244 



TJic Country Gcntlcniaiis Magazine 



say that Mr Brand has anticipated and satis- 

 factorily answered them. 



Not a few masters, eager for the improve- 

 ment of the lot of their men, have thought of 

 this solution ; but the attempt has not been 

 invariably successful. The amount invested 

 by the men proved small. The increase in 

 the book-keeping was large. The labourer's 

 dividend was too trifling to exercise any in- 

 fluence on his lot or on his conduct. The 

 employer had enough of capital of his own ; 

 he did not want the men's groats. He did 

 not want the bother and responsibility, ap- 

 pertaining to these tiny sums, thrown on his 

 shoulders. He did not wish to give the 

 slightest pretext for interference. And, on 

 such terms as Mr Brand, in the great good- 

 ness of his heart, offers, it would seem to 

 many impossible to work. It is plain that 

 he offers his labourers the advantage of his 

 skill as a farmer, whatever that may be, all 

 for nothing. He is to have all the risk, they 

 the certainty of profit. Such a plan is there- 

 fore, eleemosynary in essence. 



Again, if there be any fetter against rise in 

 wages, it may seem rather ridiculous to tell 

 the agricultural labourers that if they save, 

 they may hope to become commanditaires, 

 and to rise above their present position. Mr 

 Brand does not despair of his labourers 

 saving 2S. a-week out of wages of, say, 12s. 

 a-week. How that is to be done in these 

 dear times we do not know ; and even were 

 a labourer to scrape together p{^2o, a most 

 improbable contingency, the regular payment 

 of a dividend of 5 per cent, another most 

 improbable contingency, would add to his 

 earnings only about 6d. a-week. We must 

 apprehend that such increments are far too 

 unimportant to influence the action of the 

 men ; and if there is no other satisfactory 

 solution of the condition of the labourer than 

 the above, very distant seems the day in 

 which peace will be restored to our agricul- 

 tural population. Agricultural labourers can- 

 not, while wages and human nature are what 

 they are, save enough to invest in the manner 

 which Mr Brand suggests. 



But what is out of the question for the 

 farm-labourer, with whom bare living in any 



fashion is the immediately interesting problem, 

 may be elsewhere practicable. When we 

 look to the wages of certain skilled mechanics 

 — say bricklayers, earning 34s. a week ; 

 forgemen, 32s. to 36s.; moulders, 36s. to 

 40s.; shipwrights, 36. to 42s. for instance — 

 we see that they have available a fair margin 

 for saving. With them the accumulation of 

 a small fund is not a hopeless ambition. To ■ 

 talk to them of economizing is not cruel 

 mockery. They might, conjointly, put 

 together a large amount of capital. At 

 present, however, the modes of investment 

 open to them are not very ntimerous or 

 attractive. There are their benefit societies, 

 the unremunerativeness, not to say the 

 insolvency of most of which, is notorious. 

 There are building societies, whereby a man 

 may purchase, in course of time, his house, 

 and the advantages offered by which vary in- 

 definitely. Then, too, there are the 

 savings' banks, both the trustees and the 

 Post -office. In the former, it would 

 appear from the last returns, that there were 

 thirty-nine millions sterling deposited, and in 

 the latter, eighteen millions. The rate of 

 interest is small ; and we cannot help think- 

 ing that there is a lamentable lack of more 

 suitable channels of investment for the 

 artizans possessed of high wages. The true 

 savings' bank ought to be one's own profes- 

 sion, and if some one could only show how 

 artizans earning over 30s. a-week could be 

 induced to put their savings into the 

 business with which they are best acquainted, 

 we should own that he had made a substantial 

 contribution to the solution of the labour 

 question. There are employers who have 

 met the men half-way in this matter. They 

 have declined to accept the responsibility 

 which would necessarily fall on them in the 

 event of their being recipients of the men's 

 savings. The management of their business 

 would be too grievously impeded, had 

 they to render account at every turn- 

 ing of their doings. But it has occurred 

 to some firms whom we could name that 

 there might be found an oudet for the 

 men's savings, and that a tie between masters 

 and men might be created, in the shape of 



