118 HOPS. [No. 



ought to be no renewal of hardly any part of them 

 wanted for half an age, except in case of destruction 

 by fire. Good management in this way leaves the 

 man's wages to provide an abundance of good food 

 and good raiment; and these are the things that 

 make happy families ; these are the things that make 

 a good, kind, sincere, and brave people ; not little 

 pamphlets about " loyalty " and " content." A good 

 man will be contented fast enough, if he be fed and 

 clad sufficiently; but if a man be not well fed and 

 clad, he is a base wretch to be contented. 



201. Fuel should be, if possible, provided in sum- 

 mer, or at least some of it. Turf and peat must 

 be got in summer, and some wood may. In the 

 woodland countries, the next winter ought to be 

 thought of in June, when people hardly know what 

 to do with the fuelwood ; and something should, if 

 possible, be saved in the bark-harvest to get a part of 

 the fuel for the next winter. Fire is a capital article. 

 To have no fire, or a bad fire, to sit by, is a most dis- 

 mal thing. In such a state man and wife must be 

 something out of the common way to be in good hu- 

 mour with each other, to say nothing of colds and 

 other ailments which are the natural consequence of 

 such misery. If we suppose the great Creator to 

 condescend to survey his works in detail, what object 

 can be so pleasing to him as that of the labourer, after 

 his return from the toils of a cold winter day, sitting 

 with his wife and children round a cheerful fire, while 

 the wind whistles in the chimney and the rain pelts 

 the roof? But, of all God's creation, what is so miser- 

 able to behold or to think of as a wretched, half- 

 starved family creeping to their nest of flocks or straw, 

 there to lie shivering, till sent forth by the fear of ab- 

 solutely expiring from want ? 



HOPS. 



202. I TREATED of them before ; but before I con- 

 clude this little Work, it is necessary to speak of them 

 again. I made a mistake as to the tax on the Hops, 



