have bestowed upon you; for, without their assistance, you would have been badly situated; and I hope the Lord will reward them for their kindness they have done for you. My dear wife, I have to caution you again, and I hope you will not think more about me than you possibly can, for all the fretting and sorrow in the world will not make it any better now; and if I know that you make yourself comfortable about me, I shall feel a great deal more the happier in my mind: pray remember what I say and be happy. I know your feelings, and I hope the Lord will protect and prosper you in all your proceedings. Let me be wherever I may, I shall always write to you, and send you my directions, so that we may write to each other. Though we are parted and separated from each other, yet I never will forget you nor my children so long as I live. My heart shall be always with you while I have my being; and if you wish me to write before I leave, for it is uncertain when we leave, if you wish me to write, I will; so I conclude my letter with my kind and sincere love to you and my dear children also. No more this time from County Gaol, 1838. Your unfortunate husband, SAVINGS' BANKS. THE best way of helping the poor is to teach them to help themselves. This is acknowledged by all the rightminded and the well-disposed among them. The plan of Saving-Banks will enforce and extend the persuasion. It will render them independent, without rendering them insolent or proud. It will lead them to temperance, and the restraint of the disorderly passions which a wasteful expenditure of money nourishes; and it will produce that sobriety of mind, and that steadiness of conduct, which, next to the motives of religion, afford the best foundation for the domestic virtues in every station of life.-Every one who has paid attention to the habits of the poor must be convinced, that, with few exceptions, they may all save money, if they will make the attempt. Unhappily, by early and imprudent marriages, the poor too often plunge 1838.] ALLOTMENTS. 193 themselves into misery, from which no economy afterwards can rescue them. And it is certain that their situation would be greatly improved, if they were wise enough to live single, till they could afford to feed and clothe their children, and to procure for them an education suitable to their condition in life. Now, when they learn how much may be done by treasuring up the seemingly small trifling sums which are squandered in vice and folly, the prospect of this advantage is more likely, than any thing else, to produce a proper estimate of money, and along with it a proper foresight of consequences, and a love of independence.-From "Remarks" in the Hertfordshire Savings-Bank Book. ALLOTMENTS. ON Monday, April 2, the tenants on the Charterhouse Hinton Allotments came with their half-yearly rents; and out of sixty tenants, as the list was called over, only one failed in answering to his name and paying his rent. The land was first set apart for this purpose in 1833; and during the five years not one instance has occurred in which the rent has not been paid. The allotments vary from a quarter of an acre to an acre; the generality having a quarter of an acre, but some few persons, whose occupations give them more leisure, have a larger quantity: the rent is 17. 10s. per acre, out of which the landlord pays poor-rates, and the tenants have no extra charge whatever. After the payment of the rent they sat down to a plentiful dinner of roast and boiled beef, roast and boiled mutton, veal, &c. There were present Harold Brooke, esq., of Hinton Abbey; Rev. T. Spencer; John Marshall, esq., R. Fetherston, esq., Mrs. Symonds and Mrs. Brooke, of Hinton Abbey; Mrs. Spencer and Mr. G. W. Walker. After dinner, the Rev. T. Spencer proposed the health of Mrs. Symonds, the kind and generous landlady of the Allotment tenants. He said that it was a sight peculiar to our day to see landlords meeting in this pleasing and happy intercourse with the labouring class. Mr. Spencer then urged upon the Allotment tenants the importance of cultivating their minds and exercising the talents which God had given them, in order that, by an intelligent understanding of their own condition, they might, not only wisely seek their own happiness, but be able to suggest, from their own practical experience, ideas which might be useful even to the statesman in his endeavours to legislate for their good. A most delightful day was passed; and the ladies and gentlemen took their departure amidst the hearty cheers of the labourers.Salisbury Herald. THE YOUTH AND THE SUNFLOWER. (Imitated from the French of the "Messager Fribourgeois.") As this subject has of late occupied much of the public attention in consequence of several cases of small-pox having occurred, even when the persons had been formerly vaccinated, we think it right to lay before our readers the opinions of those who appear qualified to give a right judgment on the subject. We believe that the medical profession still continue to believe that vaccination, generally speaking, is a preventive of small-pox, though there may be some cases of exception. The following letter, sent to the Editor of a London newspaper by Dr. Jenner, a nephew of the celebrated discoverer of Vaccina ། 1838.] VACCINATION. 195 tion, leads to the belief that the failure often arises from causes which a more strict attention might remove. SIR, Observing in your paper an extract from the Bristol Mirror, relating to small-pox and vaccination, I beg leave to make some observations which I hope may increase public confidence, and more strongly excite the efforts of the humane in promoting the vaccine practice, whereby the annihilation of that dreadful and fatal disease, the small-pox, might be effectually accomplished. By judicious, skilful, and persevering attention and management, and cautiously using only pure uncontaminated infection, or lymph, or what is taken from the cow at a proper period, or is not spurious-for cows are often affected with a similar looking complaint that has no protecting influence, or will in the least shield the constitution from small-pox contagion. The son of a respectable farmer residing some miles distance from me, with an amiable sister, were lately deposited in the same grave, having fallen victims to the small-pox after previous wrong-conducted vaccination. I am a relative of the late distinguished Dr. Jenner-the son of his eldest brother, and was more than thirty years professionally connected with him, and assisted him in making most of his various experiments to prove and establish the providential discovery of vaccination before it was published to the world. I have, with my own lancet, successfully vaccinated some thousands of persons, and not in one instance have I heard that the small-pox contagion has had the least subsequent influence on the constitution, though many were afterwards inoculated with active small-pox matter, and a great many others exposed to its contagion. The lymph which I now use was lately taken from a fine young heifer, and is cautiously carried on from the pustules on the arms of the most healthy, rosy-cheeked little cottagers of very healthy parents, and from this source I have supplied those who have applied to me for it. The whole mischief in the practice of vaccination has arisen from the use of bad or contaminated lymph, neglect of attention, and want of experience in its management, and not due caution observed in children being in a proper state for the operation, and often the not taking the lymph for carrying on the practice from assured healthy and proper subjects. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, Berkeley, April 25. H. JENNER, M.D., F.L.S. TO THE EDITOR OF THE OXFORD HERALD. SIR, I am inclined to believe that a few lines of your paper may be well bestowed on a subject just now occupying a great deal of attention. The prevalence of small-pox in Oxford and other places of late, has led to much discussion, and it has naturally been inquired why this is the case. From the reports of the Vaccination Hospital, we learn that in their opinion vaccination is a security against smallpox infection, if properly performed; and that the instances of failure are not more than one in 800, and that there is as much probability of small-pox by infection after inoculation as after vaccination. Now, believing this statement to be accurate, it might be expected that after a lapse of nearly forty years, smallpox might have become perfectly extinct, and so no doubt it would, if persons had not kept it up by inoculation, and thereby not only endangering their own children, but extending the infection of a formidable disease amongst their neighbours. A recent afflicting circumstance has been much talked of, and a report prevails that the source from which the infection was derived was from children who had been inoculated with small-pox. The truth of this statement I know not, but as the following declaration from government may not be generally known, I am induced to send it to you. If the infection was brought to the house in question the parents were to be felt for under such a visitation, but if the complaint arose from inoculation, they have acted not only unfairly towards their neighbours, but illegally. It may be well to observe, that the poor have no excuse |