Suggestio]is for its Improvement 
21 
will of the landlord, who may attach to the cottage a plot of ad- 
joining land, or land so nearly adjoining and ready of access, as 
to impose no material inconvenience upon the labourer and his 
family in its cultivation. But where the ownership is in other 
hands, less will be directly in the power of the landowner, who 
may then have to exert his influence for obtaining a plot of ground 
for the purpose.* There can be no doubt, however, that if the 
chief landowners and leaders of the agricultural interest through- 
out the country, would earnestly set about providing suitable cot- 
tages and cottage- gardens for the labourers on their estates, it 
might soon be accomplished, and the dwellings would speedily 
assume a more cheering aspect, and the labourers' lamdies 
would have a more happy and contented appearance than is now 
often witnessed. 
That it is expedient, if it be not absolutely necessary, that some 
effort for accomplishing this object should be promptly made, 
every one who attends to the temper and circumstances of the 
times will admit. The working classes have of late years become 
of far greater weight and importance in the community than here- 
tofore. Their increase in influence has fully kept pace with their 
increase in number ; and the importance of cementing the differ- 
ent orders of society into one harmonious whole, and restoring or 
creating a closer sympathy and connexion between the higher and 
the lower grades, is every day becoming more obvious and more 
urgent. The first step in this direction must be, to endeavour 
to make the working classes more happy and contented, by im- 
proving their condition and increasing their comforts. The 
people must be made to see and to feel that they have something 
to lose, that their position has its advantages as well as its pri- 
vations ; and that although theirs is of necessity a life of labour 
and endurance, from which the more fortunate portion of the- 
community are in a great measure exempt, they are yet cared for 
and appreciated by their superiors in station. This would im- 
part a new and improved tone of feeling throughout our rural 
population, and there is perhaps nothing that would be more 
conducive to this end than attaching a garden to every cottage. f 
* "Charity lands contiguous to villages, or to clusters of cottages, have 
in many instances been subdivided into allotments for the poor, with 
great success; and thus the benevolent object of the original donor has 
been carried out in a twofold capacity. It seems obvious indeed that as 
these estates frequently consist of insulated fields, no better application 
of them can be adopted ; added to which, the tenure under trustees is 
more certain, nor are the poor occupiers subject to be disturbed by a 
capricious landlord, or liable to having their rents raised from mercenary 
motives." — Br.a.ybrooke. 
•'• See a short but valuable article by Sir H. E. Bunbury, page 391, in 
the Society's Journal cf last year. 
