252 Improvident Marriages 



of the generations from its first settlement. 

 The size of the cabin is in proportion to the 

 means possessed for rearing it ; while the neces- 

 sary appendages for an establishment are so few, 

 as to oppose no impediment to matrimony. In 

 some instances a father lets off a portion of his 

 farm to his son : but such is the increase of 

 human beings in many parts, and such are the de- 

 mands for situations on which to establish them- 

 selves, that few, having the power, refuse to let 

 off small parcels of land to cottiers. The desire 

 of obtaining a few acres of land is so great, 

 that almost any terms, however exorbitant, are 

 acceded to by the youthful parties, who, being 

 rich in hope, and ignorant of the difficulties 

 they will have to encounter, do not discover 

 their folly until their distress is irremediable. 

 The rents of these small occupations are re- 

 gulated, as I have before observed, by the pay- 

 ments which can be exacted, not by what, in 

 fair dealing, ought to be demanded. This 

 system, when considered as a general, a national 

 one, is a hydra-headed evil, fraught with con- 

 sequences of a most calamitous nature. Among 

 these must be reckoned the famine inseparable 

 from a failure of the potatoe crop. Can it be 

 called a happy ignorance, which removes from 

 the view of so large a community all appreheiH 



