ent about them, and content so long the years 1773 and 1774, amounted as they did not fall into the hands of to no more than 5216l. 8s. 10d. the any other power. principal part of which consisted in The inhabitants were poor and not wrecked goods. Their imports, durnumerous; their property consisted of ing the same period, amounted to a few small vessels and some negroes. 3592l. Os. id. By the subsequent treaty of peace Their occupations were confined to So contemptible, indeed, was this fishing, wrecking, and word-cutting; government at that time, that the caagriculture they had none, nor did pital was taken and the governor made they conceive the country capable of prisoner, in the course of the war with it. Their only produce was fruit, with our colonies, by an American privasome yams, cassada, and potatoes: teer. The Americans committed no they raised no sheep nor horned cat- depredations upon the inhabitants, tle, yet in no country are sheep more and, after a short stay, left the island. prolific, yeaning two or three lambs The government was thereupon rein common, sometimes four, and this established, and soon after again intwice a year. terrupted by a considerable force from - Possibly this account may appear the Havannah, to which the island of extraordinary to English farmers: but New-Providence, with the rest of the it is a fact, which I have well ascer- Bahamas, surrendered by capitulation tained. The mutton is inferior to in November, 1781. none; and, if the smallest attention were paid to keep the sheep within with Spain, it was agreed that these enclosures, instead of suffering them islands should be restored to Great to run at large in the woods, and to Britain. However, previous to the provide them with a little stover dur- notification of that event, a volunteering the dry season, when the herbage expedition was undertaken for their is all burnt up, they would yield con- recovery, by a spirited young partisan, siderable profit. Lieutenant-colonel Deveaux, of the They have a grass, which grows in South-Carolina militia, and Captain great luxuriance after a little moisture, Dowd, of the Ranger privateer, of and would make good hay; but, hav- St. Augustine. They sailed from ing no winter to guard against, they Florida, with a force of two armed pay no attention to it, forgetting that vessels and about fifty militia. Afthe poor animals are as destitute of ter picking up a few recruits at Eluprovision, in a hot dry season, as they thera and Harbour-island, they apwould be in a cold sharp wintry cli- proached New Providence under comate. I have seen the sheep, horses, ver of the night, took by surprise two and cattle, pawing and scraping with stout galleys that guarded the eastern their feet to get at the roots, which entrance of the harbour; and, turnthey would gnaw many inches within ing their guns against one of the forts, the sandy soil. But the truth is, I did soon drove out the troops that were not meet with a single person, in the in it. After this successful exploit, Bahamas, who had any idea of farm- a handful of men were landed, and ing, though it would richly repay the Spanish governor, with the garthem to attend to it. To return to rison, amounting to nearly 700 reguthe first settlers; their diet was chiefly lar troops, were intimidated into a fish, and even vegetables were almost capitulation, through a degree of galunknown among them. lantry and address that have seldom been equalled. In the year 1784, there were scarcely any settlements but those of New Providence, Eleuthera, and Harbourisland. The whole population then amounted to 1722 whites, (men, women, and children,) and 2333 persons of colour, a great proportion of whom were free, and, at the utmost, there were not 500 acres of cultivated land in all the islands. Their whole export to Great Britain, during Florida being ceded to Spain, many of the inhabitants of that province, among whom were several loyal refugees from Georgia and the Carolinas, removed, in 1784, to the Bahamas, with their property and slaves, thereby doubling the population of these islands; and it is from that period their importance as a colony may be dated, The islands were scon after purchased of all metaphorical images, conformably to the opinion I entertain of the conception of your correspondent, and, in the plainest language I am capable of using, strive to render myself intelligible to him, in answer to the objection he holds to my friend Gray's admitting me into the following line of his inimitable Elegy: Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke." from the proprietors by government, and the learned world have established and the progress they have since made my right to promulgate; and who, is wonderful. notwithstanding my ordinary sublime There are now several merchants and extensive flights, now questions and store-keepers, whose annual ex- the propriety of affording me the ports and imports amount singly