48 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



imitation. By going a step further, and planting 

 healthy, strong, men and women on these spots, 

 his patriotism would have been crowned with im- 

 mortality ; for I cannot help thinking that, if the 

 same pains were taken in breeding mankind that 

 gentlemen have bestowed upon the breeding of 

 horses and dogs, human nature might, as it were, 

 be new modelled, hereditary diseases banished, 

 and such a race might people the country as we 

 can form no conception of. Instead of a nation 

 of mongrels, there would in time appear a nation 

 of " Admirable Crichtons." If the lands com- 

 monly attached to townships had been continued 

 as such, and let in small portions to mechanics 

 and labourers (as the late Duke let them), instead 

 of dividing them by act of Parliament among 

 those who already had too much, the good effects 

 to the community at large would have been soon 

 felt ; and, in addition to this, if savings banks - 

 and benefit societies were encouraged by every 

 possible means, there would be little occasion 

 for poor laws except as a provision for helpless 

 children, and the lame and the blind. By such 

 means as these, perhaps, this national evil might 

 be done away. All men ought to provide for the 

 necessities of .old age, and be made sensible of 

 the manly pleasure of being independent. It is 

 degrading, and in most cases disgraceful, to those 

 who look to parish assistance after a life spent in 

 laziness and mismanagement. 



I must not omit mentioning a circumstance 

 that happened to Eltringham while I was a boy. 

 It was to have been called "Little Birmingham," 

 but this was not accomplished. In 17 , a person 

 of the name of Laidler, who was said to have 



