A MARCHIONESS ON THRIFT.
THERE are many agriculturists and working men who annually share a meal with the owner of the land on which they live, and at that annual dinner exchange, not only felicitations and ex- pressions of good will, but also ideas with regard to the practical improvement of the district. The owner we speak of is the Dowager Marchioness of Londonderry, and. the dinner has become one of the established institutions in the town hall of Carnclough. When the custom of these annual dinners was first made public we noticed the innovation with some interest. Lady Londonderry had been known before in the great world ; we had seen her in the brilliant saloon ; in the harem of the Sultan— looking, as English ladies are wont to do, with rather a keen eye into the odd fashions of the place ; we had seen her at her desk wielding the feminine pen with a somewhat stronger hand than belongs to most ladies ; and now we see her taking the place and duties of a landlord, with old Tory traditions, but modern ideas of improvement,—with much dignity of bearing, but also evidently with a sincere kindness at heart. Lady Londonderry had become le practical reformer, and she endeavoured to carry out her "mis- sion "—her own phrase—by inducing the subjects of her care to cooperate with her in promoting their own benefit. Ten years have passed since she first went to reside in the district. During that period, she says in the speech which she made at the dinner, "a great and visible improvement has taken place" ; the people have made "vast strides in progress and in amelioration of their condition." Their rents are discharged with regularity ; but on the strength of her friendly feeling she claimed the right, which was heartily conceded to her, of" lecturing" her tenants a little. She mixed a little wholesome bitters with the cordial of her dessert. Like all reformers, Lady Londonderry has been somewhat dis- appointed and she tells us how:— " Your farms are not high set; prices have been good ; help and assist- ance have been given to many. I ask you is your social condition what it ought to be ? Might you not, by adopting a more beneficial and enlightened system of agriculture, immensely increase your produce ? Might you not by thrifty and frugal habits, improve your houses and domiciles, still greatly capable of it ? And might you not, by supervision, promote, what is more important than all—the education of your children—rather than, from a false desire of gain, take them from school at a period when every hour is of advantage for their future welfare ? Now I ask you to ponder over these questions, and if I am right I ask further, for your own sakes, to apply a remedy. (Enthusiastic applause.) I confess I have been in some of my- endeavours. The agriculturalist I got to give you exi ed notions you declined making friends with, and he left from dis- oonragement. The premiums I offered for gardens did not seem to be pro- perly received, and I was obliged to give up the flower show." Not a word would we say to cavil at the bearing of this excel- lent lady towards her tenants. It would be a blessing for the country if all persons, men or women, in the same position were to understand their duties in the same spirit ; and we should ex- pect men to go further than women, for many reasons connected
with their intellectual and active qualities. We are inclined, however, to put to the Marchioness the question, whether there is not a "mission" still remaining to her ?—a point of inquiry still
to be investigated We thoroughly perceive her admirable in. tentions ; we understand her disappointment ; we should be glad
to see her intentions crowned with perfect success, her disap- pointment turned into satisfaction. To that end perhaps she might slightly alter her position. When, a little further on she
asked her tenants to "discard prejudice, determine to progress,
be thrifty and careful, and with God's blessing they would then be sure of advancing on the path of improvement," she gave ad- vice which is often handed down from one class to another ; and might sometimes be handed bank again with quite as muchjus- tice. It is not the working-classes alone that can be accused of "prejudice." When the wealthy from the upper table of a pub- lic dinner, habituated to tables still more luxurious, preach "thrift and care" to those with whom hard work and priva- tion are a habit, there is a something rather imperfect in the
lesson—one thing which would give force to it is absent. The case reminds us rather of the intelligent and wan_
throphie Count Rumford, who, with much painstaking and bene-
volence invented a cheap soup for the poor, which, in a proper spirit, he was not content to test in corpore viii, but tr:ed also
upon himself. He records the experiment autobiographically,
telling us how he tried some of his poor man's soup "after ray usual breakfast." The philanthropist lacked that which went to
make up the judgment of the poor man on the subject of cheap soup, its cordial and sustaining qualities, for the Count was with- out the essential element, hunger. The Marchioness is happily unenlightened by the experiences of hard fare, laborious work, deficient education, misconduct of relatives, and the thousand ad- verse circumstances which beat the poor man down, render him able to advance only with faltering steps, and sometimes expose him at last to the reproach of want of thrift and self-denial, when self-denial has been his habit, thrift the incessant effort of his days from the cradle almost to the grave. If agricultural tenants do not seize the advantage brought to their doors by a lecture on agriculture with the more "extended notions" of the lord or lady of the manor, if they neglect the garden, although premiums are offered for horticulture, it should be asked whether there are circumstances in the tenant's life which generate indifference and apathy, and which tend to drag him back in spite of a willingness to advance ? A reformer seeking wisely to redeem the mistaken man will not be content with lectures on thrift, or re- proaches for defective horticulture ; will not visit the tenant once in the year to sum up grand totals, and exact from the de- faulter a strict account, moral as well as arithmetical; but will try to enter the man's home, to view his position, as it were, from his own cottage-door, to descend to the investigation of his special difficulties, and to instruct him, not vaguely or generally, but with that knowledge of the special remedies which is the re- sult of careful survey. There is, in short, in almost all cases of mistake between different classes of society, a want of better mu- tual acquaintance. It seems ungracious to take exception, or even to imagine it, where so much has been done, and so excel-
lently; to ask a benefactress who has gone so far beyond all usage to go further ; to suggest that she who has given so much, should give more. Yet it is the very tendency of generosity to suggest such importunate promptings. The acquaintance which the Marchioness cultivated with her tenantry, Ina,
as she tells us, brought about great improvement, with muoh reciprocal good feeling, and in this last year the spirit of general emu- lation is increasing the entry for the agricultural prizes. The lady-teacher wishes her pupils to go a little further ; perhaps she has only to make the further step herself, to find that her lead is followed, and her good intentions accomplished
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