Star.
London, England, 1831-07-11 00:00:00

DIET OF OPERATIVES.

Potatoes. butter, sometimes pastry. sometimes bread,often
oat cake, and occasionally, though rarely. a small sprinkling of
bacon, or other meat, constitute their dinner six days out of
the seven. For breakfast and supper they take sometimes fruit
pies, sometimes coffee (or what they call such), but far more
generally tea, diluted till it is little else than warn water.
and the materials of which never came from China, but are
the production of one of those innumerable frauds which are
practised upon those of the poor, who are desirous to imi-
tate the rich. Under any circumstances, we ahoeld depre-
cate the too liberal use of weak tea, as extremely debilitating
to the stomach ; but the practice is fatal to the constitution
of all hard-working men. At first they make use of tea as'
• stimulant to relieve the internal languor and depression,
which always accompanies an unhealthy and ill-regulated
didon ; it affords a temporary relief at the expense of a
subsequent re-action, which in its turn calls for another and
a stronger stimulus ; and it is generally the case, that those
among the work-people who have been long habituated to
the use of tea as a fr.quent meal, are at length reduced to
mix a large proportion of spirits in every cup they take.
This pernicious practice prevails to an inconceivable extent
among our manutacturing population, at every age, and in
both sexes. - -

Nor Is it from any actual distress that they have recourse
to this unsatisfactory and noxious diet, but from bad ma-
nagement. and bad habits. Milk is cheaper than tea., and
would afford them donble the nourishment at half the vice;
but on all these points they arc sadly ignorant, and their
domestic arrangements are for the most part, totally devoid
of economy. A vast proportion of them have very good
wages, amply sufficient to supply tilt nt• with a solid and
substantial tirod. were they well laid out, instead of being
squandered in vain luxuries. or enervating excess. From
the long hours of labour,, and the warm and often close at-
mosphere in which they are confined, a very large propor-
tion of our manufacturing labourers feel the necessity of
same artificial stimulus ; and we regret to say, that many of
them, especially those which rt ceive the highest wages, are
in the habit of spending a portion of their leisure, after
working hount, more particularly on a Saturday evening, and
during the Sunday. in besotting themselves with ale and
beer; and still oftener, with the more tfficitnt stimulus

of gin.
It is customary for them in many of the towns to stop at
the gin-shops, and takes dram as they go to their work in
the morning, and another as they return at nigh. ; and where,
as is frequently theme' the houses of the work-people lie
in a cluster round the factory, it is not uncommon for a
wholesale vender of spirits to leave two gallons (the smallest
quantity which can be sold without a license at one of the
houses, which is distributed in small quantities to the others,
and payment is made to the merchant throngh the original
receiver. The quantify of gin drurk in this way is enor.
mous ; and it is painful to know, that children, and even
girls, are initiated Into this fatal practice at • very tender
age. This is a picture which it is impossible to contern.
plate without sentiments of snow and regret, that such •
state of things should exist within reach of a remedy, and
yet that remedy not be applied ; for, as we shall endeavour
to show in the aubsequAst pages, all these oils may be
greatly mitigated. if not altogether removed. But this is
not all. Ardent spirits is not the only stimulus a hich:this
class of people indulge in. Many of them take large plan.
tides of opium in one form or another; sometimes in pills;
sometimes in laudanum; sometimes in what elver call an
anodyne draught,which is a narcotic of the same kind. They
find this a cheaper stimulus than gin, and magi of them
prefer it. It has been in vogue among them far many years
when wages were low, and the use of it is now continued
when there is no longer this excuse.

BRITISH COLONIES.

From Cobbetes Register.

New Brunswick, though far better than Nova
Scotia, is one great heap of rocks, spruce Sr-trees
growing out of the interstices; and that, in fact.
it has no land except narrow strips on the sides of
the rivers and creeks, and that these strips have
long and long ago been granted away to persons
who had what is called the interest to obtain them.
The country has swamps in it ; and these swamps
are nut only not to be cultivated, but ate impas-
sable, except in the times of the snows.
. .

