UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. KENDAL, or Kirby Kendal (the Church in the Vale of Ken), is the largest town in Westmoreland. It is pleasantly situated on the banks of the Ken, or Kent, which flows rapidly through the fertile valleys of a tract of country, that after the Conquest was designated the Barony of Kendal, and was the reward of Ivo, or John, brother to the Earl of Anjou. His lineal descendant, William Steward, of the household of Henry the Second, assumed the name of Lancaster, perhaps, from the circumstance of being governor of Lancaster Castle. From this family the barony descended, through the noble houses of Bruce and Ross, to the Parrs. Sir William Parr, of Kendal, having faithfully served King Edward the Fourth, in his wars with France and Scotland, was created a Knight of the Garter. Catherine Parr, his grand-daughter was born here, and became the last Queen of Henry the Eighth; her brother, Sir William Parr, was by that monarch created first Lord Parr of Kendal, and afterwards Earl of Essex and K. B. By Edward the Fourth he was raised to the dignity of Marquis of Northampton. The Castle, the baronial seat of the above distinguished families, occupies a grassy hill, on the east VOL. III. | side of the river; of this structure, four broken towers, and part of the outer walls, only are now remaining; the most perfect portion is the tower, represented in the engraving. Opposite the castle, and overlooking the town, is Castle-law Hill, an artificial circular mount, about thirty feet high, surrounded at its base by a deep fosse and a high rampart strengthened by two bastions on the east; the summit, which is flat, is crossed by a ditch, and defended by a breast-work of earth. This mount is of greater antiquity than the castle, and, as its name imports, was one of the spots on which, in ancient times, justice was dispensed to the people. On this eminence, an obelisk, commemorative of the Revolution of 1688, was erected by the inhabitants of Kendal, in 1788. To the tourist, Kendal Castle is well worth visiting, both from situation and from the interest attached to this venerable relic of former days. The Church is a spacious Gothic structure, with a square tower, containing ten bells; it has three chapels, memorials of the ancient dignity of three neighbouring families, the Bellinghams, Stricklands, and Parrs, and contains many ancient monuments. 73 CONDITION OF THE POOR IN DIFFERENT II. ENGLAND; SCOTLAND; THE POOR LAWS, MARRIAGES, EMIGRATION.-SWITZERLAND. HAVING, in the first division of this paper (see p. 53), considered the condition of the poor in China, New South Wales, and Canada, I will now continue the inquiry into that of the labouring population of our own country. nor would they be freed from the necessity of daily labour. We have observed that the sum of money annually distributed in parish-relief is nearly ten times greater than it was eighty years ago; and yet the condition of the labourer is not in any degree better. We may add, that the sum so distributed in England and Wales is a hundred times greater than in Scotland; yet the English labourer is not better fed or clothed than the Scotch labourer-perhaps hardly so well. This affords another proof how little money can do in improving the circumstances of the people. If the six millions expended yearly in this country, in the relief of the poor, by parish-officers, were increased to twelve millions, can any one believe that the comforts of the poor would be thereby increased? If the amount so expended has increased, in the last eighty years, from six hundred thousand pounds, to six millions-(that is, in the proportion of ten to one)—without in any sensible degree bettering the circumstances of our labourers, why should we suppose that a further increase from six to twelve millions would be attended with any better effect? It is of great importance that our young unmarried people should understand, that without due prudence and forethought on their part, no assistance that the rich can possibly bestow on them will effectually improve their circumstances. It is a great mistake to suppose that the distribution of money is capable of removing the pressure of poverty. No doubt, a sum of money given to a single poor family may effectually relieve them. But suppose that, by a general contribution of the rich, five shillings per week were given to every labourer in the kingdom, over and above his usual earnings. Is it not very clear, that as soon as they all went to market for more meat, more bread, more beer, than they had been accustomed to buy, the price of meat, bread, and beer, would immediately rise? Is it not well known to every one who has ever attended a market, that an increase of demand immediately raises prices? The history of our Poor Laws also serves to prove how little can be done, by the distribution of money, towards relieving the wants of the poor. About eighty years ago, the total amount of poor rates raised in all the parishes of England and Wales was little more than a tenth part of what it now is, yet the poor seemed quite as well off then as now, Six millions of pounds yearly are expended by the parish-crease of inhabitants in Great Britain is not less than officers in this country, in allowances to the sick, the aged, the maintenance of widows and orphans, and the support of those who are unable to find employment for themselves. Six