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 
     
    
   
   
    
     .— 
     
    
   
   
    
     .— 
     
     .— 
     
    
   
   
    
     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