542 Labourers in France and, England. 



resident rector of a large agricultural parish in Gloucester- 

 shire, that, when he entered upon his rectory, there were forty- 

 five small farmers in the parish, who brought up their families 

 respectably in habits of industry ; and their children, when 

 they left home, made excellent domestic and agricultural ser- 

 vants. At that time there were only a very few paupers in 

 the whole parish : at present, all the small farms have been 

 consolidated into four large farms ; and what is the conse- 

 quence ? — the parish teems with miserable paupers, and the 

 character of the inhabitants is entirely changed for the worse. 

 This is too general a description of English agricultural pa- 

 rishes. It is true, the landlords may at first increase their 

 income, and lessen the expense of building repairs by this 

 system ; but if the poor-rates devour a large portion of their 

 rents, and their property is exposed to the ravages of a starving 

 and demoralised people, they will find that they have not 

 gained much by the extinction of small farms. The present 

 state of the agricultural poor in this country is a subject of 

 the most momentous import ; and any information respecting 

 the condition of the same classes on the Continent cannot be 

 without its use, as it may tend to elucidate the causes of pre- 

 sent distress, and suggest some hints for amelioration. This 

 is the best apology I can offer for sending you the above very 

 desultory observations : they were elicited by the vivid recol- 

 lections of the Continent which your admirable description of 

 the environs of Paris brought fresh to my mind. Before I 

 conclude, allow me to propose one question. Great Britain, 

 or rather our ministers and parliaments, have expended not 

 less than a thousand million pounds sterling to restore the 

 monarchical and paternal government of the Bourbons * : 

 now, I very much doubt whether any minister or parliament 

 could be found, who could by any means be induced to vote 

 one fifth part of the sum, or two hundred millions, for any 

 measure to benefit the condition of the English people, how- 

 ever great the good it would confer on them. If this be so 

 (and few or none will deny it), I say, if this be the fact, does 

 it not prove that we love our neighbours five times more than 

 we love ourselves ? Yet, notwithstanding this surpassing kind- 

 ness towards them, whether it arise from a defect in the organ 

 of gratitude, or from some mental idiosyncracy, I never met 

 with a Frenchman, of any class or party, who felt thankful 

 for what we had done, or who did not seem to rejoice at the 



* The total expense of the last war exceeds the sum here stated ; for, 

 besides the addition which it made to the national debt, all the supplies 

 were raised (without law) by the income tax for a considerable number of 

 years. 



