want to know what was the state of the people; what were a
labourer's wages; what were the prices of the food, and how the
labourers were dressed in the reign of that great king. What is a young
person to imbibe from a history of England, as it is called, like that
of Goldsmith? It is a little romance to amuse children; and the other
historians have given us larger romances to amuse lazy persons who are
grown up. To destroy the effects of these, and to make the people know
what their country has been, will be my object; and this, I trust, I
shall effect. We are, it is said, to have a History of England from SIR
JAMES MACKINTOSH; a History of Scotland from SIR WALTER SCOTT; and a
HISTORY OF IRELAND from Tommy Moore, the luscious poet. A Scotch lawyer,
who is a pensioner, and a member for Knaresborough, which is well known
to the Duke of Devonshire, who has the great tithes of twenty parishes
in Ireland, will, doubtless, write a most impartial _History of
England_, and particularly as far as relates to _boroughs_ and _tithes_.
A Scotch romance-writer, who, under the name of _Malagrowther_, wrote a
pamphlet to prove, that one-pound-notes were the cause of riches to
Scotland, will write, to be sure, a most instructive _History of
Scotland_. And, from the pen of a Irish poet, who is a sinecure
placeman, and a protege of an English peer that has immense parcels of
Irish confiscated estates, what a beautiful history shall we not then
have of _unfortunate Ireland_! Oh, no! We are not going to be content
with stuff such as these men will bring out. Hume and Smollett and
Robertson have cheated us long enough. We are not in a humour to be
cheated any longer.

321. GEOGRAPHY is taught at schools, if we believe the school-cards. The
scholars can tell you all about the divisions of the earth, and this is
very well for persons who have leisure to indulge their curiosity; but
it does seem to me monstrous that a young person's time should be spent
in ascertaining the boundaries of Persia or China, knowing nothing all
the while about the boundaries, the rivers, the soil, or the products,
or of the any thing else of Yorkshire or Devonshire. The first thing in
geography is to know that of the country in which we live, especially
that in which we were born: I have now seen almost every hill and valley
in it with my own eyes; nearly every city and every town, and no small
part of the whole of the villages. I am therefore qualified to give an