tainly the graves of men. When they are well ventilated, on the other hand, it is remarkable that children who are ill above ground recover in the equable warmth below the half-starved cotton spinner, driven thither by his necessities, often emerges with gain of health and flesh, All these varied circumstances and modified results must be candidly considered. As we said at the outset, there are great evils and dangers in many other callings, which might perhaps, if reported on by a set of gentlemen, however honest and sincere, appear actually crammed with mere misery and oppression, yet which are not de facto inconsistent with a fair average of well-being. Many trades, and professions too, are undoubtedly unfavourable to length of days. The colliers are not cut off nearly so soon as some other classes-yet they, generally speaking, are a short-lived people. At forty they are incapable of work in Shropshire and Staffordshire-' are regular old men, as much as some at eighty; at fifty in Warwickshire. In Derbyshire the collier is aged at forty; and the loader, being twenty-eight and thirty. (p. 192.) And so is it wherever we track them. As a race, they may be said to be extinct at fifty-five. There are only half as many old men above seventy among colliers as among agriculturists; and twice as many deaths by accidents. Yet, with all this, the collier is fond of his colliery, preferring it to every other calling; and, if he quits his mine for a time, speedily returns to it. The spirit of adventure, and rough enjoyment, and independence, makes him gamble with life. We cannot conclude without one or two examples more of the good that may be done by the proprietor, where he seriously turns his thoughts to the condition of his miners. And, first, look at the collier population of Alloa, amounting to 1100, as affected by the kind exertions of their landlord, the late Earl of Mar. He gaye them the means of education, improved their cottages, encouraged gardening, prohibited the wives working in the mines; and so,' says Mr. John Craich, raised their character in a wonderful degree.' The provident society of the Alloa Colliery has at present 12007. in the bank! The present Earl of Elgin had for many years before his father's death the management of the property in Scotland; and under his eye an improved system appears to have been established in the collieries. James Grier, manager, says that twentyfive years ago few persons thought themselves safe near the spot after dark; now a YOL. LXX. 14 more sober set of workmen are not to be found in Scotland.'-App. I., p. 497. Another witness says:— With respect to the moral condition of the they were twenty years ago: formerly their colliers I can affirm they are much better than food and clothing were of the commonest description, but now a collier's family, if careful, eat of the best and most wholesome food, and have the clothing of the first-rate merchant of twenty years ago.' It is particularly satisfactory to quote such examples from Scotland, where certainly they were and are most needed: but we are bound to say that the settlement of the legislative question as to mines and miners must be infinitely more difficult as regards that than any other part of the empire. The evils of the want of a libera. and uniform Poor Law for Scotland are be coming every day more and more terrible; and till that gigantic mischief is remedied. it will avail little to attempt regulations as to particular classes of the lower popula tion there. To return to England-let us hear one of the ablest of these Sub-commission ers : beset the mental and moral progress of the 'The worst of all the many adversities which working classes, is the indifference towards them of the higher orders of society. It is a fearful thing to see how exempt the employers of labour often hold themselves from moral obliga tions of every description towards those from whose industry their own fortunes spring. Even they who contribute at all to the education in nineteen cases out of twenty, merely by or moral improvement of their workmen do so, money, and without personal pains and superintendence of their own.'