ers would hold shares, as members of the | be excused when he made the observation)

Society, and be entitled to receive a divi dend, or profit, on the sum embarked by them in the concern. By this means, an efficient control would be provided; and the right to control the proceedings of the Society-to dismiss or to employ individuals, should never be lost sight of. The Society was in a great measure formed with a view to settling the fisherman-to prevent his emigration-and to give him a constant occupation. For this purpose, it was determined, that one share of 51. might be divided between five persons-so that every man on board one of the boats, would be interested in the success of the fishery. This was the principle on which, alone, the fishery could be supported. From pursuing a different course, other fishing companies had failed. He had been a subscriber to the Nymph-bank Fishery, on the coast of Ireland-but it was conducted on a false principle; and that was the true cause of its failure; for there was a very great abundance of fish on the Nymph-bank. But, by the present plan, a control was established-because it proceeded, not on a principle of charity, but of common profit and common interest; and, in consequence of that control, if any man acted improperly, he could be removed. One single share being divided between five persons, would give to each individual an interest in the success of the plan, and each of them would have a right to vote. A system of occupation and control being once established, he conceived they might look forward to a very great

consumption of fish, and, of course, a great degree competition, which would afford very extensive employment to our fisherThe worthy Alderman then proposed Resolutions to this effect.

men.

it would be allowed by every person, that the prosperity of this country rested on its maritime resources. And where, he would ask, were those resources to be looked to more than in their commerce and their fisheries? There lay the strength of the country-by those branches their brave seamen were furnished. He hoped the fisheries would be extended in such a manner, that, in case of future wars, the greatest advantage would be derived from the measure. Such a proceeding would not only be beneficial to the country-it was in his opinion, necessary for the safety of the nation. He trusted this would not be a temporary Institution, but that it would possess such a consistency and permanency as would enable it to produce the effects he had alluded to. - He hoped it would be regarded as a signal throughout the country, for the formation of similar Societies. Other attempts had failed because, as the Worthy Alderman had stated, they were conducted on improper principles. But the principles now proposed were just and honest-and the Institution founded on them, should have his hearty support.

Several Resolutions were then proposed.

Mr. Alderman Atkins said, it was

fortunate that there must be a revision of the Rules and Regulations which had just been read; to some of which he felt considerable objections. One of them proposed to indemnify any individual for the loss of his boat, in the course of the fishery. Now if ever they by their resolutions, held out expectations that individuals would be

remunerated, when they had lost their

boats, the Society would be so assailed by party feelings, interests, and affections,

that it would be impossible for it to go on. The proper way would be to leave it to the poor man, who had been unfortunate, to memorial the Society for relief: then, if three-fifths, or any other stipulated number, of the Society, thought his was a proper claim, let him be relieved. There was another point also which called for revision. He alluded to that resolution, which secured 15s. a week to each fisherman, under certain circumstances. That ought to be reduced to 7s. For, when a donative was held out, it ought to be as small as the circumstances could possibly admit. Were the sum of 15s. a week to be given to men, who, perhaps, could not earn more, it would be in vain to hope for in

Lord Gambier could not avoid expressing the strong desire he felt to assist the Society. He certainly should use his constant endeavours to promote, to the ut most possible extent, the objects which it had in view. The great benefits likely to arise from this Institution, if carried to the extent they might hope for, would go far beyond the most sanguine calculations. The employment of the poor was a matter of the first importance to the well-being of society; and, by the plan now proposed, not only would the fishermen be occupied, profitably for themselves and for the community, but their families, their wives and children, would also be employed in mak-dustry. The reduction which he men

ing nets, and in other avocations connected with the fisheries. He was sure (and, though a naval man, he hoped he should

tioned would not, however, prevent the Society from granting 10s. to 15s. per week to a man with a number of children. He

