Respecting indigenous Animals we shall say nothing here, as we have been promised detailed accounts of the natural history of Birmingham, Manchester, Preston, and Dumfries, and their respective neighbourhoods, which will hereafter appear in the details of our tour. We may, however, shortly notice the condition of the animal man in different districts of the country through which we have passed. He appears to us decidedly in the lowest state in the agricultural district between Banbury and London; and as decidedly in the highest state in Birmingham and the other iron-manufacturing towns in its vicinity. There the workman is more on a level with his employer, in point of intelligence, than he is in Manchester or Liverpool; and it is there only that servants cooperate with their masters, on an extensive scale, to obtain a common end. The reason is, the manufactures of Birmingham require a union of skill and ingenuity, combined with physical strength, which the Manchester manufactures do not; and therefore the workmen belonging to the latter town are constantly liable to have the value of their labour reduced by the influx of Irishmen, and other agricultural labourers, who will work for a mere subsistence, and who, whatever may be their age or previous employment, are in a very short time rendered competent to attend upon machinery. This is not the case with the Birmingham workmen, who are obliged to employ several years, and those in an early period of life, to acquire the art of working in metals; but who, having acquired skill in any one metallic manufacture, can easily change from it to another, as the state of the market may require. It is obvious that this gives these workmen not only a command of the market, but also a command of employment, and a certain influence over their employers: the employers, in fact, can no more do without the workmen, than the workmen can without the employers. These circumstances, together with the general prevalence of school education about Birmingham, account for the very superior intelligence of the artisans of that district. The unity of feeling and purpose, in the Birmingham districts, between the masters and the men, will perhaps be better understood, when we state that the greater number of the masters have risen from the condition of workmen. If ever any grand national movement should take place, it will probably be made, and made with effect, by the men of Birmingham. Man in the hilly and mineral districts of Derbyshire is naturally more active, hardy, and vigilant than in the low and rich manufacturing and agricultural districts, because he has more to contend with; and the same may be said of man amid the mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland; adding to the character of the people in the latter instances a degree of simplicity and sincerity, from their comparatively slight intercourse with strangers, and the absence of manufactures and commercial pursuits. Having thus slightly touched on those natural circumstances in the countries passed through, which constitute the foundation of all artificial improvements, we shall adopt a different order from what we did in our last article, and notice general, territorial, social, and domestic improvements, before entering on the condition of country residences, and the state of agriculture, planting, gardening, and gardeners; our retrospective comparisons always having reference to the year 1805, except when otherwise mentioned.
