274 
infirmity peculiarly confequent to their 
eccupation. Thi s fa is well known to 
the phys ician; and the anatomitt is fre- 
quently enabled to dete& the employment 
ciamn by the diffection of his -bedy. 
a. bufbandman enjoys another advan- 
from this variety in his employment, 
ict, though perhaps not ftri@ly con- 
neéted with the fubject of the prefeut pa- 
Pot yet well merits to be mentioned ; it is 
this: the faculties of his mind are kept it 
ation. He is in the habit of obferving 
the effect of fuch and fuch hufbandry 5 
and though he cannot reafon on tite ope- 
ration of manures with the fcience and 
acutenefs of a philofopher, he learns 
from experience what crops exhauft them 
fooneit, and what require them molt: he 
ey what grain is belt adapted to a par- 
icular foil, ‘and what retation of crops is 
oe to be —_ profitable. His atten- 
tion is of neceffity turned to eattle of 
various forts ; 5 to the afcertaining what 
is the cheapest food for them, the beft 
node of man aging them, &c. &c. 
"Fhe varieties of weather excite his re- 
mark, and a countryman will foretell its 
changes with a degree of certainty that 
altonithes a citizen. 
ft is to the varied nature of his em- 
ployment that a hufbandman is indebted 
for his mental akti nity, and I fhould add, 
acutenes ; ms iy believe there ts no clafs 
3 or 
nN 
in 
ef labour nen, who, to fimplicity of 
manners, unite more folid fenfe, found 
judgment and acute: ref, than that of 
farmers and their workmen. Adam 
SmiITH well obferves, that * the under- 
fandings of the greater part of men are 
neceilarily formed by their ordinary em- 
pio ee The man whole whole life 
2s {pent in teas a few fimple 
perhaps always ta fan or very nearly 
has no occes ab to exert his 
ndertandinge 
finding out expedients for re 
y loies, therefore, the habit 
fuch exertion, and generally becomes 
the 
Oo 
opera os of which the effects, too, are 
re 
the oe 1 
1S, OF - exercile bts inven- 
moving diliculties which never occur. 
on yh 
as ftapid and ignorant as it is pollible 
= 
for a hee creature to become.”’ 
Now then, let us walk into the city: 
what ei apis what emafculated 
members do the sufacturing workmen 
in gener: al prefent pale, dirty, ” raoged,— 
they are the pictures of infelicity ! fis So 
at their children—the miferable miniature 
of their parents! But is this wonderful ? 
what is the fatureot their corployaneney ° 
fedentary, dull, and unvaried. Many of 
them breathe 2 cioie, damp, deleterious at- 
. 
Agricultural Employment. 
fF Ma: 
mofphere, which he muft havea firong con- 
ftitution who fupports without forne in- 
jury. 
But it is not my intention to draw % 
scomparifon between the labour of huf-_ 
bandmen and that of workmen in different 
departments of different manufaétories: I 
have ftated acy aaa which, Iam afraid, 
are almoit exclufive to the former, and 
which, I think, are fufficient to give - fome” 
fanétion to my opinon, that, from the na- 
ture of their employment, hufbandmen are 
much lefs likely to injure their conftitu- 
tions by working extra hours than manual 
labourers in almoft any other occupation. 
Far trombeing tenacious of this opinion, 
however, I fhall be truly glad to relin- 
quith it on hearing from fome of your cor- 
refpondents that the latter enjoy advan- 
tages which counterbalance or outweigh 
thofe which I have ftated as belonging to 
the former, 
1 fhall be brief in contdeges the cout 
part of my pofition, namely, that in the 
prefent ftate of fociety, the probability is, 
that if he works by the piece, a hufband- 
man will rather add to the number of his 
days than fhorten it. 
But what is the value of longevity? to 
fpeak plainly, I think its zztrizfic value 
is very queftionable : where is to bé feen 
a more melancholy and afflicting fpeétacle 
than that of an old man, whofe daily bread 
was purchafed by his daily labour, re- 
duced by the infirmities of age, to the 
neceflity of begging from a penurious parifh 
a pittance for his fupport ? In eftimating 
the worth of many years to a man, the two 
things principally to be confidered are, the 
fhare of health which he enjoys, and the 
fhare of happise’s; they are commonly 
conneéteé—aud ceteris paribus—nothing 
ismore likely to produce old age (and 
fuch an old age too, as is alone defit reable) 
than cheerfulnefs and contentment, 
But how fhould cheerfulnefs and content- 
ment be the companions ofa man through 
early life, who is apprehenfive that po- 
verty and want will invade his dwell- 
ing, when he is no longer able by his own 
exertions to repel them? how hall that 
man’s mind be at eafe, whofe labour has 
not anticipated the neceffities of a fingle 
week, and whofe family, in cafe of his 
ficknefs, 
muit be inflantly diftreffed ? The 
common price of day-labour in that part of 
the SOURELy where I refide is nine fhillings 
a week ; I know fome place, where it is lef$ 
even than this. How fhalla man, who 
pays, pe rhaps, three guineas, or three 
guineas anda half a year for his cottage, 
and earns only nine fhillings a week; how 
fhall 
