The National Register. — London, England, 1816-11-25 00:00:00

~. 4 r... •'~' , . Our Mug, tonfltittittan anb iLaWd. No. 4.59.—V0L. IX. JVE ER' time his wife had four child:en; and buried as many more. The money which it cost him was about 501. the whole of which was saved fioin the earnings of daily labour. The house and garden occupy about twenty poles of ground ; and the garden is as creditable as the ' house to the industry and good sense of the owner ; one of the fences was made of sweet briar and roses mixed with woodbine, another of dirarf plum trees, and against the back of the house he had planted a vine, a nectrine, and a peach tree.' " Such are the advantages which a poor man may attain by perseverance and well-directed industry, but there must be hope to aid. Hopeiathe leaven, without which the mind becomes Inert, are tends only to corrup tion. As well might you look for the kindly fruits of the earth without sunshine in its season, as for any good product from the people without hope. " In all the plans which , have been produced for the management of the pour, the defect,' says Sir Tho mas Bernard, seems to be, that they do not. propose , to operate as on free and rational agents, and on religious and accountable creatures, each filling his place best when most earnestly seeking his own happinees; but as upon works of art and mere mechanism, where the great est momentum is to be acquired when the machinery is moat complicated, and the principles of action most in volved. We have made repeattidexperiments on paro chial manufactures, on farming the poor, on increasing the poor's rate, on the patronage of sentimental beggars, and the establishment of incorporated workhouses :—. Let us now try the influent» of religious motive, the consequence of melioration of character, and the effect or improvement of condition. Let us Mideavour to operate by individual kindness and encouragement, by the pros pect of acquiring property, and by every other incite-. ment to industry and prudence ; and we shall find that when the component parts of the body politic becomes sound and perfect, the state itself will be healthy and thriving? " This is true radical reform,—this is the reform or which the nation stands in need, and it Es that also in , which every one according to his station may bear a mac The good man will not be deterred from persevering in' good, though his attempts to benefit others should sometimes end in disappointment, or sometimes be ill-be stowed and unthankfully requited. A poet more con versant with humble life than any of his brethren, and in knowledge of human nature, its principles and its powers, scarcely inferior to the greatest of its predeces sors, says upon this subject— ' I've heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds With coldness still returnini, Alas! the gratitude of man Has oftener left me mourning" The experience of most good men would agree with the poet's ; for though diseases of the mind (and all vices— without ceasing to be vices—are such) are unhappily frequent as well as disease& of the liwty, like them also they are exceptions so the general pod lionAky state of man. So far out . the further inertia* of payable NA be prevented, and the poor rates diminiilied d 'ity improving the condition of the prewoit generation of th.poor, more may be done by benevolent individuals, and by making parishes sensible of their true interest, than bfintryor liamentary interference. It augured,well if the SOmety, when upon first proposing ibis establishment, Sir Tho mas Bernard the founder deprecated any attempt at proceeding rapidly and prematurely. la the same spirit of wisdom, atter eight years of patient inquiry, he laid it down as a principle that,' in every-measure respecting the poor, we should avoid sudden and rapid changes.— The Turks have a power% that burry comes from the Devil, and slow advancing from,Ged. More than this, he says truly that not only sudden changes ought to be avoided, but also any unnecentary variation in form and manner from the long-existent iutions. Fardifferent this from the principle of our nstit or more properly speaking, our pseudo-refo who, under pretence of restoring the constitution tow tit never ut any time was, would, by their violent innovations, dislocate the Parts, loosen the foundations, and subvert the whole fabric ! Great good may be brought about by means so easy and gradual as almost to be imperceptible. If such slips of waste lands an were given to Joseph Austin and ' Britton Abbot, and as even now ant every where to be seen, were in like mairer to be, appropriated where ver there were laboutesr of goint.ctialecter aisle and de-, sirous to improve theta; that charm which delights the traveller in Flanders, ve lv et titn be added to the 4agli4s landscape : the very fa t e of Om country would, ins few years shew ahit the viU powers had recovered • . MONDAY, NO' 1816. TICAL DISQUISITION. STATE OF THE COUNTRY. (CONTItIVID FRolltoua LAST.) " The Reports of the same meritorious Society supply another of these ' Short and simple annals of the poor, which those who are acquainted with the fisct will be pleased to see brought once more into public notice, and which those who are not, May peruse with pleasure and perhaps with advantage to themselves and others.— Joseph Austin, a bricklayer in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, had often looked with a longing eye upon a bit of ground by the road side,—part of which is called the Lord's Waste,—by a term which reflects little credit upon manorial rights or parochial management. When ever he looked at this spot he used to think what a nice place it would be for a house: and being a house-builder by trade, and something of a castle builder by nature, be used as he fell asleep at night to dream that he was at work there with his bricks and his trowel. At length be applied to the manor court and got a verbal leave to build there. Two of his neighbours, moved by envy as he says, threatened that if he began his house they would pull it down ; upon this he applied a second time to the wort, and obtained a legal permission with the assent of all the copyholders, paying for the entry of his name en the court rolls and sixpence a year quit-rent. And here we must do our country the justice to observe, that if a man of known industry and good character, like Joseph Austin or Britton Abbot, applies for an indul gence of this kind, there is very little probability that the application will be refused. Austin was at this time about forty-two years of age ; he had a wife and four children, and his whole stock of worldly riches amount ed to fourteen shillings : But mon who deserve friends are seldom without them ; and a master, with whom he usually worked at harvest, sold him an old cottage for nine guineas, which he was to work out. He had for some time in his leisure hours been preparing bate.