THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



105 



many a poor fellow in the Crimea would jump at such 

 a berth as old Sancho has here !" The apt rejoinder 

 now would go to aek whether it was really necessary to 

 seek so far a-field for this poor fellow ? Might we not 

 find many such, almost within hail of where wo stood — 

 Christian, able-bodied English men, who were not half 

 so well cared for in their own homes as tiie horses they 

 groomed or the beasts they fed ? The truth of all this 

 is gradually becoming revealed. The Press takes up 

 the matter; the ftirmers turn again to its discussion ; 

 and the Premier of England himself presides at a 

 meeting, the special object of which is to adopt some 

 plan for amending this long neglected abuse. 



A meeting had just been held at Romsey "for 

 the purpose of taking into consideration the best means 

 of improving the dwellings of the labouring classes." 

 Lord Palmerston took the chair, and nearly all the 

 landlord proprietors of the district were present. His 

 Lordship introduced the business of the day in a few 

 brief sentences, and was followed by the Right Honour- 

 able W. Cowper, M.P. and Chief Commissioner of 

 Public "Works. In the course of a very eloquent 

 address, Mr. Cowper thus ably dwelt on the evil and its 

 effects : " It is wonderful how much the mere influence 

 of the house he lives in acts both upon the mental and 

 physical condition of the labouring man. If the house 

 is built with walls too thin, if the outer-door opens 

 into the living-room, so that every time the door is 

 opened there is a rush of cold air into the apartment, 

 and the house is liable to continued draughts, and if the 

 floors are damp, the occupants become positively afraid 

 of the fresh air which ought to find its way in for the 

 purposes of ventilation ; and exert all their ingenuity to 

 stop up every crevice that may exist, and thus expose 

 themselves not only to colds, but rheumatism and ail- 

 ments of a more dangerous character. Then, again, if 

 the mother of a family has not a proper place in which 

 to wash and dry the clothes, and is obliged to carry on 

 that operation in the living-room, the living-room be- 

 comes untenantable to the father and children, and 

 they desire to get out of it as often and as soon as they 

 can. In my opinion, that is the cause by which one of 

 the greatest curses of our country, viz., drunkenness, 

 is promoted and encoui-aged. It is the discomfort of 

 a man's home which induces him to withdraw from it 

 whenever he can, and resort to the public-house for 

 comfort which he cannot get in his own house. It is 

 by this accidental circumstance that he is led into a 

 habit of drinking, which he would probably have ab- 

 stained from, if be had had a more comfortable home. 

 Then, again, there is nothing that more conduces to the 

 morality of a family than having a decent dwelling- 

 place. It is one of God's ordinances that the family 

 relationship shall be the means of preserving the mem- 

 bers of the family from temptation and evil, and any- 

 thing calculated to make the home uncomfortable and 

 diminish the ties of family could not be too much de- 

 precated. It is most important that the youth of this 

 country should be educated ; but if, on returning 

 home from school, a boy finds that the home influences 

 do not coincide with the moral lessons he has been 



taught, there is a great risk cf those lessons being de- 

 prived of the greatest portion of their efticiency. If, 

 instead of finding peace and comfort at home, he finds 

 discomfort, annoyance, and irritation, the most evil 

 consequences are certain to result." 



There is a good deal in this that many of uS 

 may be, perhaps, too familiar with already ; but it is 

 very directly put, and we must remember, moreover, 

 by whom the sad picture is drawn. Mr. Cowper went 

 on to say, that he believed there was no way in which 

 the wealthy classes could better Si)end their money 

 than by improving the dwellings of the poor ; and ul- 

 timately a committee was appointed for the purpose of 

 forming a company under the Limited Liability Act, 

 to carry out this as the object of the meeting. If the 

 wealthy classes will spend their money in this way, of 

 course they can do much of themselves. If, however, 

 the movement is to be anything like general, the action 

 of a public body, such as that suggested, will tend to 

 make it yet more efficient. But this is by no means 

 all. Private persons, or even public companies, are 

 not alone those we should look to or depend upon for 

 the thorough reformation of so national a disgrace. 

 We must go further, and ask the attention and the aid 

 of the Government. Fortunately we already have it. 

 At this meeting, for establishing a Society to improve 

 the dwellings of the poor, the Premier of England pre- 

 sided, while one of the Members of his Administration 

 was the chief speaker of the occasion, and the warm 

 advocate of the object proposed. Let, then, the coun- 

 ti-y gentlemen begin to lay out their money with some 

 heart, and the new company go to work with goodwill, 

 for our rulers are with us. Lord Palmerston and Mr. 

 Cowp.er are luckily something more than the mere 

 owners of lands in Hampshire. If there is anything to 

 be done " in another place," to whom could we go 

 with so much confidence with our prayer that it should 

 be done ? 



And there is something to be done even beyond 

 holding meetings in the town-hall at Romsey, inciting 

 the neighbouring squires to better things, or actually 

 starting that great embodiment of an Englishman's 

 energies — a public company. The inferior dwellings of 

 the labouring classes — the immoral and unwholesome 

 crowding of cottages — the hopeless attempts hitherto 

 made at improvement — are all, more or less, attributa- 

 ble to the action of a measure that is still in ^fuU force 

 on the statute book. Under such an influence, landed 

 proprietors have been encouraged rather to pull down 

 than to rebuild the homes of the rural population; and 

 the farm-serving man that Bloomfield sung of, has 

 been driven into the half-street, half-gutter of the next 

 village, or the yet more noxious purlieus of the neigh- 

 bouring city. Deprived alike by such a means of the 

 sympathies and encouragement of those who employ 

 him, he gradually declines to that most miserable of 

 characters, the town-housed country-workman. Every 

 little aid that might go to improve his condition is cut 

 off, and with less means than the mechanic, his common 

 lot is " the worst of everything." If Lord Palmerston 

 be the practical man we take him to be, one of his first 



