The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-16 00:00:00

HOME COLONIZATION.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—The general sympathy excited by the existing
popular distress will probably lead to the adoption of
measures for permanently improving the condition of
the labouring portion of the community ; at such a
moment you will perhaps allow me to call attention to
certain industrial establishments, founded a quarter of a
Century ago, in calamitous times, by our neighbours the
Dutch. Attempts are, apparently, about to be made on
a small scale to introduce somewhat similar associations
into this country ; one of these, a " Self. supporting
Village Society," connected with the Church of England,
purposes to found a village in the centre of not less than
1,000 acres of land, which shall accommodate 300
families, where the inhabitants may be enabled, " by the
produce of their own labour, not only to support them-
selves, but also to defray the expenses of the establish-
ment. Each person, besides being more or less engaged
in agriculture, will also be employed in that kind of
work for which he is best suited." We know that com-
plete success has followed various well-directed ex-
periments in communism in different parts of the world.
With reference, for example, to the Moravians, 12.
Breuttel, the principal director of the colony of Horn-
hutt, asserts that with regard to "the commercial con-
cerns of the settlements in his experience of twenty-five
years, he never knew one to fail." But perhaps the
most apposite illustration of the benefits to be derived
from self-supporting institutions is to be seen in Ha
laud. The following account is taken from a " Sketch
of German and Dutch Husbandry," published in the
Journal of Agriculture, No. IL, New Series:—
" The colonies of Fredericksoord and Willemsoord
were established when, after two years of great scarcity,
a large proportion of the.population was reduced to ab-
solute destitution. A society was, therefore, formed by
a few benevolent individuals, the object of which was to
give employment to men in this deplorable condition.
In carrying out their purpose they conferred not only an
immediate and lasting benefit on the individuals in ques-
tion, but effected groat national advantages—first, by
stemming the spread of vice, and, in the second place,
by increasing the national resources in converting to
arable land a waste on which even a sprig of heather
was scarcely to be mot with. Such was the origin of
these colonies twenty-four years ago, and no one can
travel the road along which they are situated without
noticing the great change that has been effected on the
face of the country by their establishment. From a
wild, barren country we enter at once a little oasis, which
bears every mark of prosperity—neat cottages, crops as
luxuriant as if Nurtured by a better soil, and gardens
stocked with useful vegetables, and adorned with a
variety of flowers. The quantity of land attached to
each house is about seven acres. The colonists are all
supplied with implements on entering on their plot,
besides a cow and a pig. There is a regular debtor and
creditor account kept ; everything they receive on
entering is marked down against them, and whenever
they are enabled to pay off their debts from economy
of living, they are allowed to rent their plots. Attached
to the colonies are schools for the gratuitous education
of the children, and worshops in which they are taught
some useful trade. I passed one of these shops, in which
there were from thirty to forty looms worked by the
children, and adjoining it was another room, where
some were engaged in spinning, mending shoes, and
other occupations. I was attracted to the place by the
busy clatter of the shuttles and the sounds of music ;
and on coming up to it, found the children engaged at
their respective occupations cheering on one another in
their work by a song. What health, what happiness
shone in these pauper children's faces! Their looks
were a sufficient proof of the benefits derived from such
an institution. How strikingly does a sketch like this
contrast with Crabbe's picture of the interior of an
English parish poor-house!"
We spend upwards of seven millions of money annu-
ally for the mere purpose of keeping the poor alive ;
since the conclusion of the war, in 1815, no less a sum
has been levied upon the rate-payers than 200,000,000/.
There are thirty millions of acres of waste land in
Great Britain and Ireland, of which fifteen millions are
considered as reclaimable. The value set upon the pos-
session of ground by the poor may be estimated from
the fact that, according to Mr. R. B. Sheridan, the
labouring man in Dorsetshire actually gives as high a
rate as 9/. per acre for a small plot ; and it has been
stated on good authority that recently reclaimed land in
Lancashire and Sussex has yielded a produce, under
spade cultivation, that has realised 401., and even 501.,
per acre. With what apparent facility, then, might the
waste places of the land be made contributory to the in-
crease of the wealth of the nation, and, at the same
time, ministrant to the comfort and happiness of the
destitute ! What we seem to need is the intervention
of some master-spirit, who, out of the elements of good
which we suffer to lie around us unimproved, untouched,
shall educe a new order of things, and confer upon the
nation what Wordsworth calls the " English dower of
inward happiness." Before the end of the present cen-
tury the population of the empire will have doubled
itself ; will England in that day be a fountain of health
and fertility, or will it be " a fen of stagnant waters,"
filling the atmosphere with baneful influences, and gene.
rating misery and death ? S.

THE NEW EAST SURREY REFORM REGISTRATION
SOClETY.—Abstract of tho number of claims and objec-
tions made by the Society at the late revision for East
Surrey. Claims :—Made, 165 ; allowed, 158 ; disal-
lawed, 7. Objections :--Made, 106 ; sustained, 75 ;
failed, 13 ; withdrawn, 18.

The Government contract for 100,000 gallons of rum
for the navy was taken yesterday by Messrs. Lemon
Hart and Son, v 9, Fenchurch-street. .