To the list of Seats in the County of DEVON, in Part I. p. 25, E. B. adds: Strawberry Hill, near Columpton, Earl Mountrath.

Woodbine Hill, near Honiton, (late) Ad-
miral Sir Thomas Graves, K.B.
Grange, William Drewe, esq.
Ashfield, Hon. Mrs. Julia Valenza Head,

sister of Lord Somerville. Eggland, Mrs. Thomasin Anne Elliott. Ivedon, Philip Gidney, esq.

Weston Cottage, Sam. Stevens, esq. M.P. Tracey House, Harry-Baines Lott, esq.

66

D. Y. notices the following omission among the Seats in HERTS, p. 110: King's Walden Bury and Park, William Hale, esq. (who in 1790 was a Candidate for the County, and whose Family is both ancient and respectable.) VERAX, noticing the subject of an Eulogy in page 4, observes, that he was son to the Laundress to a Noble Secretary when he was at the University" [no disgrace to either]; and that the real cause why he did not reside upon his Rectory was the animosity excited by litigation respecting Tithe [in which, probably, there were faults on both sides]. We thank G. for his kind offer; but decline engraving his Coins. They are already in Mr. Ruding's valuable work; where also the Coins inquired after by A CONSTANT READER are engraved and described. To this Work we refer all similar inquirers.

We are obliged to LEXICON, but "The British Apollo" is not an uncommon book. N. remarks, "There is a prevailing idea, that a Law exists by which second cousins are forbidden to marry; but none to prohibit the marriage of first cousins and the reason given for the prohibition in one case and not in the other, is, that it was not thought needful to forbid what, on account of the nearness of kin, no one would think of doing. We find no prohibition in the Prayer-book to cousins of any degree; but, as many, both first and second cousins, marry with at least a doubt upon their mind as to the lawfulness of what they are doing; and as others more scrupulous refrain from what they fear may be wrong; it would be rendering no trifling service to the Community, if some one of your Correspondents conversant in the Law would take the trouble to set the matter in a clear light, both as it regards the Law of God and the Law of the Land."

D. Y. asks, in what year of the last Century Sir Philip Hall, of Upton, in the Parish of Westham, was High Sheriff of that County, and whether he received the honour of Knighthood during his Sheriffalty.

The Letters of our friends V. and H. W. and of Mr.HAWES,shall appear in our next.

If CATUS is really serious, which we can scarcely believe, he will undoubtedly thank us for suppressing his Letter.

We are requested by a Friend to make inquiry respecting a Legacy which it is supposed was left many years ago to the late Elizabeth Canning, but never received. Who was the person that left the Legacy, if such was bequeathed? When was there an Advertisement for the nearest of kin to come and claim it? and has such an Advertisement appeared within these four years? There is reason to suppose such an Advertisement appeared many years ago, and it has been said that one also lately appeared. Elizabeth Canning's affair with Mary Squires excited much interest in 1753 and 1754. It is understood that Elizabeth Canning died at Weatherfield in Connecticut, New England, in 1773. SCRUTATOR says, "In Mark Noble's Genealogy of the Sovereigns of Europe, it is mentioned that King George the First was, towards the latter part of his life, so convinced of the innocence of his Wife, whom he left in confinement in Germany, that he sent for her to come to England and share his royal honours, but she declined it. Can any of your Correspondents, or Mr. Noble himself, give any authority for this assertion, or throw light upon the circumstance of the Queen's innocence being established ?"

SCRUTATOR also says, "In Banks's Dormant and Extinct Baronage, Vol. II. p. 273, under the title of Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon, it is mentioned that 15 Nov. 1 Ric. III. the Earl entered into covenants with that King, to take his daughter Katherine Plantagenet to wife before Michaelmas next ensuing, &c.

but, the Lady dying in early years, the Marriage did not take effect." "In a note Mr. Banks observes that this is the only mention of any daughter of Richard III. I should be gratified by any information that would illustrate this circumstance. I have seen a Grant by King Richard on the third of March, in the first year of his reign, of an Annuity of 400 marks to William Earl of Huntingdon, and 'Katherine Plantagenet his wife,' during the life of Thomas Lord Stanley; and another Grant, 18 March, in his second year, to the same parties, of an Annuity of 1527. 10s. 10d. until the King should grant to them and their heirs lands of like annual value; though these grants do not call her the King's daughter."

SIGISMUND asks for an account of the origin of Clerical Hats, or, as they are commonly called, Shovel Hats, together with the supposed reasons why some of the Clergy wear them, and others not.

Mr.

MR. OWEN.

