decide, he ought to do it without the not a "profitable labourer," and thereslightest bias; his conclusions ought to fore not much employed by farmers, be the result of the most dispassionate that he had a wife and two small chilobservation, given to us well authenti-dren, and that, in this condition, the cated in impartial, specific instances." Naturalist," gave him ten shillings a We ought to have all the circumstances week; that his family became quickly laid before us, that we may scrutinize better clothed, and A. B. himself became the facts ourselves; that we may judge more healthy, had his cottage whitewhether or not (as in this instance) a washed, and built a wall round it, and man with such and such a family can even had a gateway into his premises, live and prosper upon a certain sum of and moreover that he had a flowermoney a-week. It was no unimportant border about his cottage; leaving us, of matter that our "Naturalist" took in course, to suppose that, as he had the hand when he dipped his fingers in ink ornamental garden, he now had the to give us the account of "a worthy kitchen garden likewise. Well, if he peasant; it was settling a most in- went no further, here we have from our teresting question, not merely of natural author convincing proof in poetic words history, but of rural and political eco- that A. B. was much better off when he nomy too, to ascertain that, in England, had ten shillings a week than he was a labouring man, with a wife and three when he had a lesser sum. That he children, could, upon ten shillings a has settled, at any rate: for the "ima week, live well, dress well, and, at proved clothing," the "certain gradathe end of six years, die possessed of a tions of bodily health," the "whitesmall fortune! It is so interesting to washed" cottage, the "rough-wall know that this is so, it concerns us all so and gate," and the rose and the cormuch, it would lead to such important chorus," all came in consequence of the results, that every circumstance of this raising of A. B.'s wages. But even here, matter is important. there are the appearances of a story But now look, reader, at the manner | fashioned for the occasion. Here is of telling this interesting narrative: a man so much in want of a little higher read it again, and observe the manner wages that his health is precarious, yet of it. In the first place, the "worthy owning a cottage which he does not peasant" is introduced to us as A. B. sell, and which, till the rise of his wages, What! was he squeamish of publicity? he cannot afford to enclose! This cotmust he be anonymous, too? Why tage is in a village, too, for A. B. is a such a man deserves to be immortalized; villager; a cottage in a village, with a for he either did what no other man small garden, and hitherto unenclosed, could do, and therefore deserves ever- but now enclosed by a rough wall, havlasting praises, or he did that which ing a gate of entrance. But this is pos others could do if they followed his ex-sible. ample, and therefore an example he "The pig became two;" hollo! the ought to be made. He should have pig, what pig? We had heard of no pig been named, together with the place before. Come, come, "Naturalist," this where he led his exemplary life; for we is no man that you have here; or at should have been left in no doubt as to least, no Englishman, that pines to death the reality of this important string of with a cottage over his head that he facts, given us by a sober, plodding, does not sell, and, what it is that pines observing "naturalist." Alas! how to death, with a pig in his sty, that he different is the case! He runs on, in a does not eat it really does require a flippant, novel-like style, to show us "Naturalist” to find out and tell! Yet, high wages are not always essen"tial or solely contributive to the wel"fare of the labourer," for that A. B., possessing a small cottage in a village, had delicate health, and was therefore how " exaggeration as this is, here is the point where our "Naturalist" seems to have cast off all shame, and Munchausen himself scarcely surpasses, in any eight lines of his works, the eight following lines of the "Naturalist!"-" The pig every lane and road in the neighbourhood; through every gap which promised them a nearer approach to some of their kind, and in which irregular scrambling and became two,"—" a few sheep marked A. B. were running about the lanes,”"his wife had a little cow,"-which COW in the spring was joined by a hedge-picking life they would all manbetter," but these last were disposed gle or destroy their fleeces; some would of, and the sheep“ augmented!" As in break their limbs, some fall a prey to the former part of this story, the man- dogs, and some to gypsies, till at last, ner of saying these facts would be almost the remnant of the few would find their a sufficient proof of their utter falseness; way into the parish pound, and bless it is the very phraseology of fiction, and themselves that they had at last got no man who had the story to