47G JOURNAL or. EQETICDL^UBE , AND COIIAPE GAEDENER. [ December 2i. 1868. 



make liim think prudently of the future. He becomes a hand- 

 to-mouth man, luxuriates when -waiies are good and employ- 

 ment ample, and exists as best be can when circumstances are 

 otherwise. The presence or the absence of this prudence just 

 makes all the difference very often between a happy and a 

 cheerless home, between substantial furniture and a rickety 

 four-footed stool, between going to church and chapel clothed 

 in broadcloth, and going there or nowhere with a shabby fustian 

 coat or smockfrock, concealing what is worse beneath it. 

 Examples of such contrasts may too often be seen among those 

 who work at similar labour, receive the same wages, have 

 simiUr homesteads, and are situated very much the same as 

 respects their families. In the one case there is making the 

 most of everything, thinking of the future, and much self- 

 denial as to the present. In the other the present is every- 

 thing — thriftless improvidence rules, and then in the hour of 

 misery the blame is laid on everybody and on everything except 

 the right quarter. 



" Dressing respectably on Sunday is almost as good a test of 

 self-respecting industry, as seeing nice healthy plants in a 

 cottage window is an evidence that yon will find thrift and 

 comfort inside. Some of our sisters in humble life may go to 

 an extreme in flaunting, flashy, worthless finery, in imitation of 

 the si'.bstantial finery of those high in station. In this we 

 might take a lesson from the women in the French provinces, 

 who dress as their grandmothers did, and never attempt in 

 this respect to imitate the aristocracy any more than they 

 would attempt to imitate tbem in the furnishing of their 

 houses. On this subject we would press lightly, believing that 

 the beautiful has its mission, and that after all flaunting, 

 tawdry finery is better than flying rags. Prudence, however, 

 would say, That where means are not abundant, the sub- 

 stantial rather than the mere showy should be fixed upon. 



" Thoughtlessness generally culminates in early improvident 

 marriage. Strange, but not the less true, the most improvident, 

 the most poor. — those who themselves have teen dragged 

 through poverty into a miserable existence, rather than reared 

 and nouiisbed, are the first to marry — the first to entail the 

 same wretched dragging-np, if possible, system upon their off- 

 spring. Does it come from the yearning of the human heart 

 to have something living that it can call its own — the feeling 

 that prompts the old woman who lives but scantily in a cellar or 

 garret in London to keep her cat or kitten, and stint herself of 

 the daily halfpenny to the cafsmeat man ? Even in the depths 

 of poverty there is a pleasure in having something we can call 

 onr own. Early marriages are the most natural, and always 

 to be commended when contracted with prudence. We have 

 no. faith in the reality, and the strength, and the continuance of 

 a love that never thinks of what will bo the position as to com- 

 fort of the loved object. Many of these marriages though so 

 early, are yet too late to meet the requirements even of social 

 morality. ^Yhen a boy and girl thus marry — for they can 

 scarcely be considered otherwise when not out of their ' teens ' 

 — and tenant a small place of their own, they may get on by 

 mutually resolving to succeed by self-denial, even if they have 

 little to furnish their house with, except themselves. But woe 

 betide such a young couple when, from mistaken kindness, they 

 are taken in, and continued as residents in the home of either 

 of their parents. There is ft great temptation to perpetuate past 

 imprudence in continuous improvidence, and bitterly do they feel 

 it when, with greatly augmented responsibilities, they are ulti- 

 mately turned out, to commence an unprepared-for housekeep- 

 ing cu their own account. Great, also, is the outcry when there 

 is anything like a general clearing out — gentlemen, landlords, 

 fkimers, every one is blamed, except those who have brought 

 such misery on themselves by improvidence and selfindnlgence. 

 Were we to be swayed by some newspaper writers we should 

 come to the conclusion that the groat duty of a gentleman 

 landlord is to bnild cottages on his estate as fast as the people 

 on that estate increased and multiplied. Nothing is to be con- 

 sidered as to the landlord's ability or wulingners, nothing as to 

 the qr.estionnblo propriety of collecting great numbers of people 

 iri one neighbourhood, whilst the remunerative labour could 

 well be performed by the half of such a population. 



