mirers in the lowest walks of life. Though to the
skill and perseverance of the cottager we are confessedly indebted
for the improved cultivation of many plants and fruits, an extensive
acquaintance with the choicest productions of nature, and a
philosophical investigation of their properties, are very frequently
to be met with in the Lancashire Mechanic. But whilst some knowledge
of the principles of Horticulture is almost universal; and the
inferior objects of attention are readily procured, it is obvious that
the difficulty and expense which attend the possession of plants of
rare, and more particularly of foreign growth, form a natural and
insurmountable obstruction to the researches of many lovers of the
science...." "Whatever regard is due to the rational gratifications
of which the most laborious life is not incapable, there is a moral
influence attendant on horticultural pursuits, which may be supposed
to render every friend of humanity desirous to promote them. The most
indifferent observer cannot fail to remark that the cottager who
devotes his hours of leisure to the improvement of his garden, is
rarely subject to the extreme privations of poverty, and commonly
enjoys a character superior to the circumstances of his condition. His
taste is a motive to employment, and employment secures him from the
temptations to extravagance and the natural consequences of dissipated
habits."[1] Further, we learn, one great object of the society is to
educate a certain number of young men as gardeners. As "an inviting
scene of public recreation," it is observed, "those who are little
interested in the cultivation of Botany, and who may regard the
employments of Horticulture with disdain, may still be induced to
frequent the Botanical garden, for the beauty of the objects, the
pleasures of the society, and the animating gaiety of the scene."

[1] How pleasingly is the substance of these observations embodied
in one of our "Snatches from _Eugene Aram_:"--"It has been
observed, and there is a world of homely, ay, of legislative
wisdom in the observation, that wherever you see a flower in a
cottage garden, or a bird at the window, you may feel sure that
the cottagers are better and wiser than their neighbours." Vol. i.
p. 4. Yet with what wretched taste is this morality sought to be
perverted in an abusive notice of Mr. Bulwer's _Eugene Aram_, in
a Magazine of t