294 Gardening Visit to Paris, 



there should at present be any taste for readuig among the 

 poorest class; but the time may come, and we hope will come, 

 not only in France but in every country, when reading will be 

 considered as a necessary of life; and then, and not till then, 

 will the wages of common country labourers be such as to admit 

 of their indulging in this enjoyment. The condition of small 

 proprietors of this kind has, within the present centuiy, been 

 much improved by the general culture of the potato, by which a 

 greater quantity of food is raised with less labour ; and it is 

 beginning to be still further ameliorated by the low price of 

 manufactured cottons and linens, which, by rendering the growth 

 of flax, and, consequently, spinning at home, unnecessary, lessens 

 the labour of the women. On the supposition, then, that the 

 small proprietor is not burthened with a large family, that he 

 and his wife have been educated, and both experience the 

 pleasure of reading, and that they also take an interest in the 

 politics of their country (which, in our opinion, is an essential 

 ingredient to the dignity and happiness of man), we can conceive 

 them to be tolerably happy. Others, however, see things in 

 quite a different light, and deprecate this division and sub- 

 division of property.* 



* The following observations on this subject by Mr. Alison, in his work 

 entitled The Principles of Pojmlation, ^c., are peculiarly appropriate : — 



" As the division of land is thus the great step in the progress of improve- 

 ment, so its distribution among the lower orders, in civilised society, is essential 

 to maintain that elevation of mind which the separation of employments has a 

 tendency to depress. It is too frequently the melancholy effect of the division 

 of labour which takes place in the progress of opulence, to degrade the indi- 

 vidual character among the poor ; to reduce men to mere machines ; and prevent 

 the developementof those powers and faculties which, in earlier times, are called 

 forth by the difficulties and dangers with which men are then compelled to 

 struggle. It is hence that the wise and the good have so often been led to 

 deplore the degrading effect of national civilisation : that the vast fabric of 

 society has been regarded as concealing only the weakness and debasement of 

 the great body by whom it has been erected ; and that the eye of the philan- 

 thropist turns from the view of national grandeur and private degradation, to 

 scenes where a nobler spirit is nursed, amid the freedom of the desert or the 

 solitude of the forest. To correct this great evil, Nature has provided various 

 remedies, arising naturally from the situation of man in civilised society, and 

 one of the most important of these is the distribution of landed property among 

 the labouring poor. It is this which gives elevation to the individual character ; 

 which gives a feeling of independence to the industrious labourer, and permits 

 the growth of those steady views and permanent affections which both 

 strengthen and improve the human mind it is this, in short, and this alone, 

 joined to the religious and moral education of the great body of the people, 

 which is adequate to counteract the degrading effect of national civilisation 

 upon the poorer classes ; which can permit the growth of the human mind to 

 keep pace with the advancement of knowledge and the progress of general 

 improvement 5 and enable the poor to retain, in periods of wealth and civilis- 

 ation, the individual character and the station in the community whicii belonged 

 to them when society existed in a more sim])le form." 



" To improve the iiabits and enlarge the ideas of comfort among the poor, 

 the acquisition of property of any kind is of great importance ; but the effects 



