go 26 ’7 .

“a what becomes of the money that they are “or? Why the cattle and sheep walk into "land upon their legs; the wheat is put nto ships, to be sent to London or elsewhere; ,4 as to the money that these are sold for, the armeris not allowed to have a little of it; at almost the whole of itis sent away to the ,ndlord, to be gambled or otherwise squandered "y in London, at Paris, or at Rome. The rent I the land is enormous; four, five, six, or seven unds for and English acre; the farmer is not owed to get much; almost the whole of the pro- uce of these fine lands goes into the pockets of elords; the labourers are their slaves, and the armors their slave drivers. The farm yards re, in fact, factories for making corn and eat;carried on principally by the means of arses and machinery. There are no people; nd these men seem to think that people are necessary to a state. I came over a tract fcountrya great deal bigger than the coun- y of Sufl‘olk, with only three towns m it, and a couple of villages, while the county of Sutl'olk, has 29 market towns, and 49x villages. at our precious government seem to wish to educe England to the state of Scotland, and on are reproached and abused, and called ig- orant, because you will not live in a ‘boothie;’ nd live upon food which we give to horses nd to hogs! Take one more fact, at which ou will not wonder; that, though Northumber. and is but a poor country compared with this thatIhave been “describing, the poor Scotch labourers get away into England whenever they can. There is a great and fine town called ewcastle upon-Tyne, from which and its eihourhood, the coals go into our country. be poor Scetohmen flee from these fine and 'oh lands to beg their bread there; and there

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0 Scotland by force, as the Irish are sent from anchester, from London, from Birmingham, and other great towns in the south. Is not this the greatest shame that ever was witnes- ed under the sun! And shall not we be re- solved to prevent our country from being re- duced toa similar state, shall not we venture, ifnecessary,ourlimbs and our lives rather than to endeavour to cause, by all legal means, ‘ I change in the condition of the labourers of these two ill treated countries? What! shall any lord tell me, or tell any one of you, that you have not a right to be in England as well as he has? Will he tell you that he has a right to lay all his lands waste, or lay them into sheep walks, and drive the. people from them? A stupid land owner might say so, and might attempt to do it: but detestable must be the Government that would suffer him ever to begin, in the werk of giving effect to his wish. God did not make the land for the few but for the many

Civil society invented property; but gave it 00‘ lint absolute character which would ena- blsafew owners to extirpate the people, , as.

I IPPOII' to be endeavouring to do in Scot- snd. Our Egglish law efl‘ectually guards,

they are put into caravans and brought back'

THE BRITISH AMERICAN

against the effects of so villainous a dispo- sition, it gives, to all men a right to a maintenance out ofthe earth; it justly gives to the necessitous poor a claim prior to that of the owner of the land. This law has been greatly impaired by’the acts of Sturges Bourne, which created the selected vestries, and intro- duced hiredoverseers into the parishes. It is my intention to use all the means in my power to get these acts repealed; and it is upon this subject that I am now about to give you my advice. You [see the situation of the Scotch and the Irish, in consequence of a want of the poorlaws; and the design mani- festly has been, and yet is, to go on by de- grees stripping England of the Poor laws Sturges Bourne’s acts were a great stretch in this direction; let us, therefore, use all our strength legally to annihilate these acts.

Your case is this. For a thousand years your forefathers were in case of necessity, relieved Out of the produce of the tythes, and were never suffered to know the pinchings ofwant. When the tythes were taken away by the aristocracy and kept to themselves, or given wholly to the parsons, your forefa- thers insisted upon a provision being made for them out of the land, as compensation for that which had been taken away by the aristo- cracy and the parsons. That compensation was given them in the rates as settled by the poor law. To take away those rates would, therefore, be to violate the agreement, which gave you as much right to receive, in case of need, reliefout of the land, as it left the land- owner a right to his rent. Sturges Bourne’sacts, have not, indeed, openly violated the agree- ment; but they have done it in a covert and indirect manner, by taking away the power of the native overseer to administer relief, and by taking away the equal rights of the rate payers to vote in the vestry.

To get these acts repealed is our first duty, andought to be our earliest care, and I do most strongly urge you to attend at all elec- tions, whether you have votes or not, and to demand of the candidate that they will vote for the the repeal ofthese acts. I exhort you to be ready with petitions in support of those members of Parliament who shall demand this repeal. Though, according to the reform bill, you are not to vote, yetyou have the right of petitioning; and ifyou make use of that right, and in a proper manner, we shall never again see those days of degradation, ofwhich we have now seen so many.

As God has now blessed us with a harvest suchas the oldest man living scarcely ever saw, I hope that you are all enjoying the fruits ofit, in preportion -to the labours that you have performed, and the sobriety and the care that you have practised and excercised. I shall be glad, when lsee you again, to find you better off than when I saw you last! I confide in your resolution to maintain our present rights unimpaired, and in your e arts to recover those that have been lost; and, in

that hope . I remain, your faithful friend,

WI. COBDI‘IT.

205

' FOR THE BRITISH .aMERIcm ' Mr. Editor,

Sir, ‘ If you think the follofving verses will suit a corner of your paper, their insertion will very much oblige the author.

PRINCE TOWN’S LAMENT.

Three long score years of hope and more Since I was born, and got a name,

An empty title since I’ve worn, Still weeping in the lonely shade.

I, [like a widow] on the shore, Deplore my sorrows to the waves ; And like a widow past threescore, I must forevermore remain.

3 I dream’d of commerce, wealth, and gain, Of stately streets and spacious stores ; But forsakenin the end . To every adverse wind that blows.

4 Mishap on them that wrought my woes, And rob’d me of my bonny name ; Imight yet flourish but for those Politic rogues of Richmond Bay.

5 My flattering hopes for long long years, Shall soon be realized to Thee ; St. Eleanor’s my rival near In yonder pleasant shady lea.

6 Thy day of pomp is sliding round, When thou wilt shine and still be hail’d, Queen of the County, and reuown’d WhenI am mourning in the shade. A RUSTIC BARD. Richmond Bay, Jan. 22.

The Editor of the Troy Sentinel tells .the following good story:—

“Almost thirty years since, an English gentleman with whom we subsequently be- came acquainted, Mr. Benjamin Criedland, of Leicester, detected and brought to justicea large gang of pickpockets, by unwittingly adopting one of their private signaled-The transaction as he related to us, was as fol- owsz— .

Mr. Criedland was attending the crowded annual fair, held in a. clover field adjacent to Leicester. He casually hoticed that a person in the throng had a. sprig of trefoil stuck in the latchet ofone of his shoes. In a few mi— nutes, his attention was arrested by remark- ing ,another with asprig similarly situated. His first and natural conclusion was, that the sprigs had been caught and retained by rambling among the luxuriant clover ofthe field; but on looking around he discovereds'o many who bore the sprig in the shoe, that he at once concluded it meant something more than met the eye, and which be determined, if possible to diseover.—Aceordingly, he re- tired alittle, mounteda clover sprig, accos-

ding to the pattern, in his own shoe; and