description by Mr. Symons of the contention for prizes-these Titans, in the various games of bell-race, jumping in sacks, throwing weights, running, leaping over poles, &c. An individual of great strength is appointed to act as constable, whose office is to enforce the laws, to turn out strangers entering without tickets, or any members misconducting themselves, and to close up the ground at night.' A further experiment was made on these sons of earth-an attempt to entice them, through music, from their ordinary haunt of the public-house, and its potent attractions of strong drink and fierce gambling. At first twenty only appeared, and these in their shirt-sleeves.' 'The concert riveted their attention, and they became quiet and expressed great delight.' At the 'feast of August,' 1841, the twenty had swelled into a multitude of colliers,' with their families, who attended the concert as well as the games, remaining the whole evening, and declaring, at its close,This beats cock-fighting!' We think we shall please many by giving one extract more from the historian of Fossil Fuel.' It may be surmised, from something already quoted, that this able writer himself began life in the pit; but, if so, we have it not in our power to add his name to a list which it would by no means discredit. 'The Cornish miners have often been referred to as being a remarkably observant and intelligent race of men: combining, as they commonly do, each in his own person, the labourer, the adventurer, and the merchant, they have acquired a degree of shrewdness and industry that could not fail to be noted, especially by strangers with whom they came into contact. The colliers, on the other hand, whether less knowing or not, have been, in this respect at least, less known: they have almost uniformly been the servants of capitalists between whom and the actual labourers there have existed several gradations of rank-so to speakthe duties of the uppermost of which, however, bear very lightly, if at all, on the real independence of the lowest-the latter, indeed, frequently rising meritoriously from the bottom to the top of the scale. Many honourable instances of this might be mentioned. It is no proof of the general intelligence of any body of operatives that men of talent have occasionally risen from among them to distinguished stations in society; but it is natural to associate the ultimate fame or notoriety of an individual with his original calling, and this without the least disparagement or disrespect. It is on this principle that one feels a certain description of interest in knowing that the late celebrated Doctor Hutton was originally a hewer employed in Old Long Benton Colliery; that Mr. Stephenson, the intelligent engineer of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, was originally a coal-miner; that the late Rev. W. Huntingdon, an eccentric but talented preacher in the metropolis, was a coalheaver; and even that the late "king of the conjurors," as the ingenious Ingleby was called, was a pitman, who first practised sleight of hand among his companions on the banks of the Tyne. Thomas Bewick too, VOL. LXX. NO. CXXXIX. "the "the celebrated xylographer and illustrator of nature," may be mentioned as another instance. His father was a collier in the neighbourhood of Hexham; and Thomas with his brothers, one of whom died after giving promise of high excellency in the beautiful art of woodengraving, was early immured in that subterranean, laborious, and loathsome employment." I have heard him say," remarks his friend Mr. Dovaston, "that the remotest recollection of his powerful and tenacious memory was that of lying for hours on his side between dismal strata of coal, by a glimmering and dirty candle, plying the pick with his little hands-those hands afterwards destined to elevate the arts, illustrate nature, and promulgate her truths, to the delight and instruction of the moral and intellectual world."-History of Fossil Fuel, pp. 289, 290. Since this article was put into type Lord Ashley has obtained the unanimous assent of the House of Commons for the introduction of a bill' to make Regulations respecting the Age and Sex of Children and Young Persons employed in the Mines and Collieries of the United Kingdom.' After perusing this Reportwith its detailed Appendices, and the terrible woodcuts that accompany them-it was impossible for us to doubt that Lord Ashley would receive the cordial support of Her Majesty's Government in such a measure. But we were not prepared for, and therefore we were indeed most highly gratified by, the unanimity of the House of Commons on the 7th of June. We would fain hail it as an evidence that not by any one class of politicians