THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



445 



neighbourhood. I would wish that under all cir- 

 cumstances our labourers should receive the rudi- 

 ments of education; their children should be so far 

 educated as to be able to read so as to understand 

 what they read, to write sufficiently to communi- 

 cate with their friends, and also thoroughly to un- 

 derstand the four simple rules of arithmetic ; and 

 one thing in particular, which is too often neglected 

 in our village schools, I would teach them freely to 

 use soap and water, for cleanliness is next to godli- 

 ness, and ignorance and filth the parents of crime 

 and misery ; girls also should be better trained for 

 domestic servants, washing, baking, &c. Thus far 

 I would educate them, using such means as may 

 be found available in every parish, and at as little 

 expense to them as possible; but something they 

 should pay, however triflng it may be, for it too 

 often happens that what costs nothing is but little 

 valued, and a low estimate of education should be 

 avoided. I think a small payment raises a little 

 honest pride and feeling in a man of having 

 done his best for his offspring. I hope 

 the time is not far distant when all will 

 be enabled to write their names. Do not suppose 

 that I consider this sketch a sufficient education 

 for a poor person, only that, further than his 

 grounding, he should be left mostly to his own 

 resources, lest we place him in a better position 

 than the class who have, by their frugality and 

 perseverance, raised themselves higher in the scale 

 of society, which, in my humble opinion, is wrong, 

 and would go far to remove that stimulus to ex- 

 ertion which is so commendable. I am pleased to 

 be enabled to state that schools purposely erected 

 for the poor are now to be found in nearly every 

 parish, built by the munificence of the landowners, 

 assisted by the clergy and tenantry. If any parish 

 can be found without one, it is becoming the ex- 

 ception to a general rule ; and none of us can 

 judge of the results of even such an education as I 

 have named, for it must not be forgotten that from 

 the labouring classes have sprung many excellent 

 and extraordinary men, bright examples of what 

 may be done by perseverance and industry. I 

 will mention, for instance. Watt, the inventor of 

 the steam-engine, and Stephenson, to whom we 

 are mostly indebted for our railways. Only con- 

 sider for a moment the value of these combined. 

 Why, they are beyond our calculation or imagina- 

 tion. Boys have of late years been kept longer 

 from labour, for the purpose of education. We 

 know a few years since, at about seven or eight 

 years of age, they were expected to earn some- 

 thing. In the majority of cases, they are now kept 

 at school until nine or ten years old, and I rejoice 

 that it is so, for we all know, from daily experience 

 in life, that the man is most useful who has learnt 

 to value knowledge and the use of his brains as 

 well as to e.x.ert his strong arm. The labour of the 

 head of a workman is to us most valuable. I will 

 now call your attention to the cottages of our la- 

 bourers, which is the next portion of my subject, 

 and sorry am I to say that, go where I will, I find 

 much requiring attention under this head. Decent 

 and respectable homes for our labourers are not so 

 numerous as they should be, and this is the great 

 cause of our constantly hearing of a want of young 



men. Do we not hear of a difficulty in filling the 

 I'anks of our army and navy ? Is it not the case 

 in most of our parishes ? and can we not trace it to 

 this great scarcity of cottages, driving young yeople 

 from the place of their birth, either to emigrate or 

 settle down in the worst of hovels in the back lanes 

 of our towns ? I believe few farms have as many 

 cottages as are required for the proper residences 

 of those working on the farm ; and because owners 

 of property fancy building cottages does not pay, 

 this state of things is allowed to continue. I can 

 quite agree with them, speaking of it as a matter 

 of speculation, that building cottages to let for the 

 sake of the rent, does not pay ; but where is the 

 farmer that will not pay an increased rental for a 

 farm having cottages on it for the use of his la- 

 bourers, when compared with one on which these 

 requisites are not to be found, but which depends 

 on chance for labourers to carry on his business ? 

 And then cottages should be built near the work 

 of the occupant, that his time and labour be not 

 lost and wasted in travelling, and should have 

 three bed rooms. But I cannot agree with those 

 that consider all not having this number should be 

 pulled to the ground. In many cases where this 

 has already been done, three could have been 

 thrown into two ; in other cases, a little expendi- 

 ture would have added the necessary requirements, 

 and they would have been no longer a nuisance, 

 offensive to the sight. I would ask landed pro- 

 prietors never to pull down a cottage before they 

 have a new one fit for the inmates of the old. This 

 wholesale destruction of cottages has seriously in- 

 jured many parishes, and the want of them is very 

 pressing, where those destroyed may have been 

 easily made available, and comfortable for old 

 couples, and young ones without families. In the 

 parish in which I reside many old cottages have 

 been destroyed of late years, without anything bke 

 an equivalent of new ones being built. And with 

 what result do you suppose ? Why the clearing 

 it of its most useful members, for few men are to 

 be found there between the ages of twenty and 

 thirty. I have had the curiosity of examining our 

 parish register ; I there found it had already told 

 seriously upon the number of marriages. During 

 the last six years only four couple of our poor had 

 been so united, whilst in the preceding six years, 

 before their cottages were pulled down, I found 

 twenty-three couple had been married. Surely 

 this cannot be right, this cannot eventually be for 

 the good of either the parish or our country; 

 and yet this has been done by a gentleman who I 

 believe is second to no one in good feeling for his 

 poor neighbours. I agree in thinking all new cot- 

 tages should have three bed-rooms— and just half 

 of mine have this number. All large grown-up 

 families should have cottages with this accommo- 

 dation, that no mixing of sexes in one bed-room 

 should occur ; for what can be the use of teaching 

 morality in our schools by day, and immorahty in 

 our cottages by night, without giving even an 

 opportunity of its being otherwise ? I know it must 

 be one of the greatest drawbacks a poor man can 

 have, when trying to bring his children up to be 

 useful members of society, to put him to live in a 

 cottage with one bed-room ; in fact, these cases 



