general population of the country; and that this has been a mere temporary especially, inasmuch as it introduces error; that you have been deceived; the children of the agricultural poor that you have taken things upon trust; to town poor-houses, it will conduce greatly to the contamination of their moral principles, and be calculated to prevent their obtaining in youth those habits of industry most likely to be beneficial to them in after life. 66 5. Because the alteration of the law of settlement is calculated to operate unjustly, and to lead to still more extensive removals and more intricate lawsuits than the law as at present existing. that you do not wish to see that done to I remain RURAL AFFAIRS. TRIFOLIUM INCARNATUM.-My readers will recollect, that, very late last autumn, I offered for sale some of this "6. Because the alterations made in the bastardy laws are inconsistent with the principles of Christianity on which the Parliament of the united empire has always professed to proceed, since both article. I sowed some of the seed, and parents being equally bound by those some of the same sort (as I thought it) principles to maintain their offspring, that I got from Mr. Smith, of Landthe father, being more able to contribute to that maintenance than the mother, ought to pay more largely, whereas by this bill he is all but exonerated from any such obligation. "7. Because we consider that nearly all, if not all, the evils which may have existed in the administration of the present laws might have been corrected by a short act, securing the due administration of the Poor-laws under the control of the existing magisterial and other local authorities. guard, in the Isle of Wight; and both seemed to stand the winter well. I never heard of the plant, till written to on the subject by a merchant of Liverpool, who had received a quantity of the seed from Italy, and who said that he knew nothing about it, except what he had read in a Plymouth newspaper. As an unknown plant I sold it, not knowing, and saying that I did not know, any thing about it. Towards January, I found, that it was not the same as that of Mr. SMITH; and I informed my readers, that it was not; and that I supposed that it was a "variety" (as the botanical slang has it) of the TRIFOLIUM, which I called "ITALIAN CLOVER." I was obliged to plough up the field, in March; and I thereby lost the opportunity of seeing the spring result of the experiment. The merit of this plant was said to be this; that it might be sowed after wheat; and that it would bring an abundant crop of horse food to cut up in May. In April also it might be sowed, to cut up in July. Circumstances, not important enough to put upon paper, prevented me from sowing till the 19. of May (mind the date); and I then sowed, in clean, good, but not manured ground, as follows, late in spring. I sowed all at the same allotting to each plant a square yard of time, and on the same spot. I will, ground: 1. Lucern. 2. The real Trifolium, red blossom. 3. My Italian Clover. 4. Trefoil, yellow blossom. 5. Common broad clover. On the 17. July, I cut the Lucern, and it weighed 1lb. 54oz., or about 3 tons to the acre.-I cut my Italian Clover, which weighed 12 ounces. It was in bloom, but the bloom was white, and in shape like that of the broad clover. The real Trifolium was not even showing for bloom. And the two others were not yet in bloom. however, put this matter beyond all doubt; for I have just cleared, and made perfectly clean, a field of two acres; and in it I will sow next week a row, or more, all along the field, at four feet apart, of all these plants, and of every other sort of grass known by name in our agriculture. Then, on the 1. of May, we shall see how they all stand, and which of them will give the greatest quantity of food for horses, for that is the test of excellence. The truth is this, our clover is late in spring, and frequently poor in crop, because we do not treat it as people have treated the Trifolium. Sow the broad clover " after wheat," and see what that will do! We sow it with On the 17. of August (yesterday) I cut them all, and the weights were as follows. The Lucern was just beginning to show bloom; the real Trifolium in barley and oats, where it is shaded half bloom for about the half of it; the above and starved below; and there it Italian Clover in full bloom again; the stands in the hard ground, to carry on Trefoil in full bloom, and some of the bloom shed; the red clover in full bloom, and some of the heads brown. These are the weights : lb. oz. 2 15 a war with the weeds, until the next spring. Treat the Trifolium in this cruel manner, and see what it will be in the spring! After wheat" indeed! Why you can have Turnips after wheat; Swedes, if you will transplant them; or mangel wurzel. However, there is nothing like the proof by exporience, and that I will now have. It is stuff to cut up for horses early in May : this is what we want, and the annual that will yield it earliest, and in largest quantity and best quality, is the best; and in my opinion we shall find that to be the broad clover; and that the Trifolium, after having been the talk of the country for about three years, will gradually disappear. Lucern is, beyond all comparison, the best; but as it insists upon being kept clear from grass and weeds, as this is a positive condition on its part, and as the other party very reluctantly comes in its terms; and when he does, is as sure to commit a "breach of faith" as he is sure to blame the other Here the differences are surprising; and it appears that, for one year, the broad clover