published, either with or without their names,
as they please to signify the same to me.
"With all my correspondents I shall deal
fairly and ingenuously, professing myself,
excepting only some necessary remarks and
transitions, to be merely editor." Thus
armed, he started boldly into larger essays,
gave numbers consisting of two, four, or six
sheets each, and published at wider intervals.
What occurred in John Houghton's private
affairs, or to what extent the disturbed state
of public affairs affected him, does not appear;
but a long silence ensued. During the whole
of the reign of James the Second, and for
some years afterwards, no Collections in
Trade and Husbandry were given to the
world. When revived in sixteen hundred
and ninety-two, they put on a wholly new
dress: the sheet appeared as a small folio of
two pages, published twice a week. But this
proved to be an enterprise of too much
boldness, the rapidity of publication was too
great; and, at length, the plan settled down to a
form which was steadily maintained during a
period of more than ten years, from sixteen
hundred and ninety-three until seventeen
hundred and three, viz., the publication of a
weekly sheet every Friday.

John Houghton ended his editorial labours
with the frankness and straightforwardness
which had marked his whole conduct of the
work. In his final sheet, forming the final
number of the nineteenth folio volume, he
announced it to have been his intention to
extend the series to twenty volumes; "but
truly," he adds, "since beside my trade of an
apothecary, wherein I have always been, and
still am diligent, I have fallen to the sale of
coffee, tea, and chocolate, in some considerable
degree, I cannot without great
inconvenience to my private affairs, which must
not be neglected, spare time to carry on this
history." Nothing but a hearty yearning for
the well-being of his country, in material and
industrial progress, could thus have led a
man, during a period of twenty-two years, to
search out and publish all kinds of curious
facts that might have a practical value; and
we cannot but respect the good sense which
led him manfully to announce the reason for
bringing his editorial duties at length to a
close. It was a virtual fulfilment of a
promise made to himself and his readers more
than twenty years earlier, when his enterprise
began, and when he stated his plans,
"unless it shall interfere with my employment,
and prejudice the honest care of my
family, which is a topic I shall never part
with." Nor was he wanting in the calm
philosophy so necessary as a stay and prop
against disappointments. He tells us he
wrote and collected, in the hope of attracting
the attention of high personages to the
possibility of making many national improvements;
"but if these things are not or will
not be understood, I'll noways fret myself,
well knowing that I fare as well as a great
many persons, whose charms are not heard
though they charm never so wisely." Being
a member of the agricultural committee
of the Royal Society, John Houghton
announced his main purpose to be "to cause
this kingdom to be well husbandry'd;" and,
in order to attain this end, he hammered
into the agricultural brain an amount of
information touching earths, manures, tilling,
planting, sowing, meadows, pastures, orchards,
gardens, woods, coppices, cereals, fruits, hay,
cattle, poultry, bees, and silk-worms, quite
remarkable, considering the age in which he
wrote. But he did not stop there; he went
into the regions of trade as well as those of
husbandry.

John Houghton had a sagacious eye to
the commercial importance of number-
publishing, now so well understood by all
our bibliopolists—"The reason why I shall
publish these in small parcels often, shall
be to the end, that they may do the greatest
good in the least time; and that not only the
theoretical gentleman, but also the practical
rustic, may enjoy their benefits; and it is
also possible, that if this way causes a
greater consumption, as I reasonably think it
will, the bookseller and I may have the better
understanding."

It would be almost as difficult to say what
is not, as what is, discussed in these papers,
which John Houghton collected—probably
in the scraps of time intervening between his
compounding of medicines and making of
pills, at the sign of the Golden Fleece in
Eastcheap. Clitheroe might be improved.
Core in a cow's udder, its cure. Brick, the
manner of making it. Bounty Act, a great
advantage. Dearness of provision to be
wish'd for. French King a provident father
of his country. Lambs, their manner of
fatting. Manure, the manner of making it.
Protestant French advantageous. People
may be increased by the destruction of wood.
Plain-sailing, made more plain. Small-money,
a proposal to supply its defect. Taxes, the
reason of them in Solomon's time. Wood-
growing within twelve miles of a navigable
river, a great damage to the kingdom.
Ireland growing rich will be for the safety
and power of England. French bread, the
manner of making it. Knowledge of the
quantities of goods exported and imported,
advantages thereof. Grass long grew by
Drapers' Hall. Engine that will wind
eight skeins at a time. Kingdom not
enriched by our trading among ourselves,
alone. Proposals made to increase wealth
by subscriptions for lives. Turnips fatten
sheep. Land and labour cheap, doth not
always get a trade to a country. Salt cures
rot in sheep.

Nothing came amiss to Houghton, if it
appeared to bear on husbandry, trade,
productive industry, or political economy. He
obtained apparently, from the Custom House,
returns of the imports and exports of