The Country Geiitlemaii s Magazine 



329 



LORD CARNARVON ON THE AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



LORD CARNARVON presided at the 

 annual dinner of the Highclere Agri- 

 cuhural Society on Wednesday, and in re- 

 sponding to the toast of his heakh, made some 

 remarks on the late agitation among the agri- 

 cultural labourers. He congratulated those 

 present on the success of the harvest, and upon 

 the advantages which had resulted from the 

 establishment of such associations, and con- 

 tinued to say that they had not in that 

 part of the country experienced any of the 

 difficulties which some districts had had 

 to contend with at the hands of the 

 labourers. There had been difficulties 

 between employer and the employed going 

 on around them, but they had been left un- 

 touched, and he indulged the hope that this 

 fact indicated, to a certain extent, the good 

 and kindly feeling existing in the county be- 

 tween employers and employed. He was sure, 

 wherever such a feehng did exist, those diffi- 

 culties v/ould be lessened in degree, but at 

 the same time the question which these dis- 

 agreements raised deserved to be considered 

 carefully, not only by those who were em- 

 ployers but also the employed. Events in their 

 natural course and the legislation of the past 

 few years had had a tendency perhaps to force 

 upon them the results which they had recently 

 been witnessing, but they were only at the 

 beginning of other considerable changes, and 

 it depended upon them in a great measure 

 what course these changes would take. There- 

 fore it was essential that they should bring 

 themselves clearly and dispassionately to con- 

 sider the question, and the more they familiar- 

 ized themselves with the requirements which 

 surrounded it, the better it would be for them 

 — better for those with whom they were brought 

 into contact, and better for the country ; and 

 the more surely would the solution, upon which 

 depended, in a great measure, the prosperity of 

 the country, be brought about. 



THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



He would venture to say two things, 

 which might sound very muc.i like truisms, 

 but which had been greatly lost sight of in 

 this dispute. First of all, he would say that 

 there were two sides of the question ; and 

 secondly, he would say that it was to the 

 interest of all parties, but especially to the 

 three parties concerned, viz., the farmers, 

 the labourers, and the landlords, that a settle- 

 ment of the difficulty should be arrived at 

 amongst themselves. He did not like in- 

 truders to come in and make i^ up for them, 

 because he believed a fair, honest, individual 

 settlement could be arrived at without them. 

 He would say a few words upon the three 

 classes to which he had alluded ; and first, 

 as to the labourers, he would put aside all 

 the idle declamation which had taken place 

 with regard to the labouring class, and it 

 seemed to him there was no class less under- 

 stood in the country than the labourer. He 

 was generally painted in the most extra- 

 vagant character, and if the subject was not 

 a serious one he would say it was almost 

 ludicrous. Those present were familiar with 

 the English labourers, and he thought the 

 great majority would agree with him when 

 he said that they were what they were repre- 

 sented by their professed admirers. He 

 would ask, what really was the condition of 

 the Enghsh labourer? He thought, if they 

 would be fair, they would admit that his con- 

 dition, looking back upon the past, was in 

 some few respects less good, but in other 

 respects was much better than it used to be. 

 It was less good, he apprehended, in these 

 points. The labourer had probably less 

 ground for his own purposes than he 

 formerly had ; the commons, in a great mea- 

 sure, had been enclosed; and whilst there 

 had been with every other class in the coun- 



