e, the
dominion of England over her colonies. And such advantages have commerce
and navigation reaped from these establishments, that more than a
fourth of the English shipping is at present computed to be employed in
carrying on the traffic with the American settlements.

Agriculture was anciently very imperfect in England. The sudden
transitions, so often mentioned by historians, from the lowest to the
highest price of grain, and the prodigious inequality of its value
in different years, are sufficient proofs, that the produce depended
entirely on the seasons, and that art had as yet done nothing to fence
against the injuries of the heavens. During this reign, considerable
improvements were made, as in most arts, so in this, the most beneficial
of any. A numerous catalogue might be formed of books and pamphlets
treating of husbandry, which were written about this time. The nation,
however, was still dependent on foreigners for daily bread; and though
its exportation of grain forms a considerable branch of its commerce,
notwithstanding its probable increase of people, there was, in that
period, a regular importation from the Baltic, as well as from France
and if it ever stopped, the bad consequences were sensibly felt by
the nation. Sir Walter Raleigh, in his Observations, computes that two
millions went out at one time for corn. It was not till the fifth of
Elizabeth, that the exportation of corn had been allowed in England; and
Camden observes, that agriculture from that moment received new life and
vigor.

The endeavors of James, or, more properly speaking, those--of the
nation, for promoting trade, were attended with greater success than
those for the encouragement of learning. Though the age was by no means
destitute of eminent writers, a very bad taste in general prevailed
during that period; and the monarch himself was not a little infected
with it.

On the origin of letters among the Greeks, the genius of poets and
orators, as might naturally be expected, was distinguished by an amiable
simplicity, which, whatever rudeness may sometimes attend it, is so
fitted to express the genuine movements of nature and passion, that the
compositions possessed of it must ever appear valuable to the discerning
part of mankind. The glaring figures of discourse, the pointed
antithesis, the unnatural conceit, the jingle of words; such false
ornaments were not employed by early writers; not because they were
rejected, but bec