With respect to education, it is not much better than in the counties we have just left. In the spring of the year 1842, I was engaged by a wealthy Baronet to take the management of a school in this district, and I well remember he stated to me, in conversation upon this subject, "that the children in his parish were as ignorant as brutes." An unforeseen occurrence prevented me from fulfilling that engagement.
Let us now pass on to Yorkshire, Northumberland, &c. In this district the women and children work in the fields, under much the same circumstances as in most other rural situations, and for much the same remuneration. There is in the East Riding of Yorkshire, a mode of paying wages which is considered a great evil, and may be thus described. The male laborers are fed in the farm-houses, and have a certain proportion of wages deducted to pay for their meat. This sum, (twenty-four cents a day,) amounts to nearly one half his whole wages; so that setting aside her husband's food, about $1,50 to $1,75 is all that a woman has with which to confront the rest of life; her food, that of her children, the rent of the cottage, fuel, schooling, clothing, medical attendance, and taxes, have all to be provided for out of this sum.
The farmers like this system, either because they profit by it, or because they have a notion (which is very reasonable,) that men work better with a full belly than an empty one. The men like it, because, no doubt, they get a better dinner than would otherwise fall to their share; but upon the women and children it must operate as an evil
In the more prosperous districts of Yorkshire, many of the cottages have small gardens in which most of the vegetables for the family can be reared, and some are permitted to have a cow at grass. These, however, are exceptions. In point of mere victualling and personal com-
