is heir to" that some "doctrinaire's" would have us suppose.
My old entertainer had very decided opinions about the causes of the prevailing depression and stagnation in the island. When I deplored the lack of energy which I noticed:—
"Bah," said he, "there's plenty energy, but it's misdirected, sir! Our young people will dance at a ball till two or three in the morning, and play lawn tennis all day to boot; but they are too ill and languid to get up to breakfast, and would let their own mother wait on them in bed. They will go to a picnic right up to the top of Mount Wellington; but they are too weak to go two miles to church unless they go in a carriage. Our young people are too well off, sir. Their parents made money in the old times, and the young ones had no inducement to work, when assigned prisoners could be got for 10l. a year. So our young men grew up with no settled industry, no application, and the country feels the curse of indolence and want of enterprise now."
Such was the dictum of my old friend. I make no comment on it. The moral is obvious.
My friend was enthusiastic in his advocacy of orchard farming as against cereals. All his young trees are now on blight-proof stocks. He has uprooted all his hedges and cultivates right up to his boundary walls, and even trains trees against them. He pointed out the property of a neighbour thirty-four acres in extent, which a few years ago was purchased for 300l. cash. During the first three
