(_To the Editor._)
The amusing letter of _S.S._ in No. 536, of _The Mirror_, has but so
very recently met my eyes, that I have been obliged unavoidably to allow
some weeks to elapse ere I noticed it. Indeed, to advert to it at all, I
should not have considered necessary, but that your correspondent seems
to imply a doubt as to the accuracy of my assertion, in the article
"Shavings," (vide No. 533, p. 83.) Permit me, for the satisfaction of
your readers to state, that I was no "flying tourist," when the fact of
a very considerable waste of fuel in Edinburgh, (fuel which would, I
thought, sell in England, if not wanted in Scotland,) came repeatedly, I
may say, almost daily, under my own personal observation. A residence of
two years in Edinburgh (yes, it certainly was "the Scottish capital,"
for I had previously resided during a longer period in the Irish one,)
enabled me to state what I then beheld, with a scrutiny which certainly
would not have been warranted by a mere casual visit of two days, two
weeks, or two months; that the circumstance should have irritated _S.S._
I cannot consider any fault of mine; my statement was correct. The
possibility of Irish labourers being employed to build in Scotland, as
they are very generally in England, does not seem to have occurred to
your correspondent; I confess it did to me, but considered, to mention
it in my trifling "Domestic Hint," quite unnecessary, since, had their
wastefulness been hitherto unknown to their employers, it might
henceforth, if they pleased "to take a hint," be by them materially
checked. In days when the complaint of poverty is universal, when the
working classes find it difficult to carry on any employment which shall
bring them bread, and when thousands wander over the united kingdom with
no apparent means of subsistence, I did not imagine that a "Hint," as to
a possible source of emolument (were it confined but to half a dozen
individuals) to the poor, would be considered a meet subject for
ridicule. I said, or intended to say, if shavings and loose chippings of
wood are of little value for fuel in Scotland, they are acceptable in
England; and why, if the proprietors of new houses choose during their
erection, to save the fuel they produce, and of which I repeat I have
seen vast quantities burnt, and bestow it as a charity on such persons
as might think it worth acceptance for sale, "over the Border;" why they
should not do so, I have yet to learn.[5] However, waiving this scheme,
which _S.S._ may be inclined to think rather Utopian, and conceding,
that if Scotland needs not for fuel, her refuse chips and shavings, they
would not answer in that light as a marketable commodity in the sister
country, still wood and wood-ashes have become of late years, agents so
valuable and important in chemistry, and other sciences and arts, as to
furnish another, and all-sufficient reason why no reckless destruction
should be allowed of an article, every species of which may be rendered,
under some modification, of utility.
[5] Has Scotland no paupers to whom the gift of wood fuel might
prove acceptable, in spite of peat? We have in England abundance
of wood, yet our own poor are distressed for it, glad to pick up
sticks for firing, and often steal it from fences, &c. in their
necessity, and the gift of wood is to them a charity, as well as
that of coals. Why should aught that could he made of use, be
wantonly destroyed? It is contrary to Scripture; it is in
opposition to common sense.
Respecting the well preserved eggs of Scotland; though _S.S._ is
probably aware of the circumstance, yet some of your readers may not be,
their sale in England (and indeed I have understood America) brings her
in no inconsiderable profit. In this country they arrive, and I have my
account from an eye-witness, in large deal boxes, most curiously packed,
relying solely on each other for support; since, set up perpendicularly
on their ends, with no straw, heather, saw-dust, or any other material
to fill the interstices between them, the fate of every box of this
fragile ware depends, during its journey and unlading, on the safety or
fracture of a single egg; but such is the nicety and compactness of
their packing, that rarely, if ever, an accident occurs.