THEOLOGY.

A Sermon, delivered in King's Chapel, Boston, 9 July, 1826; being the next Lord's Day after the Death of John Adams, late President of the United States. By Henry Ware, D. D. Hollis Professor of Divinity in Harvard Univerity. Cambridge. 8vo. pp. 28.

A Sermon on the Unity and Supremacy of God the Father, delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, S. C., April 22, 1826. By Daniel R. Whitaker. Charleston, S. C. 8vo. pp. 43.

Second Series of Letters to Mr Elias Lee, on the Character of the Son of God. By Henry Grew. Hartford. 12mo. pp. 24.

The Young Christian's Companion; being a Selection of Hymns, particularly adapted to Private Devotion and Conference Meetings. By Gustavus F. Davis. Boston. 18mo. pp. 108.

A Sermon, delivered by the Rev. John Nelson, at the Interment of the Rev. Arætius B. Hull.

The American Seamen's Hymn Book; or, a Collection of Sacred Songs for the Use of Mariners, selected from various Authors. By Noah Davis. New York. 18mo. pp. 293.

TOPOGRAPHY.

A New Plan of Boston, comprising a part of Charlestown and Cambridgeport, from Actual Survey. Boston.

A Map of the Eastern and Northern States. New York.

The Ohio Gazetteer, or Topographical Dictionary; containing a Description of the several Counties, Towns, Settlements, Roads, Rivers, Mines, &c. in the State of Ohio, alphabetically arranged. By John Kilbourn. Eighth Edition. Columbus, Ohio. 12mo. pp. 231.

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The Christian Philosopher; or, the Connexion of Science and Philosophy with Religion. Illustrated with Engravings. By Thomas Dick. First American Edition. New York. 12mo. pp. 397.

Reports of Cases, argued and determined in the English Courts of Common Law. Edited by Thomas Sergeant and John C. Lowber, Esqrs. Vol. X. Part 1 and 2. Containing Barnwell's and Creswell's Reports, Vol. III.

The Old Testament, translated out of the Original Hebrew, and with the former Translations diligently compared and revised; together with the Apocrypha. Done by the special command of King James I. of England. Philadelphia. 4to. pp. 1152.

The Works of Robert Burns; with an Account of his Life, and a Criticism on his Writings. A New Edition. Four Volumes complete in One. New York. 8vo. pp. 438.

Comyn's Digest. Vol. VIII. New York. Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia; a Tale. 18mo. pp. 124.

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The History of the Bucaniers of America. In Three Volumes. New York.

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A Treatise on Self-Knowledge. By John Mason, A. M. To which are added, Questions adapted to the Work, for the Use of Schools and Academies. Fourth Edition. With Notes. Boston. 18mo. pp. 196.

The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, reprinted from the last London Edition. Boston. 8vo.

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The History of the Crusades, for the Recovery and Possession of the Holy Land. By Charles Mills. First American, from the Third London Edition.

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Scougal's Life of God in the Soul of Man; preceded by a Memoir of the Author. To which is subjoined, Rules for a Holy Life, by Archbishop Leighton. A New Edition.

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THE UNITED STATES

LITERARY GAZETTE.

VOL. IV.

SEPTEMBER, 1826. Nos. 11 & 12.

REVIEWS.

Memoirs of the Board of Agriculture of the State of New York. Published by Authority. Vol. III. Albany. 1826.

WE learn from the Preface of this interesting volume, that it closes the labours of the Board of Agriculture of the State of New York; the law for the encouragement of agriculture, under which the board was created in 1819, having expired by its own limitation. Much regret has been expressed on this subject, and not a little surprise, that the legislature of that State, a body for the greater part formed of practical farmers, and men intimately connected with the landed interest, should not have continued those laws for a longer term, seeing that they were so generally popular, and that the governor, in his annual message to the legislature, had, for the two past years, recommended their revisal, on the ground of the extraordinary benefits which the State had already received from them. We have so often heard those benefits acknowledged, not to say witnessed them, that we with pleasure lay before our readers an abstract of the history of the laws, and give the explanation, furnished us by a friend well informed on this subject, of the probable reasons which have governed the legislature in permitting them to be suspended at the present time.

