The A Hot men t System 



129 



most benencial effect on all the neighbour- 

 hood. This state of things is adverted to in 

 the Report of the Agricultural Commission 

 by the assistant commissi>f)ner, Mr Edward 

 Stanhope, and such steps as the following, 

 direct and indirect, may be summarized as 

 resulting from the system, if it can be called. 

 I. Selection by means of thrift, of the best 

 labourers, re-acting upon the rest in the 

 general promotion of provident habits. 2. 

 Elevation of the individual labourer and 

 the whole family by increased self-respect 

 and carefulness. 3. Supplementation of 

 wages by the labourer's own exertions at no 

 perceptible cost to landlord or farmer. 4. 

 Comparative contentment and comfort, with 

 a strong attachment to the place as a labourer. 

 5. Gradual extinction of pauperism and 

 improvidence, including drunkenness. And 

 from the experience acquired on this estate, 

 it is probable that if, Avhere such small tene- 

 ments existed, care was taken to utilize them, 

 as prizes to the best and most thrifty of the 

 agricultural labourers, or even attaching them 

 to estates or to a farm, or carving them out 

 of farms, great good might follow in opening 

 a way and a prospect to the best men to rise. 

 A landlord lately in this same county had 

 sub-divided a small grazing farm of 2 acres 

 that was vacant among four agricultural 

 labourers on his estate who had saved money, 

 a.nd other such opportunities would from time 

 to time arise if they are sought. Then there 

 are two further facts bearing on the same 

 point. A gentleman farmer, cultivating his 

 own land, told me he had a bailiff or foreman, 

 to whom he only paid i8s. a-week, but who 

 was worth half as much more, yet he never 

 thought of leaving him or asking for more 

 wages, and what was the secret of that ? Why 

 the man had a small holding of 5 acres of 

 grass land under his employer. " That man," 

 I said, " depend on it, will never leave you of 

 his own accord." In another district, com- 

 prising coal and lead mines, as well as an 

 agricultural population, where some interest 

 was taken in the savings' bank's deposits, it 

 was discovered that whereas many miners 

 (that is workers at the lead mines) put by 

 money, there was hardly a single collier who 



VOL. IX. 



had a deposit. They were earning wages 

 equally high, and the fact seemed in- 

 comprehensible, till on examination it was 

 discovered that whereas most of the miners 

 had a patch of land and a cow, the colliers, 

 owing to the smoke or some other local cause. 

 hardly ever had that advantage, and no 

 doubt invested all their earnings in the pub- 

 lic-house. Now the same sort of results are 

 found to follow in other places by a similar 

 system of precaution, in allowing only thrifty 

 families to come on the land, and notably on 

 the estate of j\Ir Hope Johnson, in Dumfries- 

 shire, where, under the direction of his agent, 

 Mr Charles Stewart, the effect is thus de- 

 scribed by an eye-witness in a report pub- 

 lished by the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society : — " What we chiefly value in the sys- 

 tem is its marked effect in producing and 

 perpetuating an orderly, respectable, and 

 well-conditioned peasantry. The problem 

 which is generally looked upon as so difficult 

 of solution is here solved with eminent suc- 

 cess. It has been shewn to be quite practi- 

 cable to elevate the labouring man, not only 

 without burdening the farmer or the landlord, 

 but to the manifest benefit of both, to foster 

 small holdings without depressing agriculture 

 or retarding improvement, and to combine 

 permanence with progress." A similar sys- 

 tem with similar results obtains in North 

 Derbyshire, and is described in the Agricul- 

 tural Commissioners' Report. 



THE ENCLOSURE COMMISSIONERS AND POOR- 

 LAW PROHIBITORY TO ALLOTMENTS, 



There are two other points not immedi- 

 ately within the scope of this^ paper, but bear- 

 ing on it sufficiently perhaps to be mentioned 

 here. i. The prohibitory regulations of the 

 Enclosure Commissioners as to cottage build- 

 ing prevent money from being taken up by 

 landlords through the companies. If two or 

 three practical men were put on the Com- 

 mission, there need be no great difficulty 

 about cottage accommodation. 2. The ad- 

 ministration of Poor-law out-relief, which, in 

 some parts, by indirectly supplementing 

 wages, is in fact degrading, and lowering the 

 wages of the unskilled labourer. When both 



I 



