for bettering the Labouring Classes. 537 



the additional incidents are few, and by no means so satis- 

 factory as heretofore, certain of them furnish matter of much 

 though mournful interest to the political economist, and to 

 the friends of the improvement, happiness, and respectability 

 of the working poor. 



Except in one of the villages where local circumstances 

 have fostered improvement, very few additional houses have 

 been erected by cottagers ,- who, partaking of late largely in 

 the distress of the times, have generally been disabled from 

 making any exertion to extricate themselves from the degraded 

 and dependent state into which they have been so deeply 

 plunged, or from availing themselves of the proffered assist- 

 ance for that purpose. Yet, up to the beginning of the last 

 winter, the progressive improvement in the appearance of 

 many dwellings previously built, as well as of their inmates, 

 was perceptible and gratifying; but, above all, the superior 

 cultivation and increased comforts derived from their gardens 

 strongly denoted greater ease of circumstances, as well as ma- 

 terially contributed thereto. A more striking proof of what 

 the exertions of the labouring classes, duly encouraged, instead 

 of unnaturally depressed, would effect in this way, can hardly 

 be furnished, than that which arises out of the fact, that, at all 

 the Horticultural Society meetings held during the past year, 

 the cottagers of the earliest-established village, heretofore de- 

 scribed, carried away the prizes offered for the productions of 

 cottage gardens in the hills of either of the two counties of 

 Monmouth and Glamorgan. The depression of trade, which 

 has within a year past been grievously felt in this part of the 

 country, and the imposition of local taxes, which the friends of 

 the struggling poor have been unable to prevent, have ope- 

 rated a most distressing change, affording another and striking 

 proof of the gross impolicy as well as injustice of a state of 

 society which raises the price of provisions beyond the reach 

 of the unassisted poor; at the same time that, from the same 

 cause (enormity of taxation for church, king, and poor), exer- 

 tions directed to the preservation of a spirit of independence 

 are palsied, and the attainment of self-maintenance and self- 

 respect rendered a hopeless task. The consequences of this 

 deplorable change in the state of affairs are too visible and too 

 lamentable to escape notice ; and, in particular, I am sorry to 

 have to mention that many cottage freeholds have been mort- 

 gaged, and others sold ; and that a considerable number of 

 the most industrious, intelligent, and striving labourers have, 

 in the course of the summer, emigrated to the United States 

 of America ; for which land of liberty, and freedom from 

 tithes and other oppressive taxation, many more are eager to 



