Domestic Notices : — England. 551 



fluous population without loss. You will be shocked at the idea that I am 

 going to mention to you, which is that of government making it legal for 

 captains of ships and others to purchase the labour of such men and women 

 in England as might volunteer themselves, for a certain number of years, say 

 seven, and take them abroad to any British colony to be previously agreed on 

 by the purchaser'^and seller, and there dispose of the term yet to run of their 

 lease. I acknowledge, this seems a very harsh mode of supplying us with 

 labourers ; but, as a general principle, I believe you will agree with me that 

 the service to both countries will be performed much rhore effectually when 

 it is made the interest of individuals to do it, than when it is done by go- 

 vernment. A single act of parhament, comprising all the necessary details, 

 would set the whole of this matter to rights, and effect an inconceivably 

 great service to this country, and, I should think, also to England. — R. S. 



Art. III. Domestic Notices. 

 ENGLAND. 



Blenheim House, the once proud seat of the illustrious Marlborough, 

 presents now but a melancholy and almost desolate appearance to the visitor. 

 The courtyards are overgrown with grass, and the wallflower has introduced 

 itself beneath the colonnade. Many of the windows are broken, and the 

 ripples of the beautiful lake are intercepted by weeds, which luxuriate in all 

 the perfection of undisturbed possession. {Berks Chronicle.) — If the laws 

 relating to landed "property were just and equitable, Blenheim House and 

 all its dependencies would long since have been sold for the benefit of the 

 creditors. But the probability is, that if the estate had not been entailed, 

 the sale of Blenheim would not have become necessary. Good, however, 

 will result from this example of the abuse of aristocratical privilege; be- 

 fore any disease can be cured, it must come to what is called by physicians 

 a crisis : in this view a bad duke may be better than a good one. — Cond. 



Gardens for the Poor. — The Earl of Clarendon has appropriated to the 

 use of the poor at Wootton-basset, fifty acres of land for gardening pur- 

 poses, thereby materially contributing to the comfort and advantage of 

 nearly a hundred families. A more general adoption of this system would 

 be highly desirable, inasmuch as it insures important benefits to the poor, 

 and greatly tends to encourage in them habits of industry and sobriety. 

 {Devizes Gazette.) 



If, in addition to such benevolent, and, in the end, advantageous, practices, 

 proprietors would establish schools, and make it a condition in the leases 

 of the cottages, that all the children born or brought up in them should 

 undergo a certain degree of tuition, the benefit to the country and the in- 

 dividuals would be great; otherwise it might, to a certain extent, aggravate, 

 at a future time, the evil to which it is a present relief. — Cond. 



Artesian Wells. — At a late Meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 it was stated as an ascertained fact, that a supply of water equivalent to the 

 wants of even one district of the metropolis cannot be obtained from the 

 water-bearing strata beneath the blue London clay. {Literary Gazette.) ^ 



Mr. Mackay, of the Trinity College garden, DubHn, is now on a horti- 

 cultural tour in this country. He informs us that there is a horticultural 

 society in Dublin, which holds regular meetings and distributes prizes, which 

 we are happy to hear, notwithstanding the indifference of its secretary \n 

 not sending us now and then a newspaper containing an account of its 

 transactions. — Cond. Sept. 10. 



N N 4 



