bring back specimens of the productions of those undescribed regions; but we have not heard that England has as yet sent thither any other persons than mercantile speculators and diplomatists.

Some very useful directions are given in the chapter on improving farm buildings. We transcribe the following paragraph, because it does not merely concern the rich or the landed proprietor, but points out the mischief which may be done to a parish by a mercenary speculator.

It may not be amiss to observe, that the effect of building new cottages, is widely different from that of improving old ones. In the latter case, we add to the comfort, and elevate the scale of mind of the possessor; but, in the former, we introduce a new family, rivals to the others in the market for employment, and who, if the wages of the neighbourhood were not before steady and sufficient, will most assuredly tend to lower them. Nor can the unintentional author of this evil in any way obviate it; for, if he employ both families, they will only do the work for which he must there or elsewhere have employed others, who will be thereby deprived of what they would otherwise have had. No real friend to the welfare of the poor, will build additional cottages, till the wages round are adequate, and the demand for labour increasing.'

Mr. Slaney shews himself to be the labourer's friend in his -remarks on roads and footpaths; and there are others besides labourers, who are interested in this subject,-peripatetics and pedestrians in general, which class includes a large proportion of the lovers of nature and sound health. We mean to look after these turnpike acts.

In turnpike acts, there is rarely any mention made of footpaths; and along a great part of the turnpike roads of the kingdom, there is no footpath whatever. Health is the poor man's only possession; yet, how detrimental to health and comfort must it be, to walk through wet roads, cut up by wheels, and trampled into mire! How frequently may we see the wives or daughters of the peasantry in vain trying to pick a dry path through the ruts on their way to market with their poultry; yet, when arrived, they would be obliged to sit several hours in wet shoes before they could return by the samé muddy road. Hence, no doubt, many illnesses arise; and rheumatism, the great torment of the aged poor, may often be derived from this cause. As the number of foot passengers must be twenty to one carriage, it is singular that, in a country where the poor are so much considered, their comfort in this respect is so little regarded. Even in the neighbourhood of the great manufacturing districts, where workmen in search of employment are continually passing, there are often no footpaths.

We frequently laugh at our continental neighbours for the

wooden shoes worn occasionally by their labourers; but whoever has traversed the deep roads of Picardy in the winter months, will see their utility. Well lined with a thick woollen sock, to prevent the foot from being bruised, they effectually protect the peasantry from the wet, which no leather (as they also are destitute of footpaths) could have withstood.

By the general turnpike act, an empowering clause is inserted to enable the commissioners to make and repair causeways and footpaths; and a neighbouring gentleman could not do better than see this clause enforced. The footpath should be always on the northern or eastern side of the road, so as to be open to the sun from the south and west. Nor would so obvious a precaution be mentioned, had not Mr. Telford recommended the other side. In speaking of the Dunstable Trust, he says: "The footpath is here on the South side, which is its proper situation, as it places the workable road-way at a greater distance from the south fence, and it is of course less shaded." The total absorption of this eminent person in the object he had in view, viz., " to make the best road for carriages," reminds us of the story told of a former celebrated engineer, Mr. Brindley, who, being asked before a Committee of the House of Commons, what he thought rivers were intended for by nature, replied immediately, "As feeders for navigable canals."'

The importance of good roads has too often been lost sight of in another respect, the time they save, both to those who plod on foot and those who go on wheels. But all these considerations weigh little with a vestry, when it is the parish who are called upon to amend their ways; and an indictment is generally found the only means of compelling an attention to the subject. Yet, parochial expenditure could seldom be more beneficially applied.

We are glad to find Mr. Slaney insisting on the demoralizing effect of a low rate of wages, though we think, that he errs in attributing the depreciation to the poor-laws, and we beg to refer him to our article on Dr. Chalmers's Civic Economy for our reasons. As one mode of promoting a rise in the wages of the poor, he suggests, that persons of fortune, and perhaps the Government, might very gradually raise the wages of those labourers whom they directly employ. We fear that this mode is not likely to be adopted. Indeed, it is sometimes desirable, that lower than the ordinary wages should be paid when work is found for the poor by public bodies, that it may furnish employment for the surplus labour, rather than tempt away the regular hands from their stated work. Giving employment to the poor,' Mr. S. justly remarks, is one of the best preventive charities ;' but, to render it an effectual one, the aim should be, either to furnish regular employment, or to provide against a temporary want of it. Thus, as the same quantity of

employment at two different periods of the year, is of very different value to a poor man, it should be the object of the rich, to provide it in time of need, and thus equalize, in some measure, the demand for labour throughout the twelve 'months.' The unsteadiness of the demand for labour, and the fluctuation of wages, in some branches of industry, have the worst possible effect on the morals of the poor Agricultural wages are, we believe, generally rising, both nominally and really, in consequence of two circumstances, the increased value of money and the improvement in agricultural profits. No circumstances can be more auspicious to the exertions of the philanthropist. Low wages rendered every attempt at parochial reform abortive.

We cannot follow Mr. Slaney through all the various topics to which his suggestions relate, but strongly recommend to the notice of our readers his remarks on festivals, public libraries, schools, and loans to the poor. The latter is a most important branch of private charity.

It is easy,' says the Writer, for one who chooses to avoid trouble, to say, "that it is so much money thrown away, and that the poor will never repay the sum lent." But experience has taught many benevolent persons that this is not the case. A small loan in time of need is worth much more than its nominal amount. It may save a son from enlistment, or a cottager's property from being hastily sold for half the real value.