tell, and again into a fold. This would be the knew it to be true, would tell it in this probable fate of a few sheep marked flippant, insincere, metaphorical man- A. B. running about the lanes;" these ner. Therefore, to treat it seriously is are misfortunes incidental to the habits almost absurd; but it is put forth in of the animal; in its nature it has seriousness, has been held up to admi-more: what is to be done when staggers, ration, has had a considerable circula rot, and maggots, assail them? In tion, and is now, bit-by-bit, dribbled out short, the man would be mad to think to the public through the penny maga- of keeping a few sheep if he had but zines, and therefore we have chosen to the scanty means of A. B., and the enexpose the falsehood which it contains.gagements of a labouring man. Any man of common intelligence, and accustomed to country life, would immediately see through these exaggerations; but such is the eagerness to pro mulgate the notion of low wages being better for the labourer than high wages, that even those who know better are warped on the side where they fancy their interest lies, and, therefore, countenance notions which in their minds and hearts they despise. But how in the world he could prefer sheep to a cow as the easier to keep through the winter we marvel! It is so precisely the opposite; the cow will content herself with the common, the field, the lane, the road, the yard, or even the stall, and do well in either, with comparatively no watching, having fewer diseases of malignancy, being in no fear of dogs or gypsies, and being less choice in every respect, caring little for dryness or wetness of soil, and as little for company. We should like to ask this man, when it was that his labourer bought his second pig, when he bought his sheep, The "Naturalist" has been careful when he bought his first cow, when the not to give us a notion of what A. B.'s second, and what he gave for them; wages were before he raised them to how he discovered that a cow was more ten shillings per week. We wish he difficult to keep through the winter than had given us this, because then we could "a few sheep," it being notorious that a have nailed him here to a nicety; if A. cow can be kept with ten times less trou- B. was sickly upon what he had before, ble than " a few sheep ;" indeed, it being and began to mend upon having ten ridiculous to suppose that a labourer shillings, then it would have been a could keep sheep at all; that they must question how much of that difference he necessarily be constantly and carefully consumed per week, and then we might watched; that, indeed, a few sheep have calculated with some exactness would require more watching than what he had left wherewith to dress many, a fact well known to every coun- himself and family better, white-wash try boy of ten years old, there being no and enclose his house, and buy pig, animal so proverbially gregarious as the sheep, and cows. However, it is cersheep, and none on earth so wild as a tain he was not a pauper, for he owned few sheep left by themselves, whose a cottage, which he could not then have movements would be, stamping, staring, done. He must have been employed bleating, and galloping up and down by somebody, and constantly too, and 66 It is curious to observe how this though an “unprofitable labourer," he nine in the six years, either bred or was earning money enough to own a bought by A. B. pig when he came into the "Natulist's" service. Suppose, then, that he" Naturalist" has fitted his subject to had, at that time, seven shillings a his experiment in all particulars. He week, which is about the lowest wages brings him into his service sickly, with that have ever of late years been given wife and family, but owning a cottage to labouring people. The seven is now and garden to start with, and, by immade up to ten, and, in consequence, A. plication, a pig; but he forgets that a B. gets more healthy, dresses his family man, sickly for want of sufficient sustebetter, and so on, as above: query, how nance (as he proves this man to have much of his additional three shillings a been), would not have been the owner week does it take to produce these re- of a cottage and a pig. Again, having sults? Say one shilling and sixpence ; brought his man to the full ripeness of then we have one shilling and sixpence his experiment, having made him be to put by weekly to buy another pig, a come the owner of pigs, cows, and a few sheep, and two cows. Eighteen- whole flock of sheep, he kills him, like pence a week will make 37. 