52 On the Advantage of giving Land to Labourers. 



a most exceptionable system, imposing, on the other classes of the 

 community, a part of those burdens, to which the farmer, as he derives 

 the whole benefit of the labour that has been employed, ought to be 

 exclusively subjected. By this expedient, the manly and independent 

 spirit of the labourer is broken down, and he is reduced to the con- 

 dition, and impressed with the feelings of a mendicant *. 



Such are the observations which have occurred to me, on the means 

 of promoting the interests of the agricultural labourer ; and I shall con- 

 crude with asking, if any one can figure to himself a more delightful 

 spectacle than to see an industrious cottager, with his busy wife, and 

 healthy family, living in a comfortable house, rented by himself, and 

 not through the medium of another, cultivating his little territory with 

 his own hands, and enjoying the profits arising from his own labour 

 and industry ; or whether it is possible for a generous landholder, to 

 employ his property with more satisfaction, or in a manner more like- 

 ly to promote, not only his own but the public interest, than that of 

 endeavouring to increase the number of such cottagers, and encourag- 

 ing, by every means in his power, the exertions of so meritorious and 

 so important a class of the community. 



Conclusion. 



It is hardly possible, sufficiently to estimate the importance of this 

 subject. The a^rjcjaliui^JJ^ourers in Great_Britam alone, exclusive 

 of Ireland, amount to 800, OOD" families, or 4,800,000 souls. How 

 can any Legislature be more usefully employed, than in promoting 

 the prosperity and happiness of so valuable a body, on whose labour, 

 btitbnidrgn3~poQt } ~l]iiU8t"ultrmateTy depend for their subsistence? 

 The means therefore, by which their situation could be improved, is 

 one of the first objects, to which legislative attention ought to be di- 

 rected. Hence the plan of " Field Gardens," brought forward by 

 Captain Scobell, R. N., and so strongly recommended by the Bath 

 and West of England Agricultural Society, cannot be too generally 

 adopted. 



The bill recently brought in by Mr Sadler also, is likely to pro- 

 duce some important amendments in the poor laws ; and they would 

 necessarily derive some most essential improvements, if the Lord 

 Chancellor Brougham could find leisure, to direct his powerful mind, 

 to that most interesting subject. 



* See Colonies at Home, p. 3. and 27. In some thinly peopled districts, 

 perhaps milch goats might be kept, to supply the families of cottagers with 

 milk, as is done in Wales, and some parts of Ireland. 



