TJic Agricultural Lahonrey in the Seventeenth Century 



243 



poorer class. It has already been mentioned 

 that, before the Revolution, many thousands 

 of square miles,'now enclosed and cultivated, 

 were 'marsh, forest, and heath. Of this 

 wild land much was, by law, common, and 

 much of Avhat was not common by law Avas 

 worth so little that the proprietors suffered it 

 to be common in fact. In such a tract, 

 squatters and trespassers were tolerated to an 

 extent now unknown. The peasant who dwelt 

 there could, at little or no charge, procure 

 occasionally some palatable addition to his 

 hard fare, and provide himself with fuel for the 

 winter. He kept a flock of geese on what is 

 now an orchard rich with apple blossoms. 



He snared wild fowl on the fen which has 

 long since been drained and divided into 

 corn fields and turnip fields; he cut turf 

 among the furze bushes on the moor which 

 is now a meadov/ bright with clover and 

 renowned for butter and cheese. The pro- 

 gress of agriculture and the increase of popu- 

 lation necessarily deprived him of these 

 privileges. But against this disadvantage a 

 long list of advantages is to be set off. Of 

 the blessings which civilization and philosophy 

 bring with them a large proportion is common 

 to all ranks, and would, if withdrawn, be 

 missed as painfully by the labourer as by the 

 peer." 



A WHIG SPEAKER ON FARMING. 



ON the principle which this Magazine 

 has always gone of giving even out- 

 siders' views upon agricultural matters, we 

 quote the following from the Echo : — 



For a Whig Speaker of the House of Com- 

 mons, the remarks which Mr Brand made to 

 his labourers the other day, on the occasion 

 of his harvest home, are extraordinary, not to 

 say revolutionary. We do not allude to his 

 resolution not to employ any lad who is not 

 able to read and write ; though that resolution, 

 were it firmly and universally adopted, would 

 soon work a revolution in the educational con- 

 dition of the provinces. But we would point 

 out the curious difference between Mr 

 Brand's view of the best mode of bettering 

 the labourer, and such good but common- 

 place views, for instance, as those which Lord 

 Derby expounded the other day to an 

 audience of farmers at Bury ; and we would 

 ask what is ahead if ex- Whig " whips " and 

 the Speaker of the House of Commons look 

 for salvation, in the future, to schemes which 

 have been absurdly thought to smack of 

 dangerous Socialism. When Sir John Paking- 

 ton is all for "a well-regulated system of 

 tenant-right," and Mr Brand speaks of 

 co-operation in the strain of Mr Fawcett, 



sober men may well rub their eyes in wonder 

 lest they dream, and lest these startling utter- 

 ances are mere phantoms of their imagina- 

 tions. " We shall never have a satisfactory 

 settlement of that question — the relations 

 between the farmer and the labourer — until 

 the labourer receives in some shape or 

 another a share, though it may be a small 

 one, of the profits of the business in which 

 he is engaged." This, Mr Brand avers, 

 holds true of agriculture as well as of all 

 other kinds of business ; and unlike most 

 reformers, who are content to set forth on 

 paper their scheme, and who have not faith 

 enough to try their own nostrums, he pro- 

 poses to do his utmost to put his plan into 

 effect. Mr Brand says to his labourers, 

 " Instead of putting your savings into the 

 Government Savings' Bank, which gives only 

 2}4 per cent., give them to me. Let me be 

 your banker. I will pay a minimum of 2}^ 

 per cent, and I promise, in the event of the 

 farm yielding more than 2^ per cent, to 

 pay rateably in the excess, so that, if the 

 farm yields a profit of 10 per cent, the 

 labourer will get 10 per cent on his 

 savings." To this scheme two objections 

 will, doubtless be raised ; and we cannot 