millions of pounds a-year! A sum greater, perhaps, than is expended for the same purpose and in all the rest of the world together. A sum so great, that a stranger might be ready to think the existence of poverty in this country impossible. How can any man be in want, he would say, when six millions of pounds are laid out every year in relieving the distressed? No doubt, if money could avail for this purpose, poverty would long ago have been driven from our land. But shillings and half-crowns cannot be eaten before they can satisfy our hunger, they must be turned into bread. Therefore, the question is, How much bread have we, and how many mouths to be filled with it? If a hundred loaves are divided between a hundred persons, each may get a whole loaf, but if a hundred loaves are to be divided among a hundred and ten persons, it is impossible that every one of them should get a whole loaf. If we give money to fifty of them, so as to set them above the rest, then fifty may still be able to procure a whole loaf each; but the remaining sixty will have so much less. Suppose even the whole property of the rich were taken from them, and divided among the poor; the poor would not have any more to eat or drink than at present: for a rich man does not eat more than a labourer. There would still be the same quantity of food in the country as at present, and the same number of mouths; therefore, the share falling to each person would be the same as at present. The poor would, indeed, for a time, be able, in this case, to have more silver spoons and silk stockings than at present but they would not have more beef or beer, Turn the subject in what way we please, we come at last to this point, the greater the number of mouths, the less food is there for each of them. So that, in order to give each mouth as much food as it requires, we must endeavour to prevent the number of mouths from increasing so fast. Now this may be accomplished in part by Emigration: but then there is reason to fear that Emigration alone will never be able to provide for the annual increase of our population, unless aided by the prudence of the people themselves, in respect to marriage, The annual in two hundred thousand persons; the increase in Ireland is at least half as much; the whole increase in the United Kingdom is, therefore, equal to at least three hundred thousand. Now the greatest number that have ever yet emigrated in a year is about sixty thousand-one-fifth only of the annual increase, In order to show how important an influence the habit of prudence, with respect to marriage, exercises on the condition of the people, we shall again advert to facts. We shall show, that even in oldsettled countries, where land is not to be obtained, except at a high price, the poor may enjoy a good deal of comfort, provided their numbers do not increase too fast. This is the case in Switzerland; naturally one of the poorest countries in Europe; consisting, for the most part, of mountains and rocks incapable of cultivation. And it is worthy of notice, that the comfort of the people of Switzerland is most remarkable in those districts where little or no trade exists. In the valley of the Eugadine, in the canton of the Grisons, there are said to be fewer poor than in any other part of Europe. The inhabitants of this and the neighbouring valleys are so sensible of the advantages they enjoy, that they are deeply attached to their country: and the young men who enter into foreign service, as soldiers, or emigrate for other purposes, scarcely ever fail to return, as soon as they can lay by a sufficiency to enable them to live comfortably at home. In very many cases, the desire of seeing their native country has been so strong, that when prevented from doing so, they have fallen sick, and even died of grief. This is a fact so well known, that it was strictly forbidden in the French armies, into which Swiss regiments were incorporated, to play certain Swiss music, in consequence of the fatal effect which this music was found to produce upon the soldiers of that nation. The air which had this extraordinary effect on the Swiss soldiers was called the Ranz des Vaches; or Cow-Call. It was nothing more than a simple song, which the cow-herds in Switzerland are accustomed to sing as they drive their cows to pasture; and its fatal effect depended entirely on the strong recollections which it excited in the minds of the Swiss, of the happiness of their childhood. Although there is reason to fear that, in the more populous parts of Switzerland, the happiness of the people is not so great now as it was half-a-century or a century ago, yet the accounts of recent travellers show that in the more remote valleys, where the habits of ancient simplicity still exist, this happiness has been little impaired. Now we have the clearest and most unquestionable evidence, that in those parts of Switzerland where the people are so happy and contented, fewer marriages and fewer births take place, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, than in any other country of Europe. Instead of marrying at eighteen or twenty, without a penny to help themselves, as our labourers too often do, the Swiss are content to wait till five-and-twenty, or thirty. And it is remarkable, that, notwithstanding the later period of marriage, the proportion of illegitimate births is exceedingly small; so that prudence, with regard to marriage, does not always lead, as some persons have apprehended it might, to immorality. B. OUR SAXON ANCESTORS.