acre; and they are let under such conditions as 
oblige the occupants, not to prosecute labour on 
them as their chief or permanent employment, 
but to use them only as a supplementary or an 
occasional resource. They differ widely, in both 
principle and tendency, from the small farms of 
Ireland; they are subjected, not to general or 
mixed husbandry, but only to the raising of cereal 
and culinary crops by spade tillage; and they 
both furnish employment to farm cottiers who 
are out of situations, and serve as resources to 
the various descriptions of farm labourers who 
have industrious habits, or who can command 
assistance in labour from some members of their 
families, or who were formerly small farmers, and 
lost possession of their holdings in consequence 
of the consolidation of farms. The tendency of 
the allotment system, when judiciously planned 
and managed, is to encourage and develop indus- 
try, to initiate the young members of cottiers’ 
families to early habits of active husbandry, to 
raise the tone of morals and economy among all 
classes of the rural peasantry, and to substitute 
productive labour for pauperism, sturdy inde- 
pendence for effeminate sycophancy, comfort for 
| penury, and general social well-béing for a starv- 
ing, discontented, relaxed, and dislocated condi- 
| tion of society. 
A system, similar to the modern allotment sys- 
tem, was suggested to the legislature in the reign 
of Queen Elizabeth; but it seems not to have 
been fairly appreciated, and was reduced to very 
| limited operation. Another similar system was 
partially adopted, in the year 1707, in the duchy 
of Cleves ; but this also appears to have been of no 
great extent. A similar system was commenced 
in 1818, by the establishment of institutions called 
free colonies, in various parts of Holland and 
Belgium ; and this, unlike the preceding, has 
been eminently useful in the case of the former 
country, though not equally so in the case of 
Belgium. The free colonies—so called because 
their inmates were voluntary—were established 
by national subscription, aided by the govern- 
ment. They were commenced in Holland by the 
purchase of 1,300 acres of tolerably good land, 
and 2,600 acres of heath-district, at Frederick’s 
Oord or district, near Steenwyk, on the confines 
of the Drenthe, Overyssel, and Friesland. This 
land was divided into plots of seven acres each; 
and placed under the control of commissioners, 
who should superintend the industry and inspect 
the moral conduct of the tenants. The colonies 
are of various grades, or under various regula- 
| tions, adapted to four different classes of occu- 
| pants; one grade being designed for the least 
_ reduced and best behaved kind of paupers, a 
second grade for the lower and culpable kinds of 
paupers, a third grade for orphans, and a fourth 
grade for general misdemeanants or for persons 
_ expelled from the former grades in consequence 
| of bad conduct. The colonists are employed partly 
in manufactures, but chiefly in husbandry ; they 
ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. 
labour solely with the hand, unaided by machin- 
ery; and they amounted, several years ago, to 
about 10,000. The original expense of establish- 
ing each individual was £22 6s. 4d.; an advance 
of capital, when requisite, was made in form of a 
loan; and an obligation was imposed to pay rent 
to the amount of twelve shillings per acre. Many 
of the free settlers or better sort of paupers, have 
already repaid the sums advanced to them; and 
some of even the poorest sorts of tenants are 
growing into prosperity; yet the colonies still 
require to be maintained by public subscription. 
A gentleman who visited the colony of Freder- 
ick’s Oord a number of years ago, said, “The 
crops were luxuriant, the colonists healthful, and 
the houses comfortable. Several of the colonists 
had acquired considerable property. Many gar- 
dens were planted with currant bushes, pear and 
apple trees, and tastefully ornamented with flow- 
ers. Additional live stock, belonging to the co- 
lonists themselves, was frequently pastured out; 
and around not a few of the houses lay webs of 
linen bleaching, which had been wove on their 
own account by persons who, only four years be- 
fore, were among the outcasts of society. The 
families found at dinner had quite the appear- 
ance of wealthy peasants; and from the quantity 
and quality of food before them, they might have 
been considered as not inferior to the smaller 
tenantry of this country.” The settlements in 
Belgium are—as we have hinted—far behind the 
colony of Frederick’s Oord in prosperity. One 
of the greatest errors committed by their found- 
ers appears to have been the establishing of the 
infant colonies upon a soil so sterile as to require 
tenfold labour and expense in tillage and manure. 
About the year 1800, Dr. Law, Bishop of Bath 
and Wells, set the first example of instituting the 
modern allotment system in Great Britain. About | 
the same time, Sir H. Vavasour communicated 
to the Board of Agriculture a statement of some 
experiments which had been made to test the 
Flemish system of free colonies, and which had | 
proved that system to be highly advantageous. | 
In 1802, Charles Howard, Esq., set another ex- 
ample of instituting allotments. In following 
years, up to the present day, the patrons and 
promoters of the allotment system have been very 
numerous ; in not a few instances, they have been 
both distinguished for their rank and eminent 
for their zeal; and among the most prominent 
may be named Captain Scobell of High Little- 
ton in the vicinity of Bath, Sir Henry EH. Bun- 
bury of Boston, Lords Winchelsea, Beverley, Car- 
rington, and Brownlow, Sir Thomas Bernard, Sir 
John Swinburne, Mr. Burdon of Castle-Eden, Mr. 
Babington of Leicestershire, Mr. Gilbert of East- 
bourn, the rector of Springfield in Essex, and a 
considerable number of the Established clergy. 
In 1831, the Labourers’ Friend society—whose 
direct object is to promote the allotment system, 
and whose course of effort has hitherto been emi- 
nently successful—was formed in London; and 