Previously to their enactment in 1819, a few agricultural societies were already established in the State, in Columbia County, at Cooperstown, and at Duanesburgh. These had been instituted by a few spirited individuals among the landed proprietors, resident

in the interior, with the hope of somewhat raising the depressed character of agriculture as a vocation. Want of skill contributed equally with want of capital, to keep down a very useful and most respectable class of men, the gentlemen farmers. The few then to be found in the State, pretending to that character, as they had been brought up in habits of indulgence, and were unable to make the productions of their farms defray the charges of cultivation, were gradually going out of existence by the force of that powerful engine, the bond and mortgage. Soon after the late war, and when the frenzy of speculation had brought the commercial cities to a point of great distress, the whole community seems, by common consent, to have for the first time turned its attention to the fact, hitherto overlooked through its too great obviousness; that to require a great many good things from others, by way of exchange, we must first possess a great many good things of our own. All eyes were suddenly bent upon agriculture as the sure foundation of commerce. The governor, the legislature, all men uniting in this opinion, the act of April 7th, 1819, was passed, granting an appropriation of ten thousand dollars per annum, for the term of two years, to be distributed in the different counties of the State of New York, pro ratá, for the promotion of agriculture and domestic manufactures. By this act, also, a Board of Agriculture was created, for the purpose of superintending the general system, and publishing from time to time the results obtained from the County Societies.

This board was organized January 10th, 1820, at a very full meeting of the presidents of the County Societies. General Stephen Van Rensselaer, of the city of Albany, was unanimously chosen president, and Mr Featherstonhaugh, of Duanesburgh, appointed chairman of the committee to report a plan for the government of the institution. This plan was subsequently adopted. In March, 1820, the duration of the law was prolonged to six years, a period which has just expired.

By the act of 1819, each County Agricultural Society, upon filing an affidavit with the controllers, of having raised by voluntary subscription, a sum of money for the purposes expressed in the act, was entitled to draw an equal sum from the State treasury, provided it did not exceed the amount pro ratâ of the general fund of ten thousand dollars; the joint amount of which was to be distributed by the officers of the County Societies, in agricultural and manufacturing premiums at the annual fairs of their respective societies. A detailed statement concerning the objects for which the premiums were to be conferred, was to be delivered

annually to the board of agriculture by the presidents of the County Societies, to be published and distributed annually by the board, at the expense of the State. These were the principal provisions of the act.

The board immediately published a circular, addressed "to the Officers and Members of the County Societies," laying before them the reciprocal duties they had engaged in, and calling upon them, in animated terms, to co-operate with the board in a vigorous discharge of them. The following passages mark, with some force, their earnestness in the pursuit of their great object.

In concluding this address, the Board of Agriculture again urges upon the presidents and officers of the county societies the importance of the regular and systematic manner of the communications now asked of them. It is the intention of the board, not only to collect every kind of useful information, and to diffuse it in the most extensive way, but to combine and arrange all the features of this deeply interesting subject, into a form sufficiently methodical, to constitute a perspicuous record of its transactions, and which may exhibit an interesting picture of all the resources of the State, in their annual progress.

The board looks with much anxiety to the personal efforts and intelligence of the respective presidents and officers of the county societies, to aid it in the accomplishment of the great object for which it has been constituted. It must be obvious to the officers here alluded to, that the power of the board to diffuse that useful kind of knowledge, upon which the welfare of the people of this great State depends, must arise in a great measure from the perfect ability and willingness of intelligent persons connected with the farming interest, to aid the effort now about to be made, to raise the agricultural interests of this State to the consideration they are entitled to, as the true source upon which all other human pursuits must rely for success.

From the novelty of the experiment, and probably from the unwillingness of persons to communicate their opinions for publication, at the end of the first year, the board found itself in possession of scarcely any materials of an original character; and as the General Committee was by the statute imperatively obliged to publish at that time the first annual volume, some embarrassment seems to have been felt. Upon this occasion, it appears, that Mr Featherstonhaugh was solicited, and consented to relieve the General Committee from this inconvenience, as well as circumstances would admit of. On this subject we shall extract a passage from his introductory letter to the president of the board.