I 

 AGRICULTURAL POPULATION. 43 



mentj who, by good conduct, have supported themselves, and 

 have accumulated, after a few years service, their four and five 

 hundred dollars and upwards, that is, their eighty and their hun 

 dred pounds an acquisition which, in England, a laboring man 

 would not dream of as the result of his labor, sooner than he 

 would dream of receiving a pension of the same amount from 

 the government. With us the laborer is vastly better paid than 

 in England. With us the laborer always is, or always may be, 

 the owner of the house in which he lives, and of as much land 

 as he chooses to cultivate. Here the cottager is always a mere 

 tenant, subject to the pleasure of his landlord ; and, though there 

 are many cases where allotments of small portions of land are 

 granted them for a garden spot, and for the obtaining of some 

 small supplies for their families, yet there are many where no 

 indulgence of this sort is allowed, not even so much as a cabbage 

 yard. The laborer here is doomed to remain in the condition in 

 which he is born he cannot rise above it. The provision for 

 the education of the children of the laborers is, in most parts of 

 England, extremely limited and meagre. There are some 

 national schools, and there are, in many places, schools estab 

 lished and supported by the liberality of the landlords, for the 

 benefit of the laborers in their own villages, and on their own 

 farms. Sunday schools are likewise kept up in all the parishes 

 which I have visited; and I should be happy, if it were allowed 

 me, to adorn my page with the names of some noble women, 

 who, with a benevolence truly maternal, take a deep interest in 

 these institutions, and generously support them, and, better than 

 that, personally superintend them. These are bright examples. 

 In one case, at a small country village, on a Sunday, I saw more 

 than four hundred of these children, cleanly and plainly dressed. 

 entering the parish church, and taking their seats together, be 

 having with the most exemplary propriety. When they lifted 

 up their voices in the solemn chants of the church, and their 

 gentle and shrill tones were heard above all the rest, I could not 

 help lifting up my own heart to God in thanksgiving, that the 

 highest truths of religion can be taken in by the humblest minds; 

 that here was at work an instrument of their elevation, which 

 no human power could forbid ; that here they were taught to 

 recognize the dignity of their moral nature ; and that there is 

 one place, where all earthly distinctions betray their insignifi- 



