guments, or proved by the experience, of the learned and intelligent author.

The first part of the essay is occupied with historical and descriptive details respecting the Merino breed in Spain, concluding with a chapter relative to the establishment of this breed in the British islands, in various other parts of Europe, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in New South Wales. The author candidly acknowledges the sources, principally French, whence much of his information on this subject has been derived. That part, however, which relates to the origin of the breed, appears to be exclusively his own, and evinces a depth of acute and patient research, that is admirably contrasted with the superficial romances in which the French encyclopedists have indulged in the article Laine, and which Dr. P. takes more than one occasion to expose. These researches, however, though curious, being little adapted to purposes of general utility, we pass them over, remarking that the author satisfactorily disproves the assertion which has often been confidently made, that the Merino breed in Spain came originally from England, and with considerable plausibility derives it from the fine-woolled sheep of ancient Italy.

There are reckoned to be about five millions of Merino, sheep in Spain, of which about one tenth part are estantes, or stationary, the others are trashumantes, or migratory.

• During the winter, the Merino flocks cover the plains of some of the warmest and most fertile provinces of Spain. Such are Valencia, Murcia, Arragon, Castile, La Mancha, Andalusia, `Estremadura, the neighbourhood of Cadiz, &c. The herbage of these countries, which had been burnt up during the summer, begins to re-appear on the first autumnal rains, after which it pushes so rapidly, and acquires such a degree of luxuriancy, that the shepherds are often obliged to fold their flocks, which they do by means of nets, in order to prevent their injuring themselves by feeding too hastily. Thus the herbage continues to shoot more or less during the whole winter. But as soon as, from the increasing heat of the sun and the constant consumption, the feed begins to fail, which takes place from the middle of April to the beginning of May, the flocks commence their journey to the mountains of Leon, Čas tile, Arragon, Navarre, Gallicia, Soria, Segovia, Cuenças, Albarazin, Burgos, the Asturias, &c. The tops of many of these mountains are, in the winter, covered with snow, but in the summer enjoy only a refreshing coolness, and are well clothed with short herbage, admirably suited to the animals which they are destined to support. This herbage, according to the author of the Oryctographia et Zoologia Arragonia, p. 60. chiefly consists of festuca ovina, sheep's fescue, aira cristata, crested hairgrass, trifolium repens, white trefoil, and medicago lupulina, melilot snailshell. It is calculated that a fanega of land, or about 1 of an English acre, is required for the summer-keep of each sheep.'

This valuable breed has been introduced. and maintained, with more or less success, not only in the British islands, but in Sweden, Denmark, Saxony, Prussia, Silesia, Hungary, Austria, Anspach, Bayreuth, Wirtemberg, Mecklenburgh, Zell, Brunswick, Baden, the Palatinate, Holland, Piedmont, France, Geneva, and Russia; and of the treatment and produce of the flocks in those countries, succinct accounts are given. In New South Wales, it appears, from a statement delivered at Lord Hobart's office in 1803, by Capt. M'Arthur, who is the proprietor of about 4000 sheep there, that the wool of the breed has improved in value and fineness upon the stock whence it was derived, and which had been introduced at the Cape of Good Hope. The fleece of one of the sheep, originally imported from the Cape of Good Hope, bas been valued at 4s. 6d. per pound, and a fleece of the same kind, bred in New South Wales, is estimated at 6s. per pound. With respect to the Merino breed, first introduced into this country by the patriotic exertions of his present majesty, it appears that the principal mode in which its utility has been extended here, has been by crossing our native breeds with Merino rams.

The second part contains the history of the author's MerinoRyeland breed. It seems that Dr. P. has persevered, though not on a great scale, in a course of judicious crossing, by which, not only the wool of his Merino-Ryeland race exceeds in fineness the pure Negrette*, from which it was derived, but the carcase has been brought to a degree of perfection, of which any descendant from the Merino stock was deemed incapable. In carcase, the pure Spanish is miserably deficient, and the mutton of the Merino sheep is seldom eaten in Spain but by the shepherds; for it is a singular fact, that though immense flocks of them pass through or near Madrid twice every year, the mutton for the consumption of that ca

*Wool from the flock of Count del Campo Alange, which, from another title in the same family, is called Negrette; one of the most noted races in Spain, and from which his majesty's flock is derived. Of the superior fineness of the wool produced by crosses of British sheep with Merino rams, most convincing proofs have appeared at the agricultural meetings this season, in Norfolk and in Hertfordshire; at the former, amongst the specimens exhibited of various manufactures from Mr. Coke's Merino-Ryeland and South Down wool, were a pair of worsted stockings of so delicate a texture, that they both passed at the same time through a lady's ring. In Hertfordshire a pound of Merino British wool was spun by Mary Bowdall, aged 60, into yarn so fine, that it measured in length twenty-nine railes, and two hundred yards, and was greatly admired for the beauty and silky softness of its texture. Rev.

pital is supplied from the sheep of Africa. The Merino-Ryelands are shorter in the legs and necks, have smaller bones, a rounder barrel, a wider loin, and consequently a better hind-quarter, than any pure Merinos.' Dr. Parry, however, probably deceived by a partiality for his own breed, decries the obesity of the Leicester sheep, and seems to think that fat upon sheep is wholly an incumbrance, and adapted only to swell the perquisites of the kitchen, and the profits of soap and candle manufacturers.

The Merino-Ryeland is a hardy race of sheep, living well in high and exposed situations, and, according to the constant observation of my shepherd, bearing extreme cold much better than great heat. It is much more easily confined by fences, and more docile and obedient to the shepherd and his dog than the pure Ryeland; and what is more extraordinary in the instance of my sheep, than a flock of 60 half Leicester half Ryeland ewes, which are now feeding near them. It is certain, however, that in the same breed of sheep, great difference in this respect will arise from habits of feeding, and other treatment.

