by the best intentions), will begin with studying and practising economy in their own families, and they will then instruct the poor or peasantry around them to increase their means by diminishing their waste and their wants, and to pride themselves on independence. But, till women's minds are more improved, and their views more extended, they naturally will endeavour to render themselves as necessary to the poor as the poor are to them. The dreadful lessons we have at different times received, by the failure of harvest or stagnation of commerce, seem to be entirely lost upon us. The miseries of Spitalfields are forgotten as if they had never been; and fewer heed than recollect the loaf of bread hung in crape in Hyde Park, with an alarming motto. It is not decrees of government or acts of parliament that can eradicate an evil rooted as this is in the universal and individual extravagance of the people.† That must result from the united

* Such opinions I have heard reprobated, as the doctrine of despots, who wish to make the people as tame as possible, and satisfied with whatever their bounty may condescend to permit them to retain. But can it be maintained, in the first instance, that inducing them to be frugal, and consequently rendering them independent of their superiors, is the way to debase them? and, in the next place, what happiness can exist in the midst of ineffectual struggles against abitrary power? I will even go so far as to say, that there accrues as much happiness, or at least as little unhappiness, from the impossibility of acquiring any object, (of course beyond the necessaries of life,) as from its absolute possession. What is the utmost of the benefits to be reaped from such struggles or explosions? a very slight experience, considering the magnitude of the event, and a little stimulus to improvement. How differently might these objects be met, by affording the people leisure with the means of improvement, now so easily procured by education and books! Others may suppose, that by promoting contentment, industry is checked. But contentment is not apathy, and frugality and indolence agree neither in sense nor in sound.

"A moralist of Henry the Eighth's time, contrasting the character of that period "with all which had preceded, would say that voluptuousuess and depravity had "then reached their utmost pitch. One who witnessed the excesses of Charles the "Second and his boon companions, would, by the same rule, deem it almost impos "sible for vice to be carried further, These specimens, as far as they extended, were certainly gross and execrable enough; but the sphere of voluptuousness then, compared with that of our own times, was very narrow. Money being the scale by "which licentiousness is to be measured and compared, let us by this apostolic in"strument, compare and estimate our own purity.

"During the thirty-eight years that Henry reigned, the total expenditure of the "government was 30 millions; being on the average about 800,000 annually. The "reign of Charles was thirty-six years, in the whole of which time 64 millions were "expended, the annual average being 1,800,000/ Now, comparing these sums with "our annual payments, independent of interest on monies borrowed at various times, I called the National Debt, and which ought not to be left out of the calculation, "making this money-business the criterion of national licentiousness, it appears that "ours is about fifteen times as profligate as the reign of Charles, and about thirty"four times worse than that of Henry.

"To come, however, to facts, let us, as a further test of our prudence and virtue, "view the four longest reigns, which will furnish fair data for our purpose.

endeavours of the mistresses of families, who alone are enlightened enough for undertaking it, influential enough to recommend and enforce it, and numerous enough to carry it into effect. As one instance in a thousand of the contrast between English workmen and those of other countries, an extensive manufacturer at Manchester told me that for thirty years he had employed none but Scotchmen, because in times of scarcity and sickness he had no trouble or expense with them. They had always sufficient in his hands, with their own frugality, to carry them through.

We all of us, and at all times, consume more food than health or prudence would warrant. What gives trouble to one man to digest would maintain three in comfort. One pound of food a-day, says the Koran, is sufficient to support a man if he take more he has to support it. The criminality of this waste is more particularly evident in the severe afflictions of famine. One portion of the community will abate nought of their ordinary excess for the preservation of the other. Servants will not submit to the slightest privation, while perhaps the nearest relations of their master are starving. Masters will use substitutes of any kind, against which the poor have prejudices. They go among their people, comforting and advising them, and share in their misery: while servants will with great difficulty suffer, if any at all, some trifling reductions. Snails and frogs, so much prized in all other states of Europe, might have greatly assisted us at that period

"Now, to apply these facts to our present purpose, we will say from the acces"sion of Henry Third, to the middle of the reign of Elizabeth, to the death of George "Third, is 284 years. During the first period the annual expenditure increased "six fold; during the latter, which is forty years short of the former, it increased "a hundred and twenty fold, and in the whole period of 600 years it increased nine "hundred fold. Now it cannot reasonably be expected that an equal rate of expen"diture could be observed throughout the whole term; the question therefore is, "what would any competent mathematician of the age of Elizabeth, with the prac"tical data before that time, as here furnished, have said might be the probable expenditure in 1808, or in 250 years time. His calculation would be simply as "follows:-During the 160 years from Henry to Edward, the ratio of increase would "not be quite 2: in the last 226 years, from Edward to Elizabeth, not quite 21, com"puting by centuries. Now, allowing for all moral contingencies during the 250 years to which his calculation related, he would, perhaps, have said, let three be "the ratio; or, allowing extravagantly, four: the former would make 6,750,0007. the "charge on the nation in 1808; and if four were the ratio, itwould have been 12 millions. For the last twenty-six years of George III., 60 millions therefore were squandered "annually more than any prudent calculator would have estimated on the data before "given. If, then, I might be allowed to call the means of gratifying sensuality in the "time of Elizabeth, unit; the political economists of George III, had contrived to "make it one hundred and twenty times greater; and granting money to be the stand"ard of gradations in vice, could any times, let me ask, be more flagitious?"

when provisions were scarce; as they were, like the shell fish, in great plenty. I regret this prejudice of ours very much; as, in this country so liable to consumption, they might be of great service. I give receipts for preparing them, and I should recommend that broths be made of them for consumptive patients, and, if necessary, without their knowledge.

