food; and without making one reflect on the horrible, the unnatural, the base and infamous state, in which we must be, when projects are on foot, and openly avowed, for transporting those who raise this food, because they want to eat enough of it to keep them alive; and when no project is on foot for transporting the idlers who live in luxury upon this same food; when no project is on foot for transporting pensioners, parsons, or dead-weight|neral, well loaded with fruit. So people!

plete. Then, the trees are every where lofty. They are generally elms, with some ashes, which delight in the soil that they find are here. There are, almost always, two or three large clumps of trees in every parish, and a rookery or two (not rag-rookery) to every parish. By the water's edge there are willows; and to almost every farm, there is a fine orchard, the trees being, in general, very fine, and, this year, they are, in ge

that, all taken together, it seems impossible to find a more beautiful and pleasant country than this, or to imagine any life more easy and happy than men might here lead, if they were untormented by an accursed system that takes the food from those that raise it, and gives it to those that do nothing that is useful to man.

A little while before I came to this farm-yard, I saw, in one piece, about four hundred acres of wheat-stubble, and I saw a sheep-fold, which, I thought, contained an acre of ground, and had in it about four thousand sheep and lambs. The fold was divided into three separate flocks; but the piece of ground was one and the Here the farmer has always an same; and I thought it contained abundance of straw. His farmabout an acre. At one farm, be- yard is never without it. Cattle tween PEWSEY and UPAVON, and horses are bedded up to their counted more than 300 hogs in eyes. The yards are put close one stubble. This is certainly the under the shelter of a hill, or are most delightful farming in the protected by lofty and thick-set world. No ditches, no water-trees. Every animal seems comfurrows, no drains, hardly any fortably situated; and, in the hedges, no dirt and mire, even in dreariest days of winter, these are, the wettest seasons of the year; perhaps, the happiest scenes in and though the downs are naked the world; or, rather, they would and cold, the valleys are snug-be such, if those, whose labour ness itself. They are, as to the downs, what ah-ahs! are, in parks or lawns. When you are going over the downs, you look over the valleys, as in the case of the ah-ah; and, if you be not acquainted with the country, your surprise, when you come to the edge of the hill, is very great. The shelter, in these valleys, and particularly where the downs are steep and lofty on the sides, is very com

makes it all, trees, corn, sheep and every thing, had but their fair share of the produce of that labour. What share they really have of it one cannot exactly say; but, I should suppose, that every labouring man in this valley raises as much food as would suffice for fifty, or a hundred persons, fed like himself!

At a farm at MILTON there were, according to my calcula

tion, 600 quarters of wheat and sweets were absolutely necessary 1200 quarters of barley of the for the baby, there would be quite present year's crop. The farm honey enough in the parish. Now, keeps, on an average, 1400 sheep, then, to begin with the bread, a it breeds and rears an usual pro- pound of good wheat makes a portion of pigs, fats the usual pro- pound of good bread; for, though portion of hogs, and, I suppose, the offal be taken out, the water rears and fats the usual proportion is put in; and, indeed, the fact is, of poultry. Upon inquiry, I found, that a pound of wheat will make that this farm was, in point of a pound of bread, leaving the produce, about one-fifth of the offal of the wheat to feed pigs, or parish. Therefore, the land of other animals, and to produce this parish produces annually other human food in this way. about 3000 quarters of wheat, The family would, then, use 6000 quarters of barley, the wool 1825 lbs. of wheat in the year, of 7000 sheep, together with the which, at 60 lbs. a bushel, would pigs and poultry. Now, then, be (leaving out a fraction) 30leaving green, or moist, vegetables bushels, or three quarters and six out of the question, as being things bushels, for the year. that human creatures, and espe- Next comes the mutton, 365 lbs. cially labouring human creatures for the year. Next the bacon, ought never to use as sustenance, 730lbs. As to the quantity of and saying nothing, at present, mutton produced, the sheep are about milk and butter; leaving these wholly out of the question, let us see how many people the produce of this parish would keep, supposing the people to live all alike, and to have plenty of food and clothing. In order to come at the fact here, let us see what would be the consumption of one family; let it be a family of five persons; a man, wife, and three children, one child big enough to work, one big enough to eat heartily, and one a baby; and this is a pretty fair average of the state of people in the country. Such a family would want 5 lbs. of bread a-day; they would want a pound of mutton a-day; they would want two pounds of bacon a-day; they would want, on an average, winter and summer, a gallon and a half of beer a-day; for, I mean that they should live without the aid of the Eastern or the Western slave - drivers. If

