as the utmost quantity that could be procured in them in two years.* We know not how far we may trust to the opinion of Mr. Jacob Read of Limehouse, timber-merchant, but if that could be considered as valid, we should have a pretty good criterion to judge of the state of large naval timber in the kingdom. He says that the eight following counties with which, as a timber-merchant, he is well acquainted, namely, Hereford, Worcester, Gloucester, Warwick, Glamorgan, Brecknock, Monmouth, and Radnor, would each produce as much timber as would build a 74-gun ship, takingone county with another; and that it would require fifty years before a second crop of eight seventy-fours could be obtained from those counties; for that in procuring the first eight he must take away all the timber above forty years old, and the remaining part must stand to the age of 90 or 100 years, to afford a sufficient quantity of large timber fit for 74-gun ships.† . As proof of the abundance of oak timber in the kingdom, it was asserted that large lots of last year's felling were still on hand, for which there was no sale; but the builders failed to shew that this superabundance had produced the usual effect of plenty, namely, The result of the survey compared with the lumping conjectures of the land steward,' is too curious for us to omit. By Major Bull, Loads 82,000 By Mr. Fermor, Loads 19,065 It may be observed that if, from Major Bull's lumping way of 10 or 12, 30 or 40 thousand loads, we had taken the larger, instead of the smaller numbers, it would have made his statement to the committee about five times the quantity that is actually found on the estates and parishes abovementioned--so much for Major Bull! 2 Minutes of Evidence, p. 301. "Minutes of Evidence, pp. 583 and 584. * Minutes of Evidence, p. 384. + Minutes of Evidence, pp. 306 and 307. VOL. XI. NO. XXI. P that that of reducing the prices. Mr. Morris however, who is joint contractor with Mr. Larkins, for supplying the king's yards with timber, declares in his evidence, We have gone through the kingdom purchasing, and I am not acquainted with quantities lying unpurchased: I say that, in justice to ourselves, as contractors with government, there is no large timber on hand in any part of the country." But Mr. John Kershaw, who has been five and twenty years in the trade, boldly asserts that there is, in various counties, a supply of oak timber, ready cut, for five to seven years that he has seen it-that he has himself four or five hundred loads.' By a little cross-questioning, however, he admitted that he had not the least conception of the quantity required for the general consumption of the country-that five or seven years would be a most extravagant time to let timber lie after it was cut-nay, that he knew of no instance of any one merchant having got 400 loads of timber which had been cut four years. Here the learned counsel for the ship-builders objected to the line of examination, and Mr. John Kershaw was ordered to withdraw; and if, in his subsequent examination, he sometimes, like poor Wronghead in the play, said aye, when he should have said no, the agent for the ship-builders only is to blame, for having failed to prepare him for what he had to go through-a failure however which, to do him justice, he cannot often be charged with.+ Mr. Adolphus affirms boldly enough, that the contractors for supplying the dock-yards have gained the ear of government,' that this accounts for their representing timber as scarce; that they shut their eyes,'' and that they cannot find their way to Limehouse to purchase timber,+-alluding to the evidence of one Richardson, a timber-merchant of Limehouse, who, with great confidence, ridiculed the idea of any scarcity, for that he had plenty of timber, which he had offered to the contractor for the navy at 77. a load, but that he never once went to look at it. Now, what was the fact? Mr. Ramage, purveyor to the navy, examined this timber, as usual, and reported the whole of it as a parcel of trash unfit for the navy. This Mr. Richardson, who was sure that there was no scarcity of oak timber, was completely ignorant either of the supply or demand of this article.§ We deemed it of some importance to determine the extent of forest that would be required to meet all the demands of the navy, on a given scale, for oak timber; the first step towards which was to ascertain the number of full grown oak trees that might be * Minutes of Evidence, p. 176. + Minutes of Evidence, p. 188, et seq. § Minutes of Evidence, p. 246. expected expected to grow on a given quantity of land. The Commissioners of Woods and Forests calculated that 40 trees would grow on an acre of land; to keep on the safe side, we reckoned only 35, according to which, 102,600 acres, by a regular succession of felling and replanting, would afford an adequate and constant supply for all naval demands. We pointed out the danger and impolicy of placing dependence on private estates, as, from a variety of circumstances, not necessary to be here repeated, few plantations of oak had recently been, or were likely to be, planted by individuals, the principal of which was that land could be turned to more profit by any other kind of produce; and this we still maintain, notwithstanding the testimony of Mr. Major Bull, which has been particularly pointed out to Mr. Adolphus, and which he tells us, makes it quite clear that old land will not be taken out of timber in order to be made pasture, because it is not so profitable, not so wise a way of disposing of land, not so sure of producing an ultimately beneficial result, as the laying of it out to timber.'*+ We stated on very good authority that oaks would not thrive on land that is not worth 20s. an acre annual rent. Mr. A. Driver says that land of 20s. an acre is too good for planting;' that 'land that is good for cultivation should not be planted, on account of the interest of money accumulating so high;' and Mr. Robert Harvey, land steward, says that in Staffordshire they never plant on land that is worth more than 14s. an acre. Now to plant oaks on such lands would be a waste of labour and of capital, for they would not reach the size of frigate timber in two centuries; yet this same Mr. Robert Harvey, whose intelligence Mr. Counsellor Adolphus is pleased to compliment, has the hardihood to avow that 'for one oak that is cut down, an hundred are planted to my knowledge; for one acre of wood that has been grubbed up, a hundred acres have been set out under my observation.' Few of our readers, we imagine, know any thing of this Mr. Robert Harvey, but most people have heard of Mr. Arthur Young, and he says that in the counties best adapted for the growth of oak not one acre has been planted for fifty acres of woodlands that have been *Speech of Mr. Adolphus, p. 41. Here we must again refer to Mr. Fermor's evidence.