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

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 folly
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 shard.
bles ; In delighting, amateur gentian with the beauty
of Farnese Tups, Bulls-Belvedere, and Cows de' Medici;
and astonishing amateur butchers by the weight and
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."

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