beats all; for though the Lucern will yield, at two more cuttings, 7 lb. perhaps, and though it has yielded 1lb. 54 oz. before, still it will be far exceeded in weight by the broad clover, which will have another cutting of 6 or 7 lh. and good feed after that. But then the Lucern stands in the ground for a lifetime, if kept clean, and it comes 15 days earlier in the spring. Pretty nearly the same may be said of the Trefoil as of the broad clover. As to the Italian gentlemen, my opinion is, that they are not worth a pin. Very contracting party for his want of suc pretty red blossoms on the Trifolium incarnatum, but not earlier and not so large a crop as the broad clover or as the Trefoil. It will be said, that I sowed in spring instead of fall, and that I sowed very cess: as this is the case with regard to Lucern, that plant is out of the question, and the contest is between the Trifolium and the broad clover, or the Trefoil; and now I am resolved that they shall have fair play. I am by no means certain that the "all of a piece. BROUGHAM used to talk white clover, or the red suckling, or the "about men's rising like a balloon; but perennial clover (cow grass), would " now Great Britain is falling like one." not beat Trifolium in poorish land; and READER. What is an "ORDER IN these things are all perennial, while the COUNCIL," Cobbett? Trifolium is an annual. The truth is, we do not use those things well. We do not sow them " after wheat," or after a summer-fallow, and at a time when the summer-weeds are either gone, or are speedily killed when they appear. These plants will live anywhere or any-how, and so we treat CORBETT. Why, the King has a number of persons to assist him in consulting and settling on things to be done for the good of his people; and these, in a body, are called the PRIVY COUN CIL, which, as Sir Edward Coke says, is an honourable, noble, venerable, and reverend assembly" consisting, at pre them roughly. The Trifolium being sent, for instance, of THE RIGHT Ho an Italian, we treat it as the rich peo- NOURABLE SIR JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE; ple in London treat the fiddiers and THE RIGHT HONOURABLE BARON BEX opera-dancers. Let us treat them all LEY (late Nicholas Vansittart); THE avike for once in our lives, and then we RIGHT HONOURABLE BARON FARNshall know the relative worth of them. BOROUGH (late Charles Long); THE This is what I will now do at any rate. RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE ROSE; and such like "noble and reverend per READER. And what do they do? СОВВЕTT. Do! Why, they 'sit in council with the King, and deliberate on the measures to be taken in his name. СовВЕТТ. Why, at the Bank, you fool; and so I told you last week; and now, as you will see, others are talking READER. But, what can they do about of it too, as, for instance, the Age news- Bank-notes, Cobbett? paper of last Sunday, which has the СоввETT. I will tell you what PITT following article: "CURRENCY.-Poor and his council did. In 1797, the fel"COBBETT will escape broiling, and his lows at the Bank, finding that people " readers and admirers may get ready went very fast for gold in exchange for "their holiday-clothes, and prepare for the notes, went to PITT, expressed "the grand jubilee of the gridiron. We " their fears for the safety of the House," "know from undoubted authority, that and asked him how long he thought it "there is to be an issue of one-pound | would be prudent to let them go on 66 notes, although the day for the OR- paying in paying gold and silver! Pitt got his venerable council together, and they and СовBETT. Oh, no! READER. But, how could they do it, "DER IN COUNCIL is not positively "fixed. The notes our informant has "seen printing more than a fortnight "since. So much for General JACKSON "and the Whigs. Here is gold at a "premium! Bank-notes a legal ten"der! Oh, ye most thinking people! "Ye make us mad, ye will surely be "the death of us! Would to God ye "alone could suffer in the forthcoming "convulsion, which is nearer at hand "than any of ye dream of! What! "buy United States' moonshine with "sovereigns! make Bank-notes a legal СОВВЕТТ. Why, praised Pitt for what " tender! encourage the 'swell mob' he had done, and passed an act to screen "to forge them by millions, and then him and his venerable brethren, and the "build workhouses for paupers! 'Tis Bank directors, and all the violators of COBветт. It is not lawful to refuse relief to the poor: but it is done. READER. But, what did the Parlia ment do? the law, from all punishment whatso tever.. READER. And, that is an "Order in Council," is it, Cobbett? *COBRETT. Yes; and, you, see that the thing must be done in this way, if done at all; for, if by act of Parliament, the people in London would get all the gold, before those in the country would hear of what was going to be done! The Bank would be empty before a bill could be read a second time. It would be, "the devil take the hindmost"! READER. Very true; so that we are come to a comfortable state after all our "glorious victories," won by "the greatest captain of the age," who has been rewarded by a million of our money; a comfortable state, to be saved by the law being openly violated by a noble, venerable, and reverend assembly! COBBETT. Precisely so. READER. What will be the END of all this, Cobbett? СоввETT. I think I know; but, I do not choose to say. READER. But, will it be good or bad, Cobbett? COBBETT. Good: for it will break up the most base and infamous THING that this world ever saw. READER. THING? What THING, Cobbett? СОВВЕТТ. Oh! there; let me alone; for it would take a week to describe to you the audacious, hypocritical, false, silly, fraudulent, empty-skulled, brazenfaced, greedy, squandering, cruel, cowardly damnable THING; which has no name, is like nothing else in the world, is more ferocious than the tiger, more timid than the hare, the heartache, the blister-plaster, the scab, the itch, and every thing cursed of man; and, which is worse than all the rest, READER. But, what will Lord ALTHORP do? СОВBETT. Do? 