18s, a year, a true “ Naturalist," to view the result, and, bearing in mind that it is but a poor and then he gives us this notable discow that sells for so little as eight pounds, play :-" After about six years' service, a poor and unprofitable" cottager's my honest, quiet, sober labourer died, pig that he can get for so little as one leaving his wife and two children pound, and a miserable ewe, with lamb," surviving a third had recently died. that he can get for less than thirty shil-"We found him possessed of some lings: bearing these facts in our minds," money, though I know not the amount; we leave the "Naturalist" to explain "two fine hogs, and a flock of forty-nine to us how "soon" it was that A. B. be- " good sheep, many far advanced in came possessed of an additional pig," lamb;" to all which the conclusion two cows, and a fow sheep! and moral is," and all this stock We confess ourselves incredulous," was acquired solely with the regular and for this reason, that, if you mul-" wages of ten shillings a week, in tiply 31. 18s. by the six years that A. B." conjunction with the simple aids of lived with "Naturalist," you will find " rigid sobriety and economy, without a it amounts to the sum of 23l. 8s. ; and murmur, a complaint, or a grievance!" then, if you will take and calculate the There is no merit in not murmuring cost of animals at that period, you will where there is neither complaint to find them amount to more than that make nor grievance to feel, you know, whole sum, namely "Naturalist!" Ah! but that is not what you mean; you mean that, after this story, any man that has ten shillings a week (any labouring man) should not think of murmuring and complaining; for you have proved, like many others who have written and Thus, eighteen-pence a week, for the spoken upon it, that it is "all their whole six years, would not buy what own fault" that they are in want of the "Naturalist" says A. B. bought food and in want of clothes; you soon upon that sum, or some sum ligingly furnish us with an instance, a not exceeding it, by above a halfpenny case in point, which settles the matter, or two! We have given him five sheep and the Quarterly Review has done its without the authority of "Naturalist ;' best to send you into every drawingbut what were we to gather by the word room and library in the country to profew and let us caution him against mulgate your grateful discovery in nastarting with too small a number, seeing tural science. Pity, too, you did not that he has to make them up to forty-know the sum that A. B. died possessed 2 cows, at 81. each - ...... 5 sheep, at 30s. each 16 0 0 1 £24 10 ob 66 fore defenceless part of his countrymen, by a man who assumes a character that is very likely to give both currency and authority to his work. 66 of! One would have thought that you, his benefactor, would be the very man to know it, and to have the distributing of it, or the vesting of it in savings-banks. And then, "forty-nine Much more might be said upon the good sheep, many far advanced in passage that we have quoted above, "lamb!" So, they were of all states and but we have already occupied too conditions; but-forty-nine sheep? much of our space with it. Upon The stock of a moderate farm! The somewhat the same topic, however, we man knows nothing of what he is cannot help bringing in here a passage writing about! he is evidently ignorant or two, from pages 131 and 132, which of the manner of keeping, feeding, and give additional proof of the malignity multiplying these animals; and this and folly of the writer of this book: last-mentioned absurdity, put to that of" And every village boy with his cur the cow being more difficult to main-" detects the haunts of the poor hedgetain through the winter," shows an igno- "hog, and assuredly worries and kills rance of the whole matter so gross, that "him. Killing everything and cruelty, one can attribute it to none but a man are the common vices of the ignowho has never contemplated it at all, and "rant:" And again, speaking of the has never seen the animals unless horse, "The ass, probably and hapthrough a stage-coach window, or ob-" pily, is not a sensitive animal, but the liquely, from a window in Half-moon-" poor horse no sooner becomes the street, or some other street, Piccadilly." property of man in the lower walks of In the absence, therefore, of proof of " life, than he commonly has his ears the truth of this story; till we are in- "shorn off; his knees are broken, his formed of the "locus in quo," the" wind is broken, his body is starved, place where this happened which he" his eyes !! I fear, in these tells us of, we doubt it entirely. But" grades of society, mercy is only known let us put down on paper what a man "by the name of cowardice, and comcan get to live on for ten shillings at "passion designated simplicity and efthis time, dividing it into so much each" feminacy?" Verily, this "Naturaday; let us be scrupulous to allow him "list" has found out amiable characa bare sufficiency for himself, a wife, teristics for his own species! The and two young children, and then let poor boys, the village boys, too, each us see how much money a man is likely with his cur, are heaped altogether to lay by to buy pigs, cows, and sheep. that they may be smitten down by the anathema of this pious admirer of nature. In common justice to the boys, we cannot help reminding him, however, that he himself professes to have been a sportsman, and that, so long as the