and neatly; to clear away expeditiously; to cut out, make, and mend linen, and to keep other clothes in good order; to wash and get up linen; to dry, and clean shoes; to sweep and clean rooms quietly and expeditiously, and to keep them neat and comfortable and lastly, to prepare proper food for children and the sick. The difference in the way of doing these things, as far as my observation could go, is immense; and the difference in point of comfort corresponding. The management of a fire is of great importance; and quietness and quickness are essential to comfort. Some women conduct their household concerns with a noise and confusion which are quite distracting.

The following statement, which was drawn up for the Duke of Somerset, I give by way of specimen of investigation, and to put those, who wish to turn their attention to such subjects, into what I conceive to be the right course. Though it applies to a particular district, much of the matter is of general application, and the doctrines I have laid down, if they are good anywhere, are good every where :

"The following account of the labouring classes in the parish of Berry Pomeroy* is the result of information collected between November 1822 and May 1823; but there is so much difficulty in ascertaining the whole truth in such matters that I do not pledge myself to accuracy in ever particular. Few are able to represent things as they are many wilfully pervert, and most speak from some bias; added to which, being a stranger in that part of the country, I was liable to fall into error from ignorance of local customs and expressions. However easy it may appear to discover the truth, it is only necessary to persevere in investigation, to be convinced of the difficulty.

"The labouring classes in Berry parish are certainly better off than in many parts of the kingdom, but it is in a slavish way. The children, till ten or eleven years of age, are carelessly brought up, generally with parochial assistance, with an imperfect knowledge of reading, and a part of them with a still more imperfect knowledge of writing. They are then bound apprentices by the parish till they are twenty-one, at which period, with a moderate stock of clothes, and a few shillings in their pockets, with a mere knowledge of drudgery, and great unskilfulness in domestic economy, without hope of bettering their condition, or thought of looking beyond the present moment, with the parish for their world, and the overseer for their guide, they become nominally free. The course then is to hire themselves as yearly servants for board, lodging, and washing, with from 57. to 91. in wages. They generally marry early, and then go into cottages

* In Devonshire.

or rooms, as they can get them, with at most a small garden, a pig, and a hen or two. They then become daily labourers, and earn from 7s. to 10s. a-week (including an allowance of cider), and their wives get about 8d. a-day when there is out-door work; at other times generally doing nothing. Their highest idea of independence is to maintain themselves as long as they have only a small family, and are in health, and can get labour in the parish or parts adjoining; but they look no further.* Ignorance, and their reliance on the parish, bind the great majority of them to the soil as effectually as if they were Russian boors. There are a few who make voyages to Newfoundland, but are still frequently dependent on parochial relief, and the instances of those who get out into the world are so few as not to be worth mentioning. Artisans, lime-burners, and cider-makers, get higher wages than the agricultural labourers, but are more subject to want of employment, and are equally or more improvident. The only present instance in the parish of a man bringing up a family without aid, is of a lime-burner at Langcombe, named Richard Warren, who, however laudable his practice, maintains, from sympathy or fear, the same doctrine as the rest; and when age or infirmity overtakes him, he must come to the same state. From a conference I had with five of the most deserving or intelligent labourers of the parish I was more convinced than before, even from their own partial and very guarded statements † of their ability to provide for themselves; but I was at the same time forcibly struck with the discouragements they labour under; and it appeared to me that after having compelled them to do their best, the consequence would be sooner or later to make them quit their unpromising situation for the probability of turning their prudence to greater account in more favourable districts,

* I should except those who are in sick-clubs, but whose subscriptions the parish is frequently called upon to pay.

+ The difficulty at getting at the truth from persons in this debasing state of dependence is almost inconceivable. They live a prey to suspicion, concealment, and apprehension, both on their own individual account and on account of the common cause. Hence the gross errors which well-meaning but superficial inquirers fall into respecting them. I once counted a row of eggs laid upon a shelf in a pauper-labourer's cottage, and then asked his wife how many hens she had, which, coupled with my having a note-book in my hand, so alarmed her, that she was seized with a violent illness. If she had been aware of my coming, the eggs would have been concealed. In a cottage in Lancashire, whilst the inmates were complaining that they had not tasted butcher's meat for a month, a terrier I had with me turned up a mug under which were the bones of a neck of mutton newly picked. A woman, just after telling me she could not get food, forgot herself, and cut a large slice of bread to quiet a squalling child. The child bit one piece, and then threw the remainder indignantly into the dirt.