In Canada the case is much about the same;
and the liberty of the press is much about the same
as it is in Demerara. 11.1a.ther the printers have
licenses in Canada, I do not know ; but I remember
reading in an Upper Canada paper, about three
years ago, of a shorter process than even that of
Demerara. Some persons, in authority of some
sort or other, finding a paragraph in a news-
paper, which paragraph they did not like,
went to the office of the paper took the presses
and the types by force, and flung them into the
lake ; and that the edidur declared that he possessed
no means whatever that afforded him the smallest
chance of redress. Ile might tell a falsehood, but
this is what I read, and I never read any thing in
contradiction of it. But the answer to complaints
of this sort always is, " Without such laws, you
cannot keep colonies."
In the republic of America there are no licences;
there is no flinging of types and presses into the
water ; there are no complaints about the country
being burthened by wretched emigrants ; there are
no military Governois ; and no persons in authority
for the wretched emigrant to crunch down before.
As to this New Brunswick, the snow covers the
ground many feet deep, from the first week in No-
vember to the last week in May. Then cornea
heat, that will, indeed, ripen melons in the natural
ground; but which will nearly melt the gardener
at the same time.

John Weibull, a poor man whom the parish set
out from Seddiecomb in Sussex, and who thought he
was going to the United Stites of America, found
himself landed in this New Brunswick. Ile went
up the river St. John, to a spot that I know as well
as I know Kensington, and then they gave him an
abundance of land, but the pour fellow found that
it w is like having an abundance of sea ; and that,
La short, he and his family twist sin! ve, or lead a
sort of savage life if they remained there. He
might have conic down the river again in the
summer and get into a Yankee vessel which has
brought Green peas and cabbages to the city of
Saint John, and thus get into the United States.
Rut not knowing how to go to work to do this,
and determined to get to the United States, and
hearing that he could get thither through Canada,
he wade, in the month of February or March, a
son of sledge, put his four or five children upon it,
and, drawing it four hundred miles upon the snows,
he and his wife and children got into Lower Canada.
The kind Roman Catholics of Lower Canada,
when he arrived amongst whom, he and his wife
were exhausted and almost starved, lodged and fed

and clothed and started them off again ; but the
snows having melted by this time he wanted a
vehicle with whcels wheren ith to zet his children
along. The kind people made him a little cart.
With this he made his way through Lower and
Upper Canada, living upon the charity of the
people, and at last arrived safe in the United
States, going on to the banks of the Ohio, whence
he now writes to his other that he has a good
farm of his own well stocked with cattle and pigs.
The British American Colonies are Prince Ed-
ward's Island, Newfoundland, Nova cotia, New
Brunswick, and Canada. Six months in the
year, all these countries are covered with snow seve-
ral feet deep. Prince Edward's Island and New-
foundland are two banks of sand, with fir-trees
growing upon part of them. Nova Scotia consists
of heaps of rocks, covered with fir trees, for the
greater part, with a few narrow strips of c:ear
land in the bottoms of the valleys. Nova Scotia
is much about the same thinß; and, in short, this
is the description of the whole, except a part of
Upper Canada, v.l.ich joins on to the worst part of
the United States. Everywhere the snow covers
the ground for several feet deep six months in the
year. So poor are those countries, that garden-
stuff and fruit, even cabbages, are carried from'
the United States by sea, to be eaten by the gover-
nors, officers of the army, and other gentlefolks,
who are paid out of the taxes raised on us.

Of the poverty of those countries I need give
you no proof but thi,; n unely, that many thou
sands of pounds out of our taxes are sent to them
every year to pay the church parsons in those
countrios ; for observe, and I beg you to observe
it well, that the people of those countries have
never submitted to the payment of tithes. Indeed,
the countries are so poor, that they could not pay
them if they would ; but, poor as they are, the
church parsons that are in them contrive to be fat ;
and fat they will be as long as the means of fat-
ness are taken out of taxes raised on us.
_ _

I have told you before, and 1 tell it you again,
that you are to look upon North America as an
ox ; that our colonies are the shins, the horns,
the head, and the hoofs ; and the best part of
Canada may be called the neck; and that the re-
public of America consists of the ribs, the loins,
the rump, the rounds, the flanks, and the kidneys ;
which you ought to choose, if you have a choice,
need not say, unless you have entirely forgotten
what the word beef means.

