Agriculture have become under your direction? What a paltry thing is it now? Well, may all this serve to prolong the life, and increase the health, of future generations, who, in one way or another, must bless your memory.

It is among my warmest wishes to see once more your country, where I spent some useful and agreeable days. My absence, however, cannot be of long duration. My farms, and the Hamburgh Institute for the poor, whose progress gives me infinite pleasure, require my steady attendance. I had a thought of spending part of the winter at Paris, from where I intended to pay you a visit; but the continental war has covered poor Germany with crowds of eastern, and western, and northern barbarians. Who knows how far that may extend. Under these circumstances it would not be prudent to leave home.

Let me beg the favour from you to remember me to my worthy Edinburgh friends, Mr and Mrs Dugald Stewart, Fraser Tytler, Dr Gregory, &c. I seldom have seen so many worthy characters united in one place, and in one circle of society.

I would beg to present my best respects to Lady Sinclair, if our short acquaintance could make our presence to be remembered. I remain, with great regard, your faithful, obedient servant,

VOGHT.

I got for Mr George Sinclair a passport from M. de Bourienne, French Minister here, necessary for him, as he was to go through a country still occupied by the French troops.

I had but to mention the name of his father, whose philanthropy had made him venerable to all nations, and I obtained it without difficulty.

6.-JOSEPH EWART, ESQ.

Secretary to the British Embassy at Berlin.

Among the persons employed in the diplomatic concerns of this country, in foreign parts, Joseph Ewart, Esq. Secretary to the embassy at Berlin, seemed to me one of the ablest; and he was always ready, to give every aid in his power, to any British traveller who visited the Court where he officiated. It was greatly by his means, that Holland was rescued from the influence of France, in the year 1788; and he was equally successful in other diplomatic negociations. It appears, from the following letter, what pains were taken, before any young man was fixed in the department of foreign affairs at Berlin, that he should be well acquainted with foreign countries; but in Great Britain, it is to be lamented, that political influence is more required, than the fitness of the candidate for the office to which he aspires.

MY DEAR SIR,

Berlin, 1st March 1788.

This letter will be delivered to you by M. de Brockhausen, the favourite éleve of Count Hertsberg, at whose house you saw him here; and I beg leave to recommend him to your kind attention and good offices, during the short visit he has received his Prussian Majesty's permission to make to London, before being fixed as Conseiller, in the department of foreign affairs here.

You will find M. de Brockhausen remarkably well informed, not only in every thing that relates to this country, but also with respect to France and Holland, where he has been employed in the late famous negotiations; and, I am persuaded that you will agree with me in thinking him a most promising young man, well entitled to the uncommon distinctions

he has already met with, for his years, and to the flattering prospects that await his future exertions.

I am happy to have this opportunity of congratulating you, my Dear Sir, on the glorious success, with which the exertions of Great Britain and Prussia have been crowned in Holland; and I am sure, nobody would partake more cordially than you, in that joyful event, and in the happy effects which result from it. I need not tell you, how fortunate I consider myself, in having been employed in this memorable transaction; and the expressions of approbation with which I have been honoured, make me rely with confidence on the speedy fulfilment of the assurances I have received.

I am impatient to see the second volume of your History of the Finances of Britain, whose actual flourishing state, must furnish you with such victorious proofs of the principles you so long ago advanced, respecting the favourable prospects of its resources and revenue. How peculiarly prosperous is our situation, in this as well as in every other respect, when compared with that of our rival; and, while our administration has gained the respect of all Europe, and rises daily in estimation, the French cabinet continue to expose their weakness, inconsistency, and misconduct.

I flatter myself, I shall have the satisfaction to hear from you by the return of my friend M. de Brockhausen; and I entreat you to believe me to be, with the greatest esteem and regard, my Dear Sir, ever most sincerely yours,

Jos. EWART.

7.-BARON A MEYENDORFF, A LIVONIAN.

They have discovered in Livonia, a new mode of flooding land, not only by covering it with water, but by filling the artificial lake with fish. The soil thus covered, is not only fertilised by the water, but still more so, from the animal matter which it receives by the death of the fish, or what is otherwise deposited in it.

I hope soon to have the pleasure of receiving from the Baron a full account of this process, and the advantages resulting from it, which may be of use in districts at a distance from manure, but with a command of water.

SIR,

I have the honour to send a few words about our Loch husbandry. I hope, in some months, to be able to send to you full account about this subject.

This will be the beginning of uninterrupted relations between our society of rural economy in Livonia, and your celebrated Highland Society, to which we are so much indebted for many very interesting treatises and reports.

I take, with the greatest pleasure, this opportunity to assure you, of the feeling of admiration and respect with which I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obliged servant, BARON A MEyendorff.

Edinburgh, 19th March 1829.

8.- M. BOTTIGER OF DRESDEN.

There is none of my correspondents, who entered with more zeal and enthusiasm, into the plans I had undertaken for promoting the general advantage of mankind, than M. Bottiger, one of the most distinguished literary characters in Germany. In a letter he wrote me from Dresden, dated 27th August 1805, there is the following paragraph :

*C'est la premier fois, Monsieur, que j'ai l'honneur de vous témoigner mon respectueux attachement; mais je suppose que

* Translation.

This is the first opportunity I have had of testifying to you my respectful attachment, but I suppose that Mr Macdonald has already informed you how much I am devoted to you. Patriot as you are in your own country, to an extent of which there are few examples, you belong, at the same time, to every country, and to every age; and if all your plans for the improvement of the soil, and of those who cultivate it, were adopted, and executed with the same

Mr Macdonald vous aura dit déjà, combien je vous suis dévoué. Patriot comme il y en a peu, vous appartenez pourtant à tous les pays, et à tous les siècles; et si tous vos projèts, pour l'amélioration du sol, et de l'homme qui le cultive, avoient été suivi, et exécuté avec le même zèle, qu'on vous connoit, au lieu du siècle de fer, que ménace nous moissonner tous avec le sabre d'un nouveau Brennus, le siècle d'or vous seroit rendu. Votre Statistique d'Ecosse, sera toujours époche dans l'histoire des progrès du genre humain. Tout le monde chez nous, est à present impatient de voir paroître votre Code de Santé, que j'ai eu la satisfaction d'annoncer moi-même à mes compatriotes. Puissiez-vous vivre, Monsieur, pour voir les fruits de vos veilles, et de vos travaux, dans une nouvelle génération, renouvellé par vous-même.

M. Bottiger entered, with great zeal, into the plan I had proposed, for establishing experimental farms, and erecting villages on an advantageous system; and, in the following energetic language, he explained his sentiments, regarding both the merits of the plan, and the character of its author:

Extract from the Jena Universal Literary Gazette for June 1801, (vol. ii. p. 11.) translated from the German.

The annexed plan of a country village, is inserted here, chiefly with a view to bring once more to my countrymen's recollection, one of the most active promoters of agriculture, and one of the noblest philanthropists in Europe, Sir John Sinclair, the Scotch Baronet, and to erect a durable monument for him in this Gazette. Our readers are already acquainted

zeal with which you are actuated, instead of that age of iron, which threatens to cut us down with the sabre of a new Brennus, the golden age would be restored by you. Your Statistical Account of Scotland will always form an epoch V in the history of the progress of the human race. Every one here is now impatient for the appearance of your Code of Health, which I myself have had the satisfaction of announcing to my countrymen. May you, Sir, live, to see the fruits of your watchings and your toils, in a new generation, improved by your exertions.