to asylum even of an humble furrow; treble and quadruple the amount of I shall, on this occasion, divest myself the whole exports and imports of the years 1773 and 1774. There is likewise a lucrative trade carried on with the Spaniards from Cuba and Hispaniola, who come over in small fast-sailing craft, bringing with them, besides cattle and sugars, from five to thirty thousand dollars in specie, in each vessel, with which they purchase goods to smuggle back to those islands. The average-quantity of specie may be from eight to ten thousand dollars He asserts that the term furrow, in to a vessel, and seldom a week passed, its common acceptation as a trench, while I was there, but four or five of makes the line "highly absurd;" these vessels arrived: their business and gives, as his opinion, that the was done and they were gone again term formerly must have borne a difwithin a week. The trade, therefore, ferent signification. Now, Sir, in reis all ready-money to the merchant ply to this, I should think it quite and store-keeper, and it appeared to me, that, if the number of the merchants and stores were increased tenfold, for supplying the Spaniards, the traffic thither would increase as fast, it being a much more convenient port for the Spaniards to come to, than to go so far round to Jamaica, if they were but sure of a market sufficient to supply them. sufficient to ask him, in what quarter of the world a furrow does not break the glebe? If he contends that a furrow, being not only passive, but a meer vacuum, cannot on those accounts be made an agent, even by my influence; and that to have rendered the sense clear, the instrument that made the furrow ought to have been substituted; his sagacity will in course The shores of the Bahama-islands persecute me to the very ditches, and abound with excellent fish; turtle is in future writers, in local descriptions, great plenty and reasonable. Indeed, will be obliged to state that certain they are the only two articles of pro- fields are divided and surrounded by vision that are so, which is so much a spade, or pick-axe; for I confiin favour of a farmer for raising and dently allege that it is just as improfattening his stock. In the woods, per to say, a ditch divides a field, as there are wild pigeons, which afford a furrow breaks the glebe. Thus you amusement to those who are fond of see, Sir, I am in danger of meeting shooting; there are also wild cats and with universal rejection, unless your racoons, that do much mischief among learned friend will leave me undisthe lambs, from a want of care: the turbed in the shades below; but even racoons are generally fat, and are then I despair of his encouragement, eaten by those who are not prejudiced should his influence extend to that against them. To the Editor of the Universal Mag. Aformation of one of your cor SI am writing chiefly for the in quarter. A total annihilation therefore is the sole prospect his criticisms afford me, the dread of which will, I hope, atone for the liberty I have taken, in requesting you to insert this feeble attempt to justify myself in respondents, whose literary attain- your celebrated Magazine. ments may be respectable; but the I shall close my letter with a repescope of whose comprehension is per- tition of my desire to be informed, haps too narrowly circumscribed to before my irrevocable doom is sealed comprise the figurative ideas custom (or in plain English decided), in what part of the universe your correspond- endeavoured to keep up their spirits, ent ever saw or heard of a furrow and persuaded them not on any acwhich did not break the glebe? I am, Sir, Air-Street, 24th Dec. EXTRACTS from POLYENUS' STRA- ARISTIDES and Themistocles count to revolt. When having made a sudden attack and slain numbers of the enemy, they took the castle, and rejoicing in the victory, prepared for the supper, Archidamus asked them "in what stage of the business they thought that they had taken the city?" Some replied, when they made the attack; others answered, when we threw our darts into it. "By no means," said he, "but when you having taken different sides in marched that long road without the republic, were of all men almost water: for a willingness to sustain the most hostile to each other. But labour will conquer every difficulty." the king of Persia passing over into No. 10-Agesilaus at Coronea. Greece, laying hold of one another Agesilaus had nearly drawn up his and repairing to a spot out of the forces for battle at Coronea, when a city, placing their right hands toge- Pisander, the prefect of the Lacedæmessenger arrived with the news that ther, with fingers between fingers, monian fleet, had fallen, conquered they delared, "that from that moment they would lay aside their enby Pharnabasus. Lest the army should mity, as long as they were at war with be seized with despondency and fear, the Persians Having said this, they to report quite the contrary to the Agesilaus commanded the messengers raised their hands, loosened their soldiers, viz. "that the Lacedæmofingers, and leaving something as a pledge in a hole they dug in the earth, nians were victorious at sea." He they returned and acted in agreement ed, offered sacrifices for good news, himself, moreover, appeared crownthrough the remainder of the war. Thus the harmony of the generals had the principal influence in the conquest of the barbarians. and sent portions from them to his friends. The soldiers, seeing and hearing these things, felt their courage renewed, and marched with great alacrity to the fight at Coronea. No. 11.