perfectly contented in their situation, and feel regard and attachment for their employers.” (p. 14.) What a contrast is exhibited by this picture of moral, contented, and (if the term is permissible) prosperous poverty, supported by the frugality and providence of the labourers themselves, and that of the population of a pauperized English village, better fed indeed, better paid, better clothed, and better lodged, and, above all, receiving 10, or perhaps 20 times the amount of parochial alms, but depraved by profligacy, soured by discontent, their numbers swelled by head-money and preference of the married to double the demand for their labour, their frugality and providence punished by the refusal of employment, and their industry ruined by the scale; looking with envy and dislike on their masters, and with hatred on the dispensers of relief! And it is to be observed that the independence of the Belgian peasantry does not arise from any unwillingness to accept of relief. Out of the 60 families forming the population of the village, 19 appear to have received it in 1832; and a fact is related by Count Arrivabene, which shows that indiscriminate alms are as much coveted there as with us. In 1830 (the year of the revolution) many persons applied for charity at the gate of the castle of Gaesbeck, the residence of Marquis Arconati, and something was given to each. The next year the applications were renewed: the sum given to each applicant was fixed at 1_d._, and a single day in the week was fixed for its distribution. On the first of these days there were 50 applicants; the second, 60. The sum given was reduced to ½_d._ to a man, and a farthing to a child; but towards the end of the season the weekly assemblage had risen to 300 and 400 persons; they came from 10 and 12 miles distance, and it became necessary to abolish the allowance, trifling as the amount appears. _Poor Colonies._ The last portion of the Belgian institutions requiring notice are the poor colonies. We have already stated, that in 1823 the Belgian Société de Bienfaisance was established on the model and for the purposes of that already existing in Holland. In the beginning of that year the society purchased 522 bonniers (rather less than 1,300 statute acres), at Wortel, for the establishment of two colonies, called free, and divided them into 125 farms, of 3½ bonniers (about 9 statute acres) each; 70 in the colony No. 1, and 55 in the colony No. 2. In 1823 they purchased 516 bonniers (about 1,280 acres), at Mexplus and Ryckevoorsel, for the establishment of a mendicity colony. The first estate cost 623_l._, the second 554_l._, or less than 10_s._ an acre, from which the quality of the land may be inferred.