-Mr. Symons, App. I., p. 201. How the reverse of such a feeling has operated the following account will prove: Mrs. Stansfield, of Flockton, and her family, large proprietors both of mines and land, erected a room 56 feet long as a Sunday-school, and covered its walls with maps and pictures, and placed a piano in it. At nine on each Sunday morning a bell heard in the neighbouring village summons about sixty-four children, who prepare, by prayer and psalmody, for reading catechisms and hearing Scripture: after these preliminaries they are taken to the church, about half-a-mile off; and a similar exercise is repeated in the evening. Tickets, bearing a value of 1d. or 2d. a dozen, are given for attendance at school and chapel; and four of these can be obtained each Sunday. From these funds all the girls but the youngest purchase their bible, prayer, and hymn-books. The first Sunday in August an examination takes place, to which the parents are invited: it is termed the feast of August, and is anticipated by all with delight. From the elder girls of the school eight are selected; who, on each Wednesday, are joined by twenty young men and lads, and are formed into a singing class. Some have attained great proficiency: Mr. Symons says that, at a concert given by Mr. Miles Stansfield, he saw Sarah Wood and seven other girls, who had spent the whole day in toilsome labour in the mine, performing some of the most difficult pieces of Spohr's Last Judgment, and Haydn's Masses, with zest and skill. They had been practised only a few months, once or twice-a-week, and they sang that most chromatic oratorio admirably, with some of the first chorus-singers in Yorkshire.' Mr. Briggs, the partner of Mrs. Stansfield, and Mr. Miles Stansfield, her son, have, in addition to these means of mental culture for the children, opened a gymnasium and cricketground for the men. Twice a-week they are admitted by means of tickets; and the scene presented by the commingling of all ages and both sexes for the purposes of recreation strongly corroborated the impression I had formed of the good-heartedness (in spite of the ignorance) of the collier population. Nor is the kindly and grateful feeling which exists on the part of the workpeople of Messrs. Stansfield and Briggs towards their employers by any means confined to the playground:-it exists most warmly throughout the village.'-Ibid., p. 203. rious swelled into 'a multitude of colliers,' with their families, who attended the concert as well as the games, remaining the whole evening, and declaring, at its close, This beats cock-fighting!" We think we shall please many by giving one extract more from the historian of Fossil Fuel.' It may be surmised, from something already quoted, that this able writer himself began life in the pit; but, if so, we have it not in our power to add his name to a list which it would by no means discredit. 'The Cornish miners have often been referred to as being a remarkably observant and intelligent race of men: combining, as they commonly do, each in his own person, the labourer, the adventurer, and the merchant, they have acquired a degree of shrewdness and industry that could not fail to be noted, especially by strangers with whom they came into contact. The colliers, on the other hand, whether less knowing or not, have been, in this respect at least, less known: they have almost uniformly been the servants of capitalists between whom and the actual labourers there have existed several gradations of rank-so to speak-the duties of the uppermost of which, however, bear very lightly, if at all, on the real independence of the lowest the latter, indeed, frequently rising meritoriously from the bottom to the top of the scale. Many honourable instances of this might be mentioned. It is no proof of the general intelligence of any body of operatives that men of talent have occasionally risen from among them to distinguished stations in society; but it is natural to associate the ultimate fame or notoriety of an individual with his original calling, and this without the least disparagement or disrespect. It is on this principle that one feels a certain description of interest in knowing that the late celebrated Doctor Hutton was origi anally a hewer employed in Old Long Benton Colliery; that Mr. Stephenson, the intelligent engineer of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, was originally a coal-miner; that the late Rev. W. Huntingdon, an eccentric but talented preacher in the metropolis, was a coal-heaver; and even that the late "king of the conjurors," as the ingenious Ingleby was called, was a pitman, who first practised sleight of hand among his companions on the banks of the Tyne. Thomas Bewick too, "the celebrated xylographer and illustrator of nature," may be mentioned as the neighbourhood of Hexham; and Thomas another instance. His father was a collier in with his brothers, one of whom died after giving promise of high excellency in the beautiful art of wood-engraving, was early immured in that subterranean, laborious, and loathsome employment.