additions to existing ones. This was a great point with the late Lord Palmerston, who personally took as much interest in the comfort of the working men on his estates as he did in the conveniences of his own mansion. I had many opportunities of learning and of witnessing his practical philanthropy, and shall not forget the truth-telling homeliness with which he said that "it is not necessary to pull down old cottages to build new ones. A great deal can be done, at a moderate cost, in improving the old ones." His lordship added, after saying this, "That the effect of improving these dwellings is almost marvellous. In the first place, the comfort of a man's house depends on tidiness of a man's wife, and on the mode in which she tries to make him comfortable. But there is a temper of the human mind which is denominated recklessness. When a thing seems impossible, it is given up in despair. When a cottage is in such a 'ramshackle' state that it is impossible for the wife to keep it clean, she becomes a slattern; everything goes to ruin; the man in disgusted, and flies to the beershop."
Second, the provision of a proper means of dealing with the drainage of villages and cottages, and the utilisation of the refuse which may be discharged from them. This is a matter upon which little has yet been done. We have drained large towns, and discharged their sewage into the rivers—a practice which the country has determined shall not be continued. At present we have not entered upon a mode of dealing with the sewage of villages and small communities; and whether it will be by the introduction of the dry-earth system (Mr. Moule's), or by any other process of utilisation, yet remains to be determined. The dry-earth system commends itself to the minds of many as the most suitable
