BREAKFAST. One gallon of milk with an equal quantity of water, being Total DINNER. Total expence for 20 persons per week £.2 1 1 This section, which appears well worth the attention of those who are engaged in the management of the poor, con cludes with a table stating the comparative quantity of food produced by an acre of good ground under diff rent crops, particularly potatoes and wheat, and the respective expences of the ** 'The rice on these days is designed for rice-milk, of which a gallon is ordered for twenty, and is supposed to have an equal quantity of water mixed with it.' REV. SEPT. 1798. G acre acre when occupied by each kind. The result from the whole is, that an acre of potatoes will produce 16,875 meals-an acre of wheat only 2745. The total expence of cultivating an acre of wheat is III. 158.; that of an acre of potatoes 121. 135. The author proceeds to the consideration of a work-house infirmary, and the care of the sick. Little that is worthy of particular observation occurs under this head. He merely urges the obvious necessity of having the edifice designed for this use distinct, if possible, from the work-house; that it should be airy and kept clean; and that, as ultimately most economical, a liberal compensation should be given for medical at tendance. The fourth section treats of Employment and labour: a subject of the first moment in the economy of a work-house. Mr. Good suggests that great care should be taken to employ the poor in a manner adapted to their situation, and that it should be such as may afford them, when discharged from the work-house, the means of comfortable subsistence. Hence he prefers for their employment those manufactures which are generally cultivated in the neighbourhood; and hence, too, he excludes the finer needle-works and tambour, on which the females in Scotch work-houses are employed.-For the old and infirm, he recommends the picking of oakum, of horse-hair, and of wool: but, as these modes of employment are not very lucrative, he would provide them for the old and infirm only: The rest,' he says, ' especially on the male side, should be accustomed to hardier, and more useful engagements. If there be a garden of any considerable extent, and, for the growth of potatoes, and other vegetables there certainly should be, it will employ the labour of a few for the greater part of most days. And if cows are kept, and pigs bred, and fattened, both which may be done very advantageously, and which actually are done at the poor-house in SHREWSBURY, and many other places, the care of these will occupy the unemployed hours which remain from gardening. For the rest, the simpler branches of the woollen manufactory, as scribbling, carding, and spinning, or the making of lint from old linen; by proper, and simple machines, may be introduced advan-. tageously, and with no small profit. If it be found desirable from the number of paupers, and the extent of the institution, to introduce more regular, and elaborate trades; looms, of a variety of kinds, as those for stockings, crapes, broad cloth, or-shalloons, according to the general trade of the adjoining country, should, then, he erected; and a master engaged, and allowed for his trouble in the instruction, and necessary attendance, a due proportion of the common profits. By means like these might be manufactured at home all the woollen articles necessary for clothing, as linsey-woolscy, serge-stuffs, flannels, and baizes. And, if the spinning of flax were, likewise, to be introduced among the the children of both sexes, they would not only be employing their time to future advantage, but there is scarcely any article of clothing of any kind they could stand in need of, that might not be manufactured in the house itself: and it might be said of them with literal truth that • The russet cloathing o'er their shoulders thrown, • The late Mr. BARTON OF CARLISLE invented a very useful, and ingenious instrument for the spinning of hemp, wool, or flax. It is a horizontal wheel at which twelve little children can spin at one time; and without interfering with each others work. Its expence is about five guineas; and no pocr-house, where there are children, should be without it. • Much of what I have here advanced will apply to females as well as males. The former, as well as the latter, may be engaged in the different branches of the linen or woollen manufactory, which it may be judged expedient to introduce into a work-house: still sedulously attending to a constant separation of the sexes. But as the younger children should all of them be fitted for servants, and domestic occupations, they should early be instructed in plain needle-work; and, by turns, attend to the cleaning, washing, and cooking, which must necessarily take place, every day. A sufficient knowledge of the latter, therefore, may be easily acquired from the necessary occur. rences at home. And, I am persuaded, if the overseers, or directors, were to use a small quantity of exertion and research, they might easily obtain, from wholesale salesmen, and regimental clothiers, sufficient orders, upon terms of moderate gain, to keep the female department in a constant supply of work." Section fifth, on Moral and religious economics,' concludes the work, and contains several hints well worth attention, for exciting the industry and promoting the instruction and morality of paupers. Indeed, on a consideration of the whole of this tract, we think that it deserves the attentive perusal of every man who is engaged in the superintendence of parochial institutions. ART. X. A View of Agricultural Oppressions: and of their Effects upon Society. By Toomas Marsters, jun. 8vo. 25. at Lynn Regis; and sold by Robinsons, London. 