mangling and killing of pheasants, partridges, hares, rabbits, &c. &c., is to In this calculation we have taken the be eagerly and openly sought and pracpresent prices, and as things have not, tised by full-grown men and sober" of late years, been much cheaper than turalists as a sport, the poor village they are now, ten shillings now will boys may, surely, if they can bear the buy as much as it probably would in sight, be excused for worrying and killthe time of A. B. And here the whole ing so unsightly a little devil as the ten shillings is gone in a bare sufficiency hedgehog. But our "Naturalist" of necessaries. We defy the "Natu- swells into fury when he comes to the ralist" to controvert this, and, there-horse, "the property of man in the fore, again we express our great disgust lower walks of life," and which walks at the attempt here made against the with admirable rhetorical propriety laborious, patient, unlettered, and there- quickly become "grades" in his hands, Per Day. Per Week. .. d. s. d. 4lbs. of bread, a day 74 3 6 ........ 1 pint of beer... 9 5 6 0 104 0 14 10 0 na in that is so say, steps; our author finds made to say "his honour," in page 30 that the moment the horse comes down the cottager is called " the cotter, to these, all the ills that horse flesh is page 25, making hay is called “saving heir to come upon him; cropped hay," and we find other expressions (“shorn," our author says) ears, broken which make us conclude that the writer knees, broken wind, and instead of eyes is of the sister kingdom. None the at all, a long dash and two marks of worse for that, unless we find that he admiration! Terrible! one would has contemplated rags and famine in think he believed in the migration of his own unfortunate country till his souls, and was afraid of becoming a heart has become callous, and till he horse. But, coolly, "Naturalist: would not mind contemplating the same would it answer the purpose of one of in ours. the "ignorant" in the "lower grades" In page 59, our author remarks thatto serve his horse so badly: would he "Trees in full foliage have long been break his knees, and his wind, and poke" noted as great attractors of humidity, out his eyes, on purpose? And are you "and a young wych elm, in fall leaf, so ignorant, yourself, as not to know" affords a good example of this supthat it is those in the " upper grades posed power; but in the winter of who break the knees, and do all the rest" the year, when trees are perfectly before the horse comes into the pos- "denuded, this faculty of creating session of your man in the lower" moisture about them is equally obwalks?" But you mention incident-"vious, though not so profusely. A ally the ass, and "we thank thee for" strongly-marked instance of this was that word," for the ass is peculiarly "witnessed by me, when ascending a 66 66 the beast of burden of those in the hill in the month of March. The "lower grades," and do we see asses "weather had previously been very fine cropped, or even docked; and much" and dry, and the road in a dusty state; more, nicked; do we see them with" but a fog coming on, an ash tree, broken knees, broken wind, and such " hanging over the road, was dripping eyes as it shocks your delicacy to de-" with water so copiously, that the road scribe? But enough. One word, how-"beneath was in a puddle, when the ever, on the word "ignorant : no man "other parts continued dry, and maniis ignorant who knows his business," fested no appearance of humidity." the business which he professes to know. Some men know more things and more important things than others, and, in proportion as these things are important, and the knowledge difficult to attain, the man ought to be reverenced and deemed learned who knows them ; but no man who knows any science, or any art that is practically pared. beneficial to the whole body of man- "In heavy fogs, on elevated situakind, ought to be called ignorant,"tions especially, trees are perfect and it would have become one of your "alembics; and no one that has not pretensions, Naturalist" though you "attended to such matters can imagine In Mr. WHITE's History of Selborne may be seen the whole that is worth reading of our author's observations upon the matter which he prefaces above, and of which we have not room for more than the preface of either; we will, however, extract that from Mr. WHITE in order that they may be com be, to be less forward in round as- "how much water one tree will distil sertions that nature has placed certain" in a night's time, by condensing the evil dispositions in the minds and vapour, which trickles down the hearts of distinct grades of society;" boughs, so as to make the ground it would have become a man of your "below quite in a float. In Newtonparts and your piety to ponder a little" lane, in October, 1775, on a misty before you made this frightful disclo-" day, a particular oak in leaf dropped so fast, that the cart-way stood in In page 17 an English labourer is" puddles, and the ruts ran with water, sure. 66 |