ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. 79 



Having obtained the rare blessing of a cottage allotment, the 

 language of his heart is, l Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for in 

 our present condition we must die. His highest ambition 

 being achieved, and the family little more to hope for, it is not to 

 be wondered at that some little laxity should be observable. Let 

 the great landlords of the land supply a motive by a more 

 natural division of their property let them encourage the aspi 

 rations of the industrious cottagers by small farms in prospective. 

 and larger beyond them, and the energies of our peasantry will 

 never be found to flag. But this is, perhaps, scarcely to be 

 hoped for.&quot; 



I shall go still more largely into the subject of allotments, as 

 presenting one of the first and most efficient means of bettering 

 the condition of the agricultural laborer. My own convictions 

 are strong on this point ; and they are sustained and strength 

 ened by the testimony of many men of large experience and 

 shrewd observation. The laborer finds, in an allotment, a means 

 of turning his spare hours to advantage, and in a mode of labor 

 which, from its very character, being in the association of his wife 

 and children, under his own control and management, and for his 

 own immediate and personal benefit, becomes a pleasure instead 

 of a toil. He finds in it the means of eking out his scanty 

 wages ; of providing, to a degree, for an occasion of sickness, or 

 other suspension of his employment and wages. He is enabled 

 to bring from this source many rare comforts to his own frugal 

 table; and has himself, if he is a man of feeling. and why 

 should he not be? an opportunity of enjoying one of the 

 richest of all pleasures, that of making a small contribution to 

 relieve an unfortunate or a sick neighbor. It presents a good 

 school of industry for his children, under his own immediate 

 inspection. It quickens his own intelligence in making agricul 

 tural experiments upon a small and useful scale, and rouses a 

 spirit of wholesome emulation in his crops even with the master 

 farmers. It removes him from strong temptations to gambling, 

 low dissipation, and intemperance. It gives him an interest in 

 the soil ; it attaches him to his home : it involves him in all the 

 risks of the public safety ; and makes him the friend of public 

 peace and order. It gives him the spirit of a man, raising him 

 above the sense of slavish dependence, and the dread of becom 

 ing a pensioner on public charity. In so doing, it at once exalts 