-Agesilaus. When Agesilaus had conquered the Athenians at Coronea, and he was told the enemy was flying to the "Let temple of Minerva, he replied, as many as will go off, as it would who should renew the fight in a fit be hazardous to engage with those of desperation." No. 8.-Archidamus. Archidamus, as he was on the next day to commence a battle in Arcadia, encouraged the Spartiatæ.* In the night he raised an altar, adorned it with the brightest armour, and led two horses around it. As soon as it was day, the leaders of the cohorts and the centurions seeing the new arms, the steps of two horses, and the altar risen up, as it were, of its own accord, went and reported that Castor and Pollux were come to fight with them. The soldiers taking courage and fired with a martial ries of the king, Tissaphernes entered spirit, fought nobly, and conquered the Arcadians. No. 9.-Archidamus. Archidamus led his soldiers by night against Cara.+ The road was long, rough, and destitute of water. The soldiers became discontented with the labour and difficulties. He No. 12.-Agesilaus and Tissaphernes. into Asia and laid waste the territoWhen Agesilaus had passed over which time he persuaded the king to into a truce for three months, during permit the Grecian cities that were situated in Asia, to be governed by their own laws. The Grecians remained inactive for the appointed term; but the Persians having collected together a great force, attacked the Grecians. There was a general brutus. consternation and fear. Agesilaus No. 15.-Epaminondas and Cleomled out his army with joy and a cheerful countenance, saying, "I am greatly obliged to Tissaphernes for his perjury, for he has made the Gods his own enemies, and allies to us. With such allies let us go and courageously engage in battle." The Grecians, inspirited with the words of their general, fought with the barbarians and conquered. No. 13. Agesilaus suppresses a Agesilaus, when a sedition broke out in Sparta, and many armed men seized the hill sacred to Issori and Epaminondas led the Thebans, Cleombrutus the Lacedæmonians, at the battle of Leuctra. The contest was equal. Epaminondas requested the Thebans to allow him to advance one step, and he would gain the victory. They obeyed, and were victorious. The Lacedæmonians retreated, and their king, Cleombrutus, fell in the battle. On Cowper and Sir Philip Sydney's SIR, NOWPER'S meaning has been Diana, near Pitana; when the misapprehended by Crito, (See Bætians and Arcadians approached and made an incursion into the coun- Univ. Mag. for Nov. p. 412) in the try; and a great fear arose both on ac- use of tramontane and the epithet of count of the foreign war and the civil poetic prose. The former vocable dissensions, remained himself un- signifies, without doubt, the north daunted. But as it was dangerous to wind, as your correspondent observes; attack with violence and arms those but the Italians also employ it in the who had seized the hill, and to sup- same characteristic spirit of vanity plicate would be debasing, he waved that attached to the ancient Greeks, both. He himself, singly and un- in order to denote that all northern armed, went to the hill with a firm nations were barbarians; and the and courageous countenance, and adjective which is derived from it is said, "I did not order you, my lads, thus applied by the poet. to this hill; but go to that," pointing Neither is it Cowper's intention to to another, "go and take possession panegyrize Sir Philip Sidney's prose, of the castle and defend it." The but to satirise his poetry; which he Lacedæmonians, ignorant of his ac- archly wishes us to regard (by the quaintance with their intentions to adjunct he has assigned to it) as exemrevolt, and struck with fear, departed obedient to his commands. In the night leading off the leaders of the faction, twelve in number, one way and another, he put an end to the defection. No. 14.