Star.
London, England, 1830-05-20 00:00:00

THE AGRICULTURAL INTEREST.

Mr. COBBETT has addressed the following letter to
a Morning Paper : _

_ .
Shrewsbury, May 13.
SIR—I read in the London newspapers, the Editors
of which are imposed upon by such papers as the
Mercury of Leeds and Guardian of Manchester, that
we have seen the worst." I read, in a speech of
Lord Goderich, that " there is no room for despon-
dency." These two papers, and their like, have been
telling us the same thing for these two years ; and this
Lord, you know, boasted of " our unparalleled pros-
perity," just fifteen months before the " late Panic"
same. But, suppose that we have seen the worst ; what
;s that ?—Judge from the following facts :—The finest
Cheshire cheese would not, yesterday (fair-day), at this
town, sell for more than about thirty-five shillings, the
hundred weight of six score pounds. It was almost all
carried away by the farmers, who really seemed almost in
tears. The same cheese is selling in the shops, by the
single cheese, at fourpence a pound; that is, for forty
shillingsthe hundred weight of six score pounds. " Seeing
is believing," and tasting and touching are the " naked
truth." So I send you a wedge of cheese, cut out of a
single cheese, just now bought by Mr. W. Clark, of
Charles-street, Wolverhamptonat 4d. the pound, which
you will find to be of the very est quality. This cheese,
while the small paper-money was abundant, used to sell at
for 655. to 755. the six score pounds. Judge you, then, of {
the state of the farmer, who has still the same rent, taxes,
and rates, to pay, as he had to pay when the cheese
brought the last-mentioned prices ! Judge you of the
state of a shopkeeper, who lives by supplying that farmer
and his labourers. Judge you of the state of the manu-
facturer who has to supply that shopkeeper. In short,
all are in one common state of ruin or decay. As the
farmers drop, the landowners suffer ; and judge of the
state of a landlord, who, with insolvent tenants, has the
same interest on mortgage, and the same taxes and rates
to pay, that he bad to pay, when he had a solvent and
punctual tenantry. The whole of the middle class are in
a state of despondency not to be described : and it will,
I can assure Lord Goderich, require, to revive their spi-
rits, something more distinct and positive than what they
find in his speech.
I em, Sir, your most obedient servant,
W. COBBETT.
WILLIAM LAURENCE BROWN, DD.

Died at Aberdeen, on the 11th inst. in the 76th year
of his age, William Laurence Brown, D.D. Professor of
Divinity, and Principal of Mariachal College, Aberdeen,
Dean of the Chapel Royal and of the most ancient Order
of the Thistle. This truly learned and excellent person
was the son of the Rev. William Brown, minister of the
English church at Utrecht, and afterwards Professor ofl
Ecclesiastical History in the University of St. Andrews'.l
He was born at Utrecht, and prosecuted his academical
studies at St. Andrews, and in his native city. His first
appointment was that of minister of the English church
at Utreoht ; and at an early period of his life he began to
distinguish himself by his talents, and by his proficiency
in various branches of learning. On three different oc-
casions he obtained the medals awarded by the Teylerian
Society at Haarlem, for the best compositions, in Latin,
Dutch, French, or English, on certain prescribed sub-
jects : his prize essay on the immortality of the soul,
which was written in Latin, has never been printed, but
the other two were in due time given to the public.
"An Essay on the Folly of Scepticism." Lend. 1788,
Bvo. "An Essay on the Natural Equality of Men."
Second edition. Loud. 1794, Bvo.

Before this period, he had been appointed Professor of
Ecclesiastical History and of Moral Philosophy in the
University of Utrecht, and he had delivered an inaugural
" Oratio de Religionis et Philosophise Societate, et Con-
cordia maxime salutari." Traj. ad Rhen. 1788, 4w.
Two years afterwards he was nominated rector of the
University ; and on depositing his temporary dignity, he
pronounced an " °ratio de Imaginatione, in Vitaeln-
atitutione, regunda." Traj. ad Rhea. 1790, 4w. Du-
ring this interval he had been offered the Greek Profes-
sorship at St. Andrews' ; but the curators of the univer-
sity of Utrecht induced him, by a promise of augmenting
his salary, to retain a situation in which he had acquitted
himself with eminent ability. Here he lived in great
credit and comfort, but was at length driven away by
the sudden invasion of the French army : with his wife
and children, and his valuable library; he hastened on
board a vessel, and sought a place of refuge in the land
of his fathers. His literary talents and his moral worth
were particularly known to Lord Auckland, the late am-
bassador to Holland ; and this nobleman having recom-
mended him to the powerful friendship of Dr. Moore,
Archbishop of Canterbury, he was speedily translated to
that northern station where bat spent the remainder of
his long and valuable life. pr. Campbell, who was now
bending beneath the load of years, required a coadjutor'

