32 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



prove a nuisance to the neis[hbonrs, 

 or the public, in addition to the 

 situation of a cottage, tiie tenant's 

 character and circumstances should 

 be Avell considered. Where it is 

 not convenient or adviscable to let 

 hiui have land enouglt for a cow, he 

 may have a larj;e sarden, and the 

 necessary and pig-stye sliould be so 

 placed, that tlie soak from them 

 ni<iy be directed to manure the soil. 

 The pig-stye should have a small 

 court to open into the garden only. 

 When a pig is bought it is small, and 

 can b6 carried to the stye, where it 

 may remain. I have found this tlie 

 only way of preventing a labourer's 

 pigs from wanderin2;abont a village. 

 If the stye opens to a road, it will 

 never be so well guarded as when 

 tiie first a(ft of trespass must be in 

 the owner's garden. I am. truly 

 anxious, however, under all pro- 

 per restriftion and limitation, of ad- 

 vancing and recommending the prac- 

 tice of setting some land to labour- 

 ers and country mechanics. It ap- 

 - pears to me important, botJi in a 

 moral and political point of view. — 

 Let us consider, in the first place, 

 the probable efl'eds of such situa- 

 tions being more easily attained. 

 Would not farming-servants, both 

 men and women, have an additional 

 Diotivc to be careful, and seek after 

 matrimonial,instead of illegal engage- 

 ments, if they knew, that when they 

 could save money enough to buy a, 

 bed, a pig, and a cow, they might set- 

 tie, and have a hous.; and land, for 

 which they could alT'ord to pay rent, 

 and from which they could hope to 

 jnaintain themselves, and rear a fa- 

 mily? Or, if they have not money 

 enough to buy in all their stock at 

 first, they may raise potatoes in one 

 year suflicient to increase their capi- 

 tal. Let us now consider them 



placed in their cottage. The cartJ 

 of the land is not sufficient to take 

 the labourer otf from a single day's 

 work ; but when it is six o'clock in 

 the evening, he has an interest in 

 going directly home, to see that his 

 fences are in repair, or to dig a part 

 of.his garden, &c. he knows, too, 

 that when he has done this, for if 

 the weather is too bad for him to 

 remain out of doors, still he knows) 

 his house is warm, and that his sup- 

 per is preparing ; for his wife has 

 been at home the whole day, look- 

 ing occasionally after the cow, feed- 

 ing the pig, weeding in the garden, 

 or spinning in the house. As her 

 family grows up, she can put the 

 elder children to do some of these 

 things ; but if the woman goes out 

 to M'ork, the children are neglected, 

 and the house is cold and comfort- 

 less, and the husband has a tempta- 

 tion to go to the ale-house, (though 

 this evil is much lessened from the 

 high price of necessaries, and, in 

 some districts, from the reduced 

 number of public houses.) Before 

 men can be made good, they must 

 be made serious ; and this is best 

 done by giving them an idea of pro- 

 perty. From being serious, there is , 

 a chance of their becoming good 

 members of society through princi- 

 ple; but if not, they may be harm- 

 less through interest ; and we cannoit 

 conceive a stronger support to the 

 police of any country, than the 

 houshoklLTS of it having business of 

 their own to mind, and property of 

 their own to defend. Though the 

 rent of a cottage is generally an in- 

 adequate interest for the money 

 spent in building or repairing it, yet 

 the tenant is frequently willing to 

 pay a higher proportionate rent per 

 acre for land than the farmer does, 

 and ha is also frequently the most 



punctual 



