The Country Gentleman' s Magazine 



witnesses, who throws cold water upon night 

 schools, because, according to his judgment, 

 they have a tendency to keep back parents 

 from sending their children to day schools, — 

 the thought being that the wages the young- 

 sters bring in will be of present use, and that, 

 in prospective years, they can obtain the de- 

 sired learning at their own expense. 



We have a higher appreciation of night 

 schools in the agricultural districts. We have 

 known many field workers who have risen to 

 much higher positions than they could ever 

 have attained except through their beneficial 

 agency. Instead of having a wet blanket 

 thrown over them, they should everywhere 

 be encouraged ; and we are quite sure that in 

 the localities where they flourish most, the 

 day schools Avill be most prosperous. The 

 night schools in the Carse of Gowrie, instituted 

 by Lord Kinnaird, sufficiently prove this. 



Professor Fawcett often refers (be it under- 

 stood he is speaking of England alone, and 

 takes no note of Scotland, where the hinds 

 are better educated than in England), to the 

 excellent state of education in Northumber- 

 land as contrasted with that prevailing in 

 many other rural districts, and points out that 

 even in this comparatively enlightened county 

 no degradation attaches to women labouring 

 in the fields. On this point, about which 

 there has been a great deal of nonsense 

 spoken, we cannot do better than quote his 

 words : — 



There is another circumstance which has not yet 

 been referred to, in which education seems to have 

 made the Northumbrian labourer a "morally and 

 physically superior animal." From other parts of 

 England, complaints are frequently heard as to the 

 demoralizing effects of the employment of women in 

 agriculture. "With some (so-called) philanthropists it 

 seems to be an almost universal rule, when immorality 

 prevails among those employed in any industry, to 

 appeal to the fact as a conclusive reason why women 

 should be debarred from engaging in that industry. 

 Thus, when statisticians quote the number of illegiti- 

 mate births in the agricultural districts, they some- 

 times appear to think that no other argument is 



necessary to prove that women should not be allowed 

 to work in the fields. They forget apparently that 

 every illegitimate child has a father, and that a high 

 per-centage of illegitimate births in rural districts 

 affords no more reason for excluding women from 

 agriculture than men. It may perhaps be replied 

 that, according to strict ideas of justice, there is no. 

 reason why the one sex should be excluded more than 

 the other, but that the exclusion of women would be 

 justified by expediency, the labour of women being of 

 so much less economical importance than that of men. 

 In reply to this argument of economical expediency, 

 the Commissioners state that in some districts many 

 branches of agricultural industry would be entirely 

 destroyed if any restriction or interference were put 

 upon the labour of women. Speaking of one district, 

 one of the Assistant Commissioners says, ' ' To prohibit 

 female labour would be to prohibit farming. It is, 

 however, desirable that the question of the employ- 

 ment of women should be put upon higher grounds 

 than those of expediency. Every woman has the 

 right to labour honestly to get her own living ; it 

 would be the height of injustice to treat her as if 

 she were a child, and forbid her to engage in any 

 particular work, because some of the men and 

 women who have been employed in it have 

 had immoral connexions with each other. And 

 let the sensitive conscience of the moralist who would 

 shut the door of honest toil to women be reminded, 

 that it is the difficulty of earning bread which even now 

 often sends a woman to a life of degradation. Food 

 must be had, and more, women will seek it in the 

 streets if they are driven from the farm and workshop. 

 In Northumberland, where the condition of the agricul- 

 tural population is more satisfactory than in any other 

 part of England, women are very largely employed in 

 agriculture. Nearly all unmarried women are engaged 

 in field-work, and the practice is not found to be 

 attended with any moral or physical evil. They are 

 well and suitably clothed, and their labour appears to 

 have the effect of making them peculiarly robust and 

 strong. Mr Henley describes the good manners and 

 the good management of the married women, as con- 

 clusive proof that farm labour has no deteriorating 

 effect on women. The refinement which education 

 has given to the Northumbrian peasantry is sufficient 

 to prevent the coarseness and immorality which field- 

 labour is said in some instances to produce. 



We are hopeful that this sensible paper, 

 coming from one who is recognized as a friend 

 of the labouring classes generally, will have 

 good effect among the agricultural labourers, 

 at the present crisis of their history. 