[The following strictures on the Plan of this benevolent Projector are ex

tracted from a respectable Provincial Newspaper.]

HIS gentleman not being able

projects, and having failed also to produce sufficient effect upon the publick by the press, has had recourse to two public meetings, at the City of London Tavern, in order to engage a competent number of coadjutors to bring his theory to the test of experiment. His object appears to have been, first, to state his principles and plan; secondly, to obtain the sauction of a popular meeting to its excellence and practicability; thirdly, to obtain a Committee to carry it into experimental effect, and then to apply the influence thus obtained to produce subscriptions to furnish the requisite capital. In both meetings the Projector was foiled; for he had the misfortune to be opposed by two classes of men, equally difficult for him to manage. He met opponents in men of a less imagi alive and more comprehensive character than himself, who confuted his first principles; and, of course, beat down the glittering superstructure he had raised to dazzle the publick. He was met also by men of feebler mind than himself, who, though equally visionary in their particular way, were not half so honest; and finding parliamentary reform, and invectives against government, no part of the new scheme, with characteristic mob violence, fell like thunder upon the poor innocent theorist, and broke up his meetings in disorder. Mr. Owen's crime with the first class was, that he was too much a visionary with the second, that he was not visionary enough; that he did not consider radical changes in government necessary;

that he had not found out, that taxation was the cause of the miseries of the poor; that he proposed rather to begin to reform the people than the government;-and wished to give the populace principles rather than politics; that he set them

his system was one of subordination, and not disorder. Thus, for the present, has ended this long-talked-of novelty; which, however, has been treated with too much indulgence by some, and with too much hostility by others.

The chief feature in Mr. Owen's Plan is, the establishment of manufacturing and agricultural villages, where the poor shall be employed, comfortably subsisted, and virtuously educated and governed. Now, in the principles which this plan implicates, there is much to approve. It supposes a benevolent regard for the poor, respect for virtue as the basis of happiness and order, and industry as the means of subsistence and improvement. If we place the system of the radical reformers by the side of this, they have little cause to laugh at Mr. Owen. Surely, he may meet them at least with confidence before every wise and thinking man. He does not, like them, begin with sapping the foundations of public virtue, by preaching up insurrection and murder; he does not dislocate the frame of society, by teaching the poor that they have a right to the property of the rich; he does not encourage idleness, by making every poor man a political declaimer, aspiring to the bonours of the hero of the factious club, and the orator of the ale-bench, to the neglect of his family, and the pursuits of honest industry. There is nothing demoralizing, at least directly so, and there is nothing revolutionary. Mr. Owen, for them, therefore, may keep his countenance.

On

Mr.

On the other hand, one cannot but be surprised, however we may admire some of the principles laid down by Mr. Owen, that the plan erected upon them should ever have received so much countenance from any, as to induce him to make the attempt to interest the publick in it. Owen's main assumption, that "population does not press upon subsistence," was ably exposed by Major Torrens; and the contrary principle being impugned, all the miseries which affect the operative classes in the present system of society must gradually invade his Utopian establishments, and bring them upon the operation of the same laws. The fact, we apprehend, cannot be disproved, that population advances more rapidly than production. It is in vain to contend against it: every plan for the amelioration of society ought to hold it in contemplation; and though partially its operation has been distressing, is now felt to be so, and will often in future ages and places be so felt, yet, upon the whole, society has received, and will receive, the greatest benefits from it. It may be felt as an hardship in our condition in particular places and at different times; but it is a principle which is ever working, in the general scale of human society, the most important results. From the necessity thus created, the most useful inventions and the improvements in agriculture have sprung. The full energies of man, physical and mental, could not have been so fully developed; our population would not have extended so diffusively through the earth. It is this principle, constantly operating, which originates and maintains the colonization of desert or savage countries with an enlightened population from old and improved states; which circulates the knowledge, arts, and power of one part of the earth through the other; and which will bring every part of the earth under cultivation, and cover it with a cultivated and exalted society. If any speculatist should ask, what, then, will be the result? it is enough for him to know that neither he nor his children will live to see it. Equally objectionable is the manner in which the plan is held out to public favour by the relief it would give to the Poor-rates. The

