be no servants. In a community where the intellects and knowledge of all were on a par none would willingly be servants. All must take it in turn, and the stimulus to labour-saving inventions would be so great that in no long period the necessity for personal service would be in a great measure dispensed with. The abundance of inferior people at present to be found to perform the office of domestic servants is a drawback upon invention; but notwithstanding, for all those whose tastes are simple, who merely require abundant food and cleanly lodging, and ease and leisure, who, in short, have no love of ostentation, the presence of servants, and the necessity of overlooking them, is a great evil. The only remedy for this is a well-digested system of social living. There are many rational people who will at once start away from such a proposition, because, at first sight, the term social living portends the destruction of all privacy, a most necessary ingredient in human comfort, especially amongst thinking beings. But the destruction of privacy is not necessarily implied by social living; a well-digested system would be adapted to suit every mood of mind, to enable the members to congregate together when gregariously disposed, or to retire to their ruminations when otherwise disposed. I fully agree that unless this be perfectly understood and provided for, no such community would hold together six months. As society at present exists, the intercourse of intellect cannot be kept up without a great expenditure of time, trouble, and money. People live far apart from each other, and the disposition to society may change while traversing the distance between, and at best it is only at scattered intervals that such society can be enjoyed. But could it be easily attained, those who esteemed each other would mingle together at several periods of the day, and sharpen their intellects in discourse for shorter or longer periods as might best suit them.

In a dwelling whose inhabitants possess a moderate income, the time of the female members is usually principally taken up with what are called domestic duties, and thus the most important of all duties, the education of the junior members, is given over to hirelings. The kitchen-the accursed kitchenmy kitchen,' her kitchen,' as is said by and of the cooks-the kitchen and what is thereon depending, usually consumes for three persons the time which might suffice, if properly arranged, for fifty. All is ill-arranged, and contrived to perform in the worst possible way the least possible quantity of work, and to give little choice of food to the inmates, though we know quite well that a variety of food is mainly conducive to health, and that the tastes of different persons are as diversified as their features. Then comes bed-making, and room-cleaning, and shoes-cleaning, in some cases done all by the same person, and mostly in a dawdling imperfect manner. And the carrying water up and down stairs, and the numberless contrivances for performing operations

No. 91.

2 N

imperfectly, which have therefore to be repeated again and again. In short, the whole is so badly and so uneconomically arranged, or rather disarranged, that were a cotton or other factory but one tithe so imperfect, it must insure the ruin of the proprietor. The simple proposition as to social living is, to perform all the household services, and prepare the necessary food of five hundred or fewer families, out of a joint-stock fund of labour and material, upon the same principles of economy and arrangement as are found so advantageous in our large manufacturing establishments. I will endeavour to give a slight sketch of the arrangement which appears to me desirable in order to produce these results, leaving the minuter details to be filled up by those who may see in my plan an opening for a good commercial speculation, the principle which is so mainly stirring at the present time.

(To be continued.)

JUNIUS REDIVIVUS.

MR. BLYTH'S GARDEN.

[THE following jeu d'esprit is from the aged and excellent friend to whom Junius Redivivus has referred in the foregoing article, (p. 486,) in terms which have the sincerest concurrence of the Editor. The reader will be gratified by the indications it affords of the cheerful disposition of this veteran in the cause of all that is true and good.]

Diversity sweetens life and journals too.

One cannot be always moralizing, Mr. Editor, and even an old man (72) may claim some little indulgence if he occasionally resorts to harmless badinage for amusement; and more especially as he stands pledged to himself, that his pen shall never commit to paper a word or a thought which he would be ashamed publicly to acknowledge. Whether the public would always deem it worthy of its notice, belongs to another chapter.

JAMES LUCKCOCK.

ADVERTISEMENT EXTRAORDINARY.

There have been some thieves in Mr. Blyth's garden, last night, and they robbed it.'

The conciseness, beauty, and correctness of this announcement, are well deserving of a critical and complimentary analysis. Is there a single redundant word, or can any one be added without impairing its simplicity, or injuring the sense so ably and so expressively conveyed?

It is true that the sentence might have been so constructed as not to require the adverb there, by saying, some thieves have been, &c., but it does not follow that every suggestion that a painful

criticism may dictate would be an improvement. There, indicates the spot where the transaction took place, and harmonizes well with the fact intended to be illustrated. It was the garden itself, the identical garden, then and there to be recognised as the sole and important scene of action.

2d. Have been,' &c.

O! they have been, have they? It follows, then, that whether welcome or unwelcome, whether doing their duty or violating the laws of possession, whether commendable or injurious in their visit, whether they succeeded in their intentions or quitted the premises in alarm, yet still they have been; and there can be no absolute claim upon them, either in law or in equity, to come again. So far they are free from blame, and if not ultimately discovered, as free from punishment.

3d. Some thieves.'

How beautifully idiomatic is our vernacular tongue, and here exemplified by our narrator with all the laconic energy that inquiry could desire. Some-then there must be a plural number-there must at least be two, and beyond this we may launch out almost to infinity; and this proves the correct and good feeling of the expression. The writer evinces no desire to impose on the credulity of his readers; you infer at once, from the modesty of the phrase, that if he saw them yet still he did not count them, or if he meant to convey the idea that he did not see them, how ingeniously he insinuates that he himself was not of the party, and therefore that he is well entitled to the admission of his evidence, as far as it may be useful. In the present stage of the inquiry, no correctness can be attempted as to the exact number of these nocturnal gentry; of one fact we may, however, be certain, that they could not amount to 1,000,000, and it remains as the groundwork of a speculative calculation where the probability of the number ends, and where the impossibility begins.

