6 



unemployed Operatives, and improve all the waste 

 lands of Great Britain and Ireland, and keep them 

 always employed, although the population was even 

 much more numerous, and thus keep the strength 

 of the nation for the day of battle, both as to men 

 and means within herself — The above Postscript 

 was not in the original Letter, 



It may not be uninteresting to our readers to give 

 the following Review of the above Letter, taken 

 from the Edinburgh Star Newspaper, 1826 : 



PLANS FOR EMPLOYING THE PEOPLE. 



Mr. MoNTEATH, author of " The Forester's 

 Guide," and other works on the subject of Plant- 

 ing, has has sent us a copy of a Letter, which he has 

 addressed to Mr. Peel, on the means of giving oc- 

 cupation to all the unemployed workmen in Great 

 Britain and Ireland, and of affording at the same 

 time a secure and immense return to government 

 for their outlay. " There are,'' he states, of 

 waste unimproved lands in Scotland alone, 

 14,218,224 acres ; triple that quantity in Ireland ; 

 and nearly as much in England. About one-half 

 of the whole will carry wood, and lie so contiguous 

 to the sea as to afford every facility for its exporta- 

 tion. Now, supposing Government to become feu- 

 ars of 10,000 acres of these lands, this would em- 

 ploy, in enclosing and planting, upwards of 30,000 

 people. Any quantity of the lands referred to 

 could be feued at from 6s. to 10s. per acre — and 

 on 100 acres the cost of the whole process would, 

 therefore, be nearly as follows : 



