best describing the operation of this scheme, its origin, progress, and result:

"The last Annual Report stated that the Society had rented about three acres of land near the Dean, with the view of letting it out for small gardens, at a moderate rent, to working men, as a means of supplementing their resources, and of affording rational and healthy occupation for themselves and families during their leisure hours. Shortly after the meeting referred to, the Garden Committee having the promise of a number of relief laborers from the Edinburgh Committee of the Unemployed, they were induced to take about five acres additional of garden ground, which was trenched by the laborers referred to. Every working man desirous of possessing a garden, who applied for one, was immediately supplied, the rent being fixed as low as was consistent with rendering the gardens self-supporting, after the first outlay of draining, inclosing, &c., had been incurred.

"Although the tenants did not occupy their gardens till February 1848, and in many instances only entered upon them in May, the crops were generally very luxuriant, and the benefits obtained by poor persons who cultivated the gardens themselves, great. Among a great diversity of occupants, a similar variety of cultivation has prevailed. One of the benefits of the system is the effect of example from association. A slovenly occupant, who merely cultivates the potato, and a few leeks and kail-plants, is placed, perhaps, between two neighbours, whose gardens, free from weeds, kept with neatness, and producing a variety and succession of luxuriant crops, at once condemn his, and lead to its improvement, as well as his own. Among the many instances of good cultivation, the garden of a poor widow, left with seven young children, deserves notice and commendation. This family, under the direction of the eldest boy, produced a capital variety and succession of summer and winter crops, which, the Secretary was assured, had proved of great assistance in bringing a large and almost helpless family through the past winter; and at this time the garden referred to exhibits the evidences of undiminished industry and productiveness.

"Among other pleasing instances of the utility of the Patriotic Society's Industrial Gardens, the Committee may mention that a number of apprentice lads and youths have taken gardens of the Society, and have employed their leisure hours in their cultivation. It is needless to dwell upon the physical, moral, and social benefits to the community, which would result from the extensive adoption of such healthful and useful occupation of the spare time of the rising generation among the laboring classes in Edinburgh and other towns, who, for want of such innocent and beneficial recreation in their leisure hours, too frequently debase themselves by smoking, tippling, and other vices, which idleness is sure to induce. Occupying the crowded ill-ventilated dens of the loathsome closes of the city, a greater physical social boon can scarcely be conferred upon the poor, than by enabling him to rent one little spot without the city, which he can call his own, where he may breathe the pure air of heaven, and enjoy an hour of relaxation from the drudgery of a life of toil. A few, who enjoy elegant accommodation in the city, and who, as soon as they

desire it, are whirled away by rail to their country retreats, may look with comparative indifference upon the minute garden patches at the Society's grounds. This, however, arises from their not descending to the level of the circumstances and privations of those who have gladly availed themselves of this movement of the Society, and who resort to their gardens with the same gratification with which the higher classes leave their urban mansions for their country estates. The benefit to the apprentice, who obtains one green spot without the city which he can call his own, and to which, at leisure hours, he can resort for health, combined with recreation and profit, is practically great; but to the mechanic or labourer who has a family, the advantages are still greater. Instead of having no place but the streets, with their melancholy scenes of juvenile depravity, to which he can send his children, the garden tenant has, as it were, a country estate of his own, where he can send his little ones, to acquire not only air and exercise, to develop their bodily organization, but where their minds may be trained to industry, and to the love and admiration of the manifold works of the God of nature. This is not theory, the gardens of the Society proving daily that parents and children do so avail themselves of the unostentatious but practical boon conferred by this institution. The smallest gardens let by the Society consist of two and a half falls, at a prepaid rent of three shillings a-year; the largest hitherto allotted consists of a quarter of an acre, entirely cultivated by an industrious laboring man. The rent paid by the Society is L.8 per acre, the charge to tenants, including all burdens and expenses, is at the rate of L.9, 12s., under which a great reduction in price has been made, as small gardens were only obtainable, previously, at about double the price charged by the Patriotic Society. As a proof of the estimation in which these gardens are held, it may be stated that some of the tenants reside in the West Port, the Cowgate, and the Canongate, and that not a few are distant a mile from the grounds, while in some instances they have expressed a determination to change their residences in order to be nearer to spots which to them possess peculiar attractiveness. The whole of the eight acres of garden-ground are now fully occupied, and as those tenants who industriously cultivate their gardens have found pecuniary, as well as other benefits to their families, the practicability of carrying out the Society's industrial garden system, in the vicinity of other cities in Scotland, is demonstrated; as it is probable that, in the neighbourhood of any other town, land can be obtained and let at a lower rate than that occupied by the Society at Edinburgh, whose tenants now amount to 126.

“ "Upon making as accurate a calculation as possible, it appears that the tenants who do not perform the labor of cultivating their own gardens have given employment to poor industrious men to the extent of about L.300-a sum which, divided into daily wages, has gladdened the hearts of many of the dejected sons of toil, and spread a repast before many a hungry family. These advantages have been secured without injury or detriment to any one."

These examples have been followed both by local Societies, and by private individuals. In conclusion, on this branch of the subject, we would earnestly urge on all proprietors the extension of the system of

gardens to all cottages, and the giving of prizes as an encouragement to the cultivation of gardening. We would also further wish to see the establishment of district societies for the promotion of this most valuable means of elevating the humbler classes. We should have liked to have more fully explained the practical improvements still required, but our object has been to shew what has been done or is doing, and to offer a few suggestions on this subject, rather than to enter into minute particulars, from which the limits of such an article preclude us.

