428

Review.-Haigh's Sketches of Buenos Ayres. [May, Rational piety cannol be established chine, which was no doubt the pri. without the diffusion of knowledge mitive plough. It and the useful arts, because a barba

“ Was composed of a heavy log of wood, rism which is only compatible with as rude as possible, both in make and shape, mere nominal Christianity, cannot be and a piece of iron served as the share. otherwise extinguished.

This machine, which was drawn by two

oxen and guided by a guaso (countryman), Sketches of Buenos Ayres, Chili, and Peru. scarcely entered the soil, but merely scraped

By Samuel Haigh, Esq. 8vo. pp. 434. apart a little loam, and yet this slight laTHE names of Chili and Peru be.

bour answered every purpose in a land for ing, as our author says, almost

which nature has done so much."-p. 127.

synonymous with gold and silver, it is asto- The mechanism of the ancients is nishing how commercial people have known to be as rude as that of black. exulted at the prospect of finding a smiths; and this opinion is formed money.getting morning and evening from the specimens preserved in the feast every day in this imaginary Pays Porrici and British Museums. de Cokaine. All this is, however, a

“ The artizans in Saptiago are principally figure in a kaleidoscope made out of a silversmiths, carriers, saddlers, and blackrubbish of coloured baubles; and the smiths, but their work is very rude and unsober reality, instead of a gay scene of couth; their joining is generally finished festivity and pleasure, turns out to be by the hatchet, and their huge hinges and somewhat like an exploratory tour

padlocks are of a construction that would into the interior of Africa.

appear most strange to one who had never

travelled beyond the purlieus of Sheffield Mr. Haigh visited the country with and Birmingham.”-p. 139, a commercial object, and has not told

How much the commixture of ranks fairy tales about it; but we think it beneficial to the public when genile

in society assiinilates manners, is known men who have such opportunities of

from a valei's ability to imitate his lord

with success. It seems that a ball canthoroughly knowing a country, unite with business, intellectuality and an

not be made up at Valparaiso without

railer an extended invitation to feadequate capacity of research. We shall make soine extracts, ac

males of all ranks; yet, says our author, cording to our rule, of curiosity or in

“ Such is the natural grace of these struction.

people, that they acquitted themselves exSirutt says, that paper kites were

tremely well, and looked very like their

betters. I remember one of the officers of borrowed from China. Here they are

the Amphion frigate, who was there, telling flown, and of the same make as those

me that his partner had asked him, after the used by English boys.p. 47

dance, if he had yet engaged a washerThe uncommon ingenuity of sa- woman, at the same time offering her own vages proceeds from early and inces

services, should lie not be provided with sant tuition in the arts dependent upon one."-p. 179. practice. The lasso, or coil of rope We well know what was meant by by which an animal is noosed, has laundresses in olden times, and think become familiar. Not so its twin in

that we see through the disguise. struinent the lolus. This consists of

It seems that the formidable name "Three small wooden or iron balls, each “Of our own wild and adventurous Drake attached to a separate thong, about six feet has now dwindled into a byword to frighten in length: these are tied together, and he children. The Chilean and Peruvian mocan throw them to a much greater distance thers, on the coast, when trying to hush than his lasso. He whirls them three or their babes, cry. Aqui viene Draake !'four times round his head, and sends them [Here comes Drake.]”—p. 175. to his mark with admirable precision ; the The cabals of agitators are now so balls form a triangle as they fly through

common, that it the air, and alighting about the head or legs

be worth while

may of the animal, instantly arrest its progress.

to exhibit the following consequences

of civil war : In this manner the wild deer and ostrich (which are fleeter than horses) are generally

“I may be spared an account in detail of taken.”—p. 55.

Lima, so many travellers having described Onions are said to be indispensable churches filled with gold and silver, the

this City of Kings;" its magnificent in mountain journeys, as they render luxurious and splendid style in which its inthe traveller long-winded.-p. 89. habitants lived; its gorgeous processions,

In p. 127, we find a humble ma. crowded bull-fights and theatres; its beauti

:

1831.]
REVIEW.-A Year in Spain.

