Space forbids our taking more than this passing notice of the acts of parliament which have been recently passed for advancing public, and facilitating the advance of private, money on the security of lands to be improved by draining. They mark the strong hold which the subject has on the minds of agriculturists. Both the acts and the evidence on which they are founded will be interesting to those landowners who require as alienum to assist in carrying out their improvements.

One word with our readers before we part. They may dislike the terms to the use of which we have been driven, and we are by no means unconscious of their imperfections; but we hope that we have so limited them by definition as to remove much of their ambiguity. Our purpose has been to bring in a connected view before them the objects and the advantages of thorough-draining, and to explain in a popular way the principles on which those objects are carried out and those advantages are attained. That to remove water, which is either injurious to vegetation or obstructive to agricultural operations, is one object of draining, is patent to every one. That if it be removed by superficial discharge it will carry off with it elements beneficial to vegetation, because they form the most soluble part of soils, no one will doubt, though he may not have fully realized to himself what very hateful things furrows, and ditches, and water-grips, and other artificial aids to this superficial discharge really are. It requires but little observation to discover that, with few exceptions, porous soils are fertile, and with equally few very retentive soils are sterile. But the persons are less numerous who are aware that the greatest object and the most important advantage of thorough-draining is, that it warms and ventilates retentive soils. Of warmth we have spoken largely. Ventilation is more obscure. But close observation of agriculture and of horticulture will not allow us to doubt that alternation of fresh air and of fresh water are conducive to fertility. It is not unreasonable to suppose that as stagnant air ceases to sustain the lives of men and animals, and stagnant water the lives of fishes, so stagnant air and water may cease to administer to the purposes of vegetation. In cultivable land in our climate, porousness, either natural or artificial, is the only known avenue to warmth and ventilation.

Some points of practice have found their way into our dissertation, but we have not sought to give a manual-indeed, we have studiously endeavoured to avoid it. If we should give a stimulus to amateur draining, we shall do a great deal of harm. We wish we could publish a list of the moneys which have been squandered in the last forty years in amateur draining, either ineffectually or with

very

very imperfect efficiency. Our own name would be inscribed in the list for a very respectable sum. Every thoughtless squire supposes that by the aid of his ignorant bailiff he can effect a perfect drainage of his estate. But there is a worse man behind the squire and the bailiff-the draining conjurer. We knew a jockey at Newmarket, a solemn and mysterious man. His first master told us that he was an idiot-that he could never in his life get a reason from him. But,' said he, he is an inspired idiot on horseback.' So the village conjurer, by dint of mystery and one lucky hit among a score of failures, is supposed to receive inspiration as soon as he takes the draining spade in his hand. These fellows never go direct about their work. If they attack a spring, they try to circumvent it by some circuitous route. They never can learn that nature shows you the weakest point, and that you should assist her-that Hit him straight in the eye is as good a maxim in draining as in pugilism. An evangelical clergyman complained to the Rev. Charles Simeon that when he wished to preach extempore, utterance was denied to him; he supposed because he lacked faith. • Olli subridens,' the venerable man replied; 'No, my dear brother, justification is by faith, but extempore preaching is by works.' Neither the squire nor the bailiff nor the conjurer lack faith, but they are sadly deficient in good worksin education, in knowledge, in science, in accurate thought, in experience-in short, in everything which in complicated operations conduces to success. If you wish to drain, we recommend you to take advice. We have disposed of the quack, but there is a faculty, not numerous but extending, and whose extension appears to us to be indispensable to the satisfactory progress of improvements by draining-a faculty of draining engineers. If we wanted a profession for a lad who showed any congenial talent, we would bring him up to be a draining engineer.

What we preach we practise. After thirty-six years of experience, we became tired of struggling with unskilful workmen, bad tools, and worse supervision. A perusal of one of Mr. Parkes's essays induced us to look carefully into his works, and we then asked his assistance. Of course we do not mention Mr. Parkes's name to the exclusion of, or even in preference to, that of any other engineer, who may have equal abilities and attainments; and if we did, we should only lead the great majority of those who wish to drain into error, for we believe that, except in cases of considerable extent, it is hardly possible to secure his services. We cannot disparage our own skill, and in truth we called in Mr. Parkes as a measure of economy. A short detail of our proceedings (similar, no doubt, to those of other landowners with other

engineers)