-"I have heard him say," remarks his friend Mr. Dovaston, "that the remotest recollection of his powerful and tenacious memory was that of lying for hours on his side between candle, plying the pick with his little handsdismal strata of coal, by a glimmering and dirty those hands afterwards destined to elevate the arts, illustrate nature, and promulgate her truths, A slight trait, incidentally placed in foot-note, will perhaps bring the whole scene more vividly before the reader than the description by Mr. Symons of the contention for prizes these Titans, in the vaof bell-race, jumping in sacks, games throwing weights, running, leaping oyer poles, &c. An individual of great strength is appointed to act as constable, whose office is to enforce the laws, to turn out strangers entering without tickets, or any members misconducting themselves, and to close up the ground at night.' A further experiment was made on these sons of earth-an attempt to entice them, through music, from their ordinary haunt of the public-house, and its potent attractions of strong drink and fierce gambling. At first twenty only appeared, and these in their shirt-sleeves.' The concert riveted their attention, and they became quiet and expressed great delight.' At the feast of August,' 1841, the twenty had to the delight and instruction of the moral and intellectual world." --History of Fossil Fuel, pp. 289, 290. I do not fear any violent or general outbreaks on the part of the population: there may be a few, but not more than will be easily repressed by the ordinary force of the country. But I do fear the progress of a cancer, a perilous, and, if we much longer delay, an incurable cancer, which has seized upon the body social, moral, and political; and then in some day, when there shall be required on the part of our people virtue and patriotism, the strength of the empire an unusual energy, an unprecedented effort of prostrate, for the fatal disorder will have reach There are, I well know, many other things to be done; but this, I must maintain, is an indispensable preliminary for it is a mockery to talk of education to people who are engaged, as it were, in unceasing toil from their cradle to their grave. I have endeavoured for many years to attain this end by limiting the hours of labour, and so bringing the children and young persons within the reach of a moral and religious education. I have hitherto been disappointed, and I deeply regret it, because we are daily throwing away a noble material! noblest and most easily governed of any on for, depend upon it, the British people are the the face of the earth. Since this article was put in type Lord Ashley has obtained the unanimous assent of the House of Commons for the introduction of a bill to make Regulations respecting the Age and Sex of Children and Young Persons employed in the Mines and Collieries of the United Kingdom. After perusing this Report-with its detailed Ap-ed its vitals, pendices, and the terrible woodcuts that accompany them-it was impossible for us to doubt that Lord Ashley would receive the cordial support of Her Majesty's Government in such a measure. But we were not prepared for, and therefore we were indeed most highly gratified by, the unanimity of the House of Commons on the 7th of June. We would fain hail it as an evidence that not by any one class of politicians alone, but by all, the danger of neglecting the moral and social and also the physical condition of the poor in this rich and powerful empire has at length been understood and appreciated; and as an omen and pledge that henceforth, as now, English gentlemen of all parties will be found ready to act together as men and as Christians when the afflictions of their humble fellow-countrymen are brought under their consideration as legislators. Lord Ashley's speech was indeed a happy specimen of clear statement, intermixed with numberless touches of simply and deeply pathetic eloquence no man could listen to it without being reminded of Wilberforce. Such a speech might well, as a display of high talents, excite admiration and applause; but these are not days when rhetoric, or even oratory, can produce, in regard to subjects of this kind, any decisive practical effect. The House must have been operated on by circumstances of a very different character: they felt, we hope and believe, that this was the first step in a path which must be pursued, if our working classes-unequalled in the history of the world for courage, energy, and native goodness of feeling—are to be reconciled to the great existing institutions of their country-not excepting the institution of property, which, like all the rest, can only deserve to be supported as being for the general advantage. 'I hope, Sir,' said Lord Ashley, 'that the House will not consider that I am speaking dogmatically on these subjects: my intercourse with the working classes, both by correspondence and personal interview, has for many years been so extensive, that I think I may venture to say that I am conversant with their feelings and habits and can state their probable movements. Their fortitude and obedience under the severest privations suffi- What could induce you to tolerate further the These, ART. VII.