A Whig Speaker on Farming 



H5 



a co-operative society, as attached to the 

 works. The masters sink so much in this 

 store, the men do the same ; both use it ] 

 both receive the same advantages from it ; 

 both help to govern it ; and thus there is 

 procured a channel for the investment of the 

 savings of the men. Mr Brand may be quite 

 right when he alleges that "we shall never 

 come to a satisfactory settlement of the rela- 

 tions between employer and employed, until 



the latter, according to the amount of labour 

 and capital he has invested, has an interest 

 in the good conduct of the affair." But in 

 the meantime, and as prefatory to larger 

 achievements, we see with pleasure the suc- 

 cess of even tentative movements towards 

 that goal to which Mr Brand points. And 

 that goal is the peaceful and harmonious co- 

 operation of labour and capital, free from 

 the wasteful warfare of strikes and lock-outs. 



THE WORK OF THE FRENCH PEASANT FARMERS' SEED 



FUND. 



LORD VERNON publishes a letter 

 which he has received from Mr. John 

 Furley, whose services, his lordship says, 

 " as an officer of the Red Cross Society, and 

 again as a representative of the French 

 Peasant Farmers' Seed Fund, give a weight 

 to his opinions. Mr Furley is engaged in 

 distributing a small balance which it was 

 necessary to keep in reserve to meet contin- 

 gencies." In his letter to Lord Vernon, Mr 

 Furley says : — 



" I have just returned from a tour through 

 Lorraine, Luxembourg, and the Ardennes. 

 During the last two years I have so fre- 

 quently written to you about the waste and 

 destruction occasioned by the late war, that 

 it is a great satisfaction to me now to be 

 able to tell you how rapidly this country is 

 assuming its wonted appearance — though in 

 some places evidences of the campaign are still 

 painfully conspicuous, and still to assure you 

 of the generally good results obtained from 

 the labours of the committee of which your 

 lordship is the President. I passed hur- 

 riedly through Lorraine. I visited Luxem- 

 bourg in order personally to thank those 

 persons who at the outbreak of the war 

 rendered me so much willing assistance ; 

 then Thionville, and afterwards came on to 

 Sedan. A return of fine weather, and the 

 promise of abundant crops, have made 

 people more or less forget their trou- 



bles. I spent a day in the neighbour- 

 hood of the town. I crossed the now cele- 

 brated battlefield, and at Douzy had a long 

 conversation with the Cure and those per- 

 sons with whom I lodged during the fort- 

 night that succeeded the battle. All de- 

 clared the crops to be very fine, and far 

 beyond the average, and they said that ten 

 days of sunshine would be of incalculable 

 value to France. I also called on M. Missot, 

 the Cure of Bazeilles, who has shown so 

 much energy on behalf of his unfortunate 

 parishioners, and whose appeals on their 

 beiialf have been responded to from all parts 

 of Europe and America. The village, which 

 was utterly destroyed, is rapidly rising again 

 from the ruins, and its present appearance 

 indicates that its former prosperity will again 

 return to it. 1 was struck by a sign over 

 one of the best of the well-built stone houses 

 in the principal street; French vitaHty is 

 well expressed by the words printed in large 

 characters on the front of this inn, which is 

 decidedly superior to its unfortunate pre- 

 decessor, Aux ruijics dc Bazeilles. Often 

 during the day my thoughts wandered from 

 the cheerful scenes before me to that memor- 

 able time, not quite two years ago, when on 

 fields from which every vestige of verdure 

 and fertility had been trodden out of the soil, 

 I stood among the dead and the dying. Now 

 golden corn and patches of green crops 



