of Europe, has been to produce it; but recently,
by the spreading of manufactures through every part of the country, by
the heavy taxes upon postage, by workhouses, houses of industry, and the
invention of soup-shops, &c., superadded to the increasing disproportion
between the price of labour and that of the necessaries of life, the
bonds of domestic feeling among the poor, as far as the influence of
these things has extended, have been weakened, and in innumerable
instances entirely destroyed. The evil would be the less to be
regretted, if these institutions were regarded only as palliatives to a
disease; but the vanity and pride of their promoters are so subtly
interwoven with them, that they are deemed great discoveries and
blessings to humanity. In the meantime, parents are separated from their
children, and children from their parents; the wife no longer prepares,
with her own hands, a meal for her husband, the produce of his labour;
there is little doing in his house in which his affections can be
interested, and but little left in it that he can love. I have two
neighbours, a man and his wife, both upwards of eighty years of age.
They live alone. The husband has been confined to his bed many months,
and has never had, nor till within these few weeks has ever needed, any
body to attend to him but his wife. She has recently been seized with a
lameness which has often prevented her from being able to carry him his
food to his bed. The neighbours fetch water for her from the well, and
do other kind offices for them both. But her infirmities increase. She
told my servant two days ago, that she was afraid they must both be
boarded out among some other poor of the parish (they have long been
supported by the parish); but she said it was hard, having kept house
together so long, to come to this, and she was sure that 'it would burst
her heart.' I mention this fact to show how deeply the spirit of
independence is, even yet, rooted in some parts of the country. These
people could not express themselves in this way without an almost
sublime conviction of the blessings of independent domestic life. If it
is true, as I believe, that this spirit is rapidly disappearing, no
greater curse can befall a Land.

I earnestly entreat your pardon for having detained you so long. In the
two poems, 'The Brothers,' and 'Michael,' I have attempted to draw a
picture of the domestic affections, as I know they exist among a class
of men who