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

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 diminiiliedd'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 nstitor 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, velvet titn be added to the
4agli4s landscape : the very fate 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

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