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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



almost as the destruction of wilfulness. This tender 

 regard for the property of others, if cultivated for no 

 higher reason, might be cultivated from motives of 

 policy ; for, doubtless, the employer will be less chary in 

 doing what is usually called " something" for his tenant, 

 if he finds that "something" carefully prevented from 

 speedily becoming " nothing." All matters left to the 

 care of the servant ought to be as jealously guarded as if 

 they belonged to himself; and the motive for this should 

 proceed from the highest of all sources, and should be 

 inculcated upon all those with whom he has to do, and 

 over whom he has authority. His children's conduct, 

 he should ever remember, will, in all likelihood, be 

 marked by the consistencies or stained by the follies 

 of his own. All these should form important elements 

 in that course of self-reform, or self-discipline, which the 

 employed should place himself under, and without which 

 he cannot honestly expect any permanent improvement 

 to take place in his social position. Some departments of 

 social reform may — nay, must (such, for instance, as 

 this one of improved cottages now under consideration) 

 — begin with, and be successfully inaugurated by, the 

 employer ; but their permanent disposition must de~ 

 pend upon the employed. Social reform, to be worth 

 anything, must be supported, if not preceded, by self- 

 reform. And this the employed are in honour bound 

 to carry out, if they claim from the employer any help. 



This question of the necessity for improved cottages 

 for the labourer forms one important item in the con- 

 sideration of the subject which forms the staple of our 

 present paper. It, possibly, yields to none in import- 

 ance ; for it begins at the beginning, and affords the 

 right sort of help to allow of the cultivation of the 

 hearth and the home influence. But the subject has 

 been pretty fully discussed in the series of papers on 

 " Agricultural Education," Nos. 1 to 5, which we were 

 privileged, some time ago, to lay before the readers of 

 this Journal, and to which we beg to refer for the ex- 

 position of our opinions thereupon. We therefore 

 pass on to the consideration of the question of educa- 

 tion, the next great lever, with the aid of which we may 

 hope — if it is rightly applied — to raise the social con- 

 dition of the agricultural labourer. 



And here, at the outset, let us state our belief that 

 no mere scholastic education will be at all powerful in 

 the way wished for, unless preceded by, or at least accom- 

 panied -[vith, first, the education of excaiiplc, in which 

 the employer shall be the teacher ; and, second, the 

 education of the home, in which the employed shall be 

 the teacher. Here, again, we find the mutuality of 

 labour in this field of social cultivation exemplified. 

 Let us examine the matter somewhat closely. And, 

 first, as to the importance of the education of example ; 

 the employer being the teacher, and those employed 

 under him being, we need not say, the taught. The 

 importance of this kind of education has been, some- 

 how, strangely overlooked. It is humiliating to think 

 that the baseness, the utter hoUowness and deceit of the 



notion, that we hope to get others to do, not as we do 

 (for that may be all evil), but as we tell them to do, 

 has not been seen through, and long ago exposed and 

 for ever discarded. What cant — for it is cant of the 

 meanest kind — to tell men that we expect them to be 

 chaste and pure, honest and upright, when in our daily 

 lives we may show them examples of the very opposite ! 

 If charity must begin at home, so must truth ; the em- 

 ployers must be true to themselves, have the manliness 

 to act what they would wish to see their employed do- 

 not the hypocrisy to ask them to do what they will not 

 or cannot do themselves. What notion of the worth of 

 the precept they try to inculcate verbally only, must their 

 workmen have, under such circumstances ? They will see 

 through the hollowness of the deceit; and ten to one 

 but they will take it too gladly as an excuse to act the 

 deceit themselves at their own time and in their own 

 way, rather than be disgusted with it and fly from it ; 

 for we are more apt to plead the excuse of example for 

 our doing of wrong, than the following after right, and 

 the striving after justice and mercy. Nor is it likely 

 that the example set by employers will be the less 

 marked because they may not occupy the high places 

 of influence as judges, legislators, or acknowledged 

 teachers and preachers : on the contrary, it is just on 

 this account that we conceive that the influence of their 

 example will be all the stronger. It is only those who 

 know the habits, feelings, and modes of thinking and 

 judging, of the poor, who can appreciate the full force 

 of the objections made too often by them, when the 

 example of men of influence, as teachers and preachers 

 and the like, is pointed out to their notice for their 

 imitation : "Oh! it is their trade !" This peculiar mode 

 of arriving at an estimate of the motives of those set 

 over them in the places of instruction will require a 

 long lease of high training to do away with ; and it is 

 just because the force of the example of those appoitited 

 to instruct is weakened by this feeling on the part of the 

 poor, that such stress is laid upon the necessity of the 

 employers showing a good example to the employed. 

 We have a strong conviction — and all additions to an 

 experience already pretty extended of the habits of the 

 poor tends to enforce this, rather than to weaken it — that 

 an immense amount of good will be efi'ected in elevating 

 their feelings and refining their mind, and so inducing 

 them to look upwards and move onwards by the mis- 

 sionary efforts (so to speak) of employers showing in 

 their daily walk that their principles are reflected 

 in their practice, and those principles founded upon 

 the eternal basis of right, justice, mercy and truth. 

 " Individual action, in our own land, and within the 

 circle of our families, friends, and neighbours — this is 

 the true field, not only of each man's bountifulness, but 

 also of his most effective influence. * * He who is not 

 diligent in self-improvement, in vain ossays to regener- 

 ate the world ; whilst those who serve for patterns of 

 any excellence, or for centres of any good in their own 

 immediate sphere, are the most sure, though often silent 