-Epaminondas' permission to the disaffected. Epaminondas was about to lead out his phalanx at Leacha, when the Thespians followed him with great reluctance. This was not concealed from Epaminondas, but that the ranks might not be disturbed in the time of battle, he proclaimed, "It was permitted to all the Bootians who were disposed to it, to leave the army." The Thespians departed with their arms. Epaminondas remained; and availing himself of the armed ranks drawn up in battle array, ready for action, gained a celebrated victory. A city of Colia in Asia. + Baotians, who lived under Mount Helicon, on the river Thespius. plifying that species of style which has been not inaptly termed " prose on horseback.' Another communicant (H. G.) in the same number, relative to the occurrence of furrow in Gray's elegy, in an active signification, has found in my judgment, a difficulty that does not exist: since a metonymy of the effect for the cause is so trite in the language of poesy, as to require neither specimen nor comment. Dec. 16, 1907. D.L.S. LETTER XIV.-On the Management B which lived upon the public them, and a provision to supply their workhouses are the schools where the wants, many of them thought proper poor have their morals corrupted, by to provide for themselves. Many of congregating the idle, the drunken, the forty-seven who are now in the the infirm, the dissolute, and the house, were brought there by their prostitute, under one roof." In conown indiscretions. cluding this invective against work At Posling they now relieve 1 in houses, it is further added, "that the 5 of their inhabitants at their own paupers feel a diminution of every houses at Cundall, 1 in 8,9; at stimulus to industry and activity, Lympne, 1 in 9,5; Upper Hardes, whenever they enter them; and doand Horton, 1 in 34, and 35: and mestic habits, independence, the the remainder, from 1 in 10, to 1 in 17. power of being useful, and the hopes It is impossible for a stranger to of bettering their condition, are all say how this great disproportion for ever closed." It is also said, " in arises in relieving their out-poor. pauperism, as in slavery, the degraWhether it be from any local circum- dation of character deprives the indistance, or the inattention of officers; vidual of half his worth, and if we but it is worth a serious inquiry by are to believe all we read, such is the those who are interested in it. It is infection of the air breathed in a the duty of every member in society, workhouse, that it enervates the to see that the idle and the vicious do whole man to such a degree, that he not live upon the sweat of the indus- seldom, if ever, regains his power and trious. The second table shews the exertion. The influence of this examdates of the union of the eleven pa- ple is so extensive, that it even inrishes; the medium of each rate for fects the industrious poor, by their three years; the sums saved at the listening to the detail of the waste three different periods; and the me- of the public establishment, and the diums paid by the six last parishes licence and the idleness they enjoy which united; which enabled them there. This leads them to compare to pay off in five years, the money it with their own hard fate and hard borrowed for building, buying furni- labour, and the comparison lessens in ture, utensils, and raw materials to set their sight: the value of domestic · the poor to work. Facts like these, comfort and personal independence shew, that in the present state of so- insensibly diminishes in their estimaciety, not workhouses, but houses of tion: labour is no longer sweetened correction are required, to reform by the society of a wife and children, the idle and the drunken, and to con- when they are considered as a burvince them that they are no longer den, and when the mind is prepared to live upon the sweat of their neigh- for admission: into a workhouse, the bours. useful cottager becomes a dead weight upon the public." It is much to be doubted, whether many of those who are so loud in their I will admit for a minute that the praise of the happiness to be found in evils and the contagion of a worka cottage, have ever entered many of house, are as great and as extensive as them, or attended to the habits of the declaimers against them wish us their inhabitants; and they are as to beliève, as there can be no doubt little acquainted with the rules of a of their having repeated their invecwell-regulated workhouse, where tives till they believe them themselves; several parishes are incorporated un- but still it is necessary to ask, wheder Gilbert's act. We have a proof of ther the evils and the infections this gross ignorance in an author who proceed from the very nature of the hath offered his thoughts to the pub- establishment, or from the vicious lic, who says "that each parish habits of the individuals, who are pays the same, whether they have sent there in the last stage of moral many or few paupers in their house; depravity, or from the gross neglect and this makes the officers send them or inattention of those who are ap to the parish jail, when they might pointed by law to superintend them, have continued happy in their own and to restrain those flagrant abuses cottages, with a limited assistance." which they describe in such dark shades in their writings. It hath also been asserted, "that |