The Agricultural Labourer. 
779 = 513 
ields, which is in almost all cases a very poor return upon the 
ipital invested. But no people have been more ready than the 
mveaux riches, when purchasers of land, to accept the respon- 
bility connected with its possession, and to improve the con- 
tion of the cottages of the poor. On such estates, and on many 
those held by the older members of the aristocracy, vast 
ims have lately been spent in this manner. The low mud-and- 
ud thatched tenement, with its two rooms on the ground-floor, 
IS almost entirely disappeared. Such dwellings have been 
placed by commodious and comfortable buildings of brick 
id slate, which contain every needful accommodation ; and in 
me cases by really ornamental buildings, which add much to 
e pleasant aspect of the country. 
But even in those cases Avhere the landlord was unwillins: to 
ve the requisite accommodation for the labourers required 
)on his estate, but trusted rather to his tenants supplying 
emselves from the villages outside his property, and evaded 
e responsibility of erecting cottages, which, as far as the rent 
=y pay, are always a very unremunerative investment — the 
estion has been forced upon him within the last few years in a 
I V practical manner. An Act of Parliament, passed some fifteen Benefit to 
\rs ago, threw upon the Union, instead of the parish indi- ^ "J^^'^^^^^T 
1111 • ri 1 r -• r ° ^ Lnion 
lually, the maintenance ot the poor ; the necessary lunds lor c hargeabilitj- 
lich are now, owing to this arrangement, collected from a-A^ct. 
stly larger area. The consequence of the parochial plan had 
pn that the owner of large estates had in some cases, as a 
itter of selfish policy, allowed his tenants to draw their sup- 
j es of labour from parishes outside his domain, which parishes 
us became responsible for the relief of the poor whose daily 
irk lay upon his property but outside their limits. It is easy 
i see how great an evil was encouraged by this plan. The 
' lages outside the estate became burdened with the support of 
1'se men in sickness and in old age. The landlord had, in 
1 1, often been obtaining a portion of his rental at the expense 
< his neighbours. The abolition of this injustice at last forced 
ion him the necessity of cottage building, since, now that he 
\ s made to bear his fair share of the relief of the poor, it was 
I interest to adopt the best means for the amelioration of their 
( idition. 
The present state, then, of the cottage accommodation for Tendency to 
I'Ourers is daily becoming a subject of greater satisfaction. of^t"g"°^ 
T e lover of the picturesque finds rapidly swept away those frail agricultural 
a )des which, however they might gratify his artistic taste, populatioo. 
^re yet sometimes a scandal to the country in which they 
ounded; and their places are supplied with buildings more 