-The infant state of this people when the Romans first observed them, exhibited nothing from which human sagacity would have predicted great ness. A territory on the neck of the Cimbric Chersonesus, and three small islands, contained those whose descendants occupy the circle of Westphalia, the Electorate of Saxony, the British Islands, the United States of North America, and the British Colonies in the Two Indies. Such is the course of Providence, that empires, the most extended and the most formidable, are found to vanish as the morning mist; while tribes, scarce visible, or contemptuously overlooked, like the springs of a mighty river, often glide on gradually to greatness and veneration.- -TURNER. A LARGE crowd of people were hooting and laughing at a man who had done some act with which they were displeased; "Nay," said an aged woman," he is somebody's bairn.' Such are the different views which different spectators take of the same subject; such is the feeling of maternal love, of which there is to me always an affecting image in Hogarth's fifth plate of Industry and Idleness, where an aged woman clings with the fondness of hope, not quite extinguished, to her vice-hardened child, whom she is accompanying to the ship destined to bear him away from his native soil, in whose shocking face every trace of the human countenance seems obliterated, and a brutebeast's to be left in its stead,-shocking and repulsive to all but her who watched over it in its cradle before it was so sadly altered.Thoughts on Laughter. THE Complaints of the aged should meet with tenderness, rather than censure. The burden under which they labour ought to be viewed with sympathy by those who must bear it in their turn, and who, perhaps, hereafter, may complain of it as bitterly. At the same time, the old should consider that all the seasons of life have their several trials allotted to them; and that to bear the infirmities of age with becoming patience is as much their duty, as it is that of the young to resist the temptations of youthful pleasure. By calmly enduring, for the short time that remains, what Providence is pleased to inflict, they both express a resignation most acceptable to God, and recommend themselves to the esteem and assistance of all who are round them.-BLAIR. A LIVING hope, living in death itself. The world dares say no more for its device than, Dum spiro spero (Whilst I breathe I hope); but the children of God can add by virtue of this living hope, Dum exspiro spero, (Whilst I expire I hope).-LEIGHTON. THE RICE PLANT. (Oryza sativa.) How beautifully visible is the provident hand of the Creator in the manner in which the fruits of the earth are distributed over its surface; and how well adapted to the climate in which we live is the food provided for our use. In the sultry regions between the tropics, where the scorching rays of the sun descend in an almost perpendicular direction, we find the animals calculated for the subsistence of mankind but few, and those widely spread, while, at the same time, the quality of their flesh is much inferior to that of the same description of animals which inhabit temperate climates. The celebrated traveller, Belzoni, when crossing the desert between Egypt and the Red Sea, found that the average weight of the sheep of that country did not exceed 15 pounds. It is well known to medical men, and all who have paid any attention to the subject, that an abundance of animal food, is, in hot climates, injurious to health even to the natives themselves, but much more so to strangers; and for this reason, no doubt, the provision made by Providence has been sparingly distributed. We all unfortunately carry with us wherever we go the habits and customs of our native climate, and instead of taking a lesson, when in India, from the simple Hindoo, whose chief subsistence is rice and fruits, the table of the European is loaded with all the same luxuries, in the shape of food, as those on which, when in Europe, he was, owing to the difference of climate, in the habit of partaking with impunity. The flesh of the pig, which, among us is a staple and wholesome kind of food, is unwholesome and indigestible in all the warmer latitudes of the earth. The distribution of the different kinds of grain with which the earth is blessed, follows the same general rule: of this, RICE, the subject of the present article, is an instance. It is of a drier nature, and less subject to fermentation than Wheat or Barley, and therefore more fitted for the food of the inhabitants of hot countries. We may also instance Maize or Indian corn, the qualities of which, in some measure resemble those of Rice. The cultivation of this grain, occupies a large portion of the population of the cast, particularly in China, India, and Sumatra, large quantities are also grown in Italy, Spain, and Piedmont, and in some parts of America, particularly South Carolina. The mode of culture varies considerably, according to the climate and local circumstances. The following is the method employed among the Chinese, who cultivate it to a very great extent, in the midland and southern parts of their dominions, the low grounds of which are annually flooded by the Kiang and the Yellow rivers. These extensive inundations are occasioned by the heavy rains that fall near