My correspondence this year was, upon the whole, interesting, as a few of the letters will show. From the Earl of Bristol, a panegyric on agriculture; another from the same, an animated defence of the Presbyterians. ‘Downhill, Coleraine: Jan. 15, 1785. ‘My dear Arthur,—I am mortified, and should really be ashamed to see your entertaining letter so long unanswered, but that the multiplicity, as well as variety of my occupations, bereave me sometimes of the most pleasing ones; from sunrise to long after sunset I am not a moment idle, either in mind or person, and I can venture to assure you that agriculture, being the basis of all public and private virtues, as it banishes laziness, fortifies the body, leads to fair and honest procreation, provides sustenance and multiplies the tenderest and most endearing ties in nature, has no little share both of my time and attention. Let one hundred and fifty men daily employed verify my assertion; let the rocks which disappear and the grass which succeeds to them corroborate that evidence. But, then, what have I to do with the English plough? Neither our soil, nor our climate, nor our labourers are the same; we are poor and you are rich; when industry has approximated a little of our wealth to yours perhaps we may be tempted to adopt your luxury in agriculture, unless before that you shall have discovered your errors and so saved us the trouble of retracting what we have not had time to adopt. ‘As to my Presbyterians, I am glad you are modest enough not to censure those, whom you are honest enough to confess you do not know; all the harm which I find in them is that they love the rights of mankind, and if in pursuing them for themselves they refuse to participate with their fellow citizens, I would join in your execrations, and set them a better example than hitherto they have received from our church. Adieu! let me hear from you sometimes when you have nothing better to do, and tell Symonds, with my affectionate compliments, that I have recovered my lost map of the Pontine marshes, and will send it by the first opportunity. If you ever see the learned and good-humoured Rector (Reverend George Ashby) don’t let him forget ‘Your affectionate friend, ‘BRISTOL.’ ‘Downhill, Coleraine: March 9, 1785.