In short, and to give you a description more
plain, if possible, do you know of any gravel-pit, at
the top of which you see the little bit of soil, not
more than three inches deep, and well mixed with
stones, soil upon which nothing will grow, except
the little hardy weeds, and in which they die in a
summer like this before Old Midsummer-day; and
then, on the other hand, do you know any rich
piece of land, the soil deep as your head, covered
with sweet grass, and an orchard blooming above ?
if you know of these two things, in the first you
behold Nova Scotia and the rest, and in the last
you behold the United States of America ; the lat-
ter inhabited, too, by free people, afraid of no go.
vernment nor any body else ; an hospitable peop.e,
a people like those of their forefathers who went
from England ; and not by a set of crouching
creatures, afraid to have their licenses taken from
them ; afraid to speak, except in a whisper, unless
it be to praise those who have the command
of them, and who then may roar out like
thunder !

But a by should you go out of England at all ?
What should you go away for ? You must still
work for your bread ; and those of you who may
happed to try it, will remember what I tell you—
that GOD has made no country so pleasant to live
and to work in as England. To be sure, to avoid
starvation, to avoid seeing a wife and children
starve, a man would go any where ; but why
shonid they starve here? Here is an abundance
of food, and, as I have over and over again proved,
here is an abundance of work. The coming har-
vest will prove, as indeed every harvest has proved,
that there are not hands enough, instead of there
being too many. Why should you, therefore,
quit your country, encounter the hardships of a sea
voyage, put yourself under the command of a cap-
tain of a ship, face all the dangers of the seas, and,
after all, still be compelled to work for your bread,
and to endure heat and cold greater than you have
ever known or even dreamed of? Anything, I
allow, even death itself, is better than to live upon
potatoes; but why need you live upon potatoes, if
you be willing to work, while the land is loaded
with corn and meat and butter and cheese ? Your
lot has been unbearable, to be sure ; and it is far
front being what it ought to be yet ; but is this re-
f ,rrn of parliament to make no c:.ang,e in that lot ?
If it he not, to contempt and scorn I cast the par
liamentary reform. It is to better your lot that I
want the reform, and if it effect not that purpose,
foolish or roguish will be the man that praises it.
But it will effect that purpose ; it will make your
lot better : have only a little patience : see what a
reformed parliament a ill do : you have borne long ;
bear a little longer : try a reformed parliament, and
do not suffer vour,elves to be inveigled away by
any of the I:mil-jobbing crew of America, to pine
out your lives on their sands and rocks mid swa 4.ps;
do not expose you-selves to perish amidst their
snows, or to be smitten to the exalt by the burn-
ings of their sun.
My advice to you is, not to budge an inch from
your home: this is your country ; you have a
right to be in it, and to have a good living in it ; but
if your fancy lead vou to roam abroad, go t i no
country but to the United States of America ; and
go nut to that in any but an American ship, com-
manded by an American captain. The poor emi-
grants from Sussex, when witting home to their
friends, make this a particular point. They guard
them against many inconvenience and evils; but
they say over and-over again, " If you du come,

-Besides a very full court, and a large attend-
ance of the livery, there was a great number of
ladies present to witness the ceremony, among
whom we observed the Marchioness of Tavistock,
the Ladies Russell, and several other ladies of dis-
tinction. Among the noblemen and gentlemen
present were, the Duke of Sussex, Lord Althorp
(both of whom were loudly cheered on entering the
Hall), the Marquis of Tavistock, Sir J. Graham,
Lord Nugent, the Hon. George L mb, &c.