429 ful and captivating. women ; its citron and of slaves. Such is the origin of pubility." orange groves (situated in a valley that

ii. 292. might rival Elysium), full of delicious fruits

The day of retribution was at hand. and fragrant flowers ; the plenty of the country around; in short, the very name asso

A new power had arisen in the East ciated with all that was rich, voluptuous,

(the Saracens) and overrun Mauritania. and gay: suffice it to say that Lima was

A narrow strip of water only separated once the queen of South American cities, them from a more desirable territory. the pride of the Westera World, where the

The Goths were effeminated by senViceroy surpassed in grandeur of state any suality; and the baule of Xerez, and sovereign in Europe, where its merchants the inoderation of the victors, a more were famed for opulence, where the sciences auspicious domination than that of the and arts, as well as commerce, so lately Goihs, easily reconciled the subjuAourished. Alas ! tempora mutantur, --what gated. The country was then made a a change the desolating and protracted province of the Caliph of Daniascus, civil war had laid its iron hand upon this but was ultimately erected into an inönce happy city: and when I visited it in

dependent kingdom by Abderahman, 1827, what a sad reverse it presented! Its

an exiled prince of the race of Omar, new government bankrupt and needy; its merchants insolvent; confidence gone; the

who emigrated from Africa, and laid

the foundation of future national churches stripped; the ornaments of the

prosinhabitants sold; people who once resided perity. in palaces reduced to absolute poverty. Con

6. The Arabiaps had come from a hot and fiscations, contributions, exactions, banish- dry climate, and a land by nature arid, but ments, following each other in close succes- which by the aid of water is easily quickened sion, had brought this capital to a level with into fertility. They found in Spain a counits neighbours, and I must confess that I try analogous to their own.

The lands were regretted the revolution had ever taken levelled, and irrigation introduced. Where place, and wished the natives had still re- streams were convenient, they were made tained their former wealth and ease, when use of; where there were none, water was pleasure was their only thought, and when drawn from the bowels of the earth by means To the music of the light guitar,

of the noria,* and spread over its surface. Sweet stooped the evening sun,

66 Thus the rich lands were rendered more Sweet rose the evening star.'

--P. 405,

fertile, and those which had hitherto been sunburnt and naked, were covered with ve

getation. Many plants hitherto unknown A Year in Spain. By a young American. in Europe, were now acclimated in the low 2 vols. post 8vo. Murray.

countries of the coast; cotton, sugar, the SPAIN, which Burke happily cha. cane, mulberry, and olive, were among the racterized by a great whale stranded number. The population of the country

rose at once to the measure of its means ; on the shore of Europe,” derived the elements of civilization from the Phe.

and it is confidently asserted that in the nicians and Carthagenians, and being than the forty millions of inhabitants, attri

ninth century, Spain contained even more in full prosperity under the Romans, is

buted to the prosperous period of the Rosupposed to have maintained no less

man domination. The fact appears to us than forty millions of people. The substantiated, that the little kingdom of Gothicirruption devastated every thing, Grenada, at a later periud, contained three until both famine and the plague en- millions of inhabitants, though less than sued, and Spain had well nigh become the twentieth of the Peninsula. The arts a desert. The feudal system next which promote the comfort and convenience came to increase the horrors of this of life, as well as those which serve to emdevoted land :

bellish it, were diligently cultivated. The

manufactures of silk, linen, and leather, “ The new kingdom was split iuto dukedoms and counties, to reward the captains,

were introduced, and paper was invented to who had been raised to rank by superior fe

meet the new wants of an improving peorocity, whilst the meaner soldiers assumed ple."-ii. 297. the estates of the Romans and Spaniards, Music, poetry, science, medicine, degrading the proprietors into the condition and philosophy, accompanied these

* " A horizontal neel, worked by an ass or mule, &c. turns a vertical wheel placed over a well. A band of ropes passing ruuud the wheel, sustains earthen jars. These jars, as the wheel turns, descend empty on one side, pass through the water in the well below, and being perforated in the bottom, for the air to escape, fill easily before they ascend on the opposite side. The leakage falls from jar to jar ; and the water is emptied into a trough, which supplies a reservoir, whence the field is irrigated.”-i. 45.

