siring a better home, than by quoting from a speech made by Joseph Arch a 

 few nights since, in Quebec, unfolding the object of his mission to this country. 

 "In emigration," he said, "was to be found the remedy for the evils afflicting 

 the agricultural laboring classes of Great Britain. The over-crowded fields and 

 the superabundance of labor were not wholly to be overcome by the combina- 

 tion of the toilers. The land system stood in the way ; and though the laborer 

 might hope for better wages, and possibly better fare, he could never aspire to 

 proprietorship himself. The accumulation of wealth in the hands of great fami- 

 lies enabled them, in many instances, at will to dispense with the services of the 

 laborers. When I spoke to two dukes and four noble lords who desired a con- 

 versation with me on the subject of labor, they told me there was corn to be 

 had in Russia and America, and that they and their class were determined to 

 stop the aggressions of the laborers. Then my determination, before wavering, 

 was formed. I spoke to the people and told them Old England had done with 

 them, and that to the prairies of the West hereafter they must look for the 

 bettering of their fortunes. And here I am to-day. My fellows have sent me 

 to spy out the land, to look for the soil most likely to yield adequate returns 

 for labor invested, and I am here in obedience to their wish. I want to see and 

 learn for myself. The emigration agents, infesting the country, play upon the 

 credulity and the poverty of our people, and many have been enticed to greater 

 hardships than they ever endured in their hovels in Warwickshire or Essex." 



Thus spoke the unassuming, unselfish, but earnest and discriminating Joseph 

 Arch, who is regarded by the agricultural laborers of England much as the 

 Egyptians and Israelites of old regarded his namesake, as their deliverer. They 

 look to him to lift them from the degradation and poverty which their heritage 

 of toil, combined with the heritage of land by their oppressors, has inflicted 

 upon them, and he has determined to take them from a land that refuses them 

 a home of their own, and transplant them to a soil where labor is worthy of its 

 hire, and where the laborer can have a title in fee simple to his farm and home. 

 We look for great and good results from the mission of Joseph Arch to this 

 country. 



We have dwelt somewhat at length upon the value which men of all nations 

 and all times have placed upon their homes, thus proving the truth of our propo- 

 sition that a comfortable home is the objective point of all men's labors, that 

 you might better appreciate some practical suggestions for the further improve- 

 ment of farm houses. Great as is the advance in this respect in this country, 

 and especially of New England, over all others, there is a wide margin for 

 further improvement. Multitudes love their homes and are ready to work all 

 day to make them comfortable, and to risk life and limb in their defence, but it 

 is a sort of instinct which they manifest. They build their houses as the bird 

 builds his nest, or as any of the inferior animals construct their tenements when 

 entering upon conjugal relations, much as their fathers built, for this love of 

 home is not confined to man, but pervades the whole animal kingdom. Who 

 has not admired the cosy, comfortable nest of the bird, the squirrel or the 

 mouse* Even the lish, when about to spawn, retires to some sheltered spot, 



