^86 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



maintain that the ignorant child is, and must, be the 

 vicious child ; that the educated man is the safest and 

 best in every rank and profession; that one handy, skil- 

 ful, well-educated workman is, at the present day, worth 

 a dozen who are not so, and has more than as many 

 times their chances of advancement. My subject then 

 concerns the rights, difficulties, dignity, and consolations 

 of labour ; it exhibits property, acknowledging, as 

 in the old days of faith, that labour is his twin- 

 brother, and that the essence of all tenure is the per- 

 formance of duty : it attests that property and position 

 have duties as well as rights ; that the rich want, not 

 merely hearts of feeling, but of sympathy— the poor want 

 human culture ; that our people want, not charity, but a 

 judicious education and employment — not alms, but 

 humanity ; and that if the rich have duties to discharge, 

 it is because the poor have rights to be protected : it 

 attests that no country can be prosperous or secure in 

 its wealth, unless its working-classes be industrious, 

 virtuous, provident, happy, decent, and contented ; that 

 character and labour are the poor man's capital, and 

 therefore must be rigidly and jealously preserved; 

 it attests the awful contrasts between English 

 luxury and English poverty ; bids us endeavour to 

 mitigate this wretched disparity of condition, which 

 abused, renders the rich luxurious and effe- 

 minate, tlie poor heartless and hopeless; makes 

 hop-e kindle into impatience, and impatience madden 

 into despair ; and bids us labour to spread throughout 

 this land of awful contrasts those great and manifold 

 blessings, of which Faiih is the mother. Religion is the 

 handmaid, and Charity the fulfilment; and strive, in 

 this age of competitive rivalry, for a revival of that 

 sympathy and reciprocal discharge of duty as of yore, 

 when 



"Merry went the mill-cluck, the shuttle, and the plow. 

 And hocest men could live by the sweat of their brow." 



I come now to the "position" of the British farmer; 

 and I maintain that it is a high and dignified one, fraught 

 with immense responsibility, both by precept and exam- 

 ple, influencing for good or evil 800,000 families of 

 labourers in husbandry, forming the interest that wields 

 the power, originates the wealth, cherishes the manly 

 freedom, and promotes the happiness of the entire peo- 

 ple ; and that it is from this interest that the greatest 

 part of the public burdens are borne, and from which 

 the State derives the greatest portion of her subsistence. 

 As to " the holdings" of the British farmer, there are, 

 it is calculated, 78 millions of acres, at a rental of 127 

 million pounds sterling per annum, in the area of these 

 kingdoms ; 14 millions of which are unimprovable waste, 

 and 12§ millions uncultivated, but improveable land. 

 The farriis occupy two-thirds of the land of England. 

 The number of farms is 225,318 ; the average size is lil 

 acres. Two-thirds of the farms are under this size ; 

 but there are 771 of above 1,000 acres, the large farms 

 abounding in the south-eastern and eastern counties, 

 the small farms in the iiorth. There are 2,000 English 

 farmers, holding nearly 2,000,000 acres, and there are 

 97j00O English farmers not holding more. There 

 are 40,650 farmers who employ five labourers each. 



16,501 have ten or more, and together employ 

 311,707 labourers; 170 farmers have above 60 la- 

 bourers each, and employ together 17,000. What 

 an enormous trust held by such a body of men, over 

 such a multitude of workmen ! And are they alive to 

 their position ? Do they know their duties — and, know- 

 ing them, dare to perform them ? I answer un- 

 hesitatmgly, for the most part, Yes ; and desire to pro- 

 mote and advance the physical, moral, and intellectual 

 training of the labouring classes. True there was a time 

 when, in some parishes and districts of our country^ 

 the education of the labouring classes was viewed with 

 distrust, and encountered oppontion ; but men now 

 begin more fully to appreciate the words of the excellent 

 Dean of Hereford, in his " Suggestive Hints on Secular 

 Education." "The farmers," says t^ e Dean, "and 

 those of the same class in our rural districts, may rest 

 assured that, until they get that education it is desirable 

 they should have, and until they feel that interest in the 

 labourer which is right, they only augment the evil 

 which they dread. The one is advancing in intelligence ; 

 the other is standing still : and I cannot but think that, 

 in a very few years, the employers of labour will be the 

 class which, of all others, will take the greatest interest 

 in those very schools of which they now think so little." 

 And verily it is high time that it should be so— that 

 "Progress!" should be their watchword, and "Up- 

 wards and onwards" in all judicious improvements and 

 practices their maxim and pursuit. Circumstances 

 have, especially during the last four years, brought the 

 owners and occupiers of the soil to a stage in the march 

 of progress which must compel them to take a new 

 view, and to follow an improved system of things ; to 

 cultivate the independence of their labourers con- 

 currently with their own, giving them an interest in the 

 soil and its produce, according to the amount and qua- 

 lity of the labour fhey annually expend. It is an un- 

 deniable fact that agricultural labour is in many districts 

 becoming scarcer ; that the tide of labour which once 

 came pouring over the harvest-plains of England, has 

 of late years flowed into other channels ; that the fertile 

 settlements of America, and the discovery of the gold- 

 fields of California and Australia, have offered tempta- 

 tions to our labouring classes to emigrate to regions 

 where, too often, their hopes alone have been golden. 

 The ever-increasing production of our industry, too, is 

 constantly drawing to the manufacturing districts thou- 

 sands of labourers, who are tempted thither by what 

 they conceive to be lighter labour and more remu- 

 nerative wages. The critical state, moreover, of our 

 Eastern territories in India, must have its effect, for a 

 long time, in taking from the plough a number of the 

 hardy sons of labour ; whilst in England, with our un- 

 certain climate, and often what is called a " catching 

 harvest," every effort is necessary to find efficient sub- 

 stitutes and means of making the most of a sunny day, 

 and, by the rapidity of means employed, to secure 

 those crops which are the reward of industry from 

 the chances of an unpropitious climate. Yes, I say 

 that the more artificial position of agriculture, arising 

 from the progress made in machinery, chemistry, and 



