pily admits of being enforced, has driven away a few adven-
turers, and alarmed, disgusted, and in some degree para-
lysed all; so that the prospect of rescuing many more from
the jaws of poverty, and from the fangs of oppression and
want, is not at present very encouraging, although the num-
ber of inhabitants in the three villages mentioned in my last
has, since the date of that account, increased to between two
and three thousand. At present, from the conjoint operation
of local taxation, and the necessary effects of the present
depressed state of every branch of British industry, the popu-
lation in these experimental villages is on the decrease rather
than otherwise. How much this is to be regretted by every
real friend of his country, the following short statements, show-
ing in part, but materially, the altered condition and conse-
quent feelings of the poor, will unanswerably testify. Early
in the year 1827, an unfortunate difference respecting wages
took place between the proprietors of the Monmouthshire
collieries and their workmen; and a comparatively few vaga-
bonds became the terror of the country for several weeks, by
means of nightly alarms, and depredations committed on such
of their fellow-workmen as were willing to work on their
'masters' terms. Then it was that the difference was con-
spicuously shown between those who had nothing they could
call their own, and those who were conscious that, in their
houses and gardens more particularly, they had something
to lose; between those who had been made half brutes by
having been subjected to contumely, contempt, and inhu-
manity, and those who had been treated with the consider-
ation and kindness due from all human creatures one to the
other. Whilst the unmarried colliers rambled into other
mining districts in search of work; and whilst the great mass
of the married men scoured the country for fifteen miles
round in parties of from ten to twenty in each, with wallets
over their shoulders, and bludgeons in their hands, levying
contributions in victuals and clothes for the support of their
families, the Blackwood villagers, who had gardens, turned
their attention to them, and subsisted themselves out of them
and of the resources at their command: and when it became
necessary to swear in a considerable number of special con-
stables to aid in preserving the peace of the country, and for
the protection of property, none were found more ready,
none more zealous, none more faithful, none more effective,
than the cottage freeholders of Blackwood. * Again, in the

* In December, 1828, sixty of these villagers formed themselves into The Blackwood Society for Free Enquiry. In the address delivered at the

very spot which, as to cultivation, had been a waste a few years before, has sprung up gardens producing all the varieties

first meeting, by Mr. Moggridge, the great object of the Society is stated to be," to obtain knowledge by means of free enquiry. Some may know something worth imparting which others do not know, but may learn; so that thus the knowledge of each and every member may in time become the property of all. By discussion also, and attending to select readings, much knowledge will be obtained which none of the members may know any thing of at present; and attentive consideration of and thinking upon what you hear, will be sure to make you both wiser and better. The plan and rules of the Society have been repeatedly read, and finally approved: they are simple and easy to be understood, and calculated to do what is to be done in the cheapest, most regular, and most effectual manner. Amongst the leading subjects which will probably be brought forward are geology, or the knowledge of the structure of the earth; mineralogy, or a knowledge of minerals: both subjects particularly deserving the attention of persons who live in this great mining country, and who are in the habit of going under ground. Mechanics, or the knowledge and use of machines, by the help of which one man may do the work of many; a subject also very important to miners and manufacturers. I mentioned just now the name of the greatest inventor of machines in ancient times, Archimedes : he was a native of that part of the world in which a cruel war has been carried on by the Turks against the Greeks. Here is a model of his screw-pump. See! in working simply by the winch it raises the water from the bottom of the tin can to the top, through a pipe which I have had twisted round the outside of a cylinder, instead of its being a screw in the inside, in order that you may see its mode of working more clearly. It is used for pumping water out of canals and reservoirs, and for other purposes, and might be used to advantage in your mines. The arts of life, or a knowledge of the different trades of the industrious, will be another subject for your attention; and domestic economy, or the means of enabling every poor man's family to live better and more cheaply, by applying things to the best purposes in the best way, and by teaching the use of different articles of food, of which many are at present ignorant, or know but little about. A garden all of you begin to value as one of your best friends: my gardener will give you a lesson upon gardening; so that you may, if you will, have vegetables of all sorts, and common fruits in plenty, and know how to raise your own plants, and sow your own seeds. I shall mention only two other subjects, but they are of the greatest importance, viz. politics and religion. I am one of those who think it but just that those who pay for the support, and contribute to the expenses, of government (and all pay more or less, directly or indirectly), should occasionally turn their attention to the measures and principles of government. It is only bad governments that do not like to render an account of their proceedings and expenditure to the people, like as bad servants fear to be called to an account by their master; temperate and constitutional discussion on this subject is the right of all people, and can do no harm to any whose conduct is upright and honest. Above all, and as being the most important, and your enquiries being, as I understand, the most directed thereto, is the subject of religion; in comparison with this all other subjects become of little consequence.'

