pect your verdict." And the woman was acquitted: and
from that day the powers of Thurlow, in voice, sarcasm, gesture, and
all the superior intonations of browbeating, which raised him to the
most dangerous pinnacle of legal greatness, became known, and rapidly
advanced him to fame,[14] and the grandchildren of his father to be
enrolled among the established peers of our realm.

[14] "The foregoing anecdote was told to the writer by the late
James Burton, Esq., of Lockeridge House, a seat of the Marquess of
Aylesbury's, near Marlborough. Mr. Burton married a daughter of
the celebrated actress, Mrs. Cibber, by _General Sloper,_ a man of
the highest fashion of _his_ day, from whom, I believe, Mr.
Burton received the account; the particulars of which, as I have
narrated, no doubt, many persons of Mr. Burton's acquaintance
still remember."

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.

ON THE POTATO.

_BY T.A. KNIGHT, ESQ., F.R.S., PRES. HORT. SOC._

Mr. Knight is convinced by the evidence of experiments, "that the
potato plant, under proper management, is capable of causing to be
brought to market a much greater weight of vegetable food, from any
given extent of ground, than any other plant which we possess." There
is no crop, he says, "so certain as that of potatoes; and it has the
advantage of being generally most abundant, when the crops of wheat
are defective; that is, in wet seasons." The following observations
are extremely interesting:--

"I think I shall be able to adduce some strong facts in support of
my opinion, that by a greatly extended culture of the potato for the
purpose of supplying the markets with vegetable food, a more abundant
and more wholesome supply of food for the use of the labouring classes
of society may be obtained, than wheat can ever afford, and, I
believe, of a more palatable kind to the greater number of persons.
I can just recollect the time when the potato was unknown to the
peasantry of Herefordshire, whose gardens were then almost exclusively
occupied by different varieties of the cabbage. Their food at that
period consisted of bread and cheese with the produce of their
gardens; and tea was unknown to them. About sixty-six years ago,
before the potato was introduced into their gardens, agues had been
so exceedingly prevalent, that the periods in which they, or their
families, had been afflicted with that disorder, were