The Country Gentlevians Magazine 



first to what the agricultural \Yages in other 

 civilized communities are. Mr Stanhope 

 lately published in the Times a most useful 

 statement, in which he shewed the rate of 

 agricultural pay and purchase power in other 

 countries. It is compiled from the reports of 

 Her Majesty's Consuls, and from my own 

 knowledge these public servants expend great 

 pains on being as accurate as possible. By 

 these reports it is shewn that the farmers of 

 England have been paying a higher rate of 

 wages than the agricultural labourer has re- 

 ceived in any other country of Europe. 

 (Cheers.) A farmer has informed me that he 

 calculates the average wages in this country 

 at ;^i a-week, including harvest. Well, I 

 can only say that if it is so the agricultural 

 labourer is better paid at home than if he 

 emigrated to South America, for at the River 

 Plate I am told English and Irish farm la- 

 bour is paid 1 8s. per week. This, then, is 

 the injustice the English peasant has received 

 at the hands of the British yeoman ! Now 

 let him glance for a moment at the con- 

 dition of the peasant owning or renting so 

 much land as he can cultivate by his own 

 exertions. I suppose the best example of 

 this is to be found in Belgian and Flemish 

 cultivation. I believe it is estimated that the 

 Belgian peasant farmer is able to pay himself 

 P^35 a-year, in which case our English agri- 

 cultural labourer is the better off of the two, 

 while the anxiety and risk of the former is 

 much greater. (Cheers.) I cannot but 

 think, after the letters I have received, 

 that the question of wages proper is an 

 unwise one to discuss here. After expressing 

 himself in favour of payment in kind, the 

 noble duke went on : — If the labourers press 

 the farmer too hard on account of wages, 

 he must either farm in grass with 

 fewer hands or give up farm.ing to save ruin. 

 The agitators say that increased wages must 

 come out of the rents. This means, I need 

 scarcely say, the depreciation of landed pro- 

 perty in this country. One cannot suppose 

 for a moment that those who last year bought 

 land will now submit, without a struggle, to 

 have that investment depreciated. The real 

 question will ultimately be whether the loss 



is to fall on the consumer or the producer. 

 Eventually, to my mind, the consumer will 

 suffer, as no man will go on producing at a 

 loss. We cannot at the same time shut our 

 eyes to the fact that the farmer's trade is the 

 least able of any to withstand a strike, but 

 one on which a union of men might place an 

 unfair pressure. I cannot imagine, however, 

 a more wicked course than for labour in a 

 district to run the risk of a harvest being 

 lost to snatch a momentary advantage of 

 their employers. I need scarcely say 

 that the farmers of this district are in a 

 peculiar condition. They have to encounter 

 a large demand for colliers and other trades, 

 and the farmers of the district, are, so to 

 speak, jostled against the coal-pit and 

 manufactory. Men are daily enticed away 

 by greater pay. His Grace went on to say : 

 — What we can usefully inquire into is how 

 we can counteract the movement of the agri- 

 cultural population into the towns and to 

 colliery and other employ. This must 

 naturally have the effect of making agricul- 

 tural labour scarce and dear. Lord Ossing- 

 ton, speaking to his tenants of the means of 

 retaining a sufficient supply of labour for 

 the land, pointed out that for the sake of 

 convenience, farmers had given up the old 

 plan of having farms servants in their houses, 

 said, " You cannot have a trade without 

 apprentices. You take boys to make sea- 

 men of for your navy. If you do not offer 

 comforts to remain and instruction to the 

 youth of the agricultural population, what 

 are you to do when the present generation 

 has passed away ?" I merely wish to throw 

 out this suggestion, but I do so with the 

 greatest diffidence, knowing that gentlemen 

 around me are practically engaged in agri- 

 culture. I think owners and landlords 

 should supply every farmer with a number of 

 comfortable cottages for such labourers as he 

 has constant work for on his farm close to 

 their work. I was surprised to find a letter 

 signed " S. G. O," a gentleman who writes 

 to the Times with great effect, in which he 

 said that whilst the squire's house had 

 become a palace, and great improvements 

 had been made in the dwellings of the 