pro

engineers) will best explain how we have secured that advantage. We proceeded together to the ground, where we made trial holes, and concerted outfalls, and directions, and depths, and frequency. We have no doubt that Mr. Parkes would have been quite as well satisfied to settle all these points without any concert on our part. Then we began to differ. We were impatient, and wanted to begin, but Mr. Parkes would not turn a sod till he saw pipes and tools and fifteen tolerable spademen, with their ordinary spades and picks, on the ground. He furnished us with a list of tools, which we procured from Mr. A. Lyndon of Birmingham. They appear to be of a very enduring sort, and are extremely liked by the workmen: a set for from fifteen to twenty men cost five guineas. Mr. Parkes calculated the number and sizes of the pipes which would be required, and then made the contract for them-certainly ten per cent. lower than we should have cured them, simply because the makers knew that Mr. Parkes was well aware at what price they could be afforded, and was prepared, in case of necessity, to establish a tilery, as he had previously done on estates in several counties. Pipes, tools, and spademen being at length provided, Mr. Parkes brought a foreman, with whom he set out drains, and left the work under his superintendence. To this man we paid 20s. per week. He understood pretty accurately the prices of work, and dealt fairly between the employer and the labourers. He instructed them in the use of the new tools. He measured up the work, kept the accounts, paid the men, and laid every pipe and collar with his own hands. It would be scarcely more absurd to set a common blacksmith to eye needles, than to employ a common labourer to lay pipes and collars. For these services we pay to Mr. Parkes 5s. per acre drained, and some travelling expenses. In each of the two years preceding that on which we had Mr. Parkes's assistance, we drained similar and adjoining land. We do not believe that Mr. Parkes would have varied either the direction or the depth of any of our drains. He would have made them less frequent-intervals of 12 yards instead of 10, and 10 instead of 8. Allowing for this, we find that the saving on Mr. Parkes's draining, after it is debited with every charge, is more than 10s. per acre. We verily believe that, in the case of a totally inexperienced landowner or bailiff, the saving would be reckoned by pounds, not by shillings. Our readers will expect that we should say something about cost. We do not think that we ever saw so favourable a combination of circumstances, that efficient thorough-draining of retentive land could be executed, at from 4 to 5 feet deep, under 41. per acre.

We

have

have seen few or no cases in which it might not be executed for 51. The minimum price for excavating and refilling a 4 feet 6 inch drain is, according to our experience, 1d. per yard. This low price is generally in those clays which require the most frequent drains. The maximum, 24d., except in cases where there is actual rock. The frequency with which the pickaxe is used is nearly an accurate measure of the necessary advance of price.

Our parting word shall assure our readers that every reported case of failure in draining which we have investigated has resolved itself into ignorance, blundering, bad materials, or bad execution.

ART. IV.-1. Personal Recollections of the Life and Times, with Extracts from the Correspondence, of Valentine Lord Cloncurry. Dublin. 1849.

2. Recollections and Experiences during a Parliamentary Career, from 1833 to 1848. By John O'Connell, Esq., M.P. 2 vols. London. 1849.

THESE books are of a somewhat novel aspect, and give rise to alarming forebodings. That two of the least significant persons in either House of Parliament (we wish to use as mild a term as possible) should have thought fit to print, each during his own lifetime, his own autobiography, is certainly a remarkable feature in the literary retrospect of 1849. But that they should also, under the pretext of recording their own poor doings and sayings, sit in judgment upon their most distinguished contemporaries, and pronounce authoritative decisions upon the merits of persons so immeasurably removed above themselves in all that constitutes character-all that gives a claim to respect in public men—is yet a more startling outrage against the common proprieties of life. Apologists may suggest, no doubt, that we should ascribe these violations of modesty and decorum merely to the long and case-hardening indulgence of two petty passions, namely, vanity and malice. But what shall be said of publishing some scores of letters written by others in the confidence of friendship or familiar acquaintance(and this applies to the Cloncurry delinquent rather than the O'Connell) such letters reflecting on third parties in the most unmeasured terms-such letters containing the private opinions and recording the private feelings of some who have died but yesterday, and some who survive to-day? The use to which such publications are subservient is manifest. The greedy appetite of the reading public for letters-the thirst they have of whatever

comes

comes out garnished with any known names, renders the sale of such works absolutely certain. Therefore Lord Cloncurry has taken a course which ensured the gaining of money, and his proceeding in this respect is, in fact, the only evidence of sagacity that his volume affords: while his fellow-reminiscent, if he at all calculated in the like sordid fashion, must at least be acquitted of having achieved his shabby object-he is merely guilty of the attempt. It is barely possible that his Lordship may have applied to all the survivors among his correspondents for their leave to print their private letters. He does not say so, however. If he made such application, did he send the letters for their perusal because he surely cannot imagine that those who write to him keep copies of all they write? But has he got the leave of the heirs or the representatives of those who are dead? We can undertake to answer that question with a direct negativefor we have been distinctly informed by some of them, that no such leave was asked, and never would have been given if asked. This is an offence which cannot be too severely reprobated. It opens the door to every kind of abuse. Mr. John O'Connell may print his father's private letters, and welcome. Lord Cloncurry has no right whatever, either moral or legal, to fill his 8vo. with Lord Holland's, Sir F. Burdett's, and Lord Melbourne's.-He seems to intimate that he did ask Lord Anglesey's leave, and that he received a somewhat contemptuous answer, to the effect that the noble Marquis never wrote anything he cared if all the world saw an answer suitable no doubt to the native frankness of a soldier, but, we must venture to say, wholly unjustifiable in point of duty from one in a high public station-indeed very inconsistent with ordinary prudence in a private man; yet still, if the facts be so, we grant that a deduction must be made in so far with respect to the case of that gallant and unreflecting veteran.

6

But where is this practice of autobiography to end? If men of no greater mark than this Lord and that Commoner-men wholly unable to obtain an attention for five minutes in the Houses of Parliament to which they belong-must conceive, the one his Life and Times,' the other his Parliamentary Career,' important enough to be laid before the world, as if he were a Voltaire, a Gibbon, or a Hume-it may be safely affirmed that eleven or twelve hundred such books as these ought to appear, in order that the conduct of others may be in keeping with theirs. It is certain that in the whole number of members of both Houses, probably in the whole range of society, two mortals of less importance in any one way to any but their two selves are not to be found than Lord Cloncurry and Mr. John O'Connell. The

former