-Mr. Spankie. 'Have you known any quantities of woodland grubbed up?-Answer. Yes; it is a general practice since corn has been so dear. I consider there have been from four to five hundred acres within five miles of Newbury.'- -Mr Spankie. Do you know any woodland grubbed up upon the property of Lord Carnarvon ?-Answer. Yes.'- -Mr. Spankie. How much?-Answer. I cannot tell the quantity of acres, but there have been two farmis grubbed; a good deal laid open; the fields enlarged; the hedges have been grubbed, taking the timber and all away together.'-Mr. Spankie. Mr. Major Bull is the steward or manager to Lord Carnarvon ?-Answer. Yes, he is the land steward.'Evidence, p. 586. P 2 grubbed grubbed up.' It would be a strange anomaly indeed in the progressive improvement of nations, if an increased population should not have created a competition between timber and food, and if England's shadowy forests' should not have given way to the demands of three millions of people which have been added to her population within the present reign;-but it is an absolute waste of words to combat such foolish assertions. These inquiries, founded on truth and common sense, the shipbuilders' agent calls childish essays'-' one of the principal engines of the adversaries of the ship-builders.' The committee, however, indulged pretty freely in these childish essays.' They endeavoured, but with little success, to elicit some information from the several timber merchants who were examined. Some had never given a thought to the subject, and others might be able to calculate if time were allowed them. One youth, however, appears first to have astonished and then to have disgusted the committee. Mr. Thomas Alexander had been concerned in the timber trade five or six years. He produced a list made out last Monday' of every oak tree whether in hedgerow, wood, or park, in the counties of Kent and Sussex. He had measured many thousands to ascertain their progressive growth, and I can shew,' says Thomas, in what time a tree will grow from 39 feet, one inch and four parts, to 59 feet seven inches one part four seconds and six thirds; this I calculate to be in ten years." ** For a further display of such amazing depth of knowledge in a youth who, if he lived a fortnight longer would be twenty,' Mr. Adolphus seems to have got up an amusing sort of dialogue, though it did not produce that dramatic effect on the committee which it was evidently intended to do; much less did it invalidate our original position against which it was directly levelled:-indeed he abandons this part of the case in his summing up, and dismisses us in a way peculiar to himself. — Sir, I never trouble my head with these fopperies, and therefore I cannot pretend to answer the critics in their own way.' We would just hint to this gentleman, that if he had more of such fopperies in his head, and less flippancy elsewhere, neither he nor his clients would be losers by it. 6 A very short specimen of Mr. Thomas Alexander's examination. by Mr. Adolphus, will suffice to shew that he too has his fopperies: Mr. Adolphus. Do you know how many square feet there are in an acre of land?'-Thomas. Yes; 43,560.' Mr. Adolphus. How many trees of 40 feet will grow upon an acre?" -Thomas. 108; allowing 400 square feet to every tree.' This wonderful calculator then proceeds to instruct the com * Minutes of Evidence, p. 209. 6 mittee in the management of this acre of oaks, which he clearly demonstrates, by slate and pencil, will produce to the proprietor four or five-and-twenty pounds a-year, besides four or five pounds a-year for underwood and small cuttings, or at the end of 85 years will be worth 21307. Well may Mr. Adolphus say that this was considered prodigious! that this youth of twenty was a good deal quarrelled with for his evidence,' and that he was thought presumptuous.' In fact, it was soon discovered that all this young gentleman's measurements were 'by the eye,' and that his oaks grew not so much by virtue of the soil in which they were planted, as of the ratio between the diameter of a circle and its circumference, which he kindly informs the committee is as 7 to 22; in short that all his knowledge was extracted from his father's books' for when examined as to facts, he admitted that he never knew 60 trees of 88 feet cut from one acree-he never knew 30 trees of that measure-he never knew 20 trees of that measure—and the sum of all his practical knowledge came at last to be reduced to this -'that he does think he can say that there are 40 trees in one wood which would not occupy an acre if they were standing together.'* Mr. Abraham Driver, who has been all his lifetime a valuer of timber and surveyor of estates, never heard of such a thing as an acre of timber of any age being worth 2000/.; never heard of an acre of timber at 85 years being worth 257. an acre per annum, nor any thing like it; nor has any idea that such a thing is possible. He thinks that timber from 80 to 100 years of age may have produced at the rate of half a load an acre per annum worth 67. or at the end of 85 years worth to the proprietor 4267.+ Mr. Edward Ellis, who has dealt in timber twenty years, comes still closer to the point. He knows a wood of Mr. Turner measuring 120 acres, one of the finest woods he ever saw or was in, and one likely to produce more to the owner, in proportion to the number of acres:-'after the value of 80007. of timber had been felled out of this fine wood, he had himself offered 30,000l. for the remainder.' Hence it follows that this finest wood that was ever seen of 120 acres, is only worth to the proprietor, at the end of a hundred years, about 38,000l. or 316/. 13s. 4d. per acre. When we stated in our childish essays' the value of an acre of oak timber at the end of one hundred years at 1000l. we were accused, by the ship builders' agent of wishing to discourage the plantation of oaks. This is not true; no such foolish idea ever entered our heads; our object was to encourage the proper care and culture of those that *Minutes of Evidence, p. 214. did |