sistence from smuggling, and the predatory habits connected with it; little calculated to produce sobriety, industry, and the poor man's best virtue, economy. It was nearly the same with the unfortunate inhabitants of Warham.

The present inhabitants of both parishes are, happily, of a different character. The regular supply of subsistence derived from some unfluctuating source of labor, more than any other circumstance, reconciles a poor man to his situation, and begets in him permanent and regular habits of industry and like all other classes, he derives from occupation that greatest blessing in human society, the best security against idle and vicious habits. The present system of agriculture in these parishes amply supplies both these, and the moral influence on the poor, not less than their increased numbers, is obvious.

I would observe as no unpleasing proof of this, that in neither of these parishes is to be seen a poor man's prison, strangely nicknamed a workhouse, for the reception of the idle. One was built twenty-five years ago at Warham, which included also the parishes of Holkham and Wighton, as already stated by Mr. Coke, and it was generally full. A few years ago he was no less surprised than gratified, by a representation from his tenants themselves, that they thought it might be dispensed with, there was so much employment for the poor. It was accordingly taken down, and the rates are now actually lower. They find the necessary parochial relief can be supplied to a poor man, without interrupting the little domestic comfort he has been accustomed to, without violating his most honorable feeling, that of a wish, independently, to lay out his little earnings, or his still less allowance.

I digress a little in saying, that this also is the cheapest system. I know, from incontrovertible facts, that the smallest and the largest, the best managed and the worst managed workhouses, all much exceed, in pecuniary expenditure, the out-door allowance system; how much they exceed in degrading and demoralising the poor, I need not say.

Yet I may, perhaps, be allowed to quote a passage from one of my former publications,' thinking, as I do, that opinions on a subject so important to society, and so peculiarly interesting to humanity, when founded on facts which are not to be contradicted, cannot be too widely disseminated. It is as follows:-"On the subject of workhouses, I beg leave to say, that I have a long while made up my opinion; my experience has fully convinced me that they are of most difficult management; that under the best manage

Further Facts relating to the Care of the Poor, and the management of the Workhouse, in the City of Norwich. By Edward Rigby: 1812; page 62.

ment they are productive of more evil than good, and that under the worst, they are productive of incalculable mischief. The circumstances which have occurred in the Norwich Workhouse cannot have impaired this conviction; and the accumulated facts on this important subject, contained in the parochial returns, which government has, lately, with so much credit to itself, laid before the public, in a document, which in interest and importance to political economy, has not been equalled in this or any other country,' have served not only fully to confirm it, but to induce my unqualified assent to Mr. Rose's remark on this subject, in his late excellent pamphlet, founded on these returns;" that one of the means we must look to, for the improvement of our system of poor laws, must be the abolition of workhouses."

3d. That large farms no longer supply domestic servants; while the sons and daughters of little farmers are brought up to servitude, and fill a most useful and necessary station in society.

I shall endeavour to answer this objection, by observing, that Mr. Coke selects most of his servants, domestic and others, from his cottages.

On going a few miles with him in his barouche, a fine animated boy rode one of the leaders; his appearance much excited our attention. Mr. Coke observed it, and said he was a son of one of his laborers; and that he constantly took boys of this age into his service, and trained them to be stable boys, grooms, &c., and as they grew older, to be qualified for superior places.,

How many individuals does he benefit in this way! how many are thus trained up not only to habits of regularity and industry, but to good manners, and even to something like the polish of civilised society.

The facility with which Mr. Coke obtains servants from this source, at once proves that there is nothing to fear, on this score, from the supposed decrease of small farms; and I may observe, that these having heretofore so much supplied them, proves at once, the low and uneducated state of this class of farmers. Had it been otherwise, they would not, surely, have been satisfied with bringing up their sons and daughters, to servitude, and with their subsequently remaining stationary, in so low a station of life; for a farmer's establishment must be humble indeed, to render their admission into domestic service an advance in the social scale.

1 Abstract of the answers and returns made pursuant to an act passed in the 43d year of his Majesty King George the Third, intitled, An act for procuring returns relative to the expense and maintenance of the poor in England.

2 Observations on the Poor Laws, and on the management of the Poor. By the Right Hon. George Rose, M. P. page 33.

But it is not so from the laborer's cottage: the individual who exchanges that for a gentleman's house, gains an immediate and real step, which furthers that desirable progressive improvement in society, effected by the gradual advance from a lower to a higher station; and, what is not to be sufficiently appreciated, from a state, to say the least of it, of a more limited, to that of a more extended enjoyment.

Physical and moral causes are constantly operating to the keeping of a great mass of every population in the lowest tier of society: it should be the ceaseless aim of the social union, the constant object of every good government, and the earnest effort of every intelligent and benevolent individual, as much as possible, to counteract this, and thereby to diminish the number of this unfortunate class.

Mr. Coke, it cannot be doubted, has in this way contributed much to this important end, and, among the great and manifold benefits he has conferred on his poor neighbors, this is certainly not the least,

In this instance therefore the new system of agriculture has not operated to the injury of society; while, adverting to the improved condition of the farmer, it will probably be admitted, that Mr. Coke has not a little promoted the interest of general civilisation, by the share he has had in creating this new and important class in society,-important from the intellect it possesses, and the opulence it may reach; the individuals in which, well educated themselves, and laudably endeavouring to effect the future promotion of their children, furthering thereby in a superior walk of life, the same progressive social advance before alluded to, by adequate education, intellectual and moral improvement, qualify them to be useful and distinguished in some of the professions; in liter, ature; in commerce; or in the exercise of some of the superior arts connected with natural philosophy, chemistry, mechanics, &c. and for their ability, and, perhaps, their disposition to do which, Mr. Coke's wealthy tenants may be as much indebted to him, as his cottage laborers.

