of importance which it induces, more frugal and economical when in full employment. The first step to the improvement of a man is, to let him have something which he can call his own; something which he can add to and improve, with the feeling that he is doing good to his family, and acting in such a way as to be generally approved of. Poverty is the parent of immorality and crime. No improvement in the condition, either of individuals or of nations, takes place till property exists; and of all the different kinds of property known to civilised society, none exercises so important an influence on the individual, as a portion of the earth's surface, however small; a dwelling surrounded by land; a small house and a large garden. This taste is implanted in human nature for the wisest purposes; since it is only in such dwellings that healthy children can be produced and matured. Under these impressions we do not hesitate, with the reviewer, most ardently to desire, that every labourer had a cottage, and land more or less. We desire it even without the establishment of national schools, for the immediate good it would produce, and because we anticipate that, before the production of much evil, schools of some sort will, by some means or other, be established every where, and emigration has become as common as the exportation of manufactures.

To realise such a state of things is the difficulty. Land-agents and rentcollectors of every kind are said to be against multiplying cottages and gardens; because "it is much less troublesome to collect 100l. from one farmer than 10%. apiece from 10 cottagers." It is, therefore, for the independent and benevolent proprietor to make a commencement, however opposed by his agents; and it will be " policy no less than humanity and philosophy to do so."

"No alteration which the legislature can make in the poor laws - no improvement which can be introduced into their administration — nothing short of giving the labourer a field for the application of his industry, can prove available. Except, perhaps, by an enactment enabling the landowner to detach small cottage allotments from farms now under lease, we are not aware that the interference of the legislature could much assist in carrying this mode of ameliorating the condition of the peasantry into effect. If the landowners do not utterly forget the obligations and duties which their situation imposes upon them—nay, if they take a correct view of their own true interests, they will not hesitate. They are not called upon to give any thing; it is not suggested that they should parcel out their land among a host of small occupiers: all that is required of them is, that the labourers actually wanted for the cultivation of their property should be allowed the privilege of hiring, at a fair rent, a small allotment of land, to be cultivated at their leisure hours; and of establishing, by that means, at their own doors, a savings' bank, in which every hour that can be spared, either by themselves or their families, from more profitable employment, may be saved and laid out in a productive manner.'

Neither the interference of the legislature between the employer and the employed, nor the giving of any thing by the former to the latter, will be productive of any other than a momentary and partial good. Whatever is done must be effected on the general principles of free agency and self-interest. If any thing be attempted on other principles, it will neither become general nor be of lasting duration. A correct view of a landlord's, or even a farmer's, true interest will, we agree with the reviewer, lead to rendering the labourers and servants of every description, actually wanted for the cultivation of his property, as comfortable as possible; and the most effectual mode of accomplishing this, with the married servants, is that of allowing them a comfortable cottage, and as much land as will completely occupy their leisure hours, at a moderate rent. This is so obvious to common sense, that it may be safely recommended to all landlords and farmers: many have all along acted on it; and, of those who had

so acted, we never heard of one who gave it up. While there may be great doubts as to the policy of granting as much land as will just enable a family to live, there can be none as to either the general policy, or individual prudence, of grants to servants and labourers of the description above contemplated. If every landlord in the country were to act on it, a great proportion of the existing misery would be immediately reduced.

"A very beneficial law has been recently enacted, enabling parish officers to purchase or hire any quantity of land not exceeding twenty acres, with the view of letting it out in allotments to the labouring parishioners. The judicious application of the authority thus vested in overseers cannot fail to produce the best effects. A number of cottage endowments may be thus created, and placed beyond the reach either of the cupidity or the caprice of individual proprietors. In one point, however, it seems to us that this excellent act is susceptible of improvement. The quantity which it places at the disposal of parochial officers is much too limited to meet the necessities of large parishes. The overseers should, we think, be authorised, under proper restrictions, to purchase or hire a quantity of land, for the purpose of establishing these small cottage-farms, bearing some defined proportion to the extent of cultivated land contained in each parish."

We have great doubts as to the permanent benefit of any thing that can be done by parishes, or, indeed, we may say, that can be done by any party, out of the natural course of things. We do not see the point at which any parish is to stop, or could with justice stop, after it had begun to let out small allotments to labourers. At the same time, we admit that the poorrates may become so excessive, in some parishes, as to render the measure contemplated the best one that could be adopted, in order to save, for a time, some rent to the landlord. If adopted generally, we think it would not be difficult to show that it would end in rendering the poor the lords of the soil. But if it were adopted generally, in connection with a high degree of education, what would be the probable result? Either it would make parents prudent as to the number of children they produced; or it would fit these children for emigration, and thus, instead of burthening the country, create in other countries a demand for its manufactures.