1798. Printed WE E perused the introductory part of this performance with much satisfaction; and indeed a vein of benevolence runs through the whole, which cannot fall to interest the reader: but, viewing it in a general light, there is an evident want of data to support the argument, or declamation. * Shenston,' : 84 Marsters on Agricultural Oppressions. Had the author confined his assertions to the north-west parts of Norfolk, whence he dates his pamphlet, and where his only knowlege of the subject evidently lies, they might have had some weight with the land proprietors. of that part of the kingdom, who have doubtless carried the aggregation of farm lands to an extreme:-but, applied to the north and the west of England, they are perfectly irrelevant: even taking the kingdom at large, they have, as yet, little foundation;-and we hope that what has lately been said on this subject will stop the farther enlargement of such farms as are at present of a sufficient size. We have already delivered our opinion with respect to the proper sizes of farms; and it is probable that, if Mr. M. had read what has, within these few years, been published in the Monthly Review on this subject, he would have spared himself the pains of composing his present pamphlet: at least so much of it as relates to the vast principle of landed accumulation and landed monopoly,' of which he speaks without having well considered the subject. Even in his own neighbourhood, (and in that most particularly,) farming on a large scale has produced the most happy effect. It has not only rendered the country of threefold its former rental value, but, we believe, if our young author will consult the elders of his parish, he will be told that it has, for some time past, sent twice the quantity of produce to market, that it yielded half a century ago. We speak of the higher lands of the north-west quarter of Norfolk, which have been improved by men of capital and exertion, through the help of marl, and what may be termed modern husbandry.-Political economy is a dangerous subject for Inexperience to discuss: Goldsmith's Deserted Village (under the impression of which our author seems to have composed his pamphlet) is admirable as a poem, but forms too airy a basis for a treatise on a practical and difficult subject. Mr. Marsters's observations on the state of the poor are, like the former part, little more than general assertion. As a favourable specimen of his performance, we give the following passage; which certainly contains some truth: • Amidst all our pretensions to refinement and benevolence, yet, in many instances, reason shudders, and humanity revolts, at the calamities to which the poorer classes are exposed. These much injured people, bred up in misery, and without moral instruction, are liable to fall into the extreme of vice and depravity, which frequently bring's them to an untimely end; and hence we find in our courts of justice, that nearly all those who are the objects of legal condemnation, are of the poorer classes. Society, too often, by rendering men wretched, first gives the stimulus to guilt, and then enforces rigid laws for the punishment : punishment of that guilt which its own injustice has occasioned.-Whilst, therefore, the poor are kept in ignorance, and exposed to every species of oppression and misery, it is no wonder that they should lose all regard for their country's welfare; it is no wonder that, when they break loose into wild disorder, they should perpetrate enormous excesses. Society may chiefly blame itself for those convulsions which frequently shake it to its centre. • Another great stain upon the character of this country, is its inhuman treatment of the aged poor. The venerable labourer, after being quite exhausted by the united pressure of years and infirmity, ought, in remembrance of his past services, to be preserved and cherished by the hand of tenderness. But, instead of this, he is relentlessly dragged to a workhouse, and immured in the dreary receptacle of woe. There he is left to languish in mournful despondency, the victim of disease, want, and every wretchedness; breathing his plaintive sighs to the solitary walls of his disgraceful prison, unheard, unpitied, and unknown. In vain he wishes for the friendly hand, to administer some cordial relief to his affliction-the friendly hand cannot be found. No heart vibrates with syınpathy for his sufferings; no hope is left to mitigate his sorrows; and, to render his situation still more insupportable, he must be a slave to the arbitrary caprice, or churlish disposition, of the petty despot, who, with all the disgusting authority of narrow-minded self-importance, superintends the gloomy mansion of his wretched degradation. Thus he mourns dejected and forlorn-without freedom, without help, without comfort, and without a friend. Under these circumstances, life becomes disgusting, and the prospect of death is his only consolation. This this is the ungrateful the inhospitable reward, which polished society gives to its benefactors!!!' The subject of the poor-laws few men are completely qua. lified to treat. It cannot be taken up in a cursory way, or by piecemeal, with good effect. Fully to comprehend it, and still more to write profitably concerning it, would require a general knowlege of the kingdom at large, and the most minute information with respect to parts of it; together with an extensive acquaintance with human nature, and a maturity of judgment which few men possess. On the topic of universal education, which closes the pamphlet before us, we agree in many things with the author; and in none more than in the following position: • As to the opinion, that were all men enlightened, none would labour, it is an hypothesis founded in the grossest error, For, to suppose that a well-informed society would neglect the means of support, would be to suppose, that, in proportion as men increased in wisdom, their conduct became more irrational and absurd.' Our own island furnishes a striking proof of the converse of that arbitrary, not to say inhuman doctrine, which has of late been propagated, that universal education will render the lower G3 |