No 216.] 655 



have the lockes of the shepe, either to make blankets or coverlets or 

 both; she must also winnowe all manner of cornes, to make malte, to 

 "washe and wrynge, to make heye, and in time of need to help her 

 husband to fyll the mucke-wayne, or dounge-cart, to drive the ploughj 

 to load heye, corne, and such other, and to go or ryde to the market, 

 to sel butter, cheese, mylke, egges, chekyngej capons, hennes, pyg' 

 ges, gese and all manner of cornes." 



Pliny mentions a freedman, who made his vineyard produce crops 

 so much larger than those of his neighbors, that they accused him of 

 witchcraft, and accordingly brought him to trial. When he appeared 

 in the forum, he produced a stout daughter, and some excellent im^ 

 plements, as iron spades, sheares, &c., and in presenting these, to- 

 gether with his oxen, to the Senate, he impressed on the tablets of 

 ages those memorable words— "These, Romans are my charms." He 

 was accordingly acquitted with honor. 



In many portions of the globe, in ancient and modern times, we 

 observe that women have held and now hold various positions in the 

 pursuits of Agriculture, and we are happy to observe that the more 

 civilized customs of the United States relieve them entirely from this 

 masculine duty, and properly assigns to them the more congenial ar^ 

 rangements of the household and the fireside; and while British phil-» 

 anthropists are repeatedly reading us homilies on the evils of slavery 

 and bad manners, it may not be generally understood that, in several 

 counties in the north of England, bands of women are found working 

 in the fields under the surveillance of one man. 



A celebrated English author, in commenting on this fact, says, "As 

 I cast my eyes for the first time on these female bands in the fieldsj 

 working under their drivers, I was, before making any inquiries con- 

 cerning them, irresistibly reminded of the slave-gangs of the West 

 Indies. Turnep-hoeing somehow associated itself strangely in my 

 bram with sugar-cane dressing; but when I heard these women calU 

 ed hondagers, the association became tenfold stronger."* 



Should this system possess any redeeming traits, it may avoid the 

 guise of slavery; but in this enlightened day, bondage sounds like 

 something very nearly allied to it; and although we are far from be* 

 ing an advocate either for the cause or extension of slavery under the 

 sanction of any flag, we have no hesitation in saying' that the slaves 



• Howitt. 



