48 THE LA-BOUR INSTITUTION. 



which render the immense accumulations of property in few hands 

 the peculiar curse of England. 



But even in this portion of his scheme we are obliged to correct 

 Mr. Owen in his exaggeration of his facts. Not content to effect a 

 moderate improvement in the condition of the labouring classes, he 

 informs us that " Mr. Falla, of Gateshead, has made a fortune by 

 spade husbandry." Now here Mr. Owen conceals the fact that Mr. 

 Falla is a gardener and seedsman, celebrated for his plants over the 

 whole of Scotland and the northern counties of England, and not 

 certainly cultivator of wheat, barley, and oats the crops of the ordi- 

 nary farmer. Fortunes cannot, and if the fair remuneration of the 

 labourer be paid, ought not to be made from the cultivation of the 

 actual food of man, and upon the greatest-happiness-principle, the 

 diffusion and not the gathering of wealth is the true source of national 

 prosperity. 



We trust then that Mr. Owen will leave the theatre of the town, 

 and the vain plaudits of the Gray's-Inn Road, for the green lanes and 

 pleasant fields of rural tranquillity. The mechanics of the metropolis, 

 redolent of Barclay and Perkins, will expel him from his self-elected 

 chair; but his power will endure for ever amongst the grateful clod- 

 poles of the valley. His own interest and the comforts of the labourer 

 will be simultaneously consulted by an extensive introduction of culti- 

 vation by the spade ; whilst he derives, we presume, no compensation 

 from his present labours in the magistracy of the labour institution. 

 It is, however, our happiness to remark, that the circumstances of 

 Mr. Owen do not appear to be injured by his operations for the wel- 

 fare of mankind ; for we find from the account of Mr. Ferral that 

 the land and household property at New Harmony remain in his 

 possession to the present time, and have been greatly improved in 

 value by the resort of the population who composed his co-operative 

 institution. This is certainly very good, for we should regret that 

 schemes of benevolence should injure their projectors ; but charity 

 vaunteth not itself, and we trust to see Mr. Owen retire from the im- 

 practicable tailors of the Gray's-Inn Road to the more silent scenes 

 of rural benevolence. 



Viewed in its present situation, we fear that much loss may 

 eventually result to many poor individuals from the operations of the 

 Labour Institution : and as its beneficial effects are so entirely 

 visionary, we trust that the press will remove this stepping-stone to 

 the personal vanity and frivolous ambition of a single individual. 