alone, but by all, the danger of neglecting the moral and social and also the physical condition of the poor in this rich and powerful empire has at length been understood and appreciated; and as an omen and pledge that henceforth, as now, English gentlemen of all parties will be found ready to act together as men and as Christians when the afflictions of their humble fellowcountrymen are brought under their consideration as legislators. Lord Ashley's speech was indeed a happy specimen of clear statement, intermixed with numberless touches of simply and deeply pathetic eloquence:—no man could listen to it without being reminded of Wilberforce. Such a speech might well, as a display of high talents, excite admiration and applause; but these are not days when rhetoric, or even oratory, can produce, in regard to subjects of this kind, any decisive practical effect. The House must have been operated on by circumstances of a very different character: they felt, we hope and believe, that this was the first step in a path which must be pursued, if our working classes-unequalled in the history of the world for courage, energy, and native goodness of feeling—are to be reconciled to the great existing institutions of their country-not excepting excepting the institution of property, which, like all the rest, can only deserve to be supported as being for the general advantage. I hope, Sir,' said Lord Ashley, 'that the House will not consider that I am speaking dogmatically on these subjects: my intercourse with the working classes, both by correspondence and personal interview, has for many years been so extensive, that I think I may venture to say that I am conversant with their feelings and habits, and can state their probable movements. I do not fear any violent or general outbreaks on the part of the population: there may be a few, but not more than will be easily repressed by the ordinary force of the country. But I do fear the progress of a cancer, a perilous, and, if we much longer delay, an incurable cancer, which has seized upon the body social, moral, and political; and then in some day, when there shall be required on the part of our people an unusual energy, an unprecedented effort of virtue and patriotism, the strength of the empire will be found prostrate, for the fatal disorder will have reached its vitals. There are, I well know, many other things to be done; but this, I must maintain, is an indispensable preliminary for it is a mockery to talk of education to people who are engaged, as it were, in unceasing toil from their cradle to their grave. I have endeavoured for many years to attain this end by limiting the hours of labour, and so bringing the children and young persons within the reach of a moral and religious education. I have hitherto been disappointed, and I deeply regret it, because we are daily throwing away a noble material!-for, depend upon it, the British people are the noblest and the most easily governed of any on the face of the earth. Their fortitude and obedience under the severest privations sufficiently prove it. (Loud cheers.) Sure I am, that the minister of this country, whoever he be, if he will but win their confidence by appealing to their hearts, may bear upon his little finger the whole weight of the reins of the British empire. And, Sir, the sufferings of these people, so destructive to themselves, are altogether needless to the prosperity of the empire.... Could it even be proved that they were necessary, this House, I know, would pause before it undertook to affirm the continuance of them..... What could induce you to tolerate further the existence of such cruelties? Is it not enough to announce these things to an assembly of Christian men and British gentlemen? For twenty millions of money you purchased the liberation of the negro; and it was a blessed deed. You may, this night, by a cheap and harmless vote, invigorate the hearts of thousands of your countrypeople, enable them to walk erect in newness of life, to enter on the enjoyment of their inherited freedom, and avail themselves (if they will accept them) of the opportunities of virtue, of morality, and religion. These, Sir, are the ends that I venture to propose: this is the barbarism that I seek to restore. The House will, I am sure, forgive me for having detained them so long; and still more will they forgive me for venturing to conclude, by imploring them, in the words of Holy Writ, "To break off our sins by righteousness, and our iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of our tranquillity."-Speech, &c. P. 57. By Mrs. Loudon. ART. VII.1. Gardening for Ladies. London. 1841. 