660 Domestic Notices : — England. 



memorial on this unnatural state of society. Surely it forms a strong 

 ground of appeal on the subject of the corn laws. {Bolton Chron., May 2.) 



The unfortunate difference between the poor of England, and the 

 poor of every other country in Europe is this, that being raised higher 

 by artificial circumstances, their fall to the lowest state is so much 

 the greater. Requiring a good deal to live even miserably, when mis- 

 fortune arrives they cannot live at all. Small as may be the sura of 2d. 

 a day, it would support a man in France or Germany. In all countries, the 

 only poor who can be considered as having any fixed comfort, either in 

 hand or in prospect, are those who derive their income direct from the 

 produce of land ; who rent or own a cottage and large garden, or who are 

 labourers in agriculture, paid chiefly in kind, as in the northern counties. 

 In all that relates to food and warmth, the poor of Russia and Poland are 

 incomparably better off than the poor of England ; but this evil in Eng- 

 land, like every other evil, will work its own cure, and in proportion as it 

 presses on the class next above them, in the same proportion will remedies 

 be sought after and found. Nothing worth mentioning will ever be done 

 for either the poor, the farmer, the tradesman, or the manufacturer, till the 

 trade in corn be perfectly free. — Cond. 



Atherstone Self-Supporting Dispensai-y. — The object of this institution is 

 to furnish medicine to the poor, not gratuitously, but on a certain scale of 

 payment, according to the means of the applicants. We would strongly 

 recommend it as deserving encouragement and imitation, were we not deeply 

 impressed with the opinion, that nine tenths of the diseases of the poor arise 

 from want of sufficiency of good food and clothing, and from low, damp, 

 uncomfortable cottages; and we know very well that medicine cannot do 

 mucli in curing these evils. Would not the same amount laid out in soup 

 do them more good ? It is lamentable to think, that, in such a place as 

 Atherstone, stated in the Gazetteer of England to contain only a population 

 of 2500 individuals, there should have been so many as 765 under the me- 

 dical treatment of this dispensary in one year. Surely this in a country 

 population cannot be what may be called natural disease. We highly ap- 

 plaud the elevated motives of the members, but we can see no hopes for 

 the poor of England but in the general diffusion of education, and in a 

 perfectly free trade in corn and in every other raw material. The poor of 

 England will then, and not till then, be upon an equal footing with the poor 

 of other countries. — Cond. 



The Drainage of extensive Tracts of Marshy Country, by means of steam, 

 begins to be adopted ; though it is surprising that it has not long ere now 

 become more general in the marshy and fenny districts of the eastern coast. 

 A steam-engine of 40-horse power, with a water-wheel of 28 ft. iu diameter, 

 has lately been erected at Misterton, near Gainsborough, for the purpose of 

 draining upwards of 6,000 acres belonging to different proprietors, and 

 jlying in four parishes. After the engine had worked one hour, it was as- 

 certained that the main drain running from the carrs had been lowered 

 eight inches, and that the drain into which the water was thrown, measur- 

 ing from the stop-gates of the engine to the sluice-doors adjoining the 

 Trent (which were kept closed), about three quarters of a mile in length, 

 and about forty feet in breadth, had risen two feet. The commissioners and 

 proprietors present, after intimating their entire satisfaction with the engine, 

 buildings, &c., and as to the capability of the former performing the work 

 for which it was calculated, presented the workmen, about sixty in number, 

 with a sum of money to regale themselves, and expressed their thanks to 

 Alfred Smith, Esq., the engineer employed on the occasion, and also to the 

 contractors of the work, for the manner in which it had been executed. 

 {Farm. Jour., Jan. 26. 1829.) 



The Mrhutus liybridci, in the Fulham Nursery, is sixteen years old, and 

 16 ft. high, with a large head completely covered with foliage. No frost has 