4th. That the subordinate objects of a farm, milk, butter, cheese, and poultry, are neglected in large farms, and that the supply of these marketable articles are thereby diminished, to the supposed inconvenience of the public.

I shall briefly answer the last objection, by observing, that Mr. Coke, Mr. Blomfield, and Mr. Denny, of Egmere, have each large dairies of beautiful North Devon cows; and that Mr. Blomfield told me, one of these cows produced thirteen pounds and a half of butter weekly, four months after calving. Nor is the produce of the dairy the only profit derived from the Devon cows; they

keep up the valuable stock of oxen for draught and for fatting. Mr. Coke breaks in these oxen at two years and a half old, and occasionally works his bulls, particularly when they shew any disposition to be vicious, working being found to keep them quiet. With regard to poultry, I can only say, that I never saw such a display of every kind of barn-door fowls, as at Mr. Blomfield's; and as a proof of the extraordinary quantity of turkies he usually rears, he said he lost five hundred by a disease which affected them about two years before.

The vicinity to large towns and frequent markets, obviously operates on the farmer, within a certain distance, to rear them; but some of these large farmers actually rear more than common markets will advantageously take off, and they, in consequence, send them to London. It is, indeed, under all circumstances, the interest of the farmer to rear them, and the loss in neglecting it would obviously be greatest to the large occupier, whose annual corn crops are greatest.

From the above appeal to indisputable facts, I trust it is manifest, that the new system of husbandry, even when conducted on extensive farms, is not productive of the evils which have been attributed to it; and that were even some local, individual, and temporary inconveniences derived from it, they would be greatly outweighed by the obvious, general, and national advantage of a vastly increased productiveness. For the true remedy against scarcity, is obviously productiveness; the security against extravagant price, is certainly productiveness; and, while the land produces largely, even at a moderate price, the farmer will not fail of his profit.

I am here induced more directly to observe, that the charge so generally brought against Mr. Coke, of having, in the occupation of these extensive tracts of land, exercised a spirit of aggrandisement, at the expense of the little farmer, is wholly unfounded; it not being true, as alleged, that it has been his practice to lay several little farms into one, thereby throwing out of employment, and depriving of subsistence, several families, to aggrandise a single one. The fact is Mr. Coke, on his accession to his estate, found these large tracts of land in single occupations; the very nature of the soil having precluded any other letting. Light land, of ordinary quality, must make up in quantity what it wants in value; the farm alluded to at page 3, as having been let at three shillings an acre, tithe-free, was of considerable extent, but considered as a small occupation, having been let at so low a rent.

He had no desire to

Mr. Coke, I say, found it in this state. turn the tenant out; he offered to renew his lease for another term, still at a low though an increased rent:-the little farmer refused it, and under his system (I must repeat it,) under his

wretched system, it was prudent in him to relinquish it at any advance; and Mr. Coke had no other alternative than to take it into his own hands. Fortunately he had the judgment to see, that, under different culture, it might be made more productive; fortunately he possessed the means, the only means, of making the experiment, an adequate capital.

And what has been the result? Sterility has been converted into fertility. What before was, probably, principally a meagre sheep-walk, here and there only exhibiting patches of ordinary rye, oats, barley, and badly cultivated turnips, with not a single ear of wheat being seen to nod over its whole surface, has become most productive land; much more than the average of crops, of even the best soils, and of the most valuable grains, having grown upon it; of, (I repeat it) from ten to twelve coombs of the best wheat, and nearly twenty coombs of excellent barley, per acre.

And will it be said that the public at large has not been benefited, greatly benefited by such an increase of produce? and will it be said that the more limited public, Mr. Coke's neighbors, the individuals directly and indirectly engaged in its cultivation, have not benefited by partaking of the increased capital expended upon it? have not their numbers been increased, and their profits and earnings been much augmented?

It has already been observed, page 86, that in the neighborhood of Holkham, and in a great part of the north-west of Norfolk, the land is light and of inferior quality, not admitting of profitable culture, on a small scale, and with little capital. The great Leicester estate, in this district, consists much of this land, and many large tracts of it were let, in single occupations, long before Mr. Coke became its possessor.

Under the improved system, so successfully practised by himself and his intelligent tenants, these large tracts of land have, indeed, in their truest sense, become large farms; in their truest sense, as affecting the public, they have become large farms, large in their productiveness. And when the means of effecting so beneficial a change are duly considered and justly appreciated, one would have expected they would have been exempt from the slightest moral imputation.

In agriculture every process, as well as its important result, confers benefit: at every step good is produced; nor can the most ample profit, of the largest and best managed farm, reach the proprietor without much being given out to others.

In the acquisition of wealth, nothing certainly so incalculably increases its value, as the reflection that it has not involved a sacrifice of principle. I must be allowed to say, that few occupations, from the considerations just adverted to, possess more adventitious sources of moral satisfaction than agriculture; and I will venture