formed and judiciously conducted, have exceeded the anticipations of the projectors in their beneficial results.

"Uneducated people are, in general, little aware, until convinced by practical demonstration, how great is the total amount of the sums which they are accustomed to throw away upon trifles. The halfpence which they will occasionally give to their half-naked children to purchase unwholesome dainties, would often suffice, if carefully stored up, to furnish each of the little creatures with a suit of warm winter clothing.

"But these savings they cannot, in their present state of intellectual childhood, be expected to make without the encouragement and aid of their superiors in information. 'Well! I could'nt have thought it would come to so much'-'I am sure I should never have put by the money without you had been so kind as to take it, ma'am'-'It is just the same as if it were given,' are the frequent exclamations of the members of these societies when they first learn the actual amount of their deposits for the year. Many have been induced by the persuasions of their richer neighbours to lay by a penny or twopence when they had it to spare, who would never have dreamed of carrying silver to a savings' bank; and a portion of the little fund thus accumulated has been afterwards transferred to the latter establishment, where it has formed the commencement of a provision for sickness or old age. In other instances, an unfortunate wife, who had been driven to the gin-shop by the misery and desperation arising from her husband's visits to the alehouse-seeing that her neighbour, whose husband was also very bad, had nevertheless laid by a penny or twopence a week unknown to him, and when Christmas came had enough to buy herself a cloak or blanket, or half a load of coals-begins to copy her example, and from the three or four shillings received, abstracts twopence to place in the hand of the collector, whom six months before she had perhaps treated with scorn and contumely.

"A poor woman, who came to add to her weekly savings in the Provident Society at Clifton, when asked by the lady in attendance what were her husband's weekly earnings, answered, that he was now gaining sixteen shillings a week; but that he was often entirely out of work for months together. Then,' it was observed, I suppose you find the advantages of a plan like this, which enables you when things are going on well, to put by something against a rainy day.' Indeed I do, ma'am,' was the reply. • Before I put in here we used often to be four or five pounds back in our rent, and then we were obliged to sell or pawn our goods to make it up. Now, we have our rent always ready beforehand."

The essential characteristics of Self-supporting Dispensaries are, that the poor themselves contribute a small sum periodically, and should in return be insured medical attendance and medicine whenever required. It has been ascertained, says the author, that taking the weekly subscriptions of the poor members at a penny per head for adults, and a halfpenny for each of the two eldest children (the rest of the family being attended without any extra charge) the average contributions of each individual will amount to at least three shillings per annum; so great becomes the combined power of

a community, and such capabilities does society, in spite of all its individual weaknesses and disorders afford, when systematically united.

The merits of Friendly Benefit Societies, Savings Banks, &c., are discussed with the author's usual knowledge and zeal. But the question arises, by what means can the labouring classes be induced to avail themselves more extensively than they do at present of the benefits held out by such provident institutions? The answer as given in these pages is perfectly consistent with the recommendation before stated, viz., that the strongholds of poverty and vice are most effectually demolished by assailing in detail the individual materials and members of which they are formed, and by which they are supported.

Various writers in our own day, as well as in the last century, have proposed to secure the object in view by the enactment of compulsory regulations. The common feature of the several plans thus suggested has been to enfore by law a certain deduction from the wages of every individual in full employment, in order to constitute a fund for the necessities of sickness and old age. Such a system, although infinitely preferable to that of a national provision which bears no relation to the amount of productive industry, would be accompanied by little of that moral efficacy which forms one of the chief recommendations of Provident Societies based on the voluntary principle. That portion of his earnings of which a man has never had the free disposal, he hardly regards as his own. In appropriating it to the use of future contingencies, he is conscious of no selfdenial-he cherishes no disposition to prefer ultimate good to immediate gratification. To his own conception, the state of the case is simply that his wages are lowered, and that, being henceforth certain of a maintenance whenever he shall be past work, he may safely indulge himself to the utmost which his remaining means may allow. But much good may be, and has been done, by the employers of labourers exerting their powerful influence to induce their dependents to join those societies, and by explaining to them the principles upon which they are founded. Amongst the Cornish miners, a shilling a month is stopped out of the wages of the workmen, by the wish and with the consent of the people themselves, and to pay for medical attendance in sickness, and to afford to those who are disabled by accident, an ample allowance for the remainder of their lives."