was also hostile to the Society embarking in any trade; and he made this observation on account of what occurred in the Report on the subject of Cooperage. It was better for them to contract with the cheapest workmen in that branch, than to speculate in it themselves. As to any calculation, founded on the present price of fish, he considered it futile. That must always be governed by the state of the fish market. He hoped that they would be enabled to supply the Straits with fish at 20s, the barrel. It was necessary they should sell as cheap as possible-for certainly there was no use in their encouraging the catching of fish, unless they so regulated the price as to insure a market. The Worthy Alderman then proposed"That the present Rules and Regulations be referred back to the Committee, to re-consider the same; that they bring forward such Rules and Regulations as may procure employment for the distressed fishermen, and also provide for the security of the property embarked in the undertaking; and that they be empowered to add other names to the Committee for that purpose."-Agreed to.

ing

On the motion of Lord Gambier, the thanks of the meeting were voted to Mr. Alderman Atkins.

INDUSTRIOUS POOR OF THE KINGDOм.

We

are not to suppose, that the poor fishermen have entirely enjoyed the attention of the well-informed: the sea is

valuable, undoubtedly, by reason of its productions; but it must be acknowledged, that this nation has not yet made the most of those riches which are furnished by the soil. If the consequence of the present distress should be, a more diligent examination of the serviceable wealth, accruing from the bounty of nature, the result will continue to be felt, many years after the urgency of the cause has ceased. As we are fully persuaded of the truth of this proposition generally, we have great pleasure in laying the following remarks before our readers.

Lately a Meeting took place at the Mansion-house, for the purpose of taking into consideration a plan, suggested to his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex and the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, by Mr. Salisbury, for benefiting the industrious poor of the kingdom..

The Duke of Sussex was in the Chair.

and

Mr. Pettigrew stated the plan, which began with representing, that ainong the generality of the poorer classes of society, there was an almost total neglect of the many advantages that presented themselves to persons engaged in pursuits connected with the rural affairs of this country; that various materials of spontaneous growth were to be found in hedges, road-sides, waste lands, which were convertible into useful articles; that great numbers of domestic articles, manufactured abroad, or made up of materials imported at considerable expense, might be substituted by productions calculated to give considerable benefit both to the poor and the community at large, supplying sources of labour and profit to the country people at different periods of the year, and capable of being worked by children and others who are unfit to execute more laborious employments.

The following illustrations were then made:-The rushes used for candle wicks were to be found in waste and boggy lands, and if collected and prepared would afford labour and profit during the winter season.

The rush, a weed of the most noxious kind, but when prepared, worth 2s. 9d. per lb. applicable to a variety of purposes, casily collected, and converted into articles of great use with much facility. The bullrushes, of which floor matting, chair-bottoms, baskets, &c. are made, are found in this country in small quantities; and the deficiency is supplied from Holland. The quantity imported in the year 1815 was 149,229 bundles; the price per bundle on importa

£9,501. In 1810 the importation price was tion was 1s. 34d, amounting to the sum of 4s. 9d. per bundle. The typha lati-folia, commonly growing in ponds and stagnant waters in many parts of this country, is convertible into mats and baskets in every respect equal to those worked with Dutch rushes. At Hammersmith there are great quantities of this species of plant, the use

of which is almost unknown. The willow tree affords materials for making excellent baskets. Nut-galls are imported into this country in great quantities for the use of dyers, but they might be collected from our own oaks, and our woods afford them in profusion. It is extraordinary that no more than two vegetables of this country's growth are used by dyers; while various articles grow on our waste lands calculated to answer their purposes, to the fullest extent. Woolwich sand-pits, and the chalk-pits at Guildford, yield some of them in great quantities. The poor people of Wales and Scotland find in the hedges, plants, the stalks or leaves of which afford permanent

and valuable colours for their home-spun, in all countries. In Ireland, in particular,

give poignancy to their wit. Our author has none of that misanthropy which derides the infirmities of human nature, and which laughs while it cauterizes. There appears always some adequate object for any pain that she inflicts, it is done with a steady view to future good, and with a humane and tender, as well as with a skilfui and courageous hand. The object of "The Modern Philosophers" was to expose those whose theory and practice differ, to