430
Review.-A Year in Spain.

[May, improvements; but relaxed military Day-labourers

..964,571 spirit and religious enthusiasm. The Peasants.

...917,117 Goths, who had been allowed to re- Artisans and Manufacturers..310,739 main undisturbed in the mountains of Merchants...

.34,339 the North, were, on the contrary, har

2,226,846 dened and disciplined by their precarious lives, and 'fanaticized by their Which small portion has to sustain by priests. Sure of retreat to their fast- their productive occupations ten milnesses, they incessantly harassed the lions of inhabitants, many of whom Saracens, and gradually gained ground. riot in wealth and luxury.-- .310. Another cause was the principles of

Now in England, according to Dr. dissolution inherent in all Maho- Hamilton (Progress of Society, 113),

the number of labourers with their fametan despotisms, from the uncertain order of succession. In the end, the

milies amounts to ten millions. Thus Saracens were subdued. But what in England ten millions of productive was the result?

labourers have only to support seven “ Intolerance succeeds to toleration; Spain the maintenance of about eight

millions of unproductives; while in idleness to industry; solitude and silence to

millions of the latter is saddled upon the stir and turmoil of happy multitudes; only two millions of the former. Not ignorance, listlessness, and superstition to the dawning light of awakened science. We only this ensues, but improvements see on every side busy cities made suddenly

are prevented, because they are seized desolate ; plantations laid waste and burnt; upon and applied to the maintenance rugged rocks and hill sides, which had been of more unproductive labourers; so won to fertility by the use of irrigation, that industrious people are considered now relapsing into their original sterility. to be of no other use than to maintain Vast tracts of desert lands are awarded to several times the amount of lazy ones. those captains who had been foremost to Produce is not to be applied to profitpillage and destroy, or to the churches and

able purposes, through creation of convents which had aided at a distance with their prayers. Henceforth the country, peo

commerce and capital, but to be conpled under such ill-fated auspices, presents keepers laid in provisions solely for the

sumed upon the spot, much as if housethe distressing spectacle of wealth and luxury, entailed without exertion upon the consumption of rats and mice. The few, at the expense of toil and suffering and following anecdote illustrates this fact. self-denial to the many. Such indeed was

- In the paternal reign of Charles III. the melancholy use made by the conquerors

Don Pablo Olavide introduced agriculof their conquest, such the deplorable re- ture and manufactures into the hitherto sults of the extermination of the Saracens, uninhabited deserts of the Sierra Mo. that we are absolutely forced to sigh over rena. Everything was promising, the triumphs of Christianity.”-ii. 302. and had the plan been permitted to

Such too would be the result to proceed, Spain would have been regeEngland, through religious enthusiasts, nerated. A German capuchin came were it possible that the Mortmain on a mission, and was well receiveit Act could be evaded, and every irre. by Olavide. The former thought what gular place of worship be endowed.

a fine station this would be for a conIn England there is only about one

vent of his order. Olavide declared episcopal clergyman to eight hundred that the parish priests were quite equal souls ; how many self-ordained we to the spiritual wants of the colonists. koow not, but as they have no endow- The capuchin craftily contrived to ment, the mischief is counteracted; throw him into the hands of the Inbut nothing is more evident, notwith quisition. His property was confiscated standing, than that it would be a wise for the benefit of the holy office, and legislative measure to prevent an inde. poor Olavide was only so fortunate, as finite increase of persons in real or

io "elude his keepers, and escape for pretended holy orders. In Spain, ac

ever from a country whose interests cording to a census taken in 1788,

and welfare had hitherto been the bu. (presumed to be vow applicable) the

siness of his life.”-ii. 87-92. population amounted to about 101 In the same detestable manner do millions; of these little more than the present Clergy of Spain keep the two millions are productive labourers, people in darkness, lest their emanciviz.

pation should ensue.

