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 tithes and other oppressive taxation, many more are eager to

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.

ART. V.

JOHN H. MOGGRIDGE.

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

the winter stock of wood for fuel dry; but it performs more important services. I appeal to the thousands of persons residing in the flat low-roofed houses round London, whether, in the years 1826 and 1827 (which had true French summers), they did not find their upper sleeping-rooms, from being so close to the roof, as hot as bakers' ovens, and whether they could by any possible means keep them cool. In winter, owing to the same cause, the rooms are extremely cold, and subject to frequent inundations from the sudden thawing of the snow which lodges upon the roof. These inconveniences are effectually prevented by the high roofs of the French houses, which, by interposing a great body of air between the tiles and the upper ceiling, tend to equalise the temperature, while the form of the roof prevents the snow from lodging in thick masses. [A sufficient argument; and we now see a beauty in high roofs which we did not see before.]

The following case strongly exemplifies the folly of condemning practices because they are at variance with those in our own country:-A very intelligent friend of mine observed in the neighbourhood of Tours a large public work (I believe it was an embankment), which appeared to proceed very slowly, compared with the rapid execution of such works in England. He expressed his surprise to the overlooker, and received the following answer:-"I admit, Sir, that in England you would have completed the work in as many months as it will take us years to finish, but I believe that the expense would have been greater in the same ratio; it is not, however, to save expense that we conduct the work slowly; we have a higher object in view, the benefit of the labouring classes in the neighbourhood. There are certain times of the year when they have not sufficient employment; at such times any man may come here and work as long as he pleases, for one hour, two hours, or more, and he is paid in exact proportion to the quantity of work he performs. The barrows are all of the same size, and he receives for the number of barrowfuls of earth that he wheels to a certain place, a clerk noting down each time that he passes. Whenever he pleases he demands his money, and returns home. The wages we allow are something less than the common rate of labour, but are sufficient for his support; and in this way we have rendered essential service to the labouring poor for several years." Many a John Bull, who thinks himself a political economist, would have chuckled with exultation at the superior cleverness and quickness of the English, when he first learned the slow progress of such a work, and would never have stopped to discover the practical good sense by which it was directed. In

regarding France as an agricultural and horticultural country, it is impossible to overlook the political revolution which has divided the landed property into small masses, and which, by abolishing the right of primogeniture, tends continually to subdivide every estate in France. It is easy to conceive, in theory, that this subdivision might be carried so far as to prejudice the interests of agriculture: but I do not believe that it has had or will have this effect, for the proprietors of very small portions of land will almost always sell them if there be no house upon the property. A more equal division of land, by increasing the number of proprietors, gives security to property, as it increases the number of those deeply interested in its defence. The system applauded by some economists, of breaking up small farms, and consolidating them into large ones, has not (as it has often been contended) the necessary effect of increasing produce, but it sends the greater part of the population of whole villages to the workhouse.

In Flanders, where the farms do not on the average exceed from eight to eighteen acres, we find a population which, taken per square mile, is double that of England; and a greater quantity of food is said to be produced there than from any country of the same size in Europe: the people are also living in a state of great comparative comfort. The natural fertility of Flanders is not greater than that of England.

Another advantage resulting from the division of property will be, that the possessors will cease to be very eager to turn soldiers, and hazard their lives for objects in which they have no interest whatever; and if in this way the military ardour of the French people should abate, it will be better both for themselves and their neighbours. When the right of primogeniture underwent a fresh examination by the French legislature four years since, and the law which abolished it was reconfirmed, an English senator, whose views are in general liberal and just, surprised his friends by declaring in parliament that the French legislators were insane; because the abolition of the right of primogeniture would, by the division of property, increase the number of rural consumers of produce, and be the ruin of France. In proof of this, he stated that the rural population of France at present consumed one half of the agricultural produce, whereas in England the rural population consumed less than one third.* I confess that I

*I am not certain that the relative proportion of food consumed by the rural population of France and England is precisely what was stated, not having the papers to refer to: the principle, however, remains the same. I published some remarks on this extraordinary speech in the Times newspaper, a few days after its delivery.