leaving their places to be filled up by new comers, with their cast-off habits. It appears as impossible to retain a provident population in Bridgetown, as Bridgetown is, as to have a healthy one in a swamp-the place must be reformed as well as the people. It is certain, that of the labouring classes of all descriptions, whether strong or weak, skilful or unskilful, industrious or idle-whether with large or small families, married or unmarried, marrying late or early, daily labourers or artisans-whether possessing the most advantages or the fewest-whether working constantly for the richest, or occasionally for the poorest farmers, it is certain that not one has more than a few pounds beforehand, The system therefore is radically bad-a system of debasing equalization. The parish, on the one hand, holds out strong temptations to improvidence; and, on the other, there are no inducements, or none sufficiently powerful, to encourage a contrary course. There is a labourer at Berry who has a wife and only one child; he is subject to an infirmity which occasionally disables him from labour, during which time he has relief from the parish. His wife is one of the only two remaining women possessed of looms. She might by industry gain as much as would keep her husband during his illnesses; but she has not used her loom for two years, pleading the difficulty of getting work, and the ill health of her child, but in reality not choosing to save the parish,' as the phrase is for that would be the only effect she perceives; and she would incur the blame of her compeers for an abandonment of their supposed rights. To compel her to work is possible, but it would be contending against public opinion, and perhaps inducing an intentional aggravation of the man's infirmity, in order to triumph over the parish, instances of which perverseness are by no means rare, nor are they to be wondered at, when it is considered that they are esteemed as a sort of self-devotion, or patriotic contest for the common rights. According to the present state of things, an individual of the lower class, who should be inclined to become provident, must suffer present privation for remote and uncertain advantages. All he could expect would be the accumulation of a little fund, from which whatever advantages he could derive, the sums he would otherwise have obtained from the parish would be reckoned as so much lost, and so he would be continually told. He would have no means of turning his capital to account as long as he remained in the parish, except perhaps by setting up a small shop, and all he could do would be to use his fund as his necessities obliged him, with the consciousness that it might fail at last, and leave him in no better state than the rest. 'What is the use of saving?-the parish must keep us,' is the

common language; and unless it is made apparent, that they who save will have opportunities afforded them of providing much better for themselves than the parish will provide for them, it is almost in vain to think of creating a provident population. Saving implies present privation, and there must be future advantages held out, and those not very remote, to induce and preserve an alteration of habits. With attention and judgment a system might be introduced which would operate a completely beneficial change, making allowance for occasional instances of human frailty-that is, prudence might be made to become almost as general as improvidence is now. I shall confine myself, however, to only one suggestion (as being that alone which, under present circumstances, is likely to be in any degree carried into practice), and that relates to the residences of the labouring classes.

"On account of the scarcity of accommodations, cottage rents are oppressively high, epecially in Bridgetown. A journeyman shoemaker there, who has had fourteen children, and has five at home, pays 37. 10s. a year for one room and a miserable garret, with a small garden. He gains 2s. or 3s. a week by teaching a night-school; but during his wife's confinement in the spring, he was obliged to dismiss his scholars for want of room just when his expenses were the greatest, and the parish had to make up the difference. The crowded state of the population and the wretched state of the accommodations are highly unfavourable to health and morals, and some of the labourers have to go three miles to their work, which, in a hilly country, and rainy climate, is a serious drawback upon their time in task-work, a profitless wear of the constitution, and a frequent cause of disease and infirmity. After a sorry breakfast of weak suet broth, a labourer of the poorer order sometimes walks three miles to his work, with little more than a piece of barley bread for his dinner, eaten in the fields, in wet clothes, and returns at night to a filthy crowded chamber to his supper, which is his principal meal. The distance from employment, too, is a frequent cause of not obtaining it at all; and I believe if the artisans also were a little scattered, it would be better both for themselves and for those who have occasion to employ them. But I consider the circumstance of there being so few gradations as to residence, as one of the greatest evils. A separate cottage in bad condition, with a small garden, generally too small to be of much advantage, and therefore neglected, forms, with I think one or two exceptions, the highest class of labourers' tenements. The consequence is, the great stimulus to exertion, the hope of advancement, has scarcely any operation. If there were gradations, from a couple of rooms

to comfortable family cottages, with land sufficient for a garden, a small orchard, and to keep a cow or two, there would be an obvious inducement continually held out to thrift and good character, in hopes of obtaining the higher prizes. Individuals would begin to strive for themselves, and would cease, as at present, to make common cause against the parish.'

The suc

cess of one would excite the emulation of others; and the general character would be raised. The children of those in the higher rank of labourers would often be deterred from too early marriages by the dread of descending from their station, and the children of the lowest class would sometimes, from feelings of prudence or ambition, wait till they had the means or opportunity of advancement, The impulse of character would be felt, and the present practice of heedless marriages would cease to be so prevalent. The advantages of gardens to cottages, I believe, are universally allowed: the smallest size, as some of the labourers informed me, should be one-eighth of an acre. I am aware that an objection would be alleged to their having orchards, as affording them a cover for stealing and selling the farmer's apples; but as only those would possess them who had advanced themselves, or whose fathers had done so before them, I do not think the objection valid against the moral effect of making a higher gradation. Indeed, robbing orchards would probably be held in greater disrepute than it is, when some of the class, who are now the offenders, might themselves suffer from the practice. I have heard it objected, that labourers keeping cows diminishes the farmers' profits; but experience in many parts of the country where it is the custom, so fully proves its advantages, that I hold it unnecessary to say much upon the subject. A plentiful supply of milk, and domestic employment for females, much more than couterbalance any inconvenience, if there be any, which I much doubt, from a labourer's cow. With a proper-sized garden, a

* Being on one low level, the labouring classes here have all one common corresponding feeling. Though apparently quiet and orderly, I found them in reality more violent and unreasonable, particularly the women, and less intelligent, than I have experienced in the manufacturing districts.

† Passion, affection, the hope of offspring or of domestic comfort, have comparatively little operation in producing marriages in this degraded class. Mere custom is one great cause. If the men could obtain employment as easily whilst single as when married, and could meet with accommodation undisturbed by the matrimonial uncomforts of others, and the women had a more marked choice between provident and improvident husbands, a great alteration for the better would take place. Houses kept by respectable middle-aged people without any young children, where single men could have accommodation according to their inclination or means, would considerably conduce to prevent premature marriages, and would be otherwise advantageous in many ways.