Ch.XLV.] ON ALLOTMENTS. 567 



pauper-colonies have been formed for the cultivation of waste land, but 

 chiefly in aid of our occasionally unemployed farm-cotters*. 



It has been said in one of the Society's pamphlets, " that he who has 

 nothing to hope has but little to fear. If we cannot attach a man to the 

 constituted order of things by the tie of interest, and the hope of probable 

 comfort, at least, if not advancement, as the usual fruits of industry, under 

 the existing state of the social economy, feeble indeed and insecure will be 

 the controul which the mere terror of punisiiment can supply, for a forced 

 submission will but ill supply the place of a willing obedience." These 

 remarks were called for by those flagrant outrages which were some time 

 ago perpetrated by our rural population upon many of the farmers ; but al- 

 though order has been in a great degree restored, yet the situation of farm- 

 labourers is still far from affording that solid comfort to which they are 

 entitled, and which every friend to humanity would wish them to enjoy. 

 This, and a wide spreading sense of demoralization in the rustic habits of 

 the working-class, engendered during the late war and fostered by the abuse 

 of our poor-laws, have induced the gentry of the country to stand forward 

 in the hope of again restoring it to its former healthy condition ; and it is 

 gratifying to learn that numerous instances are recorded of the happy 

 eff"ects resulting from their efforts. Hitherto they have usually confined 

 themselves to letting out small portions of ground at moderate rents to in- 

 dustrious cottagers ; solely to enable them to supply a sufficiency of homely 

 vegetables to their family, the cultivation to be performed when otherwise 

 unoccupied, without encroaching on their masters' time, or neglecting any 

 other essential duty. In time, however, when the tenants shall by a few 

 years' experience have become more thoroughly aware of their own true 

 interests and the mode of securing it, than can now be supposed, it is the 

 intention of the Society to augment the quantity of land to those who prove 

 themselves prudent as well as industrious, and to accompany the grant with 

 a loan of money to enable them to cultivate it properly. 



Happy, indeed, shall we be to learn that the exertions of the Society 

 have rescued our rural population from degrading pauperism, and that they 

 have succeeded in restoring the long-lost class of petty yeomanry from the 

 state to which they have been reduced — of hirelings, to the almost forgotten 

 rank of small farmers : men who, though working as hard as the common 



* These colonies were raised by national subscription, aided by the Dutch and Belgian 

 Government, and placed under the controul of commissioners appointed for their ma- 

 nagement. They are in separate establishments, ranked as '• Free Colonies," for the 

 reception of the better class of paupers ; one for beggars, forced into them by the 

 police ; another for orphans ; and a fourth as a penal settlement, to which those are 

 removed who misconduct themselves. The number of persons thus employed, chiefly 

 in cultivation, though partly in manufactures, may amount throughout Holland and 

 Belgium to about 10,000, and the comfort in which they are maintained may be col- 

 lected from an account furnished a few years ago by a gentleman who visited the 

 colony of Frederick's Oord. — " The crops were luxuriant, the colonists healthful, and 

 the houses comfortable. Several of the colonists had acquired considerable property. 

 Manv gardens were planted with currant-bushes, pear and apple trees, and tastefully 

 ornamented with flowers. Additional live-stock, belonging to the colonists themselves, 

 was frequently pastured out ; and around not a few of the houses lay webs of linen 

 bleaching, which had been wove on their own account by persons who, only four years 

 before, were among the outcasts of society. The families found at dinner had quite 

 the appearance of wealthy peasants ; and from the quantity and quality of food before 

 them, they might have been considered as not inferior to the smaller tenantry of this 

 country." Many of the free settlers have, indeed, already repaid the sums advanced to 

 them, and some of the paupers are growing into prosperity ; but the plan is still sup 

 potted by public subscription. 