"We have met with several instances in which landlords 

 have erected model cottages in model villages, with every 

 necessary adjunct for comfort and decency for moderite-siz»d 

 families, and given the possession on the terras that 'such 

 cottages were to be inhabited solely by themselves ; and yet, 

 quietly and gradually, first one couple, aud, perh.ip?, anothir 

 wou.ld be admitted, until there were two or three families, or 

 parts of families, in the. rooms inlendbd for cue:. and whan 



fever and other ailments visited such overcrowding, and doctors 

 threatened and remonstrated, dire was the outcry when there 

 was something like a general clearing out— we say general, 

 because in many cases, rather than the interloping younger 

 branches should turn out alone, the old father and mother 

 would turn out with them. It would have been truer kindness 

 to have had more frequent inspections, and to have insisted 

 on the primary conditions of tenure. It is pleasant for 

 parents to have their children about them, but in this conn- 

 try it is rare that the highest in rank can indulge this natural 

 feeling. The humblest may well imitate their example, and 

 scatter and settle where work is most plentiful and most 

 remunerative. The crowding in cottages is not only injurious 

 to the healthy action of body and mind, but from the great 

 competition ever lowers the wages of labour, and renders these 

 wages uncertain. We may mourn over all such ills, and cannot 

 but admire the charity which in such circumstances gives its 

 help ; but chiefly, and above all, do we reverence and love that 

 prudent kindness, which, without overlooking present needs, 

 chiefly aims at helping the labourer to become his own best 

 and most efficient helper. 



"Lastly, the unsatisfactory condition of the labourer is some- 

 •;vhat owing to the want of a due stimulus to exertion in the 

 hope of attaining a better and more comfortable social position 

 in the same kind of employment. We have alluded to the 

 C-im forts a farm labourer may posse3s when he takes into his 

 council prudence and self-denial ; but in the same calling or 

 occupation he can hardly expect such a rise in social position 

 as was open to his grandfather, or even father. The happy 

 plough boy that, whistling cheerily, ' drove his team a-field,' 

 could live on in the hope of having a little farm and team of 

 his own. We can recollect scores, if not hundreds, of little 

 farms, some with their pair of horses, some with one horse, 

 and some with no horse at all, but hiring to plough the bit of 

 land ; but the tenants had a lot of cows and pigs, and they kept 

 a rough but plenteous home, such as many a plough boy saw in 

 his dreams, would be occupied by him and his loved one when 

 they had saved enough between them. With few exceptions 

 all such hopes now would be vain. It is saddening to visit the 

 old places, aud to be unable to find a trace of the foundations of 

 the homesteads, in which in our early days we had feasted on 

 new milk and curds and whey. It is neither our intention nor 

 our province to enter upon the consideration of doing away 

 with small farms, and uniting them into larger ones, but no 

 doubt can len'ain as to its effect in damping exertion and 

 prudent economy on the part of youthful agricultural labourers. 

 It should never be forgotten that, however faithfully and con- 

 scientiously a man may labour for another, it would not be 

 fair to expect that he would labour as thoroughly for wages as 

 he would do for himself, thus receiving all the benefits and 

 proceeds of his labour. Even the hope of this will nerve to 

 toil, whilst the dissipating of the hope will tend to depress 

 and enervate. 



" If there is but little chance of a farm however small, there 

 is less chance of purchasing as much land as would supply 

 labour and support a family. From causes which we need 

 not linger over, such as the difficulties about conveyancing and 

 titles, the fact that land is property that cannot run or melt 

 away; that its possession gives a certain social position, and 

 furnishes the means for sport and recreation, it can rarely be 

 obtained, and especially in small quantities, at less than double 

 its natural value. Some pieces of laud were lately sold, situated 

 two or three miles from a small market town, and with nothing 

 particular to recommend them in any way, aud yet brought 

 fully upon an average £100 per acre, wliilst the annual rental 

 of the land surrounding it was from 20.,. to M)s. per acre. The 

 possession of a bit of land is, thorofoie, but seldom to be hoped 

 for by a labourer however prudent, and thus another $tim.ulijs 

 to persevering exertion is removed. , -, ,; 



"What then remains?— not depression; not desponclencj; 

 not the ever grumbling of the idle; not the complaining and 

 bawling for help of the self-indulgent aud slothful; not the 

 crying for others to do what you ought to do for yourself. No ! 

 these will do little for you; but the contented enjoyment of 

 those blessings « hich even now industry, anil prudence, and self- 

 denial will give ; or the studying and preparing yourselves 'tjtf 

 act as geueral managers of farms, or hud stewards to gentl|^-. 

 men; or the taking your energy aud acquired intelligence. td 

 bear on the rich virgin soils of oui- culoniss and the western^ 

 hemisphere, where, for clever agriculturists more especially, 

 there is almost a voj'ld of fiilds and meadows for the taking 