bred here, and not fatted in general; but we may fairly suppose, that each of the sheep kept here, each of the standing stock, makes, first or last, half a fat sheep; so that a farm that keeps, on an average, 100 sheep, produces annually 50 fat sheep. Suppose the mutton to be 15lbs. a quarter, then the family will want, within a trifle of seven sheep a year. Of bacon, or pork, 36 score will be wanted. Hogs differ so much in their propensity to fat, that it is difficult to calcu late about them: but this is a very good rule: when you see a fat hog, and know how many scores he will weigh, set down to his account a sack (half a quarter) of barley for every score of his weight; for, let him have been educated (as the French call it) as he may, this will be about the real cost of him when he is fat. A sack of barley will make a score of bacon, and it will not make more. There

As to the beer, 18 gallons to the bushel of malt is very good; but, as we allow of no spirits, no wine, and none of the slave-produce, we will suppose that a sixth part of the beer is strong stuff. This would require two bushels of malt to the 18 gallons. The whole would, therefore, take 35 bushels of malt; and a bushel of barley makes a bushel of malt, and, by the increase pays the expense of malting. Here, then, the family would want, for beer, four quarters and three bushels of barley. The annual consumption of the family, in victuals and drink, would then be as follows:

fore, the family would want 18 |ing, all together, 21,000lbs., and quarters of barley in the year for capable of being made into 8,400 bacon! yards of broad cloth, at two pounds and a half of wool to the yard? Setting, therefore, the wool, the milk, butter, eggs, poultry, and game against all the wants beyond the solid food and drink, we see that the parish of Milton, that we have under our eye, would give bread to 800 families, mutton to 500, and bacon and beer to 207. The reason why wheat and mutton are produced in a proportion so much greater than the materials for making bacon and beer, is, that the wheat and the mutton are more loudly demanded from a distance, and are much more cheaply conveyed away in proportion to their value. For instance, the wheat and mutton are wanted in the infernal WEN, and some barley is wanted there in the shape of malt; but hogs are not fatted in the WEN, and a larger proportion of the barley is used where it is grown.

Wheat
Bariey

Sheep

qrs. bush. 3 6 22 3

7

This being the case, the 3000 quarters of wheat, which the parish annually produces, would suffice for 800 families. The 6000 quarters of barley, would suffice for 207 families. The 3500 fat sheep, being half the number kept, would suffice for 500 families. So that here is, produced in the parish of MILTON, bread for 800, mutton for 500, and bacon and beer for 207 families. Besides victuals and drink, there are clothes, fuel, tools, and household goods wanting; but, there are milk, butter, eggs, poultry, rabbits, hares, and partridges, which I have not noticed, and these are all eatables, and are all eaten too. And as to clothing, and, indeed, fuel and all other wants beyond eating and drinking, are there not 7000 fleeces of South-down wool, weigh-getables included in my account;

Here is, then, bread for 800 families, mutton for 500, and bacon and beer for 207. Let us take the average of the three, and then we have 502 families, for the keeping of whom, and in this good manner too, the parish of Milton yields a sufficiency. In the wool, the milk, butter, eggs, poultry, and game, we have seen ample, and much more than ample, provision for all wants, other than those of mere food and drink. What I have allowed in food and drink is by no means excessive. It is but a pound of bread, and a little more ihan half-a-pound of meat a day to each person on an average; and the beer is not a drop too much. There are no green and moist ve

but, there would be some, and be nine shillings. Even that they would not do any harm; but, makes only 231. 8s. a year, for no man can say, or, at least, none food, drink, clothing, fuel and but a base usurer, who would grind money out of the bones of his own father; no other man can, or will, say, that I have been too liberal to this family; and yet, good God! what extravagance is here, if the labourers of England be now treated justly!

every thing, whereas I allow 621. 6s. 3d. a year for the bare eating and drinking; and that is little enough. Monstrous, barbarous, horrible as this appears, we do not, however, see it in half its horrors; our indignation and rage against this infernal system is not half roused, till we see the small number of labourers who raise all' the food and the drink, and, of course, the mere trifling portion of it that they are suffered to retain for their own use.

