a child for a child, an adult for an adult-a regulation by which much confusion is avoided, and by which the youngest children are gradually accustomed to the payment of their little deposits. As to the place of payment, the truth is, the deposits are received in the schoolroom, the school-room at Farthinghoe being situate in the churchyard, and the words of the rule being that the money is to be paid there "immediately after attendance at morning or evening divine service." But I apprehend the chief objection entertained by C. S. against the rule is, that the deposits are required to be made on a Sunday. Now with respect to that, I have only to observe, that I am so far from insisting upon it as applicable to all cases, that in a parish in Kent, where I have established a similar society, I have consented to a week day for depositing, while at Farthinghoe I have chosen Sunday, my mind in each case being directed by a regard to local circumstances. Yet I have no hesitation in declaring in favour of Sunday, as a day for receiving deposits, and that too immediately after an attendance at divine worship, in all cases where the circumstances of the parish admit of it. My reasons for this will appear from the following extract (page 17) of a statement of results respecting the Farthinghoe Clothing Society, which I published at Messrs. Rivingtons' a year ago, and every copy of which has, I fear, [?] been sold:

"Rule 7.-To prove the value of this rule I refer the reader to the Results 6, 10, 11, and 14. It may perhaps excite objections with some, but I have never heard an objection sufficiently strong to overcome the Results in its favour. It requires attendance at divine worship in the church on the part of the depositor. In doing so, it requires that which is calculated, it may be believed, to bring a blessing upon the society as well as the depositor. The laws of God and man demand it, independent of the society, and in all friendly clubs a similar rule prevails. The society enjoins it, supplying a motive for attendance at divine worship where higher motives might be wanting. Surely it cannot be regarded as inconsistent with the designs of God, by whom the Sabbath was made for man,' thus to require what God himself demands of his creatures. They who might not choose to have the payments made on the Sunday, could not, I conceive, have any objection to the depositors' presence at public worship being required.

To those persons that object to the deposit being made on a Sunday, on the score of its being a worldly and secular act, there is in my opinion an easy reply; it is this—there is not one operation of the society that is not intended, and that is not calculated, to promote the moral and religious improvement of the depositors. An ennobling and Christian intercourse between the rich and the poor; the encouragement and practice of charity; the industry of the working classes; their joining in public prayer; the opportunity of religious instruction; the endeavour to possess a conscience void of offence; the cultivation of those provident habits upon which morality as well as comfort is found to depend, and out of which may arise, by divine assistance, those very dispositions which are essential to salvation :-such are the objects of this society-the very objects, it may be observed, for which the Sabbath was appointed-for which Christians assemble together in the house of God-for which they kneel-for which they supplicate. Can any man that seriously considers this, be of opinion, that the simple act of depositing 3d. towards a fund connected with such tendencies-promoting such happiness-advancing such mighty interests-that such an act, I say, can be displeasing to the

Almighty? As to its being a secular employment, is it more secular than the holding of a parish vestry on that day, an act commanded by law, upon the ground, it may be supposed, that the temporal good of the poor cannot be promoted at a better time? In Scotland and in Ireland, a kind of voluntary poor's rate is regularly raised every Sunday during divine service, by carrying a box from pew to pew for gifts. Collections are everywhere made in England after charity sermons; money is received for the assistance of the poor at the Sacrament; and loaves of bread are in many English parishes given away in the church on Sunday. Connect all this with the superior convenience with which the labouring poor are enabled to deposit on the Sabbath, over the six days of their toil-do this, and then say in what respect is the sacred day violated? Call it a weekly charity sermon, and who can object to it? In framing this rule, I had no intention to exclude dissenters, there not being a single dissenter in my parish, and the attendance at church being good and regular; yet, as a clergyman, I cannot consider that this rule is objectionable from its operating to the exclusion of dissenters, for, 1. The dissenters, I believe, never include any but those of their own body in their own charitable societies.-2. The dissenters are not hereby prevented from establishing similar societies among themselves, for the relief of their own members.-3. It may properly operate to keep members of the establishment from quitting the household of their faith, as some are apt to do, not from any ground of objection to the principles of our establishment, but from worldly and temporal reasons.-4. The society, in encouraging depositors to go to church, encourages them to hear those doctrines which every clergyman of the establishment regards as involving questions not of party triumph, but of eternal happiness. -5. If dissenters are included in such a society, while the members of the establishment are excluded from the dissenting societies, a positive pecuniary premium will be given to bribe men into places of dissent.-6. It enables the clergyman to know more of the character of the depositor.-Lastly, I again refer the reader to the improvement in morals, to which this society appears have contributed."