in his different offices ; and he was gratified to find him-
self associated with an individual of Dr. Brown's per-
sonal and literary character. They lived together on
terms of cordial intimacy ; and the one dying in April,
1796, the other succeeded him as Principal and Pro-
fessor of Divinity, as well as one of the ministers of the
West Church.

Dr. Brown soon became a very conspicuous member
of the Church of Scotland. He was an impressive
preacher, a prompt and forcible speaker ; and some of his
appearances in the General Assembly produced a power-
ful effect.—His speech on the case of Dr. Arnot, in the
year 1800, classed him among the best public orators of
the age.—He was not without considerable warmth of
temper, but at the same time he was manly, open, and
sincere ; nor is this ardour and intensity of feeling so
easily separated from quickness of discernment and vi-
gour of perception. His offices in the Church and Uni-
versity he discharged with much zeal and ability; and
his general habits being sedentary and studious, be found
sufficient leasure for his favourite pursuits of literature.
Of the energy of his pulpit discourses he has left a suf-
ficient specimen in his volume of Sermons. Edinburgh,
1803, Bvo. But the most serious of his intellectual ef-
forts was the essay which obtained Burnet's first prize,
amounting to L. 1250. The competitors were about
fifty in number ; and the second prize, amounting to
4001. was awarded to Dr. Summer, the present bishop of
Chester. Dr. Brown's work was published under the
title of "An Essay on the Existence of a Supreme
Creator." Aberdeen, 1816, 2 vols. Bvo. The last con-
siderable work which he committed to the press, was
" A Comparative View of Christianity and of the other
Forms of Religion which have existed, and still exist, in
the World, particularly with regard to their moral ten-
dency." Edinburgh, 1826, 2 vols. Bvo. This is a pro-
duction of varied learning and of solid merit ; but being
the result of mature thought, and being written in a sober
and manly style, it was less calculated to attract the mo-
bility of readers ; for there is a fashion in theology as well
as in novels.

Besides the works which have already been enume-
rated, he published many occasional tracts, some of which
were of a controversial nature ; and he printed some other
Latin compositions, which were not published, but only
distributed among his literary friends. Before he quitted
Utrecht, he had published a poem, entitled " An Essay
on Sensibility ;" and at a more recent period he sent to
thipress " Philemon, or the Progress of Virtue, a Poem."
Edinburgh 1809, 2 vols. Bvo.
This is a very faint and imperfect outline of his per-
sonal and literary history. His talents and learning are
not unknown to the public; but his manly virtues, his
warmth of feeling, his rectitude of mind, and his fervor'
of piety, are best known to those who bad frequent op-
portunities of seeing him in the circle of his own family or
in the house of a chosen friend. To the University such a
loss will not soon be repaired ; but it is at least to be
hoped and expected that the chair which has successively
been filled by Blackwell, Campbell, and Brown, will not
be bestowed upon any one of the most ordinary attain-
ments in classical learning. The loss sustained by his
own family is not easily to be described. His excel-
lent wife, who was his own cousin, and who was
likewise a native of Holland, became the mother of five
eons and four daughters, all of whom still live to
deplore the loss of a revered father. Although
he reached so advanced a period of life, he retained his
mental facultiee till the day of his death ; and his disso-
lution was rather occasioned by the gradual decay of his
bodily frame, than by any acute suffering. Though re-
duced to extreme weakness, he wrote part of a letter to
two of his sons on the very last day of his mortal ex-
istence : and to his third son, the Greek professor in Ma-
rischal College, he dictated a few sentences within six
hours of his decease. Having been assisted to move
from his bed-chamber to the parlour, he continued till
midnight in the society of his family : he then slept
quietly for three hours, and having repeatedly spoken in
a cool and intelligible manner, be calmly breathed his
last at four o'clock in the morning. The end of the
good man is peace.