390 Noles and Reflections' daring a Tour : — 



and cultivate vegetables, and to acquire a taste for this and for 

 building house?. We would therefore have all these plants, 

 and examples in the gardens of our Parochial Institutions 

 and we would teach, both theoretically and practically, the 

 art of culture to every boy, as well as the art of building 

 arches and erecting various descriptions of structures with 

 miniature bricks, [Des Etablissemens, &c, p. 52.) Every girl, 

 in like manner, we would instruct in the management of cows 

 and poultry, and in the whole duties of a farmer's wife. We 

 would teach these things to all, without exception of rank ; 

 and the good which we should expect to result from them 

 would be, such a desire for the possession and use of a house 

 and garden, as would lead to conduct calculated to obtain 

 them, either by industry and economy in the country of our 

 birth, or by emigration to some other. The same taste for 

 the quiet enjoyments of a country life would enhance the diffi-* 

 culties of going to war ; and, at the same time, coupled with 

 qui* plan of teaching all boys the military exercises, the differ- 

 ent modes of self-defence, as well as the higher branches of 

 military science (Des Etablissemens, &c, p. 51.), would excite 

 double vigilance in personal or national defence when either 

 became necessary. 



. Practical men may smile at the idea of teaching at school 

 the labours of the garden and the field ; they can only smile 

 at the idea of teaching what they already know, or what, if 

 they did not know, they think they could inform themselves of 

 by observing what is going on every where around them. But 

 the same objections to our proposal may be applied to the 

 study of languages* and because every one can speak, it may 

 be said, boys need not be taught grammar. It may be asked, 

 also, why teach the art of vegetable culture universally, any 

 more than several other arts, the exercise of which is equally 

 essential in civilised society ? Why not make every man a 

 tailor and a shoemaker, as well as a cultivator and a warrior ? 

 Do so too, if there are time and capacity : but make sure of 

 the latter arts, because they are more universal j because they 

 are more favourable to peace ; likely to be much more useful 

 to emigrants, of whom, it appears probable, there will require 

 to be a great many from this country for ages to come ; and, 

 finally, because society must, in no very distant age, settle 

 down into something like a more general distribution of ter- 

 ritorial property than what now exists. We have not the 

 slightest wish to force forward this or any state of things by 

 laws ; much less would we advocate any thing not founded on 

 justice, honour, and honesty : we trust entirely to the love of 

 liberty and independence inherent in every commercial commu- 

 nity, and the spread of a high degree of education among all 



