September 1. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
version into Hay; it is not, however, to be recommended 
as a system, but may be attempted in case the crop 
proves to be more than can be consumed as green food 
within the usual period. It should be cut very early 
when intended for Hay; - and the risk is always very 
great, as a comparatively small quantity of rain will 
seriously damage it. 
This crop will be found an excellent substitute for 
broad Clover upon those soils which have become what 
is called clover-sick ; and I have known instances where 
such land had been cropped with Trifolium, on which 
Red Clover has afterwards succeeded admirably. 
Joseph Blundell. 
THE PATH OF PEACE. 
By the Authoress of “ My Flowers.’’ 
It is a very great encouragement to British industry that 
there is, in our hitherto highly-favoured land, no bar to the 
success and advancement of men of talent and diligence, 
however humble their birth may he. In other countries 
there is no scope for such persons. They may get rich ; 
hut they cannot rise. There is a wall of partition between 
the high-horn and the humble that can never be climbed 
over; and talents and energies, of the highest and noblest 
order, are crushed and chained down, so that they can never 
aim at anything beyond the lowly sphere in which they 
were horn. In Great Britain a man may be anything. If 
he has talent and determination, there is nothing in our 
laws and customs to prevent his becoming head and front 
of any profession he may choose. Circumstances, that is 
to say, the 'providence of God, may order it otherwise; he 
may lack friends, opportunities, means, to get on; but there 
is no legal, or social, or political reason, why he should not 
sit on the Woolsack; or lead a party in the country; or 
become the greatest physician, mathematician, civil en¬ 
gineer, painter, or poet of the day. This is a great spur to 
talent and energy; a great inducement to young men to 
press forward and do all that they lind in their hearts to do; 
and a great benelit to the country too; because power and 
place is not confined to the well-born, but is freely open 
to the well-fitted; and this is a wonderful safety-valve 
to our hitherto prosperous land. I have been supplied with 
the following interesting particulars by the kindness of a 
a friend, and I request my cottage readers’ particular 
attention to the character of the man; to the path he walked 
in; and to the truth of the Lord’s own Word: “In all thy 
ways acknowledge God, and he shall direct thy paths.” 
“James Smith was born in a small town, of very humble 
parents. His father was employed in the manufacture of 
an article of general use, and was esteemed by his master 
as a man of sound judgment and skill in his business. In 
his early age he was removed, with his parents, to another 
county, and he continued to assist his father in his 
laborious employment until the age of manhood, when he 
returned to his native county. The education he received 
was slight indeed; hut his acute mind led him at once to 
feel his deficiencies; and, in maturer years, by his own 
exertions, he overcame many of the difficulties which a 
defective education entails. Located again in the place of 
his birth, he entered into the service of an eminent firm, 
and was, after a time, selected, on account of his ability and 
skill as a workman, to superintend a part of his employers’ 
works. Here he continued until twenty-six years of age, 
when he was enabled, by prudent habits and self-denial, to 
begin a small business on his own account. It w r as at this 
time that the eminently practical and energetic character 
of James Smith was more fully developed. His manufactory 
gradually increased, as the superiority of his workmanship 
became more fully known; and his integrity and unbending 
truthfulness became better appreciated. But, more than 
this (let my readers mark!), “ he was a man who acknow¬ 
ledged God in all his ways;” and, therefore, God blessed 
him in worldly things, as well as spiritually. 
“ I ought, perhaps, to have stated, at the outset, the kind 
of work James Smith was called upon to do, as soon as his 
hands were strong enough to wield an instrument at all. 
And let the cottage gardener remark, it was not the com¬ 
paratively light manual labour which occupies their time, 
but heavy, laborious, and overwhelming work, from which 
the village blacksmith himself would shrink; for he had to 
work under extreme beat, which the strongest cannot bear 
long together, and which too often forms an excuse for 
excessive drinking. This temptation, by God’s help, James 
Smith was enabled to withstand; and he remained a living 
example, that strong drink is not necessary to sustain hard 
work. . . i 
“ From the manufacture of a small quantity of an article 
weekly, by degrees he made more and more ; he still lived 
with great care ; and the increase of his capital he employed 
in enlarging his works, until, in a few years, he became a 
man of independent property; looked-up to by his fellow- 
townsmen ; respected by his compeers; and often selected 
to arbitrate in matters of commercial difficulty by men 
themselves of high standing and ability. I remember well 
hearing him relate an encouraging incident on the platform 
at a missionary meeting. The place of worship to which lie 
was attached had a heavy debt upon it. This hung heavily 
on his mind—ho could not boar the thoughts of (rods 
house being encumbered. It kept him awake the whole of 
one night; in the morning he rose early, took stock of his 
business, balanced his accounts, and paid over the excess at 
once to the fund for the liquidation of the debt, which, as it 
was at an early period of his business, involved great per¬ 
sonal sacrifice. Was he the poorer for this ? By no means, 
for, as he himself observed, God blessed his store in an 
extraordinary way, and he seemed, from that moment, to 
prosper. Eventually, from being a man of independent 
property, he became a man of yrcat wealth, which he most 
largely distributed. He became first a borough magistrate, 
then a county magistrate, then a magistrate for another 
county; was selected to fill the civic chair, the first lime 
the privilege was granted to the town in which he resided; 
and had he lived a little longer, would, no doubt, have filled 
the office of high sheriff of his native county. But a short 
time ago he was borne to the grave amidst a sorrowing 
people, followed by more than one thousand of his own 
workpeople (who have since erected a monument to his 
memory, at the expense of several hundred pounds), while 
the public business of the large town in which he lived was 
altogether suspended, and the shops closed. 
“ Not very long before that lamented day, he had made a 
lasting provision for the poor, by investing the sum of one 
thousand pounds, the interest of which was to be distributed 
annually in blankets ; so that a blessing will belong to his 
memory among generations to come, who know not their 
benefactor. “ Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord 
.and their works do follow them.” 
“ Such was the career of J ames Smith; and it affords great 
reasons for encouragement to the honest working man, and 
great cause of thankfulness to Englishmen, that they live 
in a land where the poorest man can, by his own exertions, 
win his way to wealth and power. ’ 
Readers! this is a true tale. But if it was invented, it 
could not be made more instructive ■ or encouraging. It is 
very like the story that every one knows of “ Wittington, 
Lord Mayor of London.” It is like the history of David, 
who was taken from the sheepfold to he king over Israel. 
It proves what God can do for those who honour Him. He 
does not always see fit to do it, for He knows our frame, 
and He preserves the weak from great temptations ; hut it 
shows what He can do, and how He blesses honest and 
lawful endeavours, when they are dedicated and used to His 
service and glory. Readers, do not “ make haste to be rich,” 
for then you shall “ not he innocent; ” hut “ he not slothful in 
business,” and then, while you “lend to the Lord,” you will 
receive it all back with usury. 
This narrative comes well after that of poor Roberts, in 
my last paper, who was also a man of humble birth, and 
of considerable gains. It shows the difference between 
“ serving the Lord,” and “ serving him not.” Roberts could 
find no rest, even for the sole of his foot; but James 
Smith’s sleep was sweet. I close this true tale with a 
“faithful saying,” “He that tilleth his land shall have 