And now, Sir, that I have thus explained the grounds upon which the Sunday rule of my Clothing Club was built, allow me to state the principle upon which I conceive a clothing society, and almost every charitable parochial institution should be conducted for the benefit of the poor. The grand object, and therefore the great tendency of every plan, whether the aim be avowed or concealed, should be to unpauperize the labourer, and that at any present sacrifice of money, and at any loss of temporary popularity. I speak here principally in reference to the southern and midland counties, and I say that all love as well as all labour is worse than misapplied that does not endeavour to rescue the poor from the degradation, the profligacies, the miseries, the inhumanities of pauperism. I respect the motives of those benevolent persons who try to cheer the gloom of the pauper's dwelling by gifts of clothing and fuel, and by the produce of cheap land allotments. But I cannot conceal from myself the melancholy truth, that every expedient to endear pauperism to the labourer, by surrounding it with comforts, is to perpetuate one of his direst misfortunes, and to render his worst calamity hereditary to his children. The system, but too general, and alas! too plausible, of remedying to the poor man all the evils of his improvidence, is assuredly to generate an improvident race, and thus to ruin to a frightful extent not only the bodies but the souls of the poor. It is always, therefore, in refer

ence to the system, of which clothing societies and land allotments form a part, that their real value is to be considered. The charities of the wealthy, aye, and of persons possessed of moderate means in England, are truly admirable to contemplate; but they are not always wisely directed, nay, their tendency is not unfrequently to aggravate the suffering they are given to relieve, and to increase the amount of misery many fold. Instead of, or rather in addition to clothing the body and filling the belly to day, with that which may be sold or wasted, or may pass away to-morrow, let the system be changed that renders the one naked and the other empty. But how, it will be said, can this be effected? I reply by stating, that in nine parishes out of ten, with which I have been able to form any intimate acquaintance, the greater portion, if not the entirety of the pauperism might be got rid of by a judicious use of land allotments and clothing societies. That such results have not taken place, where those charitable efforts have been made, has been owing to this, that the real evil of pauperism has not been clearly discerned or sufficiently considered, and that a special endeavour to eradicate it has formed no part in the parochial arrangements. I am told that parishes could not be brought to consent to this or that plan, but I do not hear that it has been proposed and rejected. Besides, I am told this by persons who, upon inquiry, I find have themselves no clear and distinct view of the nature and workings of pauperism, and consequently cannot have convinced their fellow parishioners of the evil of it. Others, again, profess to wait for an entire repeal of the poor laws (dum defluat amnis,) and think it useless to employ individual exertion till the legislature has rendered it unnecessary. Yet among these different classes of men, I find many most benevolent persons studiously employed in promoting clothing societies and land allotments, without being aware, that by those very means nine tenths of the existing pauperism, of which they complain, might be removed. I insist upon this with confidence, and from my own experience, as the following statement will shew.

In 1826 the parish of Farthinghoe, in Northamptonshire, was as lawless, as profligate, as drunken, as poaching, as idle, inasmuch as it was as pauperised a parish as any with which I have ever been acquainted. It had gradually attained to that state, and seemed to threaten every farmer as well as every labourer with ruin. The report of its expenditure in that year, as made to the House of Commons, will be found, I believe, to be 7157.; the population was about 500; the acres about 1400, of which about 1050 are pasture and 350 arable; the soil divided among seven landed proprietors in somewhere about the following proportions of acres-1070, 100, 100, 70, 50, 5, 5; in addition to these proprietors of land, there were ten owners of houses not possessed of land. I mention these statistics in order to make your readers acquainted with the extent of difficulty which was to be overcome, ere the parish could be unpauperised, and to shew by what has been done, what may be done. In 1826, I convinced myself that if something were not shortly done, besides preaching in the church and advising and remonstrating out of it, neither counsel in

the house of God, nor entreaties at the dwellings of the poor, would be of much avail. Accordingly, I made up my mind to endure every kind of obloquy, and proclaim war upon able-bodied pauperism in every shape, wherever and whenever I could meet with it in the parish. In this attempt I knew I should have to sustain the fiercest opposition in all quarters, save that of the chief (non-resident) landedproprietor of 1070 acres, whose support had been promised me. The result has been, that since March, 1829, up to the present day, (Nov. 16th, 1832,) not a single able-bodied labourer has received (I may, I believe, say, scarcely one has asked either for himself or his family, however large) one farthing from the overseer; the farmers have had their work all done; the labourers have been constantly employed and liberally paid, and the general state of the parish rendered, as to order, morals, cleanliness, comfort and contentment, the reverse in every respect of what it was in 1826. The report of the parish expenditure ending in March, 1832, is 2537., and in March, 1833, will probably be below 1907., sums paid for eight apprentices and six emigrants forming part of the parochial expences within the last four years.

