and prevent the spread of bog plants. If sheep were encouraged, we should have fresh meat in abundance, and their fleece would furnish warm clothing in the winter for our people, of a better quality than the stuff they now buy. half waddy and devil s dust, and which impoverishes them to procure it. Domestic manufactures would be encouraged, the people would become industrious and comfortable, and every housewife in our out-harbours would realise, in some sort, that sublime description of a valiant woman by Solomon, Prov. xxxi., she hath put out her hands to strong things, and her fingers have taken hold of the spindle ; she has sought wool and flax and hath wrought by the counsel of her hands ; she shall not fear for her house in the cold of snow, for all her domestics are clothed with double garments ;-* she hath looked well to the paths of her house and hath not eaten her bread idle ; her children rose up and called her blessed ; her husband had praised her. But, unfortunately, this great blessing of sheep pasture is marred by one curse, and idleness and poverty are too often the accompaniments of the poor man s fireside in the long winter as long as a vicious herd of dogs are allowed to be kept in the country, so long will poverty be the winter portion of the poor. In no other part of the world would such an iniquity be permitted. There is a law offering 51. for the destruction of a wolf, and I never have heard of 51. worth of mutton being destroyed by wolves since the days of Cabot; but why do not our legislators, if they have the interest of the people at heart (and according to their election speeches, every member is actuated by the most philanthropic and patriotic motives), pass and enforce a law against dogs, which devour every sheep they can find, and have almost exterminated the breed altogether ; for no one will keep sheep while his neighbour is allowed to keep wolves. Nor are the Bishop s reasons for thus preaching a war of extermination exhausted in the passage quoted; he con demns the use of dogs in drawing firewood, the dogs being assisted in their labour by stalwart men yoked to the same car. The Bishop wisely remarks that one horse would do the work of one hundred dogs, and be always useful ; and the man who could not keep a horse, might hire his neighbour s for a few days, at an expense far less than what he wastes in boots and clothes. The Bishop apprehends that his remarks may prove unpalatable ; but he has the interests of the people too much at heart to conceal his sentiments on a subject of such vital importance to