2. The Ladies' Companion to the Flower Garden: being an Alphabetical Arrangement of all the Ornamental Plants usually grown in Gardens and Shrubberies; with full Directions for their Culture. By Mrs. Loudon. London. 1841. 3. The Flower Garden: containing Directions for the Cultivation of all Garden Flowers. pp. 515. London. 1841. 4. An Encyclopædia of Gardening: comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening, &c. &c. By J. C. Loudon, F.L.S., H.S., &c. 8vo. pp. 1270. London. 5. An Encyclopædia of Plants; with Figures of nearly Ten Thousand Species. Edited by J. C. Loudon. 8vo. PP. 1159. London. 1829. 6. Elements of Botany, Structural, Physiological, Systematical, and Medical. By John Lindley, Ph. D., Professor of Botany in University College. London. 1841. 7. A Pocket Botanical Dictionary: comprising the Names, History, and Culture of all Plants known in Britain. By Joseph Paxton, F.L.S., H.S., &c. London, 1840. 8. Botany for Ladies; or, a Popular Introduction to the Natural System of Plants. By Mrs. Loudon. pp. 493. London. 1842. 9. The Orchidacea of Mexico and Guatemala. By James Bateman, Esq. In Parts. 10. Illustrations of the Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants. By Francis Bauer, Esq. With Notes and Prefatory Remarks by Dr. Lindley. London. 1840. 11. Sertum Orchideum; or, a Wreath of the most beautiful Orchidaceous Plants. By Dr. Lindley. 1840-1. 12. A History of British Ferns. By Edward Newman, F.L.S. 8vo. 1840. 13. Poetry of Gardening, from The Carthusian,' a Miscellany in Prose and Verse. pp. 528. London. 1839. IF F Dr. Johnson would not stop to inquire whether landscapegardening demands any great powers of the mind,' we may surely be excused from the like investigation on the humbler subject of gardening-proper. But whether or not these pursuits demand, certain it is that they have exercised, the talents of as numerous and brilliant an assemblage of great names as any one subject can boast of. Without travelling into distant times or countries, countries, we find among our own philosophers, poets, and men of tiste, who have deemed gardening worthy their regard, the names of Bacon, Evelyn, Temple, Pope, Addison, Sir W. Chambers, Lord Kames, Shenstone, Horace Walpole, Alison, Hope, and Walter Scott. Under the first and last of these authorities, omitting all the rest, we would gladly take our stand in defence of any study to which they had given their sanction on paper and in practice. Even in its own exclusive domain, gardening has raised no mean school of literature in the works of Gilpin, Whateley, the Masons, Knight, Price, and Repton. 6 Time would fail us to tell of all those royal and noble personages whom old Gerarde enumerates in his 'Herbal' as having either loved to live in gardens,' or written treatises on the subject. We know that Solomon spoke of plants, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that groweth out of the wall:'-though here the material surpassed the workmanship, for in all his wisdom he discoursed not so eloquently, nor in all his glory was he so richly arrayed, as one lily of the field.' The vegetable drug mithridate long handed down the name of the King of Pontus, its discoverer, 'better knowne,' says Gerarde, 'by his soveraigne Mithridate, than by his sometime speaking two-and-twenty languages.' What should I say,' continues the old herbalist, after having called in the authorities of Euax king of the Arabians, and Artemisia queen of Caria, 'what should I say of those royal personages, Juba, Attalus, Climenus, Achilles, Cyrus, Masynissa, Semyramis, Dioclesian-all skilled in the excellent art of simpling?' We might easily swell the list by the addition of royal patrons of horticulture in modern times. Among our own sovereigns, Elizabeth, James I., and Charles II. are mentioned as having given their personal superintendence to the royal gardens, while a change in the style of laying out grounds is very generally attributed to the accession of William and Mary-though we doubt whether a horticultural genius would have met with any better or more fitting reception from the hero of the Boyne than did the great wit to whom he offered a cornetcy of dragoons. The gardens of Tzarsco-celo and of Peterhoff were severally the summer resorts of Catherine I. and Elizabeth of Russia, where the one amused herself with building a Chinese village, and the other by cooking her own dinner in the summer-house of Monplaisir. There are more thrilling associations connected with the Jardin Anglais of the Trianon at Versailles, where some rose-trees yet grow which were planted by Marie Antoinette; nor will an Englishman easily forget the grounds of Claremont, which yet cherish the memory and the taste of that truly British princess who delighted to superintend |