1831.) Review.-Cottage Allotments for the Poor.

431 The police and civil institutions of be enabled to earn by persevering labour an Spain are full of the grossest corrup- adequate sum for the support of his family, tions, abuses, and follies; and thus is

instead of wasting his energies upon unproone of the finest countries in Europe fitable work.”—Pp. 3, 4. degraded to the useless condition of an

The persons selected for the advan. uncultivated garden.

tage of ihe allotmenis, were men comThus we have concisely and roughly petent to spade labour, of the best chadigested the sunmary of our intelli- racter and largest families. The congent American traveller, who, unlike ditions were, that they were to cultimany of his unnatural countrymen; vate the land by manual labour alone; deems it an honour to be descended not to plant potatoes, unless the ground from such an industrious hard-work

were first properly manured; and that ing, enterprising, and inventing Adam half the land only be cultivated with as John Bull - an Adain that made potatoes in any one year, and no crop his own Paradise,

to occupy more than one half the ala The first part of the work enters

lotment.-p.7. into such copious details concerning Within three months after comthe interior of Spain in all its various mencement of the system, the number bearings, as to give perfect conviction of allotments was seventy eight; the of its diseased and ruinous state in all aggregate number of the occupiers and civil and political respects. If the their families four hundred and fifty; country has not been rerolutionized, and the total of acres thus divided, no the cause has been

more than fifteen. “ That the stock of cultivators in Spain

The results were these :is a bad one, and they have a prejudice « The whole of the rent was paid at the against labour, which has descended from

time appointed, and every individual occuthose days when arms and not servile offices pier expressed himself satisfied with the prowere the proper occupation of a Christian, duce which he had obtained. The occupiers to which are to be added, the listlessness and

were pot called upon to state the amount of indolence, that his meagre participation in the benefit derived from the land; but some the fruits of his own labour has engrafted of them voluntarily admitted that the proupon the character of the Spanish peasant.' duce of twenty rods of ground more than -ii. 87.

doubled their rent, leaving the remaining

twenty planted with potatoes out of the Report of the Committee appointed to carry question, and consequently clear gain. As into effect a plan for ameliorating the con

this statement was fully borne out by other dition of the Poor at Saffron Walden in

facts which have come to the knowledge of the County of Essex ; and some account

the committee, it may be confidently asserted of the Cottage Allotments in the adjoining that the actual profit to the parties con

cerned was at the rate of from 101. to 121. parish of Littlebury. [Circular, not sold, communicated to us by Lord Braybrooke.) per acre ; but assuming, for the sake of cor

rectness, that it did not exceed the lesser An Address to the Governors and Directors

sum, 1501. has been acquired by the seventyof the public Charity Schools, pointing out

eight allotment holders, which they would some defects, and suggesting remedies. otherwise not have enjoyed.”-p. 10. Third edition, with an additional preface, and a particular account of the School that this profit is only a transfer from

Thus far his Lordship. It is evident Industry at Potion in the County of Bedford, connected with allotments of Land the farmer to the labourer ; but that, provided for the labouring poor. By Mon- if it diminishes the poor's rates to the tague Burgoyne, Esq. 8vo. pp. 32. amount of the profit, then Peter pays THE noble Lord informs us, that at

Paul. With regard to certain parishes Saffron Walden

the superabundance of of given amounts of population, then labourers destitute of work, and turned

it may follow that one Peter pays one, upon the roads, were twice as many as

two, or inore Pauls, as the case may be. the latter demanded; and that, in Mr. Montague Burgoyne also advoconsequence,

cates the system of allotments, and calls "A system of spade husbandry has been it," that which, of all modes of relief,

would be ost acceptable to the poor introduced into some parishes, and has also been tried in this ; and that it appears by man, the most conducive to industry, allowing the labourer a given rate per rod, and the abatement of the poor's rates." according to the quality of the soil, he would p. vii.

