CAUSES OF DISTRESS REMEDIAL AGENCIES. 553 



manure will make something of it, but that the space is not worth the 

 outlay for its subjection. And again, it must be borne in mind that 

 our poor soils and waste lands belong to somebody : they are not 

 waifs on which any man may seize and appropriate ; freehold and 

 manorial rights meet us at every step, and great difficulties are often 

 experienced in securing a good title ; and these, when added to the 

 natural disadvantages of the soil, prevent capital from locating itself 

 upon it. A case in illustration occurred to ourselves some years ago. 

 We, in common with several other gentlemen, were anxious to rescue 

 a large body of Hand-Loom Weavers, in the neighbourhood of 

 Manchester, from a state of miserable poverty : eleemosynary relief 

 would have been useless, and we found that with a very praiseworthy 

 spirit, they had abstained from making application for parochial 

 relief, except in cases of sickness. We felt convinced that these 

 men, who exhibited the most unequivocal marks of industrious and 

 sober lives, were the victims of their gigantic antagonist Steam ; and 

 that all that was required to render them comfortable, was a 

 means by which their labour might be made available. Funds were 

 , provided to enable them to emigrate ; but to this we refused our 

 sanction, as we could see no substantial cause for robbing ourselves 

 of upwards of 100 valuable families. We had seen, in the case of a 

 few inferior cottage- tenants of our own, the most admirable effects 

 result from attaching small plots of ground to their cottages, and 

 satisfied that if men are furnished with means for being useful to 

 themselves and to others, they will never fail to be so : we resolved 

 upon giving these poverty-stricken weavers small garden-plots, on 

 the cultivation of which their idle and now useless time might be 

 spent. In pursuance of this determination we looked out for suitable 

 ground ; but the excessive price demanded in the immediate outskirts 

 of the town was a complete prohibition. A rough and sandy waste, 

 as irreclaimable in appearance as could well be imagined, was how- 

 ever at length fixed upon; but here again a price, and that not a 

 small one, was demanded, and this, joined to the conveyance, the 

 outlay necessary for fencing, the first coating of manure, and other 

 additamenta, clearly showed that upwards of twenty years must 

 elapse before even interest of money could be expected ; all things 

 too supposed to proceed favourably. The plan was in a great measure 