• In many parts of London, district societies have lately been formed. A small annual subscription is collected, which is placed in the hands of a few individuals, who voluntarily undertake to investigate every case of severe distress brought to their knowledge within a certain district, and who are empowered to afford such pecuniary assistance as they may deem advisable. The number of persons who have been thus aided in temporary embarrassments and unforeseen or undeserved misfortunes, is very considerable. Many families have been preserved from total ruin, their clothes redeemed from pawn, and they have, after struggling successfully against their difficulties, repaid the loan which was afforded them. Such societies might easily be established in country districts; and, as the person assisted is known only to the hand that relieves, a meritorious cottager might often be upheld from having recourse to the pauper's fund, and his spirit of honest independence remain unbroken.'

The loan of childbed linen, or of a small set of brewing utensils, is pointed out as another extremely useful mode of benevolence. The former plan is adopted in many places: the latter is recommended by its tending to lessen the temptation to visit the public-house. The judicious gift of clothes is another preventive charity of great importance. We have known

poor persons kept away from church or chapel, and children withdrawn from a Sunday school, because they had not clothes decent enough to appear in. Every one knows,'

says Mr.

Slaney, how much easier it is to preserve, than to regain that decent feeling of self-respect which a poor man loses by ap'pearing in rags."

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There is one part of Mr. Slaney's work, however, which demands animadversion. In his chapter on places of amusement for the labouring classes, he refers to the frequent interference of Government, in former times, with the recreations of the poor. Thus, Edward III., by proclamation, forbade throwing of stones, wood, or iron, playing at hand-ball, foot-ball, clubball, and goff; not,' says Strutt, from any evil in the games, but because they were supposed to divert the minds of the populace from more martial pursuits.' In the reign of Henry VIII., to the list of forbidden sports were added, bowls, tennis, cards, and back-gammon. Whatever motive dictated these prohibitory enactments, there can be no question as to their arbitrary and injudicious character. On the other hand,' says Mr. S., King James, whose appearance is compared, by the learned translators of our Bible, to the sun in his strength, greatly favoured the amusements of the poor. published a proclamation rebuking precise persons for profhibiting honest exercises even on Sundays, after evening service. Again, the Puritans,' we are told, were for preventing the amusements of the poor on Sundays and other holidays; but the proclamation of James was renewed in the eighth year of Charles I. From this passage we must infer that our Author wishes for a republication of the Book of Sports,-a measure for which, we should have hoped, no good man or wise man would turn apologist. But before we advert to the operation of such an enactment, we must deal with our Author's mis-statement. He seems to represent the proclamation of King James as intended to repeal the unwise prohibitions with which it is contrasted. It had no such object: they were no longer in force. The design of the proclamation lies concealed under Mr.. Slaney's little word even. It is not true, that the Puritans were for preventing the amusements of the poor on holidays": they stood up only for the religious observance of the Sabbath; and the proclamation was levelled against them, the very men, by the bye, at whose representation and petition, the translation of the Bible was undertaken. It was dictated, in part, by King James's antipathy to Presbyterianism, one of the distinguishing tenets of which, in opposition to the tenets of popery, was the sanctity of the Sabbath, which this proclamation impugned and violated

with wanton impiety. It was a stretch of royal prerogative which affected to expound or dispense with one statute of the Decalogue. But Mr. Slaney must know, that the Puritans denied the holiness of any other holiday' than the Sabbath ; and that where the desecration of the Sabbath prevails, it is generally connected with a strict observance of some one or two of the festivals appointed by the Romish Church.

But we shall not now enter into the theological question, further than to remark, that the religious observance of the Sabbath has always been found an outwork of morality, and, in nine cases out of ten, a criminal career is found to commence with a disregard for its sanctity and obligation. According to Mr. Slaney's own argument, therefore, landed proprietors and others who encourage the violation of the Sabbath, act in opposition to their own interests and to the national welfare. All crime is an expense and positive burden to the community, and their influence, so misdirected, tends to increase that burden.

Let us not, however, be misunderstood as if we wished to invoke the aid of the magistracy to compel a devout observance of the Lord's day. We are ready to admit, that if the poor are arbitrarily restricted from following their pleasure on that day, they are likely to do worse. We would far rather that they should be found exercising themselves in out-door sports, than gambling and drinking in the public-house. But the worst is, that those who are in the habit of taking their pleasure in the one way, will seldom refrain from the other. The public-house has been quaintly termed, the Devil's chapel; and there are few among the poor who frequent no place of worship, but are found attendants there. This, the laws would in vain be invoked to prevent, unless other means be taken to uphold, by influence and example, the decent observance of the day. There is one thing, however, which the magistrate might and ought to put down; namely, the open buying and selling on that day, in contempt of the unrepealed law of the land. This is a very different thing from prohibiting amusements. The poor are themselves the sufferers, when trade is suffered to be carried on on the Lord's day. Many are compelled to work, who feel it a hardship; others, against both inclination and conscience, conform to the bad practice through fear of loss; while the virtuous and religious poor are subjected to an unfair and dishonest competition with the unprincipled, who are protected in their dishonest gains and breach of the law by the connivance of the magistrate. To protect, then, the religious tradesman and the virtuous labourer, the law of the Sabbath ought, in respect to trade, to be rigidly enforced. It is no in