Is there a family, even amongst those who live the hardest, in the WEN, that would not shudder at the thought of living upon what I have allowed to this family? Yet what do labourers' families get. The parish of MILTON does, as compared to this? The answer to we have seen, produce food, drink, that question ought to make us clothing, and all other things, shudder indeed. The amount of enough for 502 families, or 2510 my allowance, compared with the persons, upon my allowance, which amount of the allowance that la- is a great deal more than three bourers now have, is necessary to times the present allowance, bebe stated here, before I proceed cause the present allowance infurther. The wheat 3 qrs. and cludes clothing, fuel, tools and 6 bushels at present price (56s. every thing. Now, then, accordthe quarter) amounts to 10. 10s. ing to the "POPULATION REThe barley (for bacon and beer) TURN," laid before Parliament, 22 qrs. 3 bushels, at present price this parish contains 500 persons; (34s. the quarter), amounts to or, according to my division, one $71. 16s. 8d. The seven sheep, at hundred families. So that here 40s. each, amount to 14. There but one hundred families to total is 627. 6s. 8d.; and this, ob- raise food and drink enough, and serve, for bare victuals and drink; to raise wool and other things to just food and drink enough to pay for all other necessaries, for keep people in working condition. five hundred and two families! What, then, do the labourers Aye, and five hundred and two get? To what fare has this families fed and lodged, too, on wretched and most infamous sys-my liberal scale. Fed and lodged tem brought them? Why, such a according to the present scale, family as I have described is this one hundred families raise allowed to have, at the utmost, enough to supply more, and many only about 9s. a week. The pa- more, than fifteen hundred famirish allowance is only about lies; or seven thousand five hun7s. 6d. for the five people, includ dred persons! And yet, those who ing clothing, fuel, bedding and do the work are half-starved! In every thing! Monstrous state of the 100 families there are, we will things! But, let us suppose it to suppose, 80 able working men,

and as many boys, sometimes | cient for 136,740 persons, accordassisted by the women and stouting to the scale, on which the. girls. What a handful of people unhappy labourers of this fine. to raise such a quantity of food! valley are now fed and lodged! What injustice, what a hellish And yet there is an " Emigrasystem it must be, to make those tion Committee" sitting to devise who raise it skin and bone and the means of getting rid, not of the nakedness, while the food and drink idlers, not of the pensioners, not of and wool are almost all carried the dead-weight, not of the par-. away to be heaped on the fund-sons, (to " relieve" whom we have holders, pensioners, soldiers, dead-seen the poor labourers taxed to weight, and other's warms of taxeaters! If such an operation do not need putting an end to, then the devil himself is a saint.

the tune of a million and a half of money) not of the soldiers; but to devise means of getting rid of these working people, who are grudged Thus it must be, or much about even the miserable morsel that thus, all the way down this fine they get! There is, in the men and beautiful and interesting val- calling themselves "English counley. There are 29 agricultural try gentlemen," something superparishes, the two last (30 and 31) latively base. They are,. I sinbeing in town; being FISHERTON cerely believe, the most cruel, the and SALISBURY. Now, according most unfeeling, the most brutally to the "POPULATION RETURN," insolent; but I know, I can prove, the whole of these 29 parishes I can safely take my oath, that contain 9,116 persons; or, accord- they are the MOST BASE of all ing to my division, 1,823 families. the creatures that God ever suffered There is no reason to believe, that to disgrace the human shape. The the proportion that we have seen base wretches know well, that the in the case of MILTON, does not taxes amount to more than sixty hold good all the way through; millions a year, and that the poorthat is, there is no reason to sup-rates amount to about seven milpose, that the produce does not lions; yet, while the cowardly exceed the consumption in every reptiles never utter a word other case in the same degree that against the taxes, they are incesit does in the case of MILTON; santly railing against the poorand, indeed, if I were to judge rates, though it is (and they know from the number of houses and the it) the taxes that make the number of ricks of corn, I should pers. The base wretches know suppose, that the excess was still well, that the sum of money given, greater in several of the other even to the fellows that gather the parishes. But, supposing it to be taxes, is greater in amount than no greater; supposing the same the poor-rates; the base wretches proportion to continue all the way know well, that the money, given from WOTTON RIVERS (1 in map) to the dead-weight (who ought not to STRATFORD DEAN (29 in map), to have a single farthing), amounts then here are 9,116 persons rais-to more than the poor receive out ing food and raiment sufficient for of the rates; the base wretches 45,580 persons, fed and lodged know well, that the common foot according to my scale; and suffi-soldier now receives more pay per

pau