330 Cleghom on Provide fit Institutions. 



Sb 



a man capable of teaching the children reading, writing, and arithmetic, and 

 other branches of useful knowledge, as netting, knitting, &c, four hours a 

 day, for which he should receive 10s. per week ; this would leave him ample 

 time to cultivate his farm. A female, competent to the care of a girls' 

 school, should receive 85. per week for teaching the girls, and a woman, 

 of kind disposition, 7s. per week for taking care of the infant school. 



" The boys, when of a suitable age, should be employed on the farm ; they 

 would thus become skilled in the rotation of crops, and the most profitable 

 modes of cultivation. The writer has seen a girl of seven years old, who 

 had been taught to milk a cow, and could do it as well as a grown person. 



" Upon this system, not only may the linen weaver be provided for, 

 but any of the handicraft-men enumerated at page 1 9. Thus there might 

 be a village of shoemakers, stocking weavers, or any other trade. In the 

 case of a village, it would be very desirable to put it under the care of a 

 committee of benevolent persons in the neighbourhood. 



" The theoretical objection which has been made against providing for the 

 comfort of the poor, that they would thereby increase to an inconvenient ex- 

 tent, is best answered by matters of fact ; with regard to Ireland, it is an un- 

 deniable fact, that the increase of the poor population is greatest of all, pre- 

 cisely in those districts where the means of support are the least, where the 

 ignorance is greatest, and where the poor are very little better than 

 savages ; here they multiply in the highest ratio, because there are no moral 

 checks, and because they seem to consider that marriage, and a family, can- 

 not sink them lower in the scale of wretchedness. The fact, on the other 

 hand, is, that a good education," and a respectable standing in society, are 

 actually found to operate as a moral check to improvident marriages ; and 

 we may very fairly calculate upon it, that a young man and young woman, 

 educated as the poor upon this plan would be educated, would be earnest 

 to save money, and secure a situation, where they might live in the same 

 comfortable and respectable manner as their parents had done before them. 

 Instead, then, of encouraging emigration, at an enormous expense per head, 

 rather let that money be applied in the establishment of colonies at home, 

 and the increase of our national strength. If these plans were judiciously 

 pursued, it would soon be found, that we have not one man, woman, or 

 child, too many in Ireland, and that the country is capable of supporting 

 many times the amount of its present population in high comfort." 



Colonies, somewhat on this plan, are established in the 

 Netherlands. By an extract from a Brussels paper, sent us 

 by a correspondent, they seem to be going on well. We 

 should be obliged to that correspondent to send us some in- 

 formation respecting the period and cause of their origin, their 

 precise object, and any other particulars he may deem interest- 

 ing and instructive. 



This is rather an unpropitious season to recommend saving 

 of money among the labouring classes ; but as we hope there 

 are still many who have the power to save it, and as it is 

 desirable that they should know how to exercise this power to 

 the best advantage, we would recommend to their notice, as 

 well as to the notice of all who are the friends of the labouring 

 classes, " The Thoughts on the Expediency of a General 

 Provident Institution for the Benefit of the Working Classes, 

 by James Cleghorn, Accountant in Edinburgh." This pamphlet 