The ewes have two lambs at a birth, probably not once in two or three hundred times;' [this construction is scarcely allowable] and have very rarely a black lamb. They are seldom barren, and from the time that they are two-shear, are excellent nurses. I once thought that they were incapable of rearing their lambs at one shear: but subsequent experience has led me to conclude that I was deceived, and that, when properly nourished, they are, in this respect, equal to other breeds. The lambs are fully as playful as those of our native kinds.

The majority of the lambs have long spiral horns, like those of Spain, and as, like them, they are extraordinarily salacious, they often use these natural weapons to the injury, and sometimes the destruction of each other. In this respect, I presume, they resemble other horned rams.

The skin of the Merino-Ryeland has the same vivid tint of carnation as that of the pure Merino; and, like that, an astonishing degree of thinness, softness, and looseness.'

We particularly refer practical farmers to the third, sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters of this second part, for an account of the management of the author's breed of sheep; in which they will find many useful hints applicable to the general economy of a sheep-farm. The occasional sheltering of sheep from the inclemency of our winters, is an object desirable to be accomplished with less expence than is possible by buildings erected for the purpose in our own country, where all materials for building have, of late years, been quintupled in price. The following mode, the author has seen in some degree practised in Sweden.

I would have the various ricks in the farmyard made on a basis or floor of boards, elevated five feet from the ground, and under this floor, the sheep might constantly, or occasionally, be sheltered. The ground might be littered and kept clean like a house; and the ricks themselves

would want little defence against the biting of the sheep. The additional expence of making the rick would be very trifling, and well repaid by what, would be saved in the hay itself, of which a great deal at the bottom is often unfit for eating.'

We have seen this method partially adopted in Sussex; instead of a floor of boards, birch-faggots have been laid over oak slabs, forming a cheap foundation for the hay-rick, and a sufficient guard against the sheep. And in most other counties, platforms on wood or stone, for hay and corn-ricks, are by no means uncommon.

Cabbages seem to have been Dr. P.'s chief dependance for the winter and spring-food of his flock. His remarks on the subject of that useful, and too little cultivated, vegetable, are well worthy of attention. In page 505, he relates an experi ment with succory or wild endive, chicoreum intybus, which produced the astonishing quantity of 62 tons 18 cwt. of succulent green food for sheep from one acre, in one year. He never gave salt to his flock but once, and then it was principally to induce the sheep to eat some lattermath, which was pearly spoiled. The high and impolitic duty on salt, prevents this useful and necessary condiment from being given either to sheep or black cattle in this country. In most others, African, European, and American, it forms a stated portion of their food; and the natural propensity of all gra minivorous animals to eat it, sufficiently proves its utility.

Dr. Parry gives a curious account in his supplement, of an ingenious inethod, chiefly suggested by Dr. Herschel's lanpmicrometer, which he used to measure the filaments of different sorts of wool. He also gives a table of his results, from which it appears that one specimen of his own breed, exceeded in fineness any other that he could examine; the mean breadth of the filament in this finest specimen was 1370 of an inch; that of one from a Merino ewe in his majesty's possession T3T; Dr. P.'s ram; native Merino ram ras; Negrette rfss; Ryeland 177; Southdown Tria Wilts ewe göö.

I

With our best wishes for the success of agricultural attempts to render the manufactures of the country independent of foreign supply, we cannot refrain from connecting our fervent hope, that the final success and emancipation of the Spanish people, if the restoration of general tranquillity is not specdily to be looked for, may remove the urgent and extraordinary motive which has so long existed to this species of patriotic exertion.

Art. V. Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eigh teenth Century; including the Charities, Depravities, Dresses, and Amusements of the Citizens of London, during that Period; with a Review of the State of Society in 1807. To which is added, a Sketch of Domestic and Ecclesiastical Architecture, and of the various Improvements in the Metropolis. Illustrated by fifty Engravings. By James Peller Malcolm, F. S. A. Author of " Londinium Redivivum." &c. &c. 4to. pp. 590. Price 21. 2s. Longman and Co. 1808.

WE

E certainly approve Mr. Malcolm's choice of a subject; and highly should we have congratulated ourselves if collectors of equal diligence had performed the same task, for the seventeenth and many preceding centuries, which he has undertaken for the last. We might then have found, in the compass of a few volumes, information which now we are obliged to seek in many, with great labour and loss of time.. It would have been highly gratifying to compare with facility and accuracy the countenance, the marks, the beauties, and the blemishes, of these different and distant periods; to watch the progress of refinement, and hail every instance of superiority, in our own times, over the obsolete modes of dress, manuers, and thinking. We are not among those croakers who regard the present age as the worst that ever was. The comparison of what men are and what they have been, is a very different thing from a comparison of what they are and what they should be.

London may be considered as an epitome of the kingdom. In our country at large, some few instances may be discerned of the genuine manners of Britons, which London does not offer; but, at this time, the intercourse between the metropolis and all parts of the island is so direct and easy, that the remotest country town is no further behind the great city, in intelligence of all kinds, than the arrival of the next mail coach. A picture of London, therefore, is a picture of Britain comprising the follies and weaknesses, the absurdities and vanities, the immoralities and vices of the age: comprising, too, the excellences of whatever kind which counteract those depravities, and contribute to render life tolerable or happy. Mr. M., however, with equal modesty and prudence, intitles his volume "Anecdotes," which in some de. gree precludes any charge of deficiency and imperfection, that a disappointed inspector might alledge against his per

formance.

Mr. M. places first, the Depravities of the eighteenth century, whence he proceeds to a somewhat milder description of those follies and misdemeanors which excite mirth rather than anger, and are commonly repressed by ridicule rather than condemnation. Domestic politics, especially as