MONTHLY MAGAZI 
No. 198.] 
MAY 1,-1810. 
ee Cr sees 
[5 of Vou, 29. 
@s long as thofe who write are ambitious of making Conyerts, and of giving their Opinions a2 Maximum of 
Influence and Celebrity, the moft extenfively circtlated Mifcellany will repay with the greate® Effeck the 
Curiofity of thofe who read either for Amufement or Infrution.——JOHNSON. 
Se DE OR 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS, 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, ta 
Hive for many years contem- 
plated the practicability of two 
plans, fraught with public benefit and indi- 
vidual happiness, I can no longer refrain. 
from submitting them tothe readers of the 
Monthly Magazine, who include the ma- 
jority of the public-spirited and intelli- 
gent subjects of this.realm. I am san- 
guine enough to believe,. that. my plans 
will meet with general approbation; 
and though they may not be imme- 
diately adopted, a future age-may refer 
to your valuable miscellany, as the in- 
Strument which propagated a knowledge 
of what may prove to-posterity eminent 
blessings... 
My First ptgn is to build cheerful cot- 
tages, at requisite distances, by the sides: 
of our public roads, as residences for the 
labourer, whose employment it should be 
to repair the road, fora space equidistant 
in both directions from his cottage. 
Every. benevolent person will view 
these smiling cottages in his mind’s eye 
with rapture, and will wish he possessed 
a magical wand, by which he might, in 
ao instant, bring ten thousand of them 
into existence; but as Commissioners of 
Roads, and Parliamentary Committees, 
are moved only by calculations of inter- 
est, I shall briefly enumerate a few ad- 
vantages which cannot fail to attend 
them. 
1. The roads would be kept in better 
repair, and at much less expence than at 
present; because the labourer would live 
close to his work, instead of spending 
half his time, and wasting half his strength, 
as is now the case, in walking several 
miles to his labour. 
2. The cottages would afford an inde- 
pendent asylum to a class of the labouring 
poor, who, with their families, are gene- 
rally a burthen to the parish. 
S$. They would increase the general 
means of subsistence, if a rood of the 
waste ground on the road-side were an- 
nexed to each cottage, which the cottager 
Montuty Mac, No. 198, 
should be expected to cultivate in the 
most productive way, 
4. The numerous families of children 
thtis healthily and independently reared, 
would add greatly to the effective popus 
lation of the coufitry; and would afford 
means of recruiting our armies, far supe= 
rior to our cripple-making manufactories, 
5. They would addto the cheerfulness 
and security of a road; they might be. 
made to indicate distanees; and to 
supply directions to travellers; and they 
might be 80 constructed as to afford shels. 
ter in case of accident, sudden illness,» 
or inclement weather. “ 
The expence of each of such cottages in 
building and fitting-up, would be from 25, 
to 50/. according to the value of the mate- 
rials which the neighbourhood affurded 3 
and this, if desired, might be reimbursed 
to the .commissioners, trustees, or 
farmers, of the roads, by paying the las 
bourer 6d. or 1s. per week below the 
standard or ordinary price of labour. For 
such deduction, the cottager would receive 
ample compensation in the adyantages 
of his cottage and plot of ground; but in 
acts of parliament for new roads, the 
building of such cottages might form a 
special provision. 
As the labourers would be elected 
to the cottages, candidates bearing .a 
known good character would of ceurse 
be preferred. Married men would be 
hikely to be chosen rather than single ones; 
and the regular appearance of theses 
with their families, at church on a 
Sunday, would be one pledge of their 
moral conduct. Habitual drunkenness, 
neglect of their cottages and plots of 
ground, or any gross depravities, should 
subject the cottager to the forfeiture of 
his cottage; while on the other hand, a 
regular conduct should entitle him, once 
in seven years, tothe benefit of a collec- 
tion at the church, to buy him a cow, 
to put his children apprentices, and afford 
him other comforts and benefits. | 
The sEconD PLan to which I wish to 
call the attention of persons possessing 
QR power 
NE. 
~ 
