4 30 Advantafies to Gardeiicrs 



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and few will be so very fond of toil as to labour on the 

 Sunday. 



It was with much pleasure that I lately perused several 

 communications in this Magazine, the design of which was 

 the amelioration of the state of the labouring classes, and 

 which were sent by gentlemen, whose labours and example 

 may be productive of the greatest benefit. Let them show 

 that they really wish to put the poor man in possession of his 

 rights, by immediately redressing his grievances, however 

 trifling these may appear to be. Those philanthropic gentle- 

 men who, regardless of the customs prevalent around them, 

 will break through every fostered prejudice, and do what 

 they can to elevate degraded humanity, may be laughed at, 

 reviled, and even opposed, by some of their neighbours, who 

 wish us to remain degraded and ignorant as we are ; but they 

 may rest assured that their benevolent exertions will be duly 

 appreciated by a discerning public, and their names will be 

 long hailed as those of the benefactors of their species, and the 

 enemies of oppression, in every cabin and cottage of our land, 

 the inmates of which have acquired the power of knowing 

 right from wrong; when the names of heroes, conquerors, 

 and crafty politicians, that once operated as a potent charm in 

 arresting the admiration of mankind, shall have mixed with 

 the generations of by-gone ages, and along with them be 

 rolled down the stream of oblivion ; and, what is most en- 

 couraging of all, they will experience, in their own bosoms, 

 those truly enviable sensations which an approving con- 

 science (" mens sibi conscia recti ^') never fails to inspire. 



We do not advocate the adoption of this system as a prac- 

 tice that has never been tried : it has long been generally 

 prevalent in the northern counties of England. There, every 

 gardener at a gentleman's establishment, even those connected 

 with the forcing department, quits his labour on Saturday at 

 four o'clock in the afternoon, and every labourer, wherever 

 employed, does the same. As I have never resided in that 

 part of the country, I will not attempt to give you a descrip- 

 tion of the effects of such a practice. I will merely mention 

 what I have often been told by a very intelligent young man, 

 who laboured two years in a gentleman's garden in the 

 county of Durham; namely, that his master was so convinced 

 of the beneficial results of giving a degree of relaxation to his 

 men, that they uniformly left their work at five o'clock in 

 the afternoon, and on Saturday at three o'clock ; and the 

 effect of this practice was, and is, that the place is so cele- 

 brated for its high keeping and good management, that a 

 saying has been rendered current in the neighbourhood^ that 