—a sort of bricks made of clay and straw, well beaten to gether, eighteen inches long, twelve wide, and four deep, not burnt, but dried in the sun ; with these and the materials of the old cottage he went to work. The bats make a 'better wad: than lath and plaster with a coating of clay, less wood is required, and the house is stronger. and warmer ; but they must be protected from rain at much as possible, and especially toward the bottom. As be had to live and support Ms family by his daily labour, this building could only be carried on when his regalsg day's. work was done ; he has often continued it by miss light and heard the clock strike tw ve, before he withdrew from an occupation in which his heart was engaged„.., this** when he had to rise at four the next morninfr„ wflille to Cambridge (nearly four miles distant) to hut work, and return in the evening. If his constitution had not been unusually strong, it must have sunk undo, these extraordinary exertions, a fate more frequent than is generally supposed among the intliverious poor. But he seems to have possessed an unweariable frame of body, us well as an evincible spirit. When the building_ was one story high, and the beinus to be laid on, the carpenter discovered that the timber from the old ents; (age would not serve no large a place. This was a severe disappointment ; nothing, however, discouraged him ; he covered it over with a few loads of house, and immediately began a small place in the same manner, at the end, working at this with such perseverance that he got his family in within four months after the foun dations were laid. This great obiect being amemplisheil, he went on leisurely with the rest as he could Rave money for what was wanting : after five years he raised the sevoud story, and in ten it was tiled and coated ; the inside was not completed when Mr. Pluintree communi cated I he story to the Society, but there was house room fur himse r and his fatally, and another apartment was let for a guinea a year. " In this manner,' sates that gentleman, Joseph Austin, with singular industry and eistoomy, in. the course of ten years built himself a house, which he bt•gan with oaiy Iburwen shillings in his pocket. During that - • . . . ti • •'14•1 -,; olio 44: • - • - de• t. atio na 1" ottr+ PSICE Old. their tone and their healthy action ; the poor rates in the agricultural parts of England would be. prevented from increasing at first, and gradually reduced ; the amount of the additional produce in fruit and garden vegetables would appear, if it were calculated, surpris ingly great ; and there would be a produce of virtues and human happiness, the worth of which is berm' all calculation. Greatly too would this desirable end be furthered, if the great landed proprietors, instead of throwing their estates into the largest farms that can be managed by an individual, where in some degree to reverse their system, and ascertaining what are the smallest that can be cul4sated with proper advantage, were to afford many families the means of subsisting with comfort and respectability, instead of enabling one to adventure for wealth by speculating in agriculture upon a large scale. Too long has that foul philosophy prevailed which considered men as mere machines who fulfilled all the purposes of their existence if they furnish recruits for fleets and armies, and raised money sufficient for the exigencies of the state ; or as mere animals, whose wants were all that were to be taken into the account of statistic economy. Hence the absurd assertion that , the greatest benefactor of his species was the man who made two blades of grass grow where only one had grown before ; and hence the more absurd approbation with which the hyperbole was received as a maxim of political wisdom ! Quicquid nasal vaide omni may truly be said of the Englishman ; a good deal of this disposi. Lion has been shown in the ardour with which agri culture has been taken up as a fashion, and as one of the many means for acquiring notoriety. The benefit which has resulted from it may remain when the f o lly shall have evaporated, and the evil past away ; but it were well if our gentle and noble agriculturists would more generally take a pride in increasing the comforts of the peasantry, and ameliorating their moral and intel lectual state. Great and successful efforts have been made not only in improving the fleece of the sheep, but in increasing the tallow and spoiling the mutton '• in fitting cattle to the standard of perfection at the sh ard. bles ; In delighting , amateur gentian with the beauty of Farnese Tups, Bulls-Belvedere, and Cows de' Medici; and astonishing amateur butchers by the weight an d dimensions of Lambert Oxen. The skill of the engraver has been called in to perpetuate the triumphs of art over nature, in inducing a disease of obesity which makes the animal at once hideous, helpless, and miserable; and the fortunate feeders have been rewarded with cups and vases which are to be handed down as heir-looms in their families, and excite the young gentry and nobility of England to emulate their fathers in the same enno. bling pursuits ! A little less of this filly in future, and a little more attention toward the real and permanent interests of our fellow creatures. " What has hitherto been said relates almost esclu. . aively to the agricultural poor; what other means of bettering their condition have been devised, are equal y aPPlicahie to those of all descriptions, miners, manufac. Curers, and those who dwell in large cities, who are hardly lees numerous at this time 'than those engaged in rural occupations, but are in wine mapecte more wretch. ed, and in general more corrupt. Whim iniursuance of Mr. Rose's Bill, authentic information was for the fl nt time in any country laid helve she effine, of ate natal. ber of paupers sod the Ulb petuelea, it ap peared that more then 700,060 persists ogee enrelk4 in tenefit societies. The advantage title& earieriea might fairly be inferred Imo their antiquity ; they are known to hers amiedie Niue el She maim GM& re tram of than ette rotted among our Aeglo. Sawn anetaston, 111111•Wlist is twee remalieht, snnti lotions of a ansiW purport have Wm ihnemW is mm of the South Sea Islands, *mega people still barbarous enough to delight in devouring tit ibulk of their enemies.. There is much good in these societies ; and the protec tion given them has been found of comidentble use. The protection would have been more efficacious if a power of effectual interposition in the affairs of the Societies had been given to .the magistrates ; hut this in!ention was very properly given up, when it was as cettained that the members were jealous of such inter ferEnce. In the neighbourhood of London. a majority ' of one of these societies, all young men, passed a 'tote for dissolving the society and dividing the stock ; thus de'rauding the old members of that provision liar. age at d infirmity, for which they had so long contributed : tl e young villains then formed a new society among aetnselves, and left the old men to the pariah. No lilt. ristrate would have rrinitted an sot of such impudtat iniquity as this." ~~ •• . t• V 0 • 4,94 / 4 "ti.NA • ' 4