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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



the dairyman of the extreme North, the grazier of our 

 rich vale, our stock farmer in the hills, and those who 

 produce the admirable crops in the fields about us, 

 may not meet together, and compare notes, imple- 

 ments, machinery, and stock, thereby becoming ac- 

 quainted with each other's different degrees of industry 

 and skill. By some such means a more general sym- 

 pathy might be engendered in respect to the great 

 occupation of all of us than I candidly believe now 

 exists." 



There is a great deal of suggestive matter here, 

 and the argument itself is very forcibly put. A show 

 of stock, or of implements, to work on to any real 

 use and progress, must not be confined to any one 

 small district. A man cannot be content with 

 merely following or teaching his neighbour. We 

 live in an age when, especially with regard 

 to agriculture, the tone of society is altogether 

 beyond this. On the other hand, perhaps the welfare 

 of the labourer cannot be too directly the care of those 

 about him. That the system of offering premiums for 

 skilled labour, long service, and good conduct, has 

 been signally successful, no one who knows anything 

 of the effect of such an influence will now attempt to 

 question. But the point is whether in the proceedings 

 of one day the several sections of the prize sheet can be 

 all duly attended to. At many meetings the labourers' 

 rewards are distributed before "the dinner" instead 

 of after; and such is the case with the Bedford- 

 shire Society. At the last meeting, however. Colonel 

 Gilpin, one of the members for the county, expressed 

 his regret that the farm servants were not still intro- 

 duced and addressed by the chairman. And he said 

 this with a printed list before him embracing no less 

 than five-and-twenty toasts — involving something like 

 five-and-forty speeches — in addition to the reading of 

 a Report, and two tables of awards, by a rather talk- 

 ative secretary ! No wonder that people were heartily 

 tired of it before it was half over — a consumma- 

 tion that would never have been arrived at, but for 

 the tact and good taste of the chairman, Mr. 

 Hastings "Russell. But what would it have 

 been if Colonel Gilpin had his will, and marched 

 in a Company of labourers who had served their times, 

 or reared their lambs, or cut straight furrows ! Still 

 it is only fair to add that the same desire was expressed 

 yet more strongly the day previous at Ludlow, when 

 Dr. Bowles, a clergyman, said, " I would venture most 

 respectfully to suggest to the members of this society 

 an alteration, which I think would also be a great im- 

 provement, in the mode of distributing the rewards to 

 your farm labourers and domestic servants. Under the 

 present arrangement, those whom you deem worthy of 

 so great a distinction are huddled in and huddled out 

 of this room with little more, nay with not so much ob- 

 servaace as the prize-cattle in your show-yard, and have 

 scarcely time allowed them to pocket their reward, and 

 gulp down a glass of wine and make their exit (Cries 

 of " No, no," and expressions of disapprobation). I 

 think they are especially entitled to your respect and 

 consideration (Mr. Weyman : " So they are, and they 



are here now"), when you consider, gentlemen, that 

 the greatest privilege which the rich possess over the 

 poor is the power of making them happy, and that all 

 your happiness has for its basis the industry of the 

 poor — that all the distinctions of the rich gentlemen 

 that 1 see about me are also supported by their indus- 

 try, I think that you will agree with me that this is an 

 occasion when the rich and the poor, the employer 

 and the employed, meet together on something like an 

 equality. I would therefore take the liberty of suggest- 

 ing that when they come up to receive their rewards, that 

 the patron of the society should himself be requested 

 to distribute them. I am sure that in propor- 

 tion as you lift up your labourers in their own eyes, 

 they will forget their poverty and think themselves 

 rich in your kindness; and they would be delighted to 

 hear a few kind words of encouragement, calculated to 

 give them true elevation and self-respect. I am sure 

 they would be delighted to hear a gentleman in Mr. 

 Knight's position, as the patron of the society, if he 

 would — I won't say condescend — but if he would take 

 the trouble to address them in the spirit of brother- 

 hood, and to tell them that honest labour involves no 

 degradation, and that they may, though poor in cir- 

 cumstances, become rich in good works, and so dignify 

 the humblest station in society, so as to meet with the 

 approval of God as well as the approbation of their 

 fellow-countrymen. I think that such a course would 

 confer great benefit on the recipients of your rewards. 

 I think that the patron might almost venture to tell 

 them that goodness levels all the distinctions of this 

 world; and that the sense of duty and the power of 

 doing right are the greatest gifts God can bestow upon 

 man. He might also, I think, impress upon them 

 that the greatest man in this room is not necessarily 

 the patron of this Society ; or the honourable friend, 

 the baronet on my right; or the Members of Par- 

 liament, or any among those whom he may see about 

 him; but that he is the greatest man in this room- 

 nay, in the world — who, be his station in life what it 

 may, is most impressed with a sense of duty. I think 

 that if the patron would condescend to distribute the 

 rewards of the labourer, it would be the means of 

 sending from your presence a number of proud and 

 happy men, and would do more to exalt and purify 

 their character than the mere hasty and undignified 

 bestowal of the richest pecuniary reward." 



If not altogether so practical, the sentiment of much 

 of this is very admirable, and it is no doubt as elo- 

 quently put. But is "after dinner " in a public room, 

 where such an address will be seasoned with hurrahs ! 

 tally-hoes! and comic songs, just the time and place 

 for what strikes us would come much better earlier in 

 the day— say in a tent on the show ground, or on the 

 ploughing-match field? However, the unnecessary 

 harshness of Dr. Bowles' expression towards the em- 

 ployer resulted in " a row," and " a correspondence," 

 with which we have no desire to interfere further. 

 Perhaps, if the Doctor came to look a little closer he 

 would find that although others wished quite as well to 

 the labourer as himself, there was not time here to do all 



