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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



it ? But should the steam plough ever come ex- 

 tensively into use among them, the demand for 

 skilled labour would be much increased ; in short 

 he believed that the grand discoveries of the present 

 age would go on increasing, until all toilsome and 

 irksome duties were removed from the province of 

 manual labour to be performed by machinery. 

 The children of humanity would then be required 

 to occupy their proper place, in having to guide 

 and direct the agent employed, instead of having 

 to do the whole work themselves. Their farm ser- 

 vants in future times would be required to make 

 use of their brains instead of their hands, and he 

 would ask them in conclusion was it not their 

 manifest interest to assist this grand movement by 

 every means in their power, by proclaiming the 

 great necessity which existed for a better system of 

 national education, and by doing all they could in 

 a private capacity to promote instruction and 

 spread enlightment among their humbler neigh- 

 bours. 



Mr. LiLLiNGTON said he believed there was no 

 one in that room who could object to the labourer 

 receiving a good sound practical education such as 

 would be of service to him in his sphere of life, but 

 he thought it was very little use to educate the 

 people while they had to reside in such wretched 

 homes as at present, and he confessed that for one 

 he should have been more interested if Mr. Darby 

 had addressed them on the state of the cottages 

 instead of the education question. He had had 

 considerable experience both in rural districts and 

 in towns as to different characteristics displayed by 

 the labourers, but he had never found yet that he 

 who was the best educated was the best man. The 

 labouring classes knew right from wrong without 

 receiving so much education, and he had always 

 found that if they received more than a common 

 share they wanted to live by their wits instead of 

 by their hands. It was true that some were 

 enabled to raise themselves above their sphere owing 

 to education, but all could not do so, for where one 

 skilled workman was required, a hundred at least 

 were wanted for menial duties, and he believed it 

 would be always so, for they were informed that 

 man must live by the sweat of his brow. In some 

 respects he believed that education had worked 

 injury instead of benefit; for instance, there was a 

 great difficulty at the present day to get good 

 female servants for domestic affairs, which he 

 thought was entirely to be attributed to the manner 

 in which they were taught at the public schools ; 

 for these and other reasons, although he agreed 

 with some of Mr. Darby's observations, he con- 

 sidered others of them were too fast. He for one 

 would attribute the want of morality displayed by 

 the labouring classes to the wretched cottages in 

 which they resided, rather that to any want of 

 education. These cottages were many of them 

 absolutely unfit for human habitation. It was by 

 no means an uncommon case for a man and his 

 wife and four or five grown-up children to be 

 obliged to shift with one sleeping apartment. Now 

 he vvanted to see this altered, and he was quite 

 certain that the character of the labouring popula- 

 tion would be raised in consequence could it be 

 effected. 



Mr, Cains, of Spettisbury, said he had several 

 men on his farm who boasted of a little education, 

 but he had one who could neither read nor write, 

 and yet that man was by far the most skilful, in 

 fact he very much doubted if a more skilful work- 

 man could be found in the whole county. The 

 great want was to make the men apply themselves 

 to the knowledge which they already possessed. 

 It was the non-existence of any desire for applica- 

 tion that made bad labourers. He sincerely hoped 

 that the educational efforts which were being so 

 very generally made would be productive of good. 



Mr. T. H. Saunders fully coincided in the views 

 taken by the two previous speakers. His father 

 had resided during many years in that parish, and 

 according to the experience which he had had on 

 his father's farm, joined to that which he had had 

 subsequently on his own, he should say that as a 

 rule the best man was he who had received the 

 least education. What was vt^anted was good cot- 

 tage accommodation. It was essential that master 

 and man should hold their relative positions ; but 

 should there be too much education, the time would 

 come when if they required to bale the water out of 

 the boat they would have to do it themselves. 



Mr. Reader, after complimenting Mr, Darby 

 on the success which had attended his efforts to 

 provoke a discussion, said that the subject was one 

 that was forcing itself on the consideration of the 

 farming community. He quite agreed with Mr. 

 Darby, to a certain extent, that a sound practical 

 education for the labourer was desirable : the only 

 question was in what did it consist ? He had no 

 objection to a sound practical tilucuion, but as to 

 instruction in the use of the globes and other things 

 which were not taught to the middle classes of the 

 past generation, he considered that nothing good 

 could be anticipated from it. 



Mr. Randall considered that they were all 

 very much indebted to Mr. Darby for having in- J 

 troduced to them, without the slightest preparation, \ 

 a subject which was of the highest importance in 

 these times. He fully agreed with him in some of 

 his remarks: in others he did not concur. Neither 

 could he fully coincide with the observations of 

 those gentlemen who had taken a different view of 

 the question, inasmuch as they had endeavoured to 

 substantiate the principle that the best labourers 

 were those who were wholly uneducated. As far 

 as his experience went he had never found this to 

 be the case. He had always found that man to be 

 the best servant whose education was sufficient to 

 enable him to satisfy himself that his master was 

 doing him justice. Such a one was always more 

 contented than he who could never be certain 

 whether he was being treated well or ill. He was 

 prepared to admit however that no education would 

 make all their servants good labourers. He like- 

 wise fully agreed with all that had been adverted 

 by previous speakers on the folly of instructing 

 them in the use of the globes, and in fancy work. 



The Chairman rose with great pleasure to 

 thank Mr. Darby for having come forward so 

 promptly to prevent their being disappointed in a 

 discussion. The subject was one which would be 

 sure to be taken up sooner or later, although he 

 thought it was a landlord's question rather than a 



