Michael nor would this perfuming en masse surpass other improvements of the age; lighting by gas, for example. By the judicious distribution of orange trees, and of other odoriferous flowers, shrubs, and plants, or even by mignonette alone, the air of any city might be rendered as odoriferous as that of a garden. When the many have once conquered from the few what is necessary and convenient, they will then attempt what is agreeable and refined; and, with the knowledge of the wonderful resources of nature and art, requisite to give them the sovereignty of society, they will succeed.

But, to return to the orange trees at the Tuilleries, or, to speak our minds freely, all those kept in tubs in the open garden every where, we should greatly prefer having the tubs or boxes sunk in the borders, and covered and disguised in such a way as would convey the idea that the trees were growing in the natural soil. Nothing could be easier to execute; and we recommend this, and also the subject of plucking off the blossoms, to the proper authorities. We are aware of the allegation, that suffering the fruit to come to maturity would weaken the tree, &c. &c.; but it is the gardener's business to supply the tree with strength; and we know he can supply it when his interest does not interfere.*

(To be continued.)

ART. II. Notice of the Gardens of the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert at Spofforth. By N. H. S.

AT Spofforth, a mean-looking straggling village, about four miles south of Harrogate, is the residence of that eminent botanist the Hon. and Rev. William Herbert, brother to the present Earl of Caernarvon. Mr. Herbert is a gentleman of good private fortune; and the rectory of Spofforth is said to bring him in an income of 2500l. per annum. As a botanist Mr. Herbert is well known: he is also a most accomplished scholar, an eloquent preacher, and a poet. (See his Helga, 2 vols.) The rectory house has nothing about it to deserve either encomium or disparagement. The gardens nearly

* Since writing the above, we have seen, in the Times (Sept. 24.), an intention expressed of pulling down the Tuilleries, to rebuild a palace for the use of the three princes. We should not be sorry to see that part of the Tuilleries pulled down which is said to be in a state of decay, and rebuilt as a continuation of the National Galleries of Sculpture and Painting; but most deeply should we regret to hear of a palace for a prince being built in France after what the French have done. The days for erecting palaces for individual kings, we trust, are gone never to return, not only in France but throughout Europe: a government palace is a different thing.

surround it, and are rich in rhodendrons, azaleas, kalmias, &c., together with the most choice irises, African gladioli, and hybrids of the greatest variety and beauty, which may be sought for in vain elsewhere. In front of the stove and green-house, the borders are filled with the most choice bulbs, as crinums, amaryllis, pancratiums, cyrtanthus, cannas, &c., which bloom in such perfection as few green-houses, or even hot-houses, can boast. Here are also beautiful rock plants and many choice aquatics, with gold fishes, in a small pond. The noble curvilinear conservatory (which opens into a drawing-room) seems to be admirably managed, if we may judge from the luxuriance and size of the Australian and Cape acacias, liparias, beaufortias, melaleucas, leucadendrons, and other choice shrubs, with which it is planted: along the front glasses is a raised border, 2 to 3 ft. broad, in which are planted many splendid creepers and climbers, as platylobiums, glycines, kennedias, and choice calceolarias, salpiglossis, heaths, elichrysums, crotolarias, &c. &c. The stove is entirely a botanical one, and is literally crammed with rare and curious plants, including the beautiful ixoras, bignonias, hibiscus, passifloras; and at each end are a number of Orchidea, parasites, epiphytes, &c., such as Dendrobium, Epidéndron, &c., some growing in baskets, some in pots, and others in the stumps of old trees; many of these are not to be found in any other place in England. The green-house joins the stove: in it are numerous camellias of extraordinary size and beauty, and many hybrids raised from seed by Mr. Herbert; and the tribe of ixias, gladioli, &c., on the raised border is endless. The bulb-house communicates with the green-house, and is so full of every variety of exotic bulbs that it is not easy to pass them. In this house are also very fine plants of Strelitzia, and Gloriosa supérba; several plants of that singular genus Mantísia saltatòria, or opera girls; and on the rafters some beautiful and rare climbing plants. Beyond the bulb-house is the heathery, in which many of the better varieties of those handsome plants, and some hybrids, &c., are found, as well as a numerous assemblage of mesembryanthema, cacti, pelargoniums, &c.

The borders and beds in the garden have every thing rare and curious, from the superb magnolia to the Neapolitan violet.

The site of the kitchen-garden is not good; nevertheless it appears to be highly productive. There is a small flued pit, in which a few grapes, pines, and melons are grown. On the whole, Mr. Herbert's collection cannot fail to please any one fond of plants; but I regret one thing that truth obliges me

to mention: the garden is not easy of access for those who find themselves without an introduction. Mr. Herbert is said to be a very amiable man, enthusiastically attached to his garden, in which he spends much time: if, therefore, he allowed his collection to be shown to all callers, he would in the summer months be every day annoyed with company from Harrogate, who, having little to do, are constantly going from one showplace to another; some from a real love of science, and others to drive away ennui, which the tedium of a watering-place very commonly produces.

Newton-Kyme, June 19. 1830.

N. H. I.

ART. III. Some Account of the Progress of an Experiment going on in Monmouthshire, for bettering the Condition of the Labouring Classes. By JoHN H. MOGGRIDGE, Esq.

Sir,

ALTHOUGH Considerable time has elapsed since my last communication to you on the subject of my experiment for bettering the condition of the labouring classes (Vol. III. p. 167.), yet have I not forgotten my promise of occasionally notifying its progress to you. It has now nearly two years and a half of experience more to boast of than when I transmitted you the last particulars of its state and circumstances; and although these have been (and must be still more, I fear) very injuriously affected by the distress which generally, if not universally, pervades the country, yet has nothing occurred to invalidate the principle on which the experiment was founded, or even to occasion doubt as to its continued local success. On the contrary, the effects of the pressure of the times, and of the impolitic attempts which have been made, with partial success, to fasten direct local taxation on the laudable exertions of humble industry to set itself above want in sickness and old age, and to reassume a portion at least of that independence of spirit which their forefathers possessed, have only added other proofs in support of the fact, — that the labouring classes in this country have been degraded, impoverished, and demoralised, much more by the baneful system of misgovernment to which the country has been long subjected, than to any inherent vice in their own constitution, or any personal fault of their own. The partial imposition of poor-rates, church-rates, and highway-rates, though fortunately defeated in the intention of its being made general, and confined to that which the strict letter of the law unhap

pily admits of being enforced, has driven away a few adventurers, and alarmed, disgusted, and in some degree paralysed 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 number 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 population 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, showing in part, but materially, the altered condition and consequent 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 vagabonds 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 conspicuously 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 inhumanity, and those who had been treated with the consideration 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 constables 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 It is in the nature of things that the political this country from a crisis. sufferings of all will render all politicians.

M M 4

Cond.