16 ABUNDANCE OF EMPLOY. 



easily supply about a ton in the day 5 a child that 

 goes on steadily, about one-third of this quantity; 

 and as we give one shilling for a ton, a man, his 

 wife, and two tolerable-sized children, can obtain 

 from %s. 8d. to 3s. per day by this employ the 

 greater part of the winter ; and should the weather 

 be bad, they can work at intervals, and various 

 broken hours, and obtain something and there is 

 a constant demand for the article. The winter 

 accumulation is carted away as the frost occurs, or 

 the spring repair comes on. Our labourers, their 

 children and cottages, I think, present a testimony 

 of their well-doing, by the orderly, decent conduct 

 of the former, and the comforts of the latter. There 

 are years when we have disposed of about 3000 tons 

 of stone, chiefly broken up for use by a few of our 

 village poor ; if we say by twenty families, it will 

 have produced perhaps seven pounds to each, a 

 most comfortable addition to their means, when we 

 consider that this has been obtained by the weak 

 and infirm, at intervals of time without more than 

 the cost of labour, when employment elsewhere was 

 in no request. 



I may perhaps be pardoned in relating here the 

 good conduct of a villager, deserving more appro- 

 bation than my simple record will bestow ; and it 

 affords an eminent example of what may be accom- 

 plished by industry' and economy, and a manifesta- 

 tion that high wages are not always essential, or 