Now what would be the consequence, if every employer of labour in the kingdom should exert himself to persuade his people to follow a similar method? And what master might not do so?

"Even in the relations of domestic life there is much room for influence, and no master or mistress ought to consider that they have discharged their duty towards their servants until they have clearly explained and strongly recommended the system of Provident deposits. Let us not content ourselves with yielding a passive assent to the utility of these institutions, and merely expressing our regret that they are not more generally made use of; but let each individual in his own sphere of action examine what he can

do to extend their benefits, and thus contribute his share towards alleviating the burdens and advancing the welfare of his fellow-men.

'One indispensable requisite to the success of every scheme for encouraging the practice of foresight and economy is, that the expectation of gratuitous assistance upon every slight occasion should be gently, and gradually, but firmly withdrawn. Nor let it be supposed that in advocating the substitution of frugality for dependence, we are ministering to the selfishness of the wealthy, and endeavouring to persuade the poor to diminish their already scanty stock of enjoyments. Room, indeed, will always be left for the personal and discriminating application of pecuniary aid in individual cases; and since, according to the principles already explained, wages are reduced by every measure which subtracts from the funds of the capitalist, and lowers the necessary demands of the labourer; so that they will rise in proportion to the increased funds left in the hands of the employer, who has no longer to meet the claims of an indefinite charity, and to the augmented expenditure of the workman, who must henceforth receive enough to provide not only for his immediate but his future subsistence."

The last Essay in the present volume is on "Various Plans for Removing External and General Causes of Poverty." Among these, enactments were at one time recommended which should fix the maximum price of food, or the minimum rate of wages. The futility of such laws, however, soon became apparent. Another scheme, that is not much less ridiculous, was to enable the poor to subsist on cheap food, by opening soup shops and other similar establishments.

"The desired end is not, it seems, to be attained by the institution of public kitchens, in which the idea of eleemosynary distribution is blended with that of equitable purchase. The independent labourer acquires an aversion to 'charity soup;' the importunate beggar will receive it only as a gift. A taste for domestic economy is not to be thus communicated.

"Supposing, however, that the scheme had partially succeeded so as to answer the sanguine expectations of its projectors, the effect would have been, wherever it was adopted, to produce a local accumulation of inhabitants, with all its attendant mischief. But if the poor of this country could he universally induced to live upon the cheapest possible diet, what would be the result? They would then be enabled to marry upon smaller earnings than they can live upon at present, and they would assuredly make the attempt: the numbers of the people would increase in proportion to the facility of obtaining their scanty subsistence; and wages would fall to the level of their wants. England would contain a more numerous but a worse fed population than before; and in the event of any accidental scarcity, there would be no possibility of averting the horrors of starvation by retrenching the consumption of food. This tendency is too well exemplified in the history of Ireland, where a little buttermilk and a few potatoes constitute all that is thought necessary for bringing up a family.

"But under what circumstances is it really advisable to persuade the lower classes to adopt a less costly diet?

"In the first place, it is very proper, in seasons of scarcity, to direct them to the use of any valuable substitute for their ordinary food; and to

furnish them with every needful aid in preparing it.

And it is well, at all times, to persuade the English labourer to adopt those various little arts of saving, by which the French operative and the Scottish peasant contrive to make the same quantity of solid matter yield so much larger a portion of nutriment.

"If such be the design of public kitchens, let these institutions be wholly unconnected with eleemosynary charity, and let them be conducted on as independent a footing as the village bake-house now is; they may then stand or fall by their own merits.