It is remarkable that only once, in the course of this review, does the reviewer mention the subject of education. Incredible exertions," he says, "have been made to spread more extensively, among the English peasantry, the advantages of education, in the hope that the knowledge of what is right would wean them from the practice of what is wrong. But while we sow the wind, we must content ourselves with reaping the whirlwind: we endeavour to sweeten the stream, and make no attempt to cleanse the source." The general opinion of men of a certain manner of thinking is, that the use of education to the poor is to "wean them from the practice of what is wrong." This is a part of our object also: but the grand efficient purpose which we have in view, in recommending universal and high education, is to render a man better able to support his family; to render that family more comfortable by creating a greater number of wants, and supplying them; to raise the dignity of the poor as intellectual beings; to enable them to ascertain their precise position in society; to maintain their rights as men and as citizens, against the encroachments of the rich; and to render their opinion influential in the control of local and general government.

The reviewer concludes by stating, that he has confined his attention "to the condition of those labourers who are regularly employed in the operations of husbandry: the disposal and employment of that surplus population, both agricultural and manufacturing, for whose labour there is no effective demand, forms a wholly distinct question." We thence conclude that this question will be entered into in an early number of the review; and we sincerely desire that it may be done, because, at all events, good will arise from discussion.

In the mean time, whether any thing be done by government in the way of establishing a national system of education or not, landlords of every description cannot err in increasing the comforts of their hired servants and day labourers; by rendering their cottages more healthy, commodious, and neat, and by adding to them a large garden, in no case less than a fourth of an acre. We shall, in our next Number, discuss the subject of improving rural dwellings, commence a series of plans for improved labourers' cottages and gardens, and show how such gardens ought to be cultivated, and what they are calculated to produce.

ART. XIII. Hints for Prize Questions, submitted to Provincial Horticultural Societies.

THE report of the committee of the Newcastle Botanical and Horticultural Society has been sent us by the secretaries, with a request that we would furnish them with some hints for prizes. We are much gratified to observe that an excellent garden-library has been established by the Society, and more especially to learn from the report, that "the taste for reading, already engendered by it, has exceeded their most ardent expectations, and they can with confidence state, that the books in it are in constant and active circulation among those of the members for whose use they were more especially intended, the practical gardeners." Most of the books, it is gratifying to observe, are presentations; and one gentleman, Mr. Charnley, has nobly given fifty volumes of standard works. Mr. Falla, jun., one of the secretaries, and one of the most enlightened of the nursery gardeners of the north, seems to have vied with Mr. Charnley in the liberality of his donations.

As to prizes, the following is a copy of the rough sketch which we sent, and to which we would wish to direct the attention of other country societies:

"What quantity of garden ground does it require to supply all requisite culinary vegetables, including potatoes, to a labourer's family, and to his live stock; the former consisting of two grown persons and four children, and the latter at an average of one pig, three rabbits, three hens, and three ducks? Name all the articles, and give a calendarial treatise on their culture, and on the management of the whole garden throughout the year, specifying the number of hours' labour of one man for every week in the year. Include the mode of cooking the vegetables, so as to make the most of them; how far the potatoes may be mixed with flour to make bread; where and how the manure is to be procured and managed, &c. "All the above circumstances being the same, but two goats for milk being added to the live stock, what additional ground, and what arrangements and management would be requisite ?

"All the above circumstances, &c., as at first, but a cow added, what addition of ground and what arrangements, &c.

"All the circumstances, &c., but a cow, horse, and cart added, what, &c. "Take each of these cases separately, and consider what additional quantity of ground, and what arrangement, management, implements, handmills, or machines, &c., would be requisite to supply the family with breadcorn; what are the best corns to cultivate for this purpose, and what proportion of each; and whether Indian corn might be included? Describe the mills, and mode of grinding and preparing the corn as flour, &c.

"Handsome premiums should be given for the first, second, and third answers to the above questions.

"We are far behind the French, as to the use of the kidneybean, and especially the dried seeds of certain climbing varieties; and much inferior to

the Germans in every thing relating to the varieties of the cabbage family, their culture, and especially their cooking. The same as to winter salading. It would be useful to encourage the annual importation of cabbage-seeds from Germany, especially the borecoles. A good deal is to be done in spreading a taste for succory and other winter salading, as suggested in Vols. II. and III. by a correspondent abroad."

It would be a grand object to ascertain, all over the island, what portion of land would keep a family in culinary vegetables, pork, and eggs; in culinary vegetables, pork, eggs, and milk; in culinary vegetables, pork, eggs, milk, and bread corn; and the best modes of culture and management in every case, including therein the number of hours' work of a man every week in the year. To whatever first premium the Newcastle, or any other country society, may offer for the best treatise on each of these three subjects, we shall, with their permission, add a copy of our Encyclopædia of Plants, and to the second premium a copy of our Hortus Britannicus.

We also offer a copy of the Encyc. of Plants, and of the Hort. Brit., to the person who may send us the best answer in detail to the whole of these three questions as to cottage gardens, provided the same be received by us before the 1st of Feb. next; and copies of the Hort. Brit. to the papers ranking second, third, and fourth in merit. The papers to be clearly and plainly written, with a number, mark, or motto, and without either real name or address. The awards we shall announce on the cover of the Magazine, and the candidate can then come forward with his name, and claim his prize.