'Faith, it will be a famous time for him! He may go and enjoy himself in his farm-yard amongst much more reasonable creatures than he has now to satisfy. READER. But, where will he get the money to pay those devouring monsters, the two she-services, the pensions, sinecure folks, and the troops of tax-eaters, who now, put even the public creditor in peril? СОВВЕТТ. Мопеy! Why he will have more money than he will know what to do with. READER. What, will "break faith with the public creditor"? COBBETT. Not he, indeed. He will pay in full tale, I'll warrant him. READER. And Ishall get my dividends as regularly as I do now? COBBETT. Yes. READER. Well, then, so long as I get my dividends, what need I care about "Orders in Council"! Соввитт. Or about your poorer neighbours, or your country, eh? READER. Aye; I have to look to my dividends, as old Miss Snapdragon says: my dividends is all that I need look to. COBBETT. Go and look to them then, you beast, and bother me no more. THE KING'S SPEECH ON PROROGUING THE PARLIAMENT. "My Lords and Gentlemen, "The numerous and important questions which have in the present and in the two preceding years been submitted to your consideration, have imposed upon you the necessity of extraordinary exertions, and it is with a deep sense of the exertion and labour which you have bestowed on the public business, that I at length close this protracted session, and release you from your attendance. "Lcontinue to receive from all foreign powers assurances of their friendly disposition. "The negotiations on account of and judicious application, as well as the which the conferences in London upon discreet enforcement of the other prothe affairs of the Low Countries were visions of the act, will by degrees remedy suspended, have not yet been brought to the evils which at present prevail, and a close, and I have still to lament the whilst they elevate the character, will continued postponement of a final set- increase the comforts and improve the tlement between Holland and Bel-condition of my people. gium. "The amendment of the law is one "On the other hand, I have derived of your first and most important duties, the most sincere and lively satisfaction and I rejoice to perceive that it has ocfrom the termination of the civil war cupied so much of your attention. The which has so long distracted the king- establishment of a central court for the dom of Portugal, and I rejoice to trial of offences in the metropolis and think that the treaty which the its neighbourhood, will, I trust, improve state of affairs in Spain and in the administration of justice within the Portugal induced me to conclude populous sphere of its jurisdiction, and with the King of the French, the afford a useful example to every other Queen Regent of Spain, and the Regent of Portugal, and which has already been laid before you, contributed materially to produce this happy result. part of the kingdom. "To the important subject of our jurisprudence and our municipal corporations your attention will naturally be "Events have since occurred in directed early in the next session. - You Spain to disappoint for a time the hopes of tranquillity in that country, which the pacification of Portugal had inspired. "To these events, so important to Great Britain, I shall give my most serious attention, in concert with Franceand with the other powers, who are parties to the treaty of the 22. of April; and the good understanding which prevails between me and my allies encourages me to expect that our united endeayours will be attended with success. "The peace of Turkey remains undisturbed, and I trust that no event will happen in that quarter to interrupt the tranquillity of Europe. I have not failed to observe with approbation that you have directed your attention to those domestic questions may always rest assured of my disposition to co-operate in such useful reformations. "Gentlemen of the House of Commons, "I thank you for the readiness with which you have granted the supplies. The estimates which were laid before you were somewhat lower than those of former years, although they included several extraordinary charges which wili not occur. again The same course of economy will still be steadily pur- revenue, notwithstanding the repeal of "It gives me great satisfaction to believe, that in returning to your several counties you will find a prevalence of which more immediately affect the general welfare of the community, and I have had much satisfaction in sanetioning your wise and benevolent intentions by giving my assent to the Act for the Amendment and Better Adu.inistration of the Laws relating to the Poor general tranquillity and of active inin England and Wales. It will be my dustry among all classes of society. duty to provide that the authority neces- I humbly hope that Providence will sarily vested in commissioners nomi-vouchsafe a continuance and increase nated by the crown be exercised with of these blessings, and in any circumtemperance and caution, and I entertain stances which may arise I shall rely a confident expectation that its prudent with confidence on your zeal and fide |