INTRODUCTION. IX 



of living must be found, either without or with labour. 

 Capital, in conjunction with machinery, is rapidly, though 

 silently, creating a greater revolution in the kingdom than 

 was ever done by politics. How can these evils be avoided, 

 it may be asked, or would I have machinery destroyed? To 

 destroy machinery, I answer, would be retrograding towards 

 barbarism, and who could say to what extent it should be 

 carried, even if practicable ? In fact its destruction could 

 only be effected by the united consent and power of every 

 country ; which I need not add can never be obtained. Nor 

 is its destruction necessary to the happiness and welfare of 

 the world ; but that it may prove a blessing instead of a 

 curse, it must be reduced from a mountain torrent to ferti 

 lizing streams. How this is to be accomplished is worthy 

 serious attention. I shall not presume to enter deeply into 

 it, but only suggest a few hints. A recurrence might be 

 had to the old system of cottages and small farms. If in 

 each parish every farm that is over 200 acres were divided 

 into two, there would be then, on an average, four or five 

 farms more in each township, requiring as many extra 

 farmers to occupy them. These farms, when divided, would 

 probably employ more labourers in proportion, and the land 

 be kept in better condition than before. In conjunction with 

 this, let a number of neat and convenient cottages be built in 

 each parish, (if there are not enough already) and three or 

 four, to eight or ten, or more acres, of land, be attached to 

 each by the rich land-owner, the parish, or act of parlia 

 ment, to be let to the most industrious and honest part of the 

 labouring class, allowing at least one-half to be retained in 

 arable, for potatoes, other vegetables, and grain. These, with 

 a little assistance and indulgence at first, would pay as much 

 rent per acre as a farmer. By this means labour would be 

 taken from the present overstocked market, and poor rates 

 proportionably reduced. A stimulus would be given to in 

 dustry and honesty in the lower classes, from aspiring to those 

 cottage farms, and thence to a higher grade ; from being 

 now degraded nearly as low, and as incapable of emanci 

 pating themselves and rising in the scale of society, as the 

 unfortunate African. 



By the cottage and small farm system, in conjunction 

 with an adequate and permanent abatement of rents, in 

 proportion to the price of grain, all the present population 

 might be beneficially employed. The former would be a 



