428 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



of this work. How far this well-meant design is practically put into 

 execution, it is our province to inquire — how it may fulfil the liberal 

 intentions of the author, must be left to the gradual operations of time 

 and opinion. 



The attempt to condense from the ample materials now abroad into as 

 short a compass as possible, and to couch in the plain unscientific 

 phrases of common conversation, a sketch of the causes of the misery 

 which so extensively prevails, and of the power possessed by enlightened 

 opinion, honestly and constitutionally, to relieve it — to point out the 

 most feasible modes of thoroughly effecting such purpose without call- 

 ing in the fallacious aid of supposed expediency — and to demand of all 

 who have power or influence cordial co-operation in a measure so bene- 

 ficial to all ranks and classes of the community, is not the useless and 

 theoretic whim of an hour. With much good reasoning and sound re- 

 flection are mingled many salutary suggestions for the enlarged end in 

 view, which do honour to the searching scrutiny and generous motives 

 of the author ; we must be allowed, however, to state that in the volume 

 before us are some conclusions on certain topics, impressed with much 

 earnestness and force, but which, to our minds, require a little more of 

 that deliberate investigation and sound judgment which the author has 

 the power of applying to most subjects that come within the grasp of 

 her capacious intellect. We will not further allude to this only drawback 

 on the very superior merits of the work before us, but proceed at once 

 to examine such portions of its contents as our circumscribed time and 

 limits will allow. 



The present depressed state of agriculture is unfortunately a topic of 

 such harrowing interest to the hardy tiller of the soil, that we have been 

 induced to direct our comments principally to this division of Mrs. 

 Loudon's valuable treatise. An article on the small allotment system 

 has many claims to attentive consideration, and we hope to see the 

 humane landlord adopting more generally a plan which has been found 

 in every instance of its trial so remarkably efficacious. From this sec- 

 tion of the work we extract the following interesting facts : — 



" Mr. Smith, of Southam, in Warwickshire, as an experiment, divided an acre 

 of land into fifteen lots, among as many boys of about twelve years of age. The 

 rent is five pounds per annum, which is paid with ease out of the sale of their 

 produce, besides supplying the fifteen cottages of their parents amply with good 

 vegetables. While so much has the cultivation of these gardens improved the 

 habits of the boys, that though previously they were without any thing better tO 

 do than loiter or play about the streets of the village, they are all now in full em- 

 ployment for daily hire, and perform the work of their own allotments at over 

 hours ; and so great is the pride and pleasure they each take in the plot cultivated 

 by their own hands, that they never suffer the productiveness of their crops to be 

 deteriorated by insects, drought, or weeds, as is so often the case in larger and 

 and less carefully tended gardens." 



Many other instances of a like description are given, some portions oi 

 the land being sufficient to keep a cow and pigs, clearly shewing that the 

 small allotment system to labouring farmers is one of the most beneficial 

 and compassionate that ever has yet been suggested for that useful class oi 

 men. Besides the utility and comfort of such a system to the agricultural 

 labourer, the parishes are in consequence, in places where the plan has 

 become general, entirely freed from the onerous impost of poor-rates ! 

 Can the beneficent suggestion, fraught with such advantages, require an 

 additional recommendation ? 



To write in such a charitable cause, to argue the matter in all its 

 bearings, to point out its useful and ameliorating qualities, to impress it 