1

of morals. She has considered how all that metaphysicians know of sensation, abstraetion, &c. can be applied to the cultivation of the attention, the judgment, and imaginations of children. No matter how little is actually ascertained on these subjects, she has done much in wakening the attention of parents, of mothers especially, to future inquiry she has done much by directing their inquiries rightly-much by exciting them to reflect upon their owa

point out the difficulty of applying high-minds, and to observe what passes in the

flowu principles to the ordinary but necessary concerns of human life, and to shew the danger of bringing every man to become his own moralist and logician. When this novel first appeared, it was perhaps more read and admired than any of Mrs. Hamilton's works; the name, the character of Bridgetina Botheram passed into every company, and became a standing jest, a proverbial point in conversation. The ridicule answered its purpose; it reduced to measure and reason, those who, in the novelty and zeal of system, had overleaped the bounds of common sense.

"The Modern Philosophers," The Cottagers of Glenburnie," and the " Letters of the Hindoo Rajah," the first book we believe that our author published, have all been highly and steadily approved by the public. These works, alike in principle and in benevolence of design, yet with each a different grace of style and invention, have established Mrs. Hamilton's cha

minds of their children. She has opened a new field of investigation to women---a field fitted to their domestic habits, to their duties as mothers, and to their business as preceptors of youth, to whom it belongs to give the minds of children those first impressions and ideas which remain the longest, and which influence them often the most powerfully through the whole course of life. In recommending to her own sex the study of metaphysics, as far as is relates to education, Mrs. Hamilton has been judiciously careful to avoid all that can lead to that species of " vain debate" of which there is no end. She, knowing the limits of the human understanding, does not attempt to go beyond them, into that which can be at best but a dispute about terms-she does not aim at making women expert in the " wordy war," nor does she teach them to astonish the unlearned by their acquaintance with the various vocabulary of metaphysical sys

racter, as an original, agreeable, and suc-tem-makers-such jugglers tricks she des

cessful writer of fiction. But her claims to literary reputation as a philosophic, moral, and religious author, are of a higher sort, and rest upon works of a more solid and durable nature-upon her works on education, especially her "Letters on Female Education." In these, she not only shows that she has studied the history of the human mind, and that she has made herself acquainted with all that has been written on this subject, by the best moral and metaphysical writers, but she adds new value to their knowledge by rendering it practically useful. She has thrown open to all classes of readers those metaphysical discoveries or observations which had been confined chiefly to the learned. To a sort of knowledge which had beeu considered rather as a matter of curiosity than of use, she has given real value and actual currency. She has shown how the knowledge of metaphysics can be made serviceto the art of education. She has shown, for instance, how the doctrine of the association of ideas may be applied in early education to the formation of the habits, of temper, and of the principles of taste and VOL. V. No. 26. Lit. Pan. N. S. Nov. 1.

pised: but she has not, on the other hand, been deceived or overawed by those who would represent the study of the human mind as one that bends to no practical purpose, and that is unfit and unsafe for her sex. Had Mrs. Hamilton set ladies on metaphysic ground, merely to show their paces, she would have made herself and them ridiculous and troublesome; but she has shewn how they may, by slow and certain steps, advance to a useful object. The dark, intricate, and dangerous labyrinth, she has converted into a clear, straight, practicable road-a road not only practicable, but pleasant, and not only pleasant but what is of far more consequence to women, safe. Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton is well known to be not only a moral, but a pious writer: and in all her writings, as in all her conversation, her view of religion was sincere, cheerful, and tolerant, joining in the happiest manner faith, hope, and charity. All who had the happiness to know this amiable woman will, with one accord, bear testimony to the truth of that feeling of affection which her benevolence, kindness, and cheerfulness of temper inspired. She