Those who have leisure, and who employ themselves in making experiments, might render infinite service to the community, by making bread, as the Laplanders do, of pine bark. Wake Robin and the root of Dent-de-Lion, were they properly treated, would make excellent bread; and indeed almost all the roots of wholesome plants might be eaten boiled. The discovery of their nutritious properties would be a fine employment and amusement for children of opulent families, who have gardeners capable of directing their researches. It would enlarge their minds, not only in the knowledge of nature, but also in the feelings and relations of humanity. Beech masts, acorns, horse chesnuts, and even sloes, by steeping, might be made useful for food, and new qualities discovered in other weeds and vegetables. *

The physician of one of the embassies to China told me, that he had seen children (almost infants) lying upon the sides of tanks, gathering every thing that had life, and putting what they had collected into little boxes formed like mouse-traps, to prevent their escape. The produce was put into the rice-pot. Such things should be known, as well in case of necessity as to clear away prejudices. Ass and horse-flesh might be used, at least in scarcity. Asses were considered a luxury by the Romans. An elephant was shot at Geneva, from exhibiting symptoms of madness. Finding that my landlady had had some of it for dinner, I requested her to procure some for me, but it was all gone. In a few hours the people had bought up the whole of it at one franc the twelve ounces. I suspect it would have remained longer on hand

* " A corps which was employed to invest Neo-Patra in 1823, being unable to procure any corn for some weeks, tried many substitutes, until they at length "began to try fern roots, which were found to yield more nutriment than any "other succedaneum. Captain Fanganas, who had often partook of this new species of bread, describes it as being very palatable."

Had our military in the American wars fallen upon such resources, it would have saved many a life, when the short provisions were almost in a state of putrefaction, the biscuit destroyed by the weavel, and the men dying of want.

in England. Parents, officers, and masters, ought to know these things; for, supposing themselves to be exempt from personal misfortune, yet it may be in their power to succour those by their advice, whom they could not assist in any other way. But deliverance from prejudice should in itself be a sufficient motive to induce a rational being to throw aside the peculiarities of a country, and the antipathies of a nursery.

An officer, recounting the dreadful calamities to which the army at one time in America was reduced, emphatically said, "But I have to thank the good sense and propriety with which my mother brought me up, in the midst of the prejudice and superstition of the country in which I was born."

The vulgar would say, if he could eat rancid meat and mity bread, he must have been low born: but that is not the case; for the low born are the last to accommodate themselves to any privations. On the contrary, he is of a very ancient family, of which he was then only the younger branch, though now the heir; but he owes his life to his mother's good sense, and not to hereditary

honour.

I would gladly draw the attention of land-owners, and particularly those upon the coast*, to the many unexplored resources they possess on sea and land; for were they to examine their shores more closely, they might find them to contain fish not known to frequent them, or not taken. For instance, dragging for muscles upon the northern coasts of the island, a variety of fish have been taken which the fishermen did not know: red and grey mullet in particular, sole, and some others which I have forgotten. There is found also, in the spring, at the high tides, a curious ugly flat fish, vulgarly called the pedal. It is generally found fixed upon a roe heavier (I believe) than itself. The peasantry eat this roe, and the skin (which is a thick jelly) raw, or heated over the coals. The rich, to whom it is sent in presents, cook it in a fricasée sauce; but it is best dressed as turtle. It is taken when it overstretches the water-mark to deposit the spawn. There was brought to me, in the spring of 1813, a fish of the trout species, that the sea had left. It

*The sand reed is worth the notice of such proprietors.

weighed above sixteen pounds; and although it had lain upon the shore till hardened on the upper side, it was perfectly fresh, and the most delicious of the kind I ever tasted. Although at that time I could get no account of it, I have since met with it on the Barbary coast. It is the chabbel of the Mediterranean, a species of salmon, but much more delicate. Were people who go to these and other coasts, to enquire into the manner of taking the different fish, it might be ascertained whether such fish are visitors or natives of our own? Where turbot is not fished for it is often taken upon skate-lines. There are more likely places for them than at Aberdeen further north, where the climate is more genial.

Where samphire, dulse, laver, or shell-fish is found, the poor ought to be instructed to gather and preserve it for a little commerce, and to make their own salt. Cheap as it is, the very carriage is of consequence to them; and, if they made the salt, they might make excellent soy of dulse, either for themselves or for sale.

The only true secret of assisting the poor is making them agents in bettering their own condition, and supplying them, not with temporary stimulus, but with permanent energy. Many hardships might be washed out of the lot of the poor, by turning their attention to such little occupations; and this only requires to be set a-going. It employs, likewise, much idle time which the men have in winter. Remember, that the waste of one extravagant servant would keep two or three of these families: though I would much rather that, if possible, they subsisted by the sweat of their own labour. I have read many works upon saving the food of the poor-many excellent treatises indeed; but they all suppose that every one who reads is convinced by reason and guided by conviction. They are swayed by example, that is, constant repetition. The oftener, then, that such precepts are repeated, and the more they are insisted upon, the more chance there is of success.

I have said to the cook a good deal about bread; yet, as a mistress may not look into that part of the work, I will tell her, that during the scarcity, every family that attended properly to it, in some cases saved nearly a half, and in others fully so. Some families had to threaten to turn away their servants, not that they had too little, but