-1. Gardening for Ladies. By Mrs. Loudon. London. 1841. 2. The Ladies' Companion to the Flower Garden: being an Alphabetical Arrangement of all the Ornamental Plants usually grown in Gardens and Shrubberies; with full Directions for their Culture. By Mrs. Loudon.. London. 1841. 3. The Flower Garden: containing Directions for the Cultivation of all Garden Flowers. pp. 515. London. 1841. 4. An Encyclopædia of Gardening: comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape Gardening, &c. &c. By J. C. Loudon, F.L.S., H.S, &c. 8vo. pp. 1270. London. 5. An Encyclopædia of Plants; with Figures of nearly Ten Thousand Species. Edited by J. C. Loudon. 8vo. pp. 1159. London. 1829. 6. Elements of Botany, Structural, Physiological, Systematical, and Medical. By John Lindley, Ph. D., Professor of Botany in University College. London. 1841. 7. A Pocket Botanical Dictionary: compris ing the Names, History, and Culture of all Plants known in Britain. By Joseph Paxton, F.L.S., H.S., &c. London. 1840. 8. Botany for Ladies; or, a Popular Introduction to the Natural System of Plants. By Mrs. Loudon. pp. 493. London. 1841. 9. The Orchidacea of Mexico and Guatemala. By James Bateman, Esq. In Parts. 10. Illustrations of the Genera and Species of Orchidaccous Plants. By Francis Bauer, Esq., with Notes and Prefatory Remarks. Dr. Lindley. London. 1840. 11. Sertum Orchideum; or, a Wreath of the most beautiful Orchidaceous Plants. By Dr. Lindley. 1840-1. 12. A History of British Ferns. By Edward Newman, F.L.S. 13. Poetry of Gardening, from The Carthusian,' a Miscellany in Prose and Verse. pp. 528. London. 1839. 8vo. 1840. Ir Dr. Johnson would not stop to inquire whether landscape-gardening demands any great powers of the mind, we may surely be excused from the like investigation on the humbler subject of gardeningproper. But whether or not these pursuits demand, certain it is that they have exercised, the talents of as numerous and brilliant an assemblage of great names as any one subject can boast of. Without travelling into distant times or countries, we find among our own philosophers, poets, and men of taste, who have deemed gardening worthy their regard, the names of Bacon, Evelyn, Temple, Pope, Addison, Sir W. Chambers, Lord Kames, Shenstone, Horace Walpole, Alison, Hope, and Walter Scott. Under the first and last of these authorities, omitting all the rest, we would gladly take our stand in defence of any study to which they had given their sanction on paper and in practice. Even in its own exclusive domain, gardening has raised no mean school of literature in the works of Gilpin, Whateley, the Masons, Knight, Price, and Repton. Time would fail us to tell of all those royal and noble personages whom old Gerarde enumerates in his Herbal' as having either loved to live in gardens,' or written treatises on the subject. We know that Solomon 'spoke of plants, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that groweth out of the wall:'-though here the material surpassed the workmanship, for in all his wisdom he discoursed not so eloquently, nor in all his glory was he so richly arrayed as one lily of the field.' The vege table drug mithridate long handed down the name of the King of Pontus its discoverer, better knowne,' says Gerarde, 'by his soveraigne Mithridate, than by his sometime speaking two-and-twenty languages.' What should I say,' continues the old her balist, after having called in the authorities of Euax king of the Arabians, and Artemisia queen of Caria, what should I say of those royal personages, Juba, Attalus, Climenus, Achilles, Cyrus, Masynissa, Semyramis, Dioclesian-all skilled in the excellent art of simpling? We might easily swell the list by the addition of royal patrons of horticulture in modern times. Among our own sovereigns, Elizabeth, James 1., and Charles II., are mentioned as having given their personal superintendence to the royal gardens, while a change in the style of laying out grounds is very generally attributed to the accession of William and Marythough we doubt whether a horticultural genius would have met with any better or more fitting reception from the hero of the Boyne than did the great wit to whom he offered a cornetcy of dragoons. The gardens of Tzarsco-celo and of Peterhoff were severally the summer resorts of Catherine I. and Elizabeth of Russia, where the one amused herself with building a Chinese village, and the other by cooking her own dinner in the summer-house of Monplaisir. There are more thrilling associations connected with the Jardin Anglais of the Trianon at Versaillés, where some rosetrees yet grow which were planted by Marie Antoinette; nor will an