652 EEPOBT — 1882. 



quart — amounted to 39^. 18s. 6d. The profits on tlie pigs — fatted largely on bought 

 food and sold at about live score weights— amounted to 21/. 14s. 9d. 



The year's net profits therefore amounted to 61/. 13s. 3d. The maximum profit 

 made by this cottager in any year was 771, 5s. lid., and the ininimum 59/., say 10/. 

 an acre. 



There is reason to believe that a few other cottagers, "nathout this man's 

 special experience, may be as good managers, but his experience iu keeping accounts 

 is unusual, and these may be regarded as trustworthy. 



The general results may be summed up brieflj'. Tlie cottager lives the life of 

 a labourer, but his earnings are those of a farm of about tin-ice the size, and twice 

 the rent of his little holding. The cow provides a weekly, the pig a quarterly, 

 and the heifer or pony an annual income, whicli can be reinvested in the business, 

 which the cottager thoroughly understands, at a good or even very high interest. 

 The effect on character in forming habits of industry and thrift is obvious, and 

 experience shows that it is generally permanent. Financially, also, the result 

 seems to be permanent, notwithstanding a stroke of ill luck or a bad season 

 or two. Baulcruptcy in this class is, as far as I can learn, unknown. Neither 

 does the cottager fall a prey to the money-lender. Lately, 1 was examining the 

 court rolls of a manor adjoining the Forest, and, between 1700 and 18:^5, I 

 observed that the old copyhold families were slowly dispossessed by the money- 

 lender (often the brewer of the market towny with melancholy sureness and 

 uniformity, and 1 observed also that in their turn, the new names which came in 

 as mortgagees went out as mortgagors. 



It remains to deal with two points mentioned at the outset of this paper, viz., 

 the opportunity which cottage-farming in connection with common rights opens to 

 the labourer to better his position, and the comparative absence of pauperism where 

 the sj'stem has full scope. 



llegret is often expressed, on various grounds, at the disappearance of the 

 British yeoman. But in the region under consideration he survives, and the cot- 

 tage-commoner is the source whence this ancient link between the labourer and the 

 gentleman is maintained. 



The way in which the stepping-stones are provided may be illustrated by 

 examples. [The author quoted instances within his own knowledge, in which 

 labourers and others have risen into the class of tenant-farmers and small pro- 

 prietors.] But perhaps the most intelligible and indisputable proof of the value 

 of these open spaces and common rights is the comparative absence of pauperism in 

 the region. 



It has been shown that not only can the commoners make a reasonable pro- 

 vision against illness and old age, but that the modest smn which might not out- 

 last the long and hale old age of this healthy region, if applied to daily necessities, 

 is either saved or invested in stock-keeping, and so made to produce a fairly steady 

 and sufficient pittance. Old people of reasonably active habits, or with a little 

 help if infirm, can keep at least a single cow, and profiting by the experience of a 

 lifetime may earn more than the parish could allow iu outdoor relief. The statis- 

 tics of pauperism show that these ' chances ' are used to the f uU. A typical parish 

 may be taken from the nine parishes of the New Forest Union which embraces 

 the eastern and larger half of the district under review. The half-yearly return 

 (to Michaelmas 1881) for Bramshaw, a typical parish as to size and position, con- 

 taining 823 souls, and surrounded by the wastes of the Forest and wastes of the 

 manors, shows that it has only three in-door and eleven out-door paupers, and an ex- 

 penditure of 4G/. 8s. Q\d., but there is an exceptional expenditure of about one- 

 fourth (8/. 3s. 7d.) due to the bankruptcy and death of a considerable tenant-farmer 

 with a large family, so that we may fairly reckon the out-door relief at 38/. 6s., i.e. 

 at 76/. 10s. a year. For the AViltshire section, there are no indoor paupers, and 

 only three outdoor ; for the Hampshire section, in which a few low-class and 

 modern cottages have not the ordinary garden and orchard, there are three in- 

 door and eight outdoor paupers. The published details show that this relief is 

 given to cases of old age with infirmity, and to widows with famUies. But, 

 without making any deduction, the amount is about 9 per cent, on the population — 



I 



