Professor Fawcett on Agricultural Labour 



Wherever we find other industries en- 

 croaching upon or rather assisting agriculture, 

 there we find wages higher, shewing that the 

 amount of supply and demand holds good 

 everywhere and among all trades. In Staf- 

 fordshire, wages were then 13s. per week. In 

 the West Riding of Yorkshire, 13s. 6d. to 

 i6s. ; in the North, from 14s. to 15s.; in 

 Lancashire, 13 s. to 15s., and in hay-time and 

 harvest the best hands realized from 15s. to 

 iSs. per week, with food. In Durham, the 

 wages were 13s. 6d., with a free house for 

 the hinds, with an addition of 20 bushels of 

 potatoes, and if they chose to buy their 

 wheat from the farmer they had it at a very 

 moderate price. In Northumberland and 

 Cumberland, the wages amounted to about 

 15s. per week; and in Westmoreland, the 

 Kendal district, as much as i8s. per week 

 was given, but this was an exceptionally high 

 rate, the average for this county being set 

 down at 12s. per week. 



From these figures it will be seen that one 

 cause of complaint made by Mr Fawcett 

 was removed long before the inquiry which 

 forms the ground-work of his essay was under- 

 taken. There was certainly nothing said in 

 the returns about the intellectual capacity of 

 the labourer, or of his habits and the nature 

 of his accommodation. In noticing it at 

 the time it was published, we suggested " that 

 the next return of this kind should embrace, 

 in addition, the hours of labour and the 

 character of the labourers' cottages." 



Having, corrected Professor Fawcett in 

 reference to the rural labourers' wages, we 

 must thank him heartily for his article in 

 CasseH's Magazine. It is written carefully, 

 it is written with a due sense of what is right 

 between employer and employed, its tendency 

 is to draw the bonds of relationship between 

 the agricultural classes closer than they have 

 ever been before, rather than, as town-agita- 

 tors wish, to loosen or to sever them alto- 

 gether. The Professor strikes the right nail 

 on the head when he declares the want of 

 education to be the primary cause of all the 

 grievances the agricultural labourers are 

 supposed, and said to be labouring under. 

 It is the lack of education that makes 



many agricultural labourers prefer Hving in a 

 hovel to a comfortable home. From our own 

 inquiries we can without hesitation endorse 

 every word in the following paragraph : — 

 "The matter of cottage accommodation 

 becomes still more perplexing when it is 

 found on inquiry that the labourers them- 

 selves, in their present ignorant condition, do 

 not appreciate the advantages of healthy and 

 decent dwellings. On some estates landlords 

 have made an effort to improve the character 

 of the cottages, but they have too frequently 

 found their well-meant attempts are rendered 

 abortive by the apathy and ignorance of the la- 

 bourers. One landlord says :— ' We have given 

 a very good cottage to the labourer, and we 

 find he does not appreciate it at all. He puts 

 his apples into one room, does not inhabit 

 another, and would put his pig into another 

 if we would let him.' Other landlords speak 

 of the difiiculty they have in finding tenants 

 for new and well-arranged cottages ; the 

 labourers prefer remaining in places ' where 

 you would hardly put a pig to live.' Another 

 witness of authority states that in several of 

 the cottages with two bedrooms, the father, 

 mother, and children are huddled into one 

 room, and the other bedroom is let to 

 lodgers." 



Now, what are landlords and farmers to do 

 under the circumstances ? It is, as Professor 

 Fawcett says, very perplexing ; but the land- 

 lords and farmers who have built or assisted 

 in building such cottages are yet far too few. 

 There is still a great want of good cottage 

 accommodation in the rural districts which 

 ought to be supplied, and where this is lack- 

 ing, landlords and farmers, conjointly or 

 singly, as arranged, should not be deterred 

 by the failures of others from providing for 

 this deficiency. It is their duty to remove all 

 complaint in the matter of housing, just as it 

 is for a humane man to take a horse long 

 abstinent from water to the pond. If the 

 horse is obstinate and will not drink, and 

 suffers in consequence, the responsibihty 

 attaching to cruelty is removed from the head 

 of the master. 



On the matter of education, we cannot 

 quite agree Avith one of Professor Fawcett's 



