104 IMPROVEMENT OF 



cover misfortunes, and were paying from 6 to 

 12^ per cent of annual interest for such loans. 

 Instead of appropriating any extra wages which 

 they might happen to make to the purchase of 

 proper food and clothing, they hoarded them 

 up, either for the purpose of paying those 

 shameful exactions in the shape of interest, or 

 else to purchase a small farm of land. During 

 the quarter ending Lady Day 1845, the family 

 already alluded to left in our hands, out of 

 their 305. of weekly earnings, the sum of 87. ; 

 which went to liquidate a sum of money pre- 

 viously borrowed for the purpose of purchasing 

 the tenant-right of a small cottage and garden. 

 The family were the tenant-right richer, but 

 they were the same nerveless, potato-fed family 

 as before, and void of that relation with their 

 employer which entitles them to permanent 

 employment. 



The general advancement of wages to 2s. per 

 day, by taskwork, with cottages, gardens, and 

 regular employment to labourers from large 

 farmers, and the consequent elevation of their 

 circumstances above the circumstances of those 

 who have small farms, without employment extra- 

 neous of them, will eventually put a stop to that 