If am asked, as I have often been asked of late, what my system has been, I have only this reply to make-the only system pursued has been that of detecting and destroying pauperism under whatever guise or disguise it might exist, and that in spite of all discouragements and dissuasives. How each case was treated, the select vestrybook will shew, since scarcely any thing has been done or said in the vestry-room, whether by rate-payer or by pauper, for the last six or seven years, that is not most minutely recorded. I have only to add that I have endeavoured in every possible manner to elevate the labourers and to instil into their minds notions of comfort. A pig, a clock, a barrel of beer, has more to do in determining the moral, and through that, by degrees, the religious character, than is generally supposed. Make a man comfortless, and you make him improvident; make him improvident, and he is lost both here and hereafter. The want of forethought pervades the whole entire man; he sinks into the condition of an idle, reckless profligate, thus exemplifying the melancholy sentiment of the poet

"Who falls from all he knows of bliss,
Cares little into what abyss."

To raise his mind, I have endeavoured to render comforts not only attractive but accessible, connecting the acquisition of them, however, with character, industry, and morality. Instead of indulging him in his desire of living in an unrented, or a too low-rented, and therefore, squallid, filthy, ruinous, cottage, I have made him pay a rent that, though moderate (for it has hardly ever exceeded 27. per annum), has covered the roof with a warm thatch, neatly painted the whole of the exterior walls, given him new lattice windows, built substantial brick partitions to his pantry, painted his doors and his windowframes and his very mantle-piece and shelves, and lastly, built (at least this is now nearly universal) a hovel and a pigstye at a small VOL. III.-Jan. 1833.

Ꮮ

distance from his dwelling. In addition to this every space near the labourer's cottage has been enclosed, and a portion of it embellished with flowers sufficient to give him a pride in its exterior neatness, and make him exert himself to preserve it upon an equality with the neighbouring gardens.

And now, Sir, may I not ask, without being snubbed as vain, why others should not act upon the principle, which I assure them has proved in every respect, not only gratifying in its results, but actually economical in the progress of it? Why should not each person, according to the circumstances of the parish in which he resides, check at least, if he cannot eradicate the growth of pauperism? Why should not every active clergyman or layman, with slender means, solicit the co-operation of the great landed proprietor, and by that union effect what is so essential to the well-being of all? Addressing myself through "The British Magazine," to readers conversant with rural affairs, I shall be pardoned for submitting to their serious consideration, whether the grand parochial curse of England might not be in numerous instances averted, in all mitigated; and whether land allotments and clothing societies, directed to their full use, may not effect far greater good, in their remote and somewhat indirect consequences, than in their more obvious and immediate results. In conclusion of this long address I will observe, that under the head of pauperism, I do not include the relief which is given to the aged, the sick, the infirm, and the orphan; to them I would be liberal in assistance, and upon them I would wish to affix no stigma; but I freely confess that I am anxious to remove even them from the degrading acceptance of alms from an overseer, and at this very time I am forming a plan, by which I hope to induce the rate-payers in my parish to undertake to relieve certain persons upon our permanent weekly list as objects of private charity, at home, instead of paying them through the overseer. That in this, and in all such matters, many persons may succeed far better than I have done, I have no doubt, for (the truth is declared as an encouragement to others) although I am able to act fortiter in re, I have unfortunately for myself a lack of its desirable accompaniment, the ability to recommend what I propose by the suaviter in modo. The object of this letter must be accepted as an apology for its length, and the illness of the writer, now at Cheltenham in search of health, for some of its deficiencies.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

F. L.

(Curate of Farthinghoe.)

P.S. With respect to land allotments, a quarter of an acre has seemed to be the maximum within the ability of the honest labourer to cultivate. The rent should be fair, and by no means so low as to make the land appear to be allotted by way of charity. All rent is deemed a grievance in such a case; my general scale has been half a quarter of an acre to each, at the rent of 31. per acre, free from rates and tithe. This, by the bye, is in addition to a garden at home, which every labourer rents as part of his cottage occupancy.