99

at once.

week;

432

REVIEW.-Burgoyne on Charity Schools, [May, In proof of this, he says

acre also. The usual mode of estimate “ Joseph Pitt, esq. M.P., Steward of the ing the profits of a farm (and it is more borough of Malmesbury, procured an act of than is always made) is by the gross enclosure of 500 acres, which belonged to value of the proceeds being three times the corporation. They were allotted to 250 the amount of the rent; one-third for families. All has been cultivated by spade the landlord, the other for tythes, taxes, husbandry. The consequence has been that labour, &c., the last for the farmer's the poor's rate has been gradually, reduced, profit. But the full sum of all the and the comfort of the inhabitants increased. The Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Duke of proceeds would be only 30001. Divide Buckingham, Lord Suffield, Lord Nugent, lies), the quotient will be only 121.

that sum by 250 (the number of famia and several other advocates for ameliorating the condition of the poor, have made experi

per ann. for each family, instead of 401.

Can we then wonder at the enormous ments of the same nature, and in no one instance have they failed."

increase of poor rates? It would be strange, indeed, if they der, that it being impracticable to

On the other hand, we are to considid; for if we reckon each family to

raise artificial manure for arable land, consist of five persons, and each adult

it requires the aid of sheeping and lurto require, according to the lowest estimate in political economy, sixpence to prevent the land being beggared

niping once in four years. Of course per day, or nine pounds per annum, it down, only three fourths of the whole will be seen that each adult ought to

allotment should be under cultivation receive nine pounds a year, together with the saving, through a lesser sum than gl. being sufficient for the sup.

We now proceed to Mr. Burgoyne's port of infant children. If we take a proposed amelioration in our charity present day-labourer's income, with schools. With these we heartily cointhe same family of a wife and four cide, and could confirmi a partial'exemchildren, at 9s. per

the utmost plification of the reform, as to a girl's which he can annually earn will be school, supported by the benevolence only 231. 88. the amount of 52 weeks of a highly accomplished and superior multiplied by 9 shillings,

lady. We shall, however, let' Mr, But now to a table, which will de Burgoyne speak for himself. monstrate our position, under the du- “ It is not uncommon to observe boys bious assumption that the gross profits and girls of the age of fourteen, on quitting of the allotments proportionally exceed charity schools, well instructed in reading, those under the common farming writing, and arithmetic, sometimes in hissystem :

tory and mathematics ; the boys competent

for the situation of a clerk, a writing-masFamilies... Persons in each.........

ter, or an engrosser ; the girls qualified for

governesses or upper servants : but unfortuTotul..........

nately, the market is overstocked with these Annual cost of maintenance.... 91. superior qualifications ? and, when they are

£11,250

called for, one is chosen, and forty-nine are

disappointed. What is the consequence of Now, if we divide 11,2501. by 1250, the disappointment ? Perhaps, idleness and the number of persons, the quotient is

vice. The unfortunate young persons have precisely gl. each per annum; and to a aspired too high. Happy would it have been family of five persons, of course 45l. ;

for the boys, if they had had more use of the i. e. 5 x9=45.' This total of 11,2501. plough, the spade, the awl, and the needle, is subject of course to a deduction of

and less of the pen. The situation of the 21. per acre rent, and lithes and taxes;

females is still more to be deplored ; unacso that, even at our sanguine estimate,

customed to works of labour, and the menial

offices of housewifery, they are unwilling to the poor man gains only 401.; still that

apply their hands to such low employments ; is a good income beyond 231. 8s., and

they expect higher situations, and finding moreover one added to his other earn.

them not, they at last fall a prey to vice and ings, by labour elsewhere for farmers, misery.”—p. 18. fsay 15l. more,) his income will then

Accordingly, Mr. Burgoyne probe 55l., or 11l. per head in a family of poses the following improvements in five.

ihe tuition : .. But let us take the same 500 acres, “ That they be taught reading, writing and suppose it let to a farmer at 2l. per and arithmetic, but that half the school

250

5

1250

2