the sources of these rivers, which have their origin in the Himalayan chain of mountains. When the waters have receded, the earth is covered with a thick coating of slime and mud, which fertilizes the ground as perfectly as the richest manure. As soon as this takes place, the patient Chinese surrounds portions of this rich soil with clay embankments, always selecting the neighbourhood of some running stream. The ground is then carefully harrowed, in the manner represented in the first engraving; this operation is several times repeated until it is well worked. In the mean time, the Rice intended for seed has been soaked in water, in which a quantity of manure has been stirred; this has forwarded its growth so much, that the young plants appear above the ground in two days after they have been deposited in the earth. It is necessary to remark, that during all the early stages of its | to enrich the land. The threshing of the rice is growth, and in fact until the seed is well set, the roots of the plants must be constantly under water; to effect this, different contrivances are resorted to, two of these, the chain-pump, and the bucket placed at the end of a lever, are represented in the third engraving. As soon as the young plants have reached the height of six or seven inches, they are pulled up, the tops are cut off, the roots carefully washed, and the whole planted out in rows, about a foot asunder. In the course of its growth, it is at times sprinkled with lime and water, which is said to destroy the insects and assist in enriching the soil; the greatest care is also taken to remove the weeds by hand, as fast as they spring up. In these tedious operations, the English agriculturist can form no idea of the perseverance and attention of the industrious Chinese. The first crop, for they obtain two in the course of the year, is harvested about May or June, and the second in October or November. The sickle employed for the purpose of reaping the rice, is like the European instrument, bent into the form of a hook, but the edge instead of being smooth, is notched like that of a saw, the straw and stubble left after the harvest, are burnt on the spot and left performed in the usual manner with a flail, and the husks removed by bruising the grain in a kind of mortar, as represented in the small engraving. The next process, sifting or separating the husks from the seed, is shown in the back-ground of the fourth engraving. In the fore-ground of the same, is seen the mode of grinding it into flour, by means of a hand-mill worked by several men. The chief food of the Chinese consists of this useful grain, prepared in various ways. They use no spoons at their meals, and it is curious to notice the dexterity with which two small skewers, called chopsticks, are employed to jerk the rice into their mouths: a kind of wine is also prepared from the grain by fermentation. One mode of cultivating the Rice, resorted to in Sumatra, differs so materially from that we have just noticed, that it ought not to be passed over without notice. This immense island is thickly covered with almost inexhaustable forests, and the natives, in the dry season, select a spot which they call a Laddang. The trees are then cut down, at the height of about ten feet from the ground, and after they have become tolerably dry, the whole are set fire to. If the laddang is of any extent, the conflagration continues for the space of a month. The husbandman has now to wait patiently till the rainy season sets in. If wet weather should occur unseasonably, after the trees are felled, and before they are sufficiently dry to be consumed, the crops would be much retarded, on account of the ground not being cleared in time. At this season there are a set of impostors, Malay adventurers, who profit by the credulity of the husbandmen, by pretending to have the power of causing or retarding rain. The fee which the juggler receives for the practice of his deception, is at the rate of one dollar or more from each family. His mode of proceeding is to abstain, or pretend to do so, for many nights and days, from food and sleep, performing trifling ceremonies, and remaining the whole time in the open air. If he sees a cloud gathering, he begins to smoke tobacco with great vehemence, walking about quickly and throwing the puffs towards the cloud, with all the power of his lungs. As soon as the rainy season has fairly set in, the seed is sown by making holes in the ground at equal distances, and dropping several grains into each; and this is all the trouble the careless native takes with his crop, until the time of harvest, the result of this want of care is, that it not unfrequently happens, that the whole of the seed is devoured by the birds. The whole of the Sumatrians, however, are not quite so regardless of their interests after it is committed to the ground, for, in some parts of the island, they construct a number of little wooden machines, which are placed round the fields connected by strings, and so formed, that a child by pulling a line can set them all in motion, and produce a terrible clatter. Formerly, Rice used to be brought into England with the husk or rind removed, but of late years, a manufactory for the purpose of cleaning the grain has been established in London, and it is found that by being imported in the husk, it retains its flavour much better. In this state, it is sometimes called by |