April 14. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
15 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
W 
APRIL 14-20, 1853. 
Weat her 
near London in 1852. 
Sun 
Sun 
I 
Moon 
Moon’s 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
I 
Day of 
Year. 
D 
D 
Barometer. 
Thermo. Wind. Rain in In 
Rises. 
Sets. 
iR.&S. 
Age. 
14 
Th 
Kentish Glory; trees. 
30.262 — 30.171 
73—29 E. 
__ 
8 a. 5 
52 a. 6 
0 
15 
6 
0 15 
104 
15 F 
llrindled Green; wood sides. 
30.1/4 — 30.076 
60—41 E. 
— 
6 
54 
1 
13 
7 
0 0 
105 
16 S 
Marvel du jour; wood sides. 
30.037 — 29.987 
52—25 E. 
— 
4 
56 
2 
3 
J 
aft. 14 
106 
17 Sun 
3 Sunday after Easter. 
29-957 — 29.837 
56—31 N. 
01 
2 
57 
1 2 
41 
9 
0 29 
107 
18 M 
Common Blue (larva). 
30.OIO — 29.7G3 
50—34 | E. 
01 
0 
59 
3 
18 
10 
0 43 
103 
19 To 
Studded Blue (larva). 
30.096 — 30.069 
48—20 ! N.E. 
— 
IV 
VII 
3 
45 
n 
12 
0 56 
109 
20 W 
Black-spot Brown (larva). 
30.118 — 30.043 
59—21 Is.w. 
— 
56 
2 
4 
8 
1 9 
no 
Meteorology of too Week.—A t Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-six years, the average highest and lowest temDera- 
tures of these days are 57 ; 4 , and 37°2. respectively. The greatest heat, 71°, occurred on the 17th in 1844 ;and the lowest cold, 20°, on the 16th 
in 1847. During the period 99 days were fine, and on 83 rain fell. 
No one but those who have either tried, or watched the 
experiment tried by others, can appreciate the immense 
amount of good (a diminished expression would not he 
near to the truth) that can he accomplished by one 
head and one pair of hands. The secret of achieving 
such large success lies in employing that head and 
j those hands discreetly. If we required any authority to 
sustain this opinion, we need only refer to the Proverbs 
of Solomon, for there “discretion” is paramountly held 
up to his sou as one of the mind’s most desirable 
attainments. We will venture, however, to quote one 
other authority, and it is these words of the Psalmist, 
“ A good man sheweth favour and lendeth: he will 
guide his affairs with discretion.” 
Now, we are not about to compose a homily upon 
these words, hut we have before us so powerful an illus¬ 
tration of their truth—we know so many who might 
confer never-ending benefits by following the example, 
and it is so replete with interest in all its details—that 
we hasten to place them fully before our readers. 
There are very few to whom “Child’s Night Lights,” 
and “Price’s Patent Candles,” are not familiar, and 
after reading what we are about to narrate, we shall be 
pretty certain that those who employ them will think 
with us that there is a brighter, pleasanter look about 
their flame, and a happier tint about their light. We 
so feel, because “ the good man who lendeth ” is the 
manager of the manufactory where they are made; what 
he lendeth are his admirable thoughts and judgment for 
the permanent improvement of the artisans under his 
control, and no one will refrain from agreeing that he 
has, indeed, “guided his affairs with discretion.” The 
name of this exemplary man is Mr. James Wilson, and 
the success of his efforts to improve the entire condition 
of the boys and men employed in the manufactory was 
so very manifest, that in the spring of 1852, a com¬ 
mittee of the Company’s Directors was appointed to in¬ 
quire into the course he had pursued, and it then be¬ 
came officially known that he had spent .£3,289 of his 
own money in his successful efforts to improve the 
mental and moral, and, consequently, the temporal con¬ 
dition of those under his management. We must now 
let Mr. Wilson be the chief narrator, taking our ex¬ 
tracts from the report which the Directors had requested 
him to publish. 
“ The schools began in a very humble way by half a dozen 
of our boys hiding themselves behind a bench two or three 
times a week, after they had done their day’s work and had 
) their tea, to practise writing on scraps of paper with worn- 
out pens begged from the counting-house. The foreman of 
their department encouraged them, and, as they persevered, 
and were joined by others of the boys, he begged that some 
rough moveable desks might be made for them. When 
they had obtained these, they used to clear away the candle- 
boxes at night, and set up the desks, and thus work more 
comfortably than before, although still at great disadvan• 
tages, as compared with working in any ordinary school¬ 
room. My brother encouraged them with some books as 
prizes, and many who had been very backward improved 
much in reading and writing. The fact of the whole thing 
being the work of the boys themselves seemed to form so 
large a part of its value that we carefully abstained from 
interfering in it further than by these presents of books for 
prizes, and of copy books, spelling books, and testaments, 
and by my being (but not until long after the commence¬ 
ment, and after being much pressed and being assured that 
it would cause no restraint) always present at the school 
meetings to give them the sanction of authority, but taking 
no more active part than hearing the most backward boys 
their spelling. 
“The first half-dozen had now increased to about thirty, 
and it had become very desirable that they should have 
some better place in which to have their school meetings, 
that in which they then held them being dirty, exposed on 
all sides, and moreover requiring every school evening 
considerable labour to clear it sufficiently for the putting up 
of the moveable desks. Now there was one part of the 
factory which we had long looked upon as very dangerous 
in case of a fire occurring. It was a tall and rather old 
building of which the three upper stories consisted of two 
very low store rooms and a loft, with a very heavy wooden 
staircase running all the way up but boarded off from the 
rooms. We gutted all the upper part of this building, 
clearing enough old wood to have burned down half a dozen 
factories if it had once caught fire, and making in place of 
the two lower store rooms, one lofty schoolroom, with an 
iron staircase up to it, and big enough for about 100 to 
work in. It is the lower one of the two rooms which you 
examined on Tuesday night, and there were ninety boys at 
work in it at the time. The making of this room was the 
first really heavy expense connected with the schools. I 
have very exact accounts of the whole expenses of these, 
and have tried according to your wish to divide them so as 
to show the expense of each part, and in this division I 
make the construction and furnishing of this room amount 
to £172. If we had the same thing to do again, we could, 
with our present experience, do it a good deal cheaper; 
but, nevertheless, I look upon the benefits resulting from 
this room as out of all proportion to the expense incurred. 
Of this sum £57 was a payment to the company itself, for 
its expenses in making the alteration of the building. 
“ It was in the winter of 1848, that the boys got into the 
first school-room, still working entirely by themselves, so 
much so that the prayers, with which the school closed, 
now that the separate room had set them free from the 
bustle of the factory, were always read by themselves. But 
the school had more and more difficulty in working itself in 
this way. The increase of numbers made one difficulty. 
Then the very attention of some of the boys to the schooling 
made another, for they presently found that they had 
exhausted all the powers of instruction which the school 
possessed, and therefore left it, some few of them to look 
for better evening schools out of the factory. Then many 
of the elder boys of the factory had now joined the school 
No. C0XXXVII., Vol. X, 
