THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



241 



I have to add to tliis the subject which is more imme- 

 diately before us at the present meeting — the evils of 

 statute-hiiings — or, it would be more correct to say, 

 the evils of the statutes at which our farm servants are 

 hired; for there could be no objection, of course, to 

 hiring at statutes were it not for the sights and scenes 

 to which these young people are exposed on such oc- 

 casions. Those you know better than I do; I will 

 only call to your mind that at the annual statute these 

 young men and women — or rather, boys and girls — 

 have their one great holiday in the year, when, re- 

 lieved from their labour of the past year, they are 

 exciced and more liable to impressions from without 

 than at any other time ; that they meet together in 

 crowds in one of the towns, without the eye of their 

 parents or friends upon them, surrounded with temp- 

 tations which the publicans and others put in their 

 way, and without any check upon them, or very little, 

 for the fear of losing their character, or the wish to 

 maintain one they have already obtained. You are 

 well aware that it is scarcely possible to pass through 

 a town, or a road in the neighbourhood of a town 

 where these statutes are going on, without seeing 

 enough to show how much mischief and immorality 

 they must occasion ; and I believe there is many a 

 man and woman who has had to rue to the end of 

 their lives the evil which they have learned there." 

 The Bishop concluded by thus summing up the assumed 

 advantages of the new plan : " It gives a value to 

 character (and that is a very great point) ; it renders 

 unnecessary, at any rate, the hiring at statutes ; and it 

 encourages — indirectly certainly, but still it does en- 

 courage — the servants to remain more than one year in 

 the same situation." 



The next speaker was one of the best farmers in the 

 county, the well-known Mr. William Torr of Aylesby. 

 It will be impossible for us to follow him 

 throughout the whole of his very telling address, but 

 we may give the chief points in answer to what had 

 already been advanced : — " The hiring of farm servants 

 was a different thing to the hiring of domestic servants. 

 In the first place it was positively essential that the 

 fanner should see the men he wanted to hire. In 

 order to do this, there could not be a better arrange- 

 ment than having a day when both classes should 

 meet and have a choice. The Bishop said that cha- 

 racters were not reckoned of any consequence on such 

 occasions; but he (Mr. Torr) believed that characters 

 were generally inquired about in the case of the better 

 class of servants. He was free, however, to admit that 

 characters had not been sufficiently attended to, but that 

 was not the fault of the statutes ; it was the fault of 

 the masters, who did not attend the statutes, and 

 who were consequently not there to speak to the cha- 

 racter of the servant who was looking out for another 

 place. Now, supposing registration offices were es- 

 tablished throughout the county (though he did not be- 

 lieve them to be practicable), how would a farmer be 

 able to make his selection ? Say there were two names 

 down — one William Smith, who had lived 19 years 

 with Mr. Brooks, and the other James Brown, who had 

 lived 19 years with Mr. lies, both wanting situations as 

 waggoners, and having good characters. He (Mr. 

 Torr), wanting a waggoner, might pitch upon William 

 Smith ; and when he had an interview with him might 

 find that he was knock-kneed, very weak in the back, 

 with an excellent character, but not an atom of use as 

 a waggoner, while he had lost the chance of obtaining 

 the other man Brown, who was a strong active fellow, 

 and just the man he wanted. Such a system would 

 never do. But in the statute you could pick your man 

 out. It might be called a white slave market ; but he 

 maintained that it was the best way of doing iU A 



man had a right to make the best bargain he could — 

 the master in getting his labourer, and the labourer in 

 disposing of his services ; and both of them had the 

 best chance in these statutes, where a large number of 

 them met for the purpose. He thought that the sta- 

 tutes had been overtaxed with an enormity of crime. 

 He was free to admit the immorality that prevailed on 

 such occasions, but he meant to say that whenever her 

 Majesty's subjects met together in large crowds, there 

 was the same sort of thing — whether it was a statute, 

 or country fair, or an excusion train (which he believed 

 presented the worst scene of all), or at Epsom or Don- 

 caster Races." 



Then, again, as to what certainly looks at first like a 

 weak place in the system, Mr. Torr explained that — 

 " The changing of servants was a matter of necessity 

 rather than choice on the part of both masters and ser- 

 vants. He found, as a master, that if he hired a boy 

 to mind a pair of horses, and kept him a second year, 

 when he would have to mind four horses, he was not as 

 well served ; so he gave him a character, and the boy 

 got another place, and the change was better for both 

 parties. He (Mr. Torr) would be sorry to do anything 

 that would tend to lower the agricultural status of this 

 county, believing that they had an excellent lot of la- 

 bourers now, and that registration offices would by no 

 means improve them. He had the lowest possible 

 opinion of the existing registration offices." Mr. Skip- 

 worth had also " a very poor opinion of registration. 

 It would be impossible for a man to hire all his la- 

 bourers in that way : he would be travelling two months 

 in the year to select his servants. As to character, when a 

 youth conducted himself well, the master or his foreman 

 was there at the statute to say so, and a more truth- 

 ful character was obtained in this way than could be 

 procured by any registration-office. The remedy pro- 

 posed was totally impracticable." There were other 

 speakers for and against, but the argument is almost 

 altogether embraced in the speeches of the Bishop and 

 Mr. Torr. As the feeling of the meeting was seen to 

 be going against the proposal, an attempt was made to 

 show that in the establishment of register-offices there 

 was no desire to abolish the hiring fairs. If, however, 

 the movement meant anything, it m^st have tended 

 directly to ignoi'ing the latter. And tlie farmers, to 

 whoin, as the Bishop admitted, the consideration of 

 the subject most properly belonged, would not have 

 the proposition on any terms. The formal resolution 

 to establish a "Servants' General Registration Society" 

 was met with an amendment that the institution be 

 rather called "The Lincolnshire General Servants* 

 Amelioration Society" — and the amendment was 

 carried by a very large majority, the numbers being 

 thirty-one to seven. 



We confess that our opinions go very much with this 

 majority. There has been a vast deal of overstrained 

 sentiment about our "white slave markets" — Where 

 Will stands with a bit of whipcord in his wide-awake, 

 or Jack mounts a curl of wool from his last place ; and 

 Mary comes in hopes of getting a better place than she 

 ever would in her own hamlet. Beyond this, we do not 

 quite see the sin or danger of a boy or girl going a little 

 way from home. It is well known that our domestic 

 female servants never do belter than when they are out 

 of reach of the meddling influence of "mother," or 

 the continual promptings of some neighbour Busybody. 

 We are not so sure, either, but that boys may become 

 sharper, quicker, and abler men from the same change 

 of scene— one, that in a higher station of lii'e is consi- 

 dered almost a necessary part of their education. Of 

 course they are never left entirely to their own control, 

 and we cannot but refer again to Mr. Marshall's 

 essay as to how they do really fare and prosper. 



