London to John O 1 Groat's. 237 



money paid them as a substitute, it alone would raise 

 them to a new condition of comfort, even independence. 

 At 4d. a day commutation money, they would have 

 each 5 at the end of the year. That would pay the 

 rent of two acres of land here ; or it would buy five on 

 the Illinois Central Railroad. Three years' beer-money 

 would pay for those rich prairie acres, his fare by sea 

 and land to them, and leave him 3 in his pocket to 

 begin their cultivation with. Three years' of this 

 saving would make almost a new man of him at home, 

 in the way of self-respect, comfort and progress. It 

 would be " a nest-egg," to which hope, habit and a 

 strengthening ambition would add others of larger size 

 and value from year to year. 



Give, then, the British agricultural laborer good, 

 healthy Housing, Free Schooling, and let him empty 

 the Jug into the Basket, and he may work his way up 

 to a very comfortable condition at home. But if he 

 should prefer to go to Australia or America, where 

 land is cheap and labor dear, in a few years he may 

 save enough to take him to either continent, with suffi- 

 cient left in his pocket to begin life in a new world. 