"It seems, however, more congenial with the taste of the English working classes to prepare their meals at home; and in this department of domestic management there is much room for improvement. The waste of fuel alone, occasioned by heaping more coals on the fire than will burn clear, and the almost entire ignorance of the economy of cookery, prevent their little income from going half so far as it might otherwise do.

"The ultimate object of every plan for promoting frugality amongst the poor should be, not to lower their standard of comfort, or to abridge their usual expenditure, but to induce them to select more wisely, and to manage more prudently, the articles in which that expenditure shall consist. More harm than good may be done by the introduction of a cheap diet, unless, at the same time, we can inspire those better tastes which will lead the labouring man, instead of spending his earnings in useless deleterious luxuries, to regard the education of his children, and the decent accommodations of his dwelling, as a part of his indispensable outlay. A change of this kind in the domestic habits of our poor would add to their available resources, without depressing the standard of wages, or giving an artificial stimulus to population."

On Furnishing Necessaries at Prime Cost-Finding Employment for the Poor-Home Colonization of Waste Lands-Cottage Farms, &c., the author has distinct sections. But we have extracted enough to show the general style and matter of the book, and to prove it to be one of no ordinary merit. Its principles are as sound as its reasonings are forcible, or its facts practically ascertained. There is not very much of originality, to be sure, in its various statements, when taken separately, but there is novelty in the manner of combining them, and the use that is made of them. We have only farther to inform our readers that the author intends to pursue the subject of Charitable Institutions in another volume, which nothing but the want of sound health has prevented him from completing before this time. His work should be read in conjunction with the Reports published by the Poor Law Commissioners; for taken together, they are calculated to effect an extraordinary deal of good.

ART. X.-Contributions to Modern History, from the British Museum and State Paper Office :-Frederick II. and his Times. London: Knight. 1837.

F. VON RAUMER ought to be considered one of the greatest literary curiosities of the age in which we live. He is, as most of our readers know, a German by birth, and a person to whom our language is foreign. In 1835 he, for the first time, visited our shores; but did not remain with us for a twelvemonth. Yet, during that period, he contrived not only to examine all the lions in and around Londonto make himself somewhat acquainted with society in all its grades -royal, noble, literary, and humble-and to take a flying tour through England, Scotland, and Ireland-and from all these sources to collect materials which filled three volumes-but to seek out our national repositories, to pursue, among these masses of confusion, his historical researches, the results of which have now been two other goodly octavos-the former some time ago published, containing extracts relating to Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots-and the latter that which is at present before us-a contribution, which, like its predecessor, is truly a valuable addition to the general history of Europe. It is not, however, a work exactly of the nature which the more particular announcement in its title indicates; for instead of throwing a continuous new light upon the character and career of Frederick the Great, its chief merit and interest belong to the official and authentic documents which British ambassadors at various foreign courts have written home concerning the kings, ministers, and courtiers, in these several countries, and thus referring rather to the whole European policy, during most important epochs in the last century, than to the precise and immediate circumstances which led to the consolidation of the Prussian monarchy. We cannot so shortly and fully explain the origin and nature of the publication, as in Von Raumer's own words, to be found in the Preface.

"The English government, "says he, " deserves so much the greater praise and more sincere gratitude for having opened to me the State Paper Office, with its treasures, not merely for more ancient times, but also to that part of the eighteenth century to which my investigations were directed. And this permission was not accompanied with a hundred suspicions, restrictive precautionary measures, which cost time and create vexations; but it was unfettered: and I met also with the most willing and friendly support from the gentlemen who are in offices of the establishment. The despatches of ambassadors, which passed through my hand

were:

"From France, 37 folios; Prussia, 85 (including the papers of Mr. Mitchell); Austria, 60; Russia, 75; Saxony, 3; Holland, 16; Sweden, 15; Royal letters, 1. In all, 292 folios.