There are undoubtedly many other ways in which the elevation of the humbler classes may be promoted; and much has been attempted in the way of benefit societies and loan funds. The London Society set forth with this as one of their three objects for the improvement of the laboring classes, and they have from the first directed their attention and anxious consideration towards devising some plan of operations. Year after year, however, they have been obliged to confess their inability to accomplish anything. This department is very extensive, " embracing loan funds, benefit societies, deferred annuities, and several kindred topics," and would require the undivided attention of a carefully selected committee. The difficulties are such that this Association, though they have had the benefit of the advice of the most competent actuaries, have been unable to overcome the obstacles in the way of such an establishment in the metropolis, though they think that it would be quite practicable to manage such an institution in a village or small town. The Savings' Banks, which have branches throughout the whole country, are most advantageous and excellent, and every effort should be used to encourage them. The defalcations which have recently taken place have done much injury in diminishing the confidence of the working classes in these banks. The Legislature should immediately bring in an enactment for securing the laboring man against these and similar frauds in future. One of the objects of the Patriotic Society was the establishment of Loan Funds, but we are not aware if they have made any progress in this respect.

There are many other measures for the improvement of these large and important classes of the community, such as Servants' Provident and Benevolent Institutions, of which there is one in London-Servants' Registers, and Servants' Homes. These are conducive to the best interests of society, both to the employers and the employed, and they ought to receive every encouragement. These establishments have been chiefly confined to towns, where we know that they have done much good. Lately, some attempts have been made to extend them to the country, where their usefulness would not be less than in the towns. The present system of feeing markets is a prolific source of enormous evils to agricultural laborers; and our limits prevent us entering into the extent of moral profligacy which prevails there. Some efforts have been made to remedy this matter; and in the Carse of Gowrie last year, through the benevolent exertions of Lord Kinnaird, and some others, an association was formed for this purpose, on the ground that the present custom of hiring at feeing markets is most prejudicial to the welfare of ploughmen and other farm servants. It will require time

before the prejudices are overcome, which always exist, especially in agricultural districts, against any alteration of their old ways and

customs.

Such are a few of the means which are being employed, with great success, for the amelioration of the physical and moral condition of the humbler classes. There is one important division which has been as yet omitted, namely, Refreshment and Coffee-houses, as these will fall to be discussed, if at any time we shall take up the question of Temperance and Drunkenness. But a great movement has been going on for many years for the advancement of the temporal interests of these large branches of the social fabric, such as by Reading Rooms, Libraries, Mechanics' Institutes, Lectures, &c. Our limits will not permit us at present to enter on the consideration of these topics. Many of these have conferred great benefits, and continue to do so, but it must be allowed that much evil has also been done. We fully acknowledge the truth of the proverb that "knowledge is power," but we do not forget that it depends on the direction which is given to this knowledge, whether it be a power for good or for evil.

Since writing the above article, we have seen a most valuable pamphlet " Agricultural Labourers, as they were, are, and should be, in their social condition," by the Rev. Harry Stuart, Minister of Oathlaw. We should have wished much to have read the practical suggestions of one so experienced before we had sent forth our remarks. We hope, however, to be able to bring these before the notice of our readers on some future occasion.

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

Presentation. Mr. James Langwell, who has for a time been officiating as Assistant at Currie, has received from Henry Ker Seymer, Esq., of Moriston, M. P. for Dorsetshire, the Presentation to the Church and Parish of Legerwood, in the Presbytery of Lauder and county of Berwick, vacant by the translation of the Rev. James Macnair, A.M., to the parish of Auchtermuchty.

New Parish.-The Chapel of ease in the Village of Norrieston, Perthshire, is about to be raised to the rank of a Parish Church. An Application has

been presented to the Court of Teinds for the purpose. The measure has the unanimous support of the Presbytery of Dunblane, who are its principal promoters.

New Parishes in Glasgow.-By decreet of the Court of Teinds, pronounced on Wednesday the 13th inst., St. Peter's, Lauriston, and Bridgeton Churches, were erected into parochial charges.

Died, at Eastwood Manse, on the 25th ultimo, the Rev. Duncan Macintyre, A.M.

THE publication of De Quincey's first, and "still best known work," was fitted to produce, and did in fact produce, a twofold and very remarkable effect upon the public mind. In the first place, it was at once hailed, by that fine tact for pre-eminent excellence which never entirely fails the general intellect, as a work evincing, on the part of its author, the very highest talents as a meditative thinker, as an impassioned expounder of deep emotion, and as an artist of the very first order for beautiful, well sustained, and most harmonious composition. But along with this, there was also produced on the public mind another effect not less noticeable and permanent,-viz. a sort of mysterious interest in the character of the author himself,-who, with habits so recklessly given to deleterious druggery, was yet so capable of executing a work superbly characterised by exquisite thinking,-so frank in his confessions of his own wayward tendencies,-and, having apparently so much, at the same time, in his endowments, that ought to have pointed to a different direction of conduct.

And these two results of the publication to which we have alluded, were not merely effects of the work at the time of its first publication, -but have subsisted with undiminished influence, till within a very recent period, and have made the character of De Quincey, at once as a writer and as a man, a sort of mystery and puzzle to the whole genera

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