army of fifty thousand men, to attack Algiers? I should be glad to know, if our establishments were reduced so low as has recently been contended for, what would become of this country, if such an army were to land in England, to which the invention of steam navigation gives so much facility? How could we, without volunteers,-without yeomanry,—without a trained militia,-and with contracted naval and military establishments, resist such an invasion? I cannot conclude these cursory observations, without stating it as an opinion, with the justness of which I am deeply impressed, that a thorough knowledge of the art of war, is far from being so easily acquired as is commonly imagined. Accustomed to business, and to spare no pains in acquiring information respecting any subject to which I might be led to direct my attention, I expected that a very short period would be sufficient to teach me all that it was necessary for an officer to know. I found, however, such an idea was extremely ill founded;-that a man can no more become a real soldier in a few weeks or months, than become thoroughly master, in so short a space, of any other trade. Young men, therefore, ought to be regularly trained to war, as to any other art, from an early period of their life. Hence naval and military academies seem to me as necessary, as universities for law, or medicine, or divinity; and we shall never be able to have a sufficient number of skilful officers, or at least, in that respect, to stand in competition with the warlike nations on the Continent, or even with the new empire of America, unless such seminaries as that of Woolwich and Sandhurst, are established in different parts of the kingdom, where all the young men, destined for the public defence, may have a foundation laid, of knowledge in the art of war, previous to their entering into the service. CLERICAL CORRESPONDENCE. I propose dividing my Clerical Correspondence into four branches; 1. England; 2. Scotland; 3. America; and, 4. France. 1.-ENGLAND. I. DR MOORE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. ONE of the great objects I had in view, by the establishment of a Board of Agriculture, was to procure a Statistical Account of England, similar to that which I had completed in Scotland, by means of the clergy of that country. For that purpose, in forming the plan of the Board, I proposed, that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of London and Durham, should be officially members; and when it was intended to appoint two secretaries, that one of them should be a respectable literary character, belonging to the Church of England, for carrying on the statistical correspondence with its clergy. Several respectable characters were mentioned; but the nomination being left to the Archbishop of Canterbury, he recommended the Rev. Dr Shepherd, who, I believe, was one of his chaplains. Unfortunately, however, the Archbishop was informed, that, in the course of the statistical researches, the subject of tithes would be included. He immediately informed Mr Pitt, (who was favourable to my plans, but did not wish to enforce them if not approved of by the church), that neither he, nor, he believed, any of the Bishops, would promote an inquiry in which the subject of tithes would be discussed; and he likewise sent me the following note, withdrawing his recommendation of Dr Shepherd: Lambeth House, July 26. 1793. The Archbishop of Canterbury presents his compliments to Sir John Sinclair, with many thanks for the papers he has done him the honour to send him. He has not troubled him with Dr Shepherd's address; because he is of opinion, on mature consideration, that the appointment of a clergyman, especially a clergyman who has a living with cure of souls, to be an official secretary to any Board that will take up so much of his time, and is not entirely, or at least chiefly, employed in matters relative to religion, is liable to much objection. He has therefore withdrawn his recommendation. The opposition of the Archbishop, by influencing Mr Pitt, was fatal to the statistical account of England. No circumstance could have been more provoking, nor in a public point of view more unfortunate. There was not the least idea of interfering with the property of the church, either in regard to tithes, or in any other respect; and it was with the view of preventing any jealousy of the sort, that the leading members of the church, were officially nominated members of the Board. Every thing was prepared for carrying on a parochial inquiry on a great scale; but owing to the circumstance above mentioned, England was deprived of that minute, or "anatomical species of political survey," which would have fully explained, both its existing state, and the means of its future improvement. Had that been accomplished, many of those calamities, so often since experienced, would most probably have been averted. Had the plan of parochial inquiries been adopted, it would have been carried on at a moderate expense; but when that |