employ his rare powers of reproduction upon the myths and traditions of the Christian middle-ages. Even in writers of lower rank and pretensions a reflective spirit of art is visible, and a more diligent quest of its purer and deeper sources. Dramatic poetry has two courts to pass through,-popular favour and private judgement. These do not necessarily affirm each other's verdicts, but they are imperfect separately; for a critic may mistake forms for essentials, and an audience sudden emotion for permanent feeling. By mutual re-action they become mutual correctives, and both these tribunals and dramatic art itself share in the general improvement of our poetic literature. If we still fall far below an earlier standard, we have learnt and unlearnt, during the last twenty years, much that it imported dramatic poets to know or avoid. Without rashly predicting the life or decease of particular plays, after their first novelty has worn off, we may securely assert that the present generation has produced more good dramas, whether adapted to the stage or not, than the whole eighteenth century. The degradation of the theatre at the time when so many other kinds of art, allied or auxiliary to it, were reviving or putting forth new forms, stimulated many writers, whose vocation was not perhaps originally dramatic composition, to exert their talents in its behalf; and the result has been the gradual recovery of this species also and the development of some genuine excellence and of much hopeful promise. The heading of our article contains the titles of some of the best of the productions which have been approved by the seeing or the reading public. There are doubtless some omissions; but, as our purpose is rather to examine the general phenomena of dramatic literature at the present time, with reference to what has been achieved and what may reasonably be expected, than to treat of any particular play or play-writer, these specimens will suffice to illustrate our intended range of inquiry. The recent drama divides itself into the acted and the unacted. The latter class comprizes not only what has been rejected by managers or actors as unfit for their purposes, but what was never meant by its authors for representation. As the acted drama respects both reader and spectator, and has passed the double barrier of the stage and the closet, it has altogether the first claim to notice, independently of its being the proper end of a play to be seen as well as read. In the great age of our dramatic literature this distinction indeed was hardly known. Samson Agonistes ' appeared at a time when the theatre was profaned by ribaldry and rant. The tragedies of Lord Brooke, Samuel Daniel and Lady Pembroke, however impracticable they now appear for scenic purposes, were intended by their authors for a chosen audience; and the idea of an absolutely unacted drama may be considered as one of the most peculiar phenomena that will come under our remark. But while there is an evident improvement in our playwriters (we keep the stage for the present out of sight) the drama is frequently said to have declined and to be declining. Plays indeed seem to have been at all times regarded by contemporary critics, as the law used to regard players, as vagabonds and outlaws. A reporter, or reviewer, like ourselves, has sometimes given them a good word, and an "author's friends" are apt to tell him "Yours Beaumont's judgement and yours Fletcher's wit." But, in speaking of an age, there is a general cry that the days of theatrical prosperity are numbered, that there is an equal dearth of good authors and good actors, and that new plays |