M

thought so little of herself, so much of others, that it was imposssible she could, superior as she was, excite envy-she put every body at ease in her company, in good humour and good spirits with themselves,

poor-rates are 94d. in the pound, In ten parishes, where the proportion is something under a fourth, poor-rates are 1s. 6d. in the pound. In seven parishes, where the proportion is but nearly one-sixth,

so far from being a restraint on the young | poor-rates are 4s. 1 d. in the pound. And in and lively, she encouraged by her sympathy thirteen parishes, where few or none have their openness and gaiety-she never flat-cows, poor-rates are 5s. 11d. in the pound. tered, but she always formed the most favourable opinion that truth and good sense would permit, of every individual who came near her; therefore, all instead of fearing and shunning her penetration, loved and courted her society. Her loss will be long regretted by her private friends, her memory will long live in public estimation. Much as Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton hath served and honoured the cause of female literature by her writings, she has done still higher and more essential benefit to that cause by her life, by setting the example, through the whole, of that uniform propriety of conduct, and of all those domestic virtues, which ought to characterize her sex, which form the charm and happiness of domestic life, and which in her united gracefully with that superiority of talents and knowledge that com manded the admiration of the public.

The poor in this considerable district being able to maintain themselves without parish assistance, by means of land, and live-stock, and to do it at the same time so much by their industry and sobriety, and consistently with an honest conduct, clearly marked by the entire approbation of this system by the farmers, &c. their neighbours, is a circumstance which, well considered, does away a multitude of those objections and prejudices which we so often hear in conversation."

August 1, 1916.

FURTHER PARTICULARS ON THE ADVAN

TAGES OF LAND ALLOTTED TO COTTA
GERS-[Compare pp. 113-118.]

The person employed by the Board, and who examined above forty parishes minutely, gives the following general result: -"Seven hundred and fifty three cottagers have among them 1194 cows, or, on an average, one and a half and 1-13th cow each. Not one of them receives any thing from the parish! even in the present scarcity. The system is much approved of by the farmers, as it is by the poor people themselves. They are declared to be the most hard-working, diligent, sober, and industrious labourers who have land and cows, and a numerous meeting of farmers signed their entire approbation of the system. In the above-mentioned parishes, rates are, on an average, 174d in the pound; and, but for exceptions of some families who have not land, and of certain cases and expences foreign to the inquiry, they would not be one penny in the pound. In nine parishes, where the proportion of the poor having cows amounts to rather more than half the whole, poor-rates are 34d. in the pound..

"In twelve parishes, where the proportion is less than half, but not one-third,

In the replies to the circular letter of 1816, some notes occur upon this practice, of cottagers keeping land, which it is necessary here to recite. At Shewart, in Kent, it is remarked by Mr. Curling, that a late legal decision, determining that keeping a cow gained a settlement, has deprived many cottagers of that comfort, as it is properly called; an observation, which, however, does not attach to cottagers having already a settlement.

"The same mischievous result of that decision is noticed by a Lincolnshire correspondent, Mr. Parkinson, who iaments the

effects which have flowed from it. Mr. Gregory, of Harlaxton, in the same county, says, "I have several cottages, with land sufficient to keep two cows annexed to them; the cottagers who occupy them live comfortably, and are industrious, useful labourers, and appear to be contented with their situation." In the same county, Mr. Barker, steward to Sir Robert Sheffield, has the remarkable declaration, that there can scarcely be said to be any poor in that country, because they all have cows, by means of which they are in a comfortable state, and are generally equally sober, honest, and industrious. Mr. Goulton, of the same county, also commends this system, as productive of much comfort amongst the poor in this period of distress. The Rev. J. Gwillim of the same county:-" All that have cows do well, so that we have scarcely a pauper." The Rev. John Shinglar, also of the same county:-" The poor, though their employment is lessened by the distress of the farmers, have not yet been burtheusome; and the reason is, their keeping cows." The Rev. H. Basset, of' the same county, reports the state of the poor in his parish to be comfortable, as