quantity of it on fire, and thus produce mischief; it should be a long thin train, that will not go off suddenly, but will, by taking fire gradually, fill the room with smoke without any fear of harm: this atmosphere cannot be agreeable to the creatures, and if the room door, and the windows and chimney were closed, and the operation repeated for a few days together, it probably might destroy them. But if the room is wanted, I conceive that the sulphuric vapour would be very unwholesome as well as disagreeable to the person sleeping in the apartment. To give this experiment a fair chance of success, I conceive that the vapour ought to be kept closely pent up in the room, and that no person should sleep there for about three nights, till the trial has been fully made. Bugs are seldom seen whilst it is light; they come out in the night, and they generally descend from the top of the bed-hangings downwards; when a person is annoyed by them, if he can strike a light suddenly, he will generally find the tormentors, and may then destroy them; those which are trying to make their escape will be found creeping upwards, and may then be taken. It is a good plan to go suddenly with a light into a room where children have been some time in bed, and there the intruders will be found, and so, by degrees, be got rid of. I am almost ashamed, Sir, to ask you to introduce an article on so disagreeable a subject, but I know you will disregard this, if it can in any way contribute to the comfort of any of your readers. Vinegar is a good thing to wash the face, neck, and hands with, to prevent their being bitten, and is also good to apply to parts which have been bitten. I am, Sir, Your's, &c. S. E. A Countryman's Remarks. 521 A COUNTRYMAN'S REMARKS ON A GREAT NOBLEMAN'S HOUSE. NOT many days ago, as I was passing along a street in London where the large mansion of a nobleman stood, I observed two men standing looking at the building; the one seemed to have lately arrived from the country, and the other appeared to be showing him the sights of London. On approaching them, I heard the countryman say, "Well it is a vile shame that all this great place should be for one man." Now, though as a "Visitor," I naturally am an observer, yet I don't like to be a listener: however some people's opinions are expressed so loudly that it is impossible not to hear them.-I could not help observing, in the remark of the countryman, something of the spirit of envy, and much also of that mistaken notion of the blessings of equality which a few years ago led to so much bloodshed in the French nation, and would have upset our own nation too, if Englishmen had not, upon reflection, seen the danger and the folly of the doctrine. As to equality, every man of common sense must know that it cannot be. If all the property in England were to be divided equally among all the people to-morrow,-before the end of the week one drunken fellow would have spent all his share, and his industrious and prudent neighbour would have got it, and here would be an end of equality in one week. But, supposing we could be all made equal, we should soon find out that the greater part of us were in a worse situation than we had been before. Who would make coats, or shoes, or who would weave gowns, or stockings, if he had not a prospect of bettering his own condition, and that of his family, by his labour? who would till the ground, if there were no man richer than himself to pay him his wages? 6 A labourer who had been accustomed to such work might till his own ground, but he could not make himself a coat; and a tailor might make himself a coat, but who would plough his land for him? they might, to be sure, if they could agree, help one another, and one might do what the other could not: and this is perhaps the way of proceeding, when a set of men first establish themselves in a new country;-but the industrious, or the careful, or the strong, soon get above the idle, the careless or the weak, and so, there is soon an end of the original equality. One man who has thus got above another, makes over what he gains to his family, and it would be completely unfair for the idle man, or his family to say, 66 You have saved, and we have wasted, and we will now take away a part of your savings, that we may be equal." This would be so plainly unjust that no man of right judgment could think that it would be right. It is indeed certain that there always will be a difference; Providence has appointed that it should be so and it is much better for us that it should. The man whose industry has enabled him to keep what the idleness of others has wasted, being now become the rich man, is enabled to employ others, he has now much land, and he wants men to till it, and these men must have clothes to wear, and food to eat, and homes to live in, and beds to lie on; and they can have them, for the rich man pays them money, and they employ tailors, and shoemakers, and bakers; and the rich man wants these tradesmen too, so that, through him, there is a great deal of business going on, and numbers are supported through the means of one rich man, when they would have been all ready to starve if they had been all equal. One cannot help being surprised that any man of common understanding should talk of the benefits of equality, or even the possibility of it. There is scarcely a cottager who -- A Countryman's Remarks. 523 will read this, who does not know better. The squire of the parish perhaps owns all the land in it; and an ignorant person might be inclined to say, "how hard it is, that one man should have all, and that nobody else should have any." Now, to mend the matter, let us suppose that the land were taken from the squire and divided equally among all the people of the parish. To be sure, they would then all have something, but then they would very soon find that they were much worse off. The land, when so divided, would hardly support any body, but, as it is, it supports the whole parish; the former gets a living under the squire, and the labourers under the farmer, and there are shopkeepers, and blacksmiths, and shoemakers, and tailors all employed; and then the village doctor gets something from the sick people, and the village lawyer from the quarrelsome ones, and the ale-house-keeper from the foolish ones:-and so, though the land is called the property of one man, yet several hundreds are in fact living by it. If the property were taken from the squire, the whole parish would suffer for it. Thus, if the great house in London, that the countryman was gaping at, was shut up, what a number of servants, coachmen, grooms and footmen would starve for it! The nobleman himself would perhaps suffer the least, for in a single room he might have every comfort that he could want; the people under him would be the greatest sufferers. In truth, the countryman did pass on a little farther along the street with his London friend, and saw another house as big as the first, but this was shut up, the nobleman had left it ;-his house in the country was shut up too, he was gone abroad. I remember well the misery that his departure caused among the poor, the loss of place and maintenance that it occasioned to servants and dependants, and the poverty that it brought on the village where his mansion stood. A discontented man in that village, had talked of the shame of one man having so much, and some few of the neighbours had listened to him; but, when the great man was gone, they began to feel their loss;-they then saw that their master had lived for them, more than for himself; and that when he gave up his houses and his great establishment, they suffered by the change more than he did. A very little reflection will indeed convince any thinking person of the truth of what we have been saying, that there must be, and that there always will be, different ranks and stations, that Providence has ordered it to be so,— and that, moreover, it is for the good of us all that it should be so. But God "is no respecter of persons;" these earthly distinctions are appointed for a time, a very short time, during our journey through this world: every rank has its duties, and its temptations: against these, in whatever station he may be placed, the true Christian finds that he is called upon to guard, and, before he enters on his eternal abode, it will be seen whether he has rightly employed his talent on earth, or whether he has not. He knows that his business here is preparation for eternity, that he is to use his earthly means as a steward who is hereafter to give an account of them, whether they be much or whether they be little. Let no man therefore repine at his station here, but let him thankfully endeavour to discharge the duties of it. If he can improve his condition by honest means, it is well; but to murmur and repine because others are above him, is encouraging a very bad disposition in himself, and is as wicked as it is foolish and useless. V. |