ART. XIV. Workhouse Gardens and Gardeners.

ONE of the greatest evils in the management of the poor of this country is the payment of able-bodied men and women, or, at least, of men and women who can work, without requiring or obtaining any useful labour from them. In many parishes, the parish poor are set to work at labours of no real use to society; such as carrying or wheeling stones from one place to another, digging pits and filling them up again, &c. &c.; which cannot but be felt by the humblest labourer as an utter degradation of his nature. In some parishes the labours are of a useful description; but persons who have been accustomed to work at mechanical trades within doors, or who have been servants, perhaps housekeepers, can never do any good at such occupations as breaking stones, mending, watering, or sweeping roads, &c.; on the contrary, they must be disheartened, and so broken down, both in body and mind, as to produce very little benefit to their employers, and to injure their own health.

Why should not every parish be obliged to have a parish garden proportionate to the size of the parish workhouse; say one acre for every four persons which the workhouse is calculated to maintain? The workhouses of large towns might have their gardens in the country, and if it were situated at a great distance, the paupers might be carried thither in the morning and back in the evening in vans. The great advantage of garden work is its agreeableness to almost all men and women whatever, and whether they have been brought up in the town or country. The produce of these gardens would, in great part, be consumed by the poor themselves, and the remainder might be sold. By growing potatoes, wheat, perhaps Indian corn, peas, and kidney beans of the kind used in France and America in soups, and by feeding pigs with the refuse, almost the entire subsistence of the poor would be home-made.

A good large garden, and a good gardener as a manager, would always supply abundance of work, which would be both suitable and agreeable to every description of paupers, male and female, old and young; and when

able-bodied men applied for allowances, or work, they could at once be set to digging or trenching by the job, or by measurement, which would be much better than employment by the day. Almost every thing would depend on getting a very superior gardener, and contriving his remuneration in such a way, as to make it depend on the produce and profits of the garden. As scarcely any single parishes in the country could afford to maintain such a gardener, half a dozen or a dozen parishes might join and employ a gardener in common, and this man, by keeping a horse, might visit each workhouse garden two or three times a week. Each garden might have its pauper foreman and forewoman, and the labours, from the least to the greatest, should, as much as possible, be let against time, or at certain rates; and out of every job some small proportion, if it were only a pipe of homegrown tobacco (or the remuneration might be in numbers of a certain value per dozen), should go to the private pocket of the pauper. Now and then, when superior-minded men have directed their attention to the management of the poor, or of prisoners, they have effected astonishing ameliorations. A case which presents itself to our minds at this moment is that of the workhouse of Hagenau (p. 67.), where 600 female prisoners, condemned to labour for limited periods, by the admirable management of the present governor, actually pay the expenses of the establishment, and put something in their own pockets. Let a source of agreeable and productive labour, such as large gardens, be found for the inmates of our workhouses, and let efficient gardeners be set over them, and we have no doubt the poor in many parishes would nearly or wholly support themselves. But if they did not support themselves, it would surely be a powerful check on the ablebodied idle poor, to know that it was utterly impossible for them to get any relief without a return in labour. Much might be effected in reforming the workhouse system if it were once fairly set about.

But very little can be expected to be done in this way, or in any other tending to reformation, while the parish vestries in the country are composed of men ignorant of general principles on any subject, and governed by the most erroneous ideas of their own interest. The landed proprietors, and the enlightened class of a parish, find it impossible to have any thing to do with such men; they are outnumbered and sometimes bullied by them into absurd measures, and they in consequence seldom look near the vestry, unless compelled to do so by some extraordinary pressure of the rates. Few about large towns have any idea of the absurdities that are committed by vestries in remote parishes in the country; and this will continue to be the case till the men composing these vestries are generally enlightened by reading. As this can never take place with the present generation, any radical improvement must depend on the degree of education given to their offspring. School education, in short, applied to all classes, to such an extent as to produce a reading population, like that of Germany and Sweden, is the only source that can be relied on, either for introducing or perpetuating any grand or general improvement in the condition of any part of society.

It is this general ignorance in the country, and even in the parliament, which renders it necessary to promulgate such an endless number of laws. A people enlightened, justly represented in their legislative assembly, truly free in their commercial intercourse among themselves and with other nations, free as to their choice of opinions, and, above all, free in regard to the press, would not require a multitude of new laws every year. But in an old, corrupted, diseased country like Britain, this is unavoidable, till its constitution be renovated by a new generation of men who have been highly enlightened in their youth, and who shall be neither too rich nor too poor for public business. In the mean time, as this law-enacting system must go on for want of something better, we do not see any great harm that would result from passing an act rendering it legal to have workhouse gardens and gardeners, as well as workhouses.