We should be happy to hear of societies of this sort being formed in every village of the kingdom; nothing but the control of opinion will save this country from a crisis. It is in the nature of things, that the political sufferings of all will render all politicians. — Cond.

of the most useful vegetables, and many others which, though desirable, are not necessary; currants and gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, apples, and the rhubarb for tarts; and (though more rarely) single plants and beds of flowers: so that the prizes for "the best cultivated villager's garden in the hills of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire," and for "the best basket of sorted vegetables," as well as for "the finest apples,” and for "new or rare sorts of apples," all fell to the lot of the Blackwood villagers, at two successive shows of the Horticultural Society in the year 1829, as well as the prize for "the most beautiful flower in bloom." That these are striking indications of physical and moral improvement, who will venture to disbelieve? and who that is a real friend to the peace and tranquillity, the reputation and happiness of his country, but must wish them to become, as they EVEN YET might be, UNIVERSAL? In the present state of the country little progress in the true cottage system can be expected in England, notwithstanding various applications for practical information thereon have been made, and some of them from persons of rank and extensive influence. In Ireland, on the contrary, the labouring poor are not subjected to the fatal effects of that taxation which in England renders the circumstances of the poor all but desperate; if the curse of tithes could be previously removed as affecting improvements, the cottage system on the most liberal scale might, under the direction of judicious and experienced persons, be rendered a real blessing to the country; as the editor of the Irish Farmer's Journal for January 1827 justly observes. The hints for farther improvement in the circumstances of the labouring poor, afforded by the very interesting particulars, given in the Gardener's Magazine, of your late Continental tour, I cherish with fondness, but, alas! without the hope of seeing many of them adopted in my time.

JOHN H. MOGGRIDGE.

Woodfield, Monmouthshire, March 5. 1830.

ART. IV. On the Subject of an Experiment made for bettering the Condition of the Labouring Classes. By JOHN H. MOGGRIDGE, Esq.

Sir,

FARTHER information as to the progress of my experiment for bettering the condition of the labouring classes may not be unacceptable to certain of your readers. It is now some length of time since the last account appeared; and although

the additional incidents are few, and by no means so satisfactory as heretofore, certain of them furnish matter of much though mournful interest to the political economist, and to the friends of the improvement, happiness, and respectability of the working poor.

Except in one of the villages where local circumstances have fostered improvement, very few additional houses have been erected by cottagers; who, partaking of late largely in the distress of the times, have generally been disabled from making any exertion to extricate themselves from the degraded and dependent state into which they have been so deeply plunged, or from availing themselves of the proffered assistance for that purpose. Yet, up to the beginning of the last winter, the progressive improvement in the appearance of many dwellings previously built, as well as of their inmates, was perceptible and gratifying; but, above all, the superior cultivation and increased comforts derived from their gardens strongly denoted greater ease of circumstances, as well as materially contributed thereto. A more striking proof of what the exertions of the labouring classes, duly encouraged, instead of unnaturally depressed, would effect in this way, can hardly be furnished, than that which arises out of the fact, that, at all the Horticultural Society meetings held during the past year, the cottagers of the earliest-established village, heretofore described, carried away the prizes offered for the productions of cottage gardens in the hills of either of the two counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan. The depression of trade, which has within a year past been grievously felt in this part of the country, and the imposition of local taxes, which the friends of the struggling poor have been unable to prevent, have operated a most distressing change, affording another and striking proof of the gross impolicy as well as injustice of a state of society which raises the price of provisions beyond the reach of the unassisted poor; at the same time that, from the same cause (enormity of taxation for church, king, and poor), exertions directed to the preservation of a spirit of independence are palsied, and the attainment of self-maintenance and selfrespect rendered a hopeless task. The consequences of this deplorable change in the state of affairs are too visible and too lamentable to escape notice; and, in particular, I am sorry to have to mention that many cottage freeholds have been mortgaged, and others sold; and that a considerable number of the most industrious, intelligent, and striving labourers have, in the course of the summer, emigrated to the United States of America; for which land of liberty, and freedom from

embark. The necessity which exists, and which seems likely to continue, for selling the produce of our mines and manufactories at very reduced prices, if sold at all, operating, and necessarily so, great reduction in the rate of wages; the imposition of direct taxes, and the probability of the curse of taxation being farther extended so as to include the cottages of the poorest of the poor, as contemplated in a bill introduced into parliament in the course of the last session by Mr. Slaney, one of the members for Shrewsbury, render, I fear, all prospect of retrievement but faint and feeble, till that change takes place in our national affairs which error and misrule have been long preparing. I am, Sir, &c.

Woodfield, August 28.

JOHN H. MOggridge.

ART. V.

Observations chiefly relating to the Agricultural and Horticultural Labourers in France and England. By R. BAKEWELL, Esq.

Sir,

I HAVE perused with unmixed satisfaction your notes and reflections on the country round Paris, in the last Number of the Gardener's Magazine (p. 1.): though much has been written and published on the French capital, I have met with no other account which conveys so correct and original a description of what is peculiar and distinctive in the characters and appearance of the environs of Paris, compared with those of London. Travellers generally confine their observations too much to the higher orders of society, whose manners in all civilised countries are so nearly reduced to the same form, that they may, as Rousseau observes, be regarded as puppets fixed to the same board, and moved by the same wire. "The simple annals of the labouring poor," who compose the great mass of society, deserve the chief attention of the traveller, at least of him who would really benefit the world by his ramblings. It has doubtless occurred to you, that many customs of the people on the Continent, which appeared at first as absurd, for no better reason than their variance from those in Great Britain, were, on a more complete knowledge of them, found to be appropriate to the climate and circumstances of the country. I would therefore ask you, in the spirit of enquiry, and not of criticism, whether the "intolerably high roofs" of which you complain, as disfiguring the houses in France, do not possess substantial advantages which more than compensate for their appearance? In the first place, the empty space under the roof forms the grenier, and is appropriated to keep