Englishman | cients. They would have us consider all easily forget the grounds of Claremont, classical gardens as little more than kitchenwhich yet cherish the memory and the taste of that truly British princess who delighted to superintend even the arrangement of the flowers in the cottage-garden. At the present moment great things are promised at Windsor, both in the ornamental and useful department; and we trust that the alterations now in progress, avowedly under the eye of royalty, will produce gardens as worthy of the sovereign and the nation, as is the palace to which they are attached. Little new is to be said upon the history of gardening. Horace Walpole and Daines Barrington have well nigh exhausted the subject, and all later writers go over the same ground. Beginning with the Eden* of our first parents, we have the old stories of the orchard of the Hesperides, and the dragon, and the golden fruit (now explained to be oranges,)-the gardens of Adonis -the Happy Isles-the hanging terraces of Babylon-till with a passing glance at those of Alcinous and Laertes, as described by Homer, we arrive at the Gardens of Epicurus and the Academe of Plato. Roman history brings up the rear with the villas of Cicero and Pliny, the fruits of Lucullus, the roses of Pæstum, and Cæsar's 'Private arbours and new-planted orchards On this side Tiber.' To how different a science in each of these instances the term,' garden' has been applied we have now no time to inquire; but we may perhaps be allowed, before entering upon the fresher and more inviting scene of the English parterre, to say one word in correction of an error common to all writers on the horticulture of the an We are sorry that Mr. Loudon in his Encyclopædia, to which every writer on Gardening must feel infinitely obliged, should think it worth while to repeat some silly sneers of Horace Walpole on this subject; as if (what indeed he himself seems to scout) a garden necessarily implied clipped hedges and trellis-work, or as if the new world, fresh from the hand of the Creator, could be anything else than a garden. We might fix on many other passages to find fault with him on the same score. Ne sutor ultra crepidam. He had better stick to his spade. What have sceptical hints and revolutionary opinions to do with gardening? What indeed can be more opposite to its pure and quiet spirit? To say the least of it, it is ingratitude both to God and man in one whose daily occupation is amongst the fairest works of creation, and whose income is derived from the purest pursuit of an enlightened aristocracy. We trust we may see no more of this. Mr. Loudon may take our word for it, that the circulation and usefulness of his otherwise valuable works are sadly marred by these flourishes. gardens or orchards- to use the expression of Walpole, a cabbage and a gooseberrybush.' This is a great mistake. The love of flowers is as clearly traceable in the poets of antiquity as in those of our own times, and their allusions to them plainly show that they were cultivated with the greatest care. Fruit trees no doubt were mingled with their flowers, but in the formal, or indeed in any style, this might be made an additional beauty. The very order* indeed of their olive-groves had a protecting deity at Athens, and with such exactness did they set out the elms which supported their vines, that Virgil compares them to the rank and file of a Roman legion. But the fair-clustering't narcissus and the 'gold-gleaming' crocus were reckoned among the glories of Attica as much as the nightingale, and the olive, and the steed; and the violet was as proud a device of the Ionic Athenians, as the rose of England, or the lily of France. The Romans are even censured by their lyric poet § for allowing their fruitful olive-groves to give place to beds of violets, and myrtles, and all the wilderness of sweets.' The first rose of spring || and the last rose of summer' have been sung in Latin as well as English. Ovid's description of the Floralia will equal any account we can produce of our May-day; nor has Milton himself more glowingly painted the flowery mead of Enna than has the author of the Fasti. Cicero ** vation of flowers among the delights of the distinctly enumerates the cultihe given us his Georgic on Horticulture, he country; and Virgil ff assures us that, had would not have forgotten the narcissus or acanthus, the ivy, the myrtle, or the rosegardens of Pæstum. The moral which Burns drew from his mountain daisy' had been marked before both by Virgil ‡‡ and Catullus; §§ and indeed a glance at the Eclogues, the Georgics, or the Fasti, will show the same love of flowers in their authors which evidently animated Aristophanes, where he described the gentleman of merry old Athens' as 'redolent of honey |