DECREASE OP COTTAGES.—The subjoined remarks are suggested by the allusion
in our last paper to the overcrowding of towns : it will be seen bow strongly the writer, a man of observant mind, confirms the further remarks in our present number. "In all the unions round me, there has been no 'improvement' effected— the same disproportion [of people to houses] exists, though rural districts. In our union, a rural one, the population in the last ten rears has increased by 725 persona, and the houses have increased 76. My belief is, that it is in the country, and not in the towns, that the disproportion of houses to the increase of the population will be most remarkable. The gentry do not build cottages. The building of cottages is the speculation of the retired grocer and draper. The rents are enormous; and as they are known to be with difficulty collected, the erection of new cottages is a very slow process. . . "Here, where land sells at an acre, a dirty ruinous cottage and an acre of land are sold, or offered to be sold, at 101.; the cottage being a mud cottage, which labourers erect themselves, in every case where they can get a hitt& kid.
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