land overspreading the country--all sorts of
vegetables are abundant and cheap, with the exception of potatoes, which
so decreased in 1849, in consequence of the disease, that the winter
stock was imported from France, Belgium, and Holland. The early
potatoes, however, grown in May and June, are cultivated in large
quantities, and realize on exportation a very high price. Corn generally
sells a little above the average. Fish is always within the reach of the
poorest people. In a good season, a dozen pilchards are sold for one
penny. Happily for themselves, the poor in Cornwall do not partake the
senseless prejudice against fish, so obstinately adhered to by the poor
in many other parts of England. A Cornishman's national pride is in his
pilchards--he likes to talk of them, and boast about them to strangers;
and with reason, for he depends for the main support of life on the
tribute of these little fish which the sea yields annually in almost
countless shoals.

The workhouse system in Cornwall is said, by those who are well
qualified to form an opinion on the subject, to be generally well
administered; the Unions in the eastern part of the county being the
least stringent in their regulations, and the most liberal in giving
out-of-door relief.

Such, briefly, but I think not incorrectly stated, is the condition of
the poor in Cornwall, in relation to their means of subsistence as a
class. Looking to the fact that the number of labourers there is not too
much for the labour; comparing the rate of wages with rent and the price
of provisions; setting the natural advantages of the county fairly
against its natural disadvantages, it is impossible not to conclude that
the Cornish poor suffer less by their poverty, and enjoy more
opportunities of improving their social position, than the majority of
their brethren in many other counties of England. The general demeanour
and language of the people themselves amply warrant this conclusion.
The Cornish are essentially a cheerful, contented race. The views of the
working men are remarkably moderate and sensible--I never met with so
few grumblers anywhere.

My opportunities of correctly estimating the state of education among
the people, were not sufficiently numerous to justify me in offering to
the reader more than a mere opinion on the subject. Such few
observations as I was able to make, inclined me to think that, in
education, the mass of the population was certainly below