A very ugly word this, but far too useful to be expunged from our judicial vocabulary; as with a slight degree of ingenuity it may be made to cover a multitude of sinners.' It may suit the civil authorities to brand petty transgressions with every epithet that contempt or indignation can apply or invent; but if every class of freebooters had its proper and expressive nomenclature, our dictionaries would lack words for the purpose. From the humble dealer, who purloins a cabbage or a handkerchief, or him who spends an hour at midnight in wrenching a brass plate from a door, and which, perhaps, he can sell for no more than twopence; to him who dexterously unburdens a coach of a banker's parcel, containing the amount, perhaps, of £4000 or £5000, or him who sells his services as a treacherous spy on his suffering countrymen, and urges them to the commission of what he afterwards betrays, or

even him in higher station, who screens the informer and grants him a pension from the public purse, and hangs the deluded victim of his confidence; or again, to the neighbouring hierarchy, which in the possession of millions of undeserved wealth, sends its subordinates to England to supply their wants: let every grade be properly classified. We may soften some cases and aggravate others; we may say, Knights of the nimble finger,' or Distri butors of hoarded wealth;' but till our limited nomenclatures shall be copiously enlarged, the word thieves may be considered as exactly appropriate to all.

5th, In the garden.'

Is this exactly correct? We say, and properly, in a well or in a snuff-box; but what is a garden? A surface only, and then comes the incongruity. We don't say a ship rides gallantly in the waves, nor a forest spreads its foliage in a mountain; why, then, should we say a man works in a garden? Would not on the waves, on the mountain, and on the garden, be all fair and straightforward analogy? But, on the other hand, we don't say a village on the valley, nor a town on Dorsetshire. How, then, shall we reconcile these discrepancies? Should it be said, that what is low or inclosed requires the term in, and what is elevated or open the word on; then what a contradiction remains to say in a district, or in a county. These niceties of speech may be intelligible and familiar to us, but how perplexing must they be to foreigners in learning our idioms! Let the learned decide, or futurity must take it, like ourselves, as custom dictates.

6th. Mr. Blyth's.'

You're sure it was Mister Blyth's; then, of course, it could not be the widow's, nor the doctor's, nor the baronet's; one can't be too perspicuous in such affairs. And then, again, how lamentable that the owner of such a pretty and euphonical cognomen could not escape the vulgar attack. One might have supposed that the amenity of feeling conveyed by this melodious and heart-soothing designation, should be some security, some charm, in preference to the harsh, dissonant, and unwelcome sounds of Shufflebottom, Groutage, Hogsflesh, and many others; but no, refinement advances slowly, and it is much to be feared it will be long ere these distinctions shall have any influence on the nightly depredator. 7th. Garden.

In our worst calamities, we are seldom without some alleviation. As the Dutchman said when he broke his leg, thank Heaven that it was not both;' so, in this case, a lesser evil probably prevented a greater. The thieves got into or upon the garden,granted; but as no possible inference can be drawn that they visited any other part of the premises, it is fair to suppose that they were diverted from any other attempt; and as conciseness in narration is a beauty, let that pass without farther comment.

Well, and what then? When should you expect thieves to come but at night? You can't suddenly change the arrangements and constitutions of the social fabric. The man turns out with his wimble and his crow-bar, and the frail Cyprian, hastening to her nightly jobs, robs fobs:' such things are, and so must they remain a little longer. Have a little patience, and allow the reformed parliament a few more sessions to wrangle, to sleep, to blunder, or to dissemble, before they reform the morals and condition of the country; and don't, in the mean time, expect impossibilities. And then, as to the term last night, how admirably this indicates the vigilance of the police. If it had been the night before, there would have been no occasion for the advertisement, for most assuredly the thieves would all have been in safe custody. 9th. And,' &c.

One can't sufficiently admire the simplicity and connexion of the whole paragraph. It is evidently the production of experience combined with intelligence and dispatch. Having so briefly, and yet so copiously, and may we not add, so eloquently related the introductory facts, without parade or circumlocution; the practised and masterly writer now proceeds to the consequences, beginning with the impressive and significant conjunction-and. He might have said, consequently, therefore,' assuredly,' &c., in imitation of the generality of less gifted authors, in choosing long, pompous, high-sounding, and abstruse words, in preference to short ones; but disdaining such artificial clap-traps, he leaves it to the manly and sterling sense of his readers, to draw their own conclusions from the most simple and energetic style.

Can there be any shadow of a doubt, any demur in the most sceptical mind, who are meant by this expression; not less rich in its brevity than in its force? A whole sentence in thus winding up the catastrophe expressed by a single word, and that too of only one syllable. A lawyer, ever in quest of fees and tautology, might be allowed to say-the aforesaid thieves, rascals, plunderers, knaves, scoundrels, gaol-birds, miscreants,-these, and a score more epithets, might swell and adorn his folios; but the plain and emphatic word-they, beats them all hollow.

Robbed it.-Perhaps, after all these liberal and erudite commendations on the unquestionable merits of the composition, there may here be a little redundancy; but let the faultless critic throw the first stone,' for,

Whoe'er expects a perfect work to see,

Expects what never was, nor e'er will be.

Robbed it-yes, you may be sure they did, without your being informed of it; what else could be their object? Children of nature, though they may be, and disdaining the arbitrary laws and