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The Country Gcnttcuiaiis Magazine 



complain of their conduct. AVhat was it that 

 they were told ? In the first instance, at the 

 present hour, labourers, regard being had to 

 the price of bread, bacon, and pork (he 

 said nothing of beef and mutton, because 

 that was not taken into account) were getting 

 better wages than was ever known within the 

 memory of the oldest person in the country. 

 They were told that the labourer ought to 

 be better fed, better housed, and better 

 taught. He confessed that the labourer ought 

 to be better fed. That was a rap on the 

 knuckles for the farmers. They ought to be 

 better housed ; that was a slap at the land- 

 lords. And they ought to be better taught ; 

 that was a slap at the labourers themselves. 

 With regard to the labourer being better fed 

 that meant that the farmer ought to pay 

 better wages. It had been said that a la- 

 bourer could not live on 12s. a-week, but had 

 it not been said that the average earnings of 

 a labourer, to say nothing of his wife and 

 children, were 14s. 3d., i6s., and 1 8s. per 

 week ? Then they might really lay aside all 

 arguments based on los. and iis. per week 

 as utterly beside the question. If they were 

 to raise the wages of their labourers to i6s., 

 and 1 8s. per week, would their famiHes be 

 the better for it? In some manufacturing 

 districts, mechanics were paid from ^^3 

 to ;^4 per week, but what was the result ? 

 Did they not employ their time for two or 

 three days in a way they ought not to until 



the money was well nigh spent, and then go 

 to work again ? It was, therefore, quite clear 

 that the labourers must be prepared for re- 

 ceiving these increased wages. They must 

 be educated in order to make them fit to 

 receive additional money in a manner that 

 would be creditable to themselves and useful 

 to the nation. Then it was said that the land- 

 owner ought to provide better cottages. The 

 fact was that a very large proportion of the 

 cottages in the country did not belong to the 

 landowners at all. They were the property 

 of speculators who built the cottages at the 

 lowest possible price. Then the question 

 arose, were the labourers sufiiciently educated 

 to occupy good cottages ? In some cottages 

 there were three bedrooms, and was it not 

 notorious that frequently the third room was 

 not occupied by the labourer's children, but 

 by lodgers, and in some cases the remedy was 

 worse than the disease. As to education, 

 did the labourers avail themselves of the 

 opportunities afforded them ? Were they 

 alive to the benefits of education ? It was 

 not for him to depreciate education in Greek 

 and Latin, and the use of the globes, but 

 the education of the labourer ought to be 

 confined to what was called the three r's— 

 reading, writing, and arithmetic. A labourer 

 did not require anything more. The great 

 point was to improve the labourer himself, 

 and make him appreciate the advantages 

 offered to him. 



