I. THE ROBIN. 43 



our birds and trees, and our wives and children. 

 We-had now grown to be a rich one ; and our 

 jSrst pleasure is in shooting our birds ; but it 

 Iras become too expensive for us to keep our 

 trees. Lord Derb}^, whose crest is the eagle 

 and child — you will find the northern name 

 for it, the bird and bantling, made classical 

 by Scott — is the first to propose that wood- 

 birds should have no more nests. We must 

 cut ^own all our trees, he says, that we may 

 effectively use the steam-plough ; and the effect 

 of the steam-plough, I find by a recent article 

 in the Cornhill Magazine, is that an English 

 labourer must not any more have a nest, nor 

 bantlings, neither; but may only expect to 

 get on prosperously in life, if he be perfectly 

 skilful, sober, and honest, and dispenses, at 

 least until he is forty-five, with the " luxury 

 of marriage." 



40. Gentlemen, 3^ou may perhaps have 

 heard me blamed for making no effort here 

 to teach in the artizans' schools. But I can 

 only say that, since the future life of the 

 English labourer or artizan (summing the 

 benefits to him of recent philosophy and 

 economy) is to be passed in a country 



