BELGIUM BELL. 



289 



small farms consists generally of a couple of cows, 

 a calf or two, one or two pigs, sometimes a goat or 

 two, and some poultry. The cows are altogether 

 stall-fed, on straw, turnips, clover, rye, vetches, 

 carrots, potatoes, and a kind of soup made by boil- 

 ing up potatoes, peas, beans, bran, cut hay, &c., 

 into one mess, and which being given warm, is said 

 to be very wholesome, and to promote the secretion 

 of milk. In some districts the grains of the brew- 

 eries and distilleries are used for the cattle. 



The success of the Belgian farmer depends 

 mainly upon the number of cattle which he can 

 maintain by the produce of his land, the general 

 lightness of the soil rendering the constant appli- 

 cation of manure absolutely necessary to the pro- 

 duction of a crop. The attention of the cultivator 

 is always therefore especially directed to obtain a 

 supply of manure. Some small farmers, with this 

 view, agree with a sheep-dealer to find stall-room 

 and straw for his sheep, to attend to them, and to 

 furnish fodder at the market price, on condition of 

 retaining the dung. The small farmer collects in 

 his stable, in a fosse lined with brick, the dung 

 and urine of his cattle. He buys sufficient lime to 

 mingle with the scourings of his ditches, and with 

 the decayed leaves, potato-tops, &c., which he is 

 careful to collect in order to enrich his compost, 

 which is dug over two or three times in the course 

 of the winter. No portion of the farm is allowed 

 to lie fallow, but it is divided into six or seven 

 small plots, on each of which a system of rotation 

 is adopted ; and thus, with the aid of manure, the 

 powers of the soil are maintained unexhausted, in 

 a state of constant activity. The order of succes- 

 sion in the crops is various ; but plots are appro- 

 priated to potatoes, wheat, barley, clover (which 

 had been sown with the preceding year's barley), 

 flax, rye, carrots, turnips or parsnips, vetches, and 

 rye for immediate use as green food for the cattle. 

 The flax grown is heckled and spun by the farmer's 

 wife, chiefly during the winter, and about three 

 weeks' labour at the loom towards the spring 

 weaves into cloth all the thread thus prepared. 

 The weavers are generally a distinct class from the 

 small farmers, though the labourers chiefly sup- 

 ported by the loom commonly occupy about an acre 

 of land, sometimes more, their labour upon the 

 land alternating with their work at the loom. In 

 some districts, every gradation in the extent of 

 occupancy, from a quarter or half an acre, to the 

 six-acre farm, is to be found ; arid in such cases 

 more work is done in the loom by the smaller oc- 

 cupiers. 



The labour of the field, the management of the 

 cattle, the preparation of manure, the regulating 

 the rotation of crops, and the necessity of carrying 

 a certain portion of the produce to market, call for 

 the constant exercise of industry, skill, and fore- 

 sight among the Belgian peasant farmers; and to 

 these qualities they add a rigid economy, habitual 

 sobriety, and a contented spirit, which finds its 

 chief gratification beneath the domestic roof, from 

 which the father of the family rarely wanders in 

 search of excitement abroad. There is no tendency 

 to the subdivision of the small holdings. The 

 provident habits of the farmers enable them to 

 maintain a high standard of comfort, and is neces- 

 sarily opposed to such subdivision. Their mar- 

 riages are not contracted so early as in Ireland, 

 and the consequent struggle for subsistence among 

 their offspring does not exist. The proprietors of 

 the soil retain the free and unrestricted disposal of 



! their property, whether divided into smaller or 

 ! larger holdings. The common rent of land is about 

 20s. an acre, and the usual rate of wages for a day- 

 labourer is a franc (or lOd.) a day. See "Third 

 Report of George Nichols, Esq. containing the Re- 

 sult of an Inquiry into the condition of the labour- 

 ing classes in Holland and Belgium." 



BELL, ANDREW, D. D. LL.D., prebendary 

 of Westminster, master of Sherborn hospital, 

 Durham, fellow of the Asiatic Society and the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh; the founder of the 

 Madras system of education, was born at St An- 

 drew's in the year 1753, and was educated in the 

 university of that place. The whole of the early 

 part of his life (a portion of which was spent in 

 America,) was distinguished by the exemplary man- 

 ner in which he fulfilled every public and private 

 duty. In the year 1789, after his appointment as 

 chaplain to Fort St George, and minister of St 

 Mary's, at Madras, the splendid qualities of his 

 mind were first developed. Since that period, he 

 has been regarded as one of the greatest benefac- 

 tors of mankind. He undertook the gratuitous 

 superintendence of the Military Male Orphan Asy- 

 lum, at that station, until 1796, during which time 

 he founded the Madras system of elementary edu- 

 cation; and although the rival claims of Mr Lan- 

 caster then came into notice, it is but justice to 

 add, that the universal judgment of the country, 

 and the testimony of authentic documents, pro- 

 nounced the merit of the discovery to have been 

 solely and exclusively due to Dr Bell. No sooner 

 were the advantages of the system known, than it 

 was patronised by the government of Fort St 

 George ; and on the Rev. Doctor's arrival in this 

 country in 1797, the original report was imme- 

 diately published, and submitted to the highest 

 authorities in church and state, by whom the sys- 

 tem was patronised, and found to work so well in 

 practice that it has since been adopted in every 

 civilised nation in the world. In Great Britain 

 alone there are, at the present time, "ten thousand 

 schools, without any legislative assistance, wherein 

 six hundred thousand children are educated by vol- 

 untary aid and charity." The most gratifying tes- 

 timonials were transmitted to the Doctor in proof 

 of the excellence of his plan, not only from the 

 highest quarters in this country, but from several 

 governments and learned bodies in Europe, Asia, 

 and America; while the improvement in the mor- 

 ality, civilization, and piety of the lower classes, 

 during the present and future generations, will 

 have acquired its chief impulse from the labours of 

 Dr Bell. The evening of his pious and useful life 

 was passed in Cheltenham, where his benevolence 

 and the practice of every social and domestic vir- 

 tue had gained him the affection and respect of 

 every class of the community. His death took 

 place there, Jan. 27, 1832. He distributed no less 

 a sum than 120,000 to various national institu- 

 tions and public charities. To his native city of 

 St Andrews, he left 10,000, besides a sum of 

 50,000, for building and endowing a new college 

 there. Many valuable works on education were 

 written by him, amongst which " The Elements of 

 Tuition," "The English School," and "Brief 

 Manual of Mutual Instruction and Moral Disci- 

 pline," will ever occupy a distinguished place in 

 our useful national literature. 



The committee of the national society for the 

 education of the poor, passed the following resolu- 

 tion at its first meeting after Dr Bell's decease : 



