Retrospective Criticism. 359 



Watering Oranges and Camellias. (Vol. V. p. 732.) — Mr. Haythorn 

 informs us that we have mistaken him : he did not mean to recommend the 

 mode of watering cucumbers to be tried with camellias ; but the movable 

 glass coverings which he described (Vol. V. p. 480.) to be tried with camel- 

 lias, oranges, and other plants. — Cond. 



Building Cottages on Sundays. — In one of the essays on cottage affairs 

 there is a passage which I cannot help thinking highly objectionable ; viz. 

 (p. 166.) " Labourers who so occupy themselves ought to have a magistrate's 

 permission to do so [i. e. to build their houses] on Sundays for a certain 

 period." I do not see how the magistrate can grant a dispensation for profan- 

 ing the Lord's day, except so far as the said profanation is a mere offence 

 against the state and the law of the land ; if he can, he is as fine a fellow as the 

 pope himself. If ever there was an institution calculated more than any other 

 for the especial benefit of the poor, it is that of the Sabbath, in which they, 

 who of necessity must labour six days, are not only allowed but com- 

 manded to rest on the seventh. In a temporal point of view the Sabbath 

 confers a much greater blessing on the lower orders than it does on the 

 high and middling ones ; and therefore it very ill becomes them, of all per- 

 sons, to set an example which would tend to annihilate the institution alto- 

 gether. But I forbear, or I shall be writing a sermon. — B* Coventry, 

 Ajml, *1830. 



We intended limiting the Sunday labours of the cottager entirely to the 

 building of his cottage ; but perhaps we were wrong in suggesting the idea 

 of working on Sundays under any circumstances whatever, on the general 

 principle that every mode by which more hours of labour can be extracted 

 from a labourer has a tendency to increase his pains and diminish his plea- 

 sures, and the contrary modes the contrary effects. We would rather have 

 two Sabbaths in the week than one; and we hope the time will come when 

 all labourers will be allowed two hours for breakfast and three for dinner, 

 or when they will work chiefly by the job. — Cond. 



Chemical and Geological Elections of Plants ; in reply to Causidicus,p. 216. 

 — Dear Sir, Your learned correspondent Causidicus has, in the last Num- 

 ber of the Gardener's Magazine, alluded to my communication on the 

 United States of America, and very justly makes some pointed observations 

 on the deficiency of information therein conveyed respecting the habitats, 

 &c., of the plants enumerated, and the inconclusive characters made use of 

 to indicate the various soils, situations, altitudes, &c. In the latter respect 

 I am, or ought to be, completely exonerated from blame, as they are solely 

 and wholly your own. You have a most undoubted right to abridge any 

 communication and discard all irrelevant matter, but this ought to be done 

 with due attention, that the substance may be correctly given. How far 

 this was adhered to I leave yourself to determine, as I herewith send you 

 a verbatim copy of the original list, with the abbreviations you. have used 

 prefixed to each species, when in actual error. 



A very superficial glance must convince you what a string of fallacious 

 absurdities you have sent forth to the world under my name. That you did 

 so most unintentionally there can be no question ; and further, I am certain 

 had I sent you information of the same, there would have been nothing more 

 required to insure its correction : but the truth is, I never perused the list 

 in the Magazine with the view of comparing it with the MS. until the 2d 

 instant, when my attention was directed to the subject on perusing the com- 

 munication of Causidicus. I trust, however, although at the eleventh hour, 

 you will do me that justice which I require ; and if you do not publish the 

 list entire with my remarks, publish the corrections rendered necessary from 

 the inattention in abridging. 



In answer to Causidicus, I beg leave to state, I think he has given my 

 communication a degree of merit to which I do not consider it entitled. As 

 respects the list of plants I never intended it to assume a more prominent 



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