ave an easy mode of
rewarding good behaviour. Such cottages would be eagerly sought after by
the men, and might be given, in preference, to those of good character.

Is all this romantic? Is it inevitable that the suburbs of a
manufacturing town must consist of dense masses of squalid habitations,
unblest by a proper supply of air, light, or water; undrained,
uncleansed, and unswept; enjoying only that portion of civilization which
the presence of the police declares; and presenting a scene which the
better orders hurry by with disgust? Or, on the contrary may we not,
without giving ourselves up to Utopian dreams, imagine that we might
enter the busy resorts of traffic through extensive suburbs consisting of
cottages with their bits of land; and see, as we came along, symptoms
everywhere around of housewifely occupations, and of homes which their
humble owners might often think of with pleasure during their day's
labour, looking forward to their return at evening with delight. The
richer classes, even those low down in the scale of wealth, mostly
struggle to secure some portion of country air for themselves: surely
they might do their best to provide for the working man something like a
change from the atmosphere of the factory, or workshop, in which he must
pass the greatest part of his day throughout the whole year.

Against what I have said above, it may be urged that it would prevent the
workman from living near his work. In many cases this may be an
inconvenience; but I do not imagine that, in general, it can be proved to
be an insurmountable, or even a very serious objection. Turning again to
the evidence of the Town Clerk of Leeds before the Building Committee, I
find the following:

"_Lord Ashley_. I have been told by several builders in London, that
in consequence of the improvements in the metropolis, great numbers
of people have been driven to the out-skirts of the town; but they
found in the out-skirts of the town an excellent house for less money
than when they lived in miserable lodgings in the heart of the town;
is this consistent with your experience in Leeds?--Quite consistent.

"And no hardship to themselves?--The distance of going to work is the
objection; but we find the poor people will for twenty years walk two
or three miles in a morning to their work at six o'clock, and seem no
worse for it."

V. THE TOWN.

It will not be a matter unwort