If you think thefe obfervations worth inferting in your mifcellany, your publishing them will oblige, Sir, your most humble fervant, 2d March 1791. S 'AMICUS. Mifcellaneous Remarks on the Lapwing Moles, Rooks, Sparrows, c. SIR, PROBABLY your correfpondent on the mole and the worm never had a tame lapwing in his garden. If he gets one, he will fee that its mode of procuring food is by tapping the ground with one foot, which makes the worms rife, on the fame principle as fhaking a spade or a stick in the ground. I readily admit the nuifance of moles in new fown crops or in mowing ground; but I have been told of a man, who is reckoned a good farmer in Flanders, who introduces moles purposely into his pasture grounds; and had I a large tract of fuch ground, I should not hesitate to follow his example; for I am perfuaded that the increafing evil we experience here of grubs and wireworms is in fome degree owing to the destruction of moles. I have heard the turning fwine on to the rabbit warrens recommended as a prevention of the fwarms of chaffers which proceed from the grubs. Might not moles be more effectual? Rooks have, I believe, been encouraged where,, from their deftruction, this evil has been found to increase; and I think the fparrows have their utility to balance the mischief they do. I am willing to admit, that one of thefe birds will eat four times its own weight of corn in a day; the more voracious they are proved, the better for my argument im their favour, as they must fubfift upon other food a much larger portion of the year than that which they can find corn in; and it is not probable their appetites are lefs in the breeding feafon than any other; and in that time is the flight of the small crown beetles (called here chovies), which make fuch deftruction of most flowers and fruits, particularly rofes and apples. A fparrow killed at that feafon will be found to feed wholly upon them ; which may account for the heat of their blood, and point out fome ufe for these flies for medicinal purposes. I am, &c. M. M. SIR, Count Windifchgratz's Problem. YOUR correfpondent, who would profcribe poetry, and substitute in place thereof plans for reformation of the laws, appears to confider poetry and any fuch plan as incompatible. If he had only glanced at Lord Bollingbroke's letters on the ftudy and ufe of hiftory, he would have found that to be an eminent lawyer, it is neceffary "to climb the vantage grounds of fcience ;to pry into the fecret receffes of the human heart." What influence poetry has on manners, my be gathered from the faying of one who had other notions of mankind than your correfpondent: "Let me make their ballads, and I care not who make their laws." Lycurgus conduced to render the Spartans warlike, by the introduction of Homer amongst them. Without much general learning, and a tafte for belles letres, it is impoffible Sir William Black fone could have made his commentary on the law of England fo ufeful and entertaining. He is known to have wrote fome of the poems in Dodfley's collection: he alfo wrote annotations on Shakespeare. Indeed, from the degree of genius and invention requifite to make a poem, one would more readily expect any material improvement on the laws, than from a painful plodder. VOL. II. Ff Having faid fo much in defence of poetry, I will now fubmit a few hints which occurred to me on reading Count de Windifchgratz's problem, in the first volume of Tranfactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and which, though not amounting to a folution thereof, may thew that fomething might be done to render the forms of obligations, fecurities, and other deeds, more fimple, fecure, and intelligible to the generality of mankind. What I would propofe is as follows: 1. The bond for borrowed money.-1. To acknowledge the money being due, or then received. 2. Obligation to pay it, with legal intereft. 3. The penalty fomewhat higher in every country than the expence of inforcing payment; the creditor to be entitled, as by law at prefent, to fo much of it as he has bona fide laid out. 4. A claufe of registration; and 5. Of fubfcription. To be written by notaries public only, as most likely to have fufficient fkill. To be recorded in a particular time after date. An extract (or exemplification) to be equal to a decreet condemnatory after litisconteftation of the court in the books whereof it is registered; and no compenfation admitted, except on a deed equally liquid and indisputable. 2. Difpofitions of lands,-to abolish holdings in Scotland, and conveyances by leafe and releafe, and fine and recovery in England, and to make fimple difpofitions in terms as plain and short as thofe of moveables, without procuratory or precept, or other veftige of the feudal fyftem, or reference to the ftatute for transferring ufes into poffeffion; to be written by notaries public only, who fhould, like other public officers, be ftationary, and to be registered in 60 days; the registration to fupply the place of infeftment*: An index of the regifter printed and publifhed quarterly, containing the * This idea of a conveyance registered, being at fome future period, equal to infeftment on it, is fomewhere hinted at by Lord Kaims. names of the parties and lands; and copies of the indexes fent to these notaries when published, in the fame manner as the minute book in the court of feffion is at present sent to the agents or folicitors before that court; by which rights might be made with safety and clearness, and the value enhanced, as it is well known lands are always highest where registers are kept. 3. Mortgages, or fecurities upon land for money,to be by bond and difpofition, with power to fell to the amount of the debt, and reasonable expences bona fide laid out, on previous intimation fuch a length of time prior to the fale as may be agreed on in the fecurity :To be registered, and indexes published and tranfmitted to each notary public, as above. 4. Afignations and other transfers, in common form, unless in fo far as altered, in regard to lands, by the foregoing, and to be, in like manner, registered, published and tranfmitted. 5. Extinctions of mortgages, and other deeds, to be by fimple difcharges renunciations; and these to be registered, and indexes published and tranfmitted as in mortgages. These regifters to be distinct from each other; and deeds not duly registered in the time to be fixed on, not to be the foundation of fummary execution, and to be held collufive in questions with third parties. These hints are only thrown out as general ideas which could easily be extended to every other cafe; to get into the forms at length, would exceed the bounds of an effay for a periodical publication. Whether ever a fatisfactory discovery be made or not, Count de Windischgratz must appear the friend of the human race, in making fo laudable a proposal as that offered by him, in the hopes of making legal deeds fimple and intelligible, and to admit of as little room for doubt as in mathematics. K. February 16.} 1791. A- -N. SIR, To the Editor of the Bee. ALTHOUGH you ftimulate the poet of the age by the offer of a prize medal, I am glad to find that poetical pieces of an older date than his may fometimes have a place in your mifcellany. The following lines are faid to have been written in the days of Edward IV. of England, and fent with a prefent of a white rofe, by a gentleman of the house of York to a lady of the house of Lancaster; but I give them from me, mory, without even knowing where I found them. If this fair flower offend thy fight, "Twill blush to be outdone in white, Subjoined is another small piece, taken, I think, twenty years ago, from fome magazine of the day, but here set down alfo from memory. The Play Ticket. I gave, it was but t'other day, Amaz'd, I cried, what means my Fair : When, archly, fhe,-nay, never start; These may be thought worthy of a corner, though not fo beautiful as Lord Egremont's enchanting verses. Yours, &c. A. B. |