legitimate object of these rates is to afford relief to the aged, infirm, and sick poor, in the first place, and then to the industrious poor willing to labour, and yet not able to obtain it, or an adequate remuneration for it. This we consider one of our noblest civil institutions; and we know of nothing arising out of it as a matter of question, except to guard against abuses, and to equalize the common burthen. Poor-rates, however, can never become burthensome generally, except when the industrious poor cannot find adequate employment. But unnatural and systematic attempts to afford that employ permanently must ever fail, because they are unnatural and systematic. It must ever be the interest of capitalists to employ the industrious when their labour will afford a profit, which profit is regulated by the demand. In this way the Poor-rates are naturally relieved; but when the national commerce languishes, and the demand is lowered, whether agriculture and manufactures be carried on in the settlements proposed by Mr. Owen, or on their present plan, the poor become alike needy, and must lean upon Parish-rates, or something analogous. This must be true generally; but we are willing to allow, that, on a small scale, the Poorrates may often be relieved by benevolent or even avaricious enterprise, taking some new direction. This will be soonest effected by the pressure of the Poor-rates; for, the necessity being felt, all the resources which are available to multiply productive and profitable employments will be put into requisition. The project of cottage farms seems deserving of attention in this view; all improvement in morals and knowledge will have this effect; many of Mr. Owen's hints are worthy of consideration; but all these are totally distinct from a general plan of covering the country with settlements, and surrendering its resources into the hands of Companies of Monopolists.

The Plan is wholly objectionable on another ground. These settlements must, of course, generally, be in the hands of Compauies. Now, when was business well managed by a Company? In every case there is either great neglect and indolence, or injurious monopoly. Such a scheme

too,

too, we conceive, would depress talent, and destroy variety of genius. It would give a systematic and monotonous tone to feeling and habit; it might destroy, as Mr. Owen supposes, many old prejudices, but it would give rise to new ones: and above all, we agree with the objection of some of the Reformers themselves, it would destroy the political independence of the people; and introduce a system of coercion and slavery, which would change and abase our National character.

For ourselves, we think that society is progressing. The diffusion of knowledge, the operation of Sunday and other Schools among the Poor, the diffusion of the principles of Religion by the circulation of the Scriptures, are all in activity counteracting the principles of Jacobinism and Infidelity, raising the standard of morals, and regulating manners. The operation may be too slow for men of sanguine babits; they may fancy that air-balloon schemes may bring us more swiftly to our object; but we confess that we love the beaten track, the often-tried experiment; we suspect all novelties, and account it a good rather than an evil that even truth makes slow progress; because that is a pledge that she will not suddenly retrograde.

Mr. URBAN,

Theobalds, Sept. 1. WITH all becoming deference

and benevolence of the Citizens of London, I cannot avoid expressing my surprize and concern that the wildest and most visionary Plan which ever entered into the mind of a sober man to conceive-that of Mr. Owen, respecting the Employment of the Poor, should have been made the subject of their serious and grave discussion. A single moment's reflection must surely have been sufficient, to discover the infatuation which alone could suggest so chi merical a scheme: and I can conceive no kind of excuse for such a meeting as that which was lately held to debate upon it, besides the desire of making speeches. Some good folks, and some too amongst the busy Citizens of London, Mr. Urban, are so fond of hearing themselves talk, that house and family, and shop and customers, weigh lighter

than a feather when brought in competition with the cacoëthes loquendi. Indeed I cannot help thinking that it is quite as reasonable to refer the distresses of these hard times to the malignant influence of this unfortu nately prevalent evil, as to any of the specific causes to which they are commonly attributed. I wish that that great Patriot and Orator Major Cartwright would but take the matter into his serious consideration; and with a little assistance from a certain City Orator, who was very conspicu ous on the above-mentioned occasion, he would soon be convinced, and able to convince such another meeting as that which was holden a few days ago-that such a perpetual inclination to debate upon every subject, good, bad, and indifferent, is ten times more prejudicial, both to public and individual interests, than any defects in the representation of the people of England in Parliament.

But, whether such a conclusion follow or not, I would beg leave to recommend to those who may in future, through love either "of strife or debate," be inclined to signalize themselves in talking largely about nonsense, to reflect, that although trifling upon some subjects is not only excusable, but pleasant, there is one which ought never to be trifled with, yea, two, the Christian Religion and Sincerity. What shall we say then to those who heard Mr. Owen's tirade

errors and

he declared to be inseparable from the Dispensation under which we have the happiness to live, and his avowal of a desire and design to wipe away all those ancient prejudices, in which, according to his opinion, the greater part of the civilized world has been enchained for eighteen hundred years?

to those who, with professions of piety, morality, religion, and patriotism, for ever in their mouths, complimented Mr. Owen upon the design and the motive of his undertaking, and lament that it is impracticable ! -You and I, Mr. Urban, have passed through too many years, not to know by experience, that such a flimsy disguise as that of pretended philanthropy has often covered the most mischievous schemes: and you will joiu with me in lamenting that, in spite of such experience, any scions of that rank weed, which was planted by

Arius