THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



201 



payers. When a week's wages and twenty-four hours 

 suffice to land a labourer anywhere ho pleases in this 

 island, and a harvest's earnings well husbanded will 

 introduce him to a new world — when it is possible for 

 any labourer of good character to be convoyed, with 

 his family, at the expense of a public fund, to a region 

 where gold and labour are only synonymous terms, it 

 becomes little else than an extravagance of humanity 

 or law that the country should be put to great cost to 

 discover the proper locality of every pauper, and 

 charge it with liis employment or support. When the 

 English labourer did answer to the title aacriptus 

 gleba' —yvhen, like a tree, or any other vegetable, he 

 did live and die upon the spot of ground that gave him 

 birth, such humane consideration for his care and 

 sustenance might have been necessary. We will not 

 now inquire as to whether the law of settlement arose 

 from the desire of masters to keep him an hereditary 

 bondsman to a certain locality, submissive to their 

 terms, or whether it was intended to meet a'cruel pro- 

 pensity to transplant the British labourer — an indica- 

 tion of which we nowhere find. Whatever may have 

 been, there can be no pretext of this sort now. From 

 the same cottage hearth, and the same class in the Sun- 

 day school, one is braving the dangers of New, 

 Columbia, another is sending supplies to us from his 

 clearing in the backwoods of America, a third is tend- 

 ing sheep upon the fervid plains of New Holland, 

 while a lonrth is manufacturisg broadcloth out of the 

 wools at Leeds ; and is it tolerable that the remaining 

 one should be allowed to depend upon his industrious 

 neighbours to find or make work for him at his ovifn 

 door? 



We have most of us relinquished the luxury of em- 

 ployment at home amid the associations of our child- 

 hood. That is the blessing or the curse of the eldest 

 son. The cadet must pack off, to get his living else- 

 where ; and the cadet who wields the spade must not 

 expect more indulgence than the cadet who wields 

 the sword or the' pen. Everybody is recognizing the 

 fact that the ice of our ancient institution is breaking 

 up. The useless, injurious, old framework of settlement 

 must be removed. Portions of it have already been 

 carried oflF, and we are only anxious to see the remain- 

 der follow. 



It will be desirable for all boards of guardians to 

 petition for the abolition of compulsory removals ; and 

 if the way is not clear to an entire repeal of the law 

 of settlement, for an enlargement of the area of 

 settlement from the parish to the union, and for the 

 equalization of the rates of the whole union by a gradual 

 process. 



Such a change in the area of settlement would have 

 a tendency to put an end to that jealousy — natural 

 enough as regards the pocket, unnatural as regards 

 every other consideration — which urges landowners 

 and rate-payers to drive the labourer to reside beyond 

 the bounds of their parish even while they employ 

 him. I say that a change such as this would tend to 

 reduce bickering. It would, however, only remove 

 the conflict from two parishes to two unions ; and it 



might bo that the gi'eater importance of the union 

 would give a greater relative importance to a question 

 about a pauper's settlement. It would bo of the nature 

 of a compromise, a part being accepted when the whole 

 could not be obtained. While it would perhaps pre- 

 vent the removal of one in eleven, it would render 

 more efficient the machinery for the removal of the 

 ten-elevenths remaining, an efficiency that would but 

 give an extended and i)ermanent character to the mis- 

 chief. So far as it went, the probable operation would 

 bo beneficial; but an entire change, that would not 

 only prescribe this advantage to the labourer expressed 

 in union settlement, but throw open to him not only 

 his union, but the whole country, would be such a 

 sensible amendment as we can hardly expect. 



A law that has always been found to act adversely to 

 parish interests — that has impeded the labourer, re- 

 straining his liberty and prosperity, and yet tendering 

 no equivalent— a law that has encumbered production, 

 by the pauperism it has created and made stagnant — a 

 law that has prevented the cultivation of our waste 

 lands and demoralized our populous districts — a law 

 that has fed the jealousies between parishes, and given 

 rise to the greatest mass of dispute and litigation ever 

 known in any nation during an equal period of time, 

 its assumed object being to remove occasions of dis- 

 pute, should not, one would think, possess any great 

 claim upon our admiration or our gratitude. 



If nothing beyond union settlement can be granted, 

 union settlement must be thankfully received— but 

 received only as a guarantee for that absolute liberty 

 to migrate, which must come. What benefit to 

 the labourer of Wiltshire would be the privilege to 

 transport himself from one part of his union to another ? 

 Labour must not be held where not profitably em- 

 ployed. Nothing less than freedom over the whole 

 land can adjust the balance of the wants and supply of 

 industrj'. Nothing, save national freedom, can confer 

 upon the labourer that reward of industry which he 

 merits, and which we desire to secure for him. 



Let guardians look this matter well in the face, then. 

 Committees have sat upon the question, and blue 

 books enough have appeared about it : all, or nearly 

 all, concurring strongly in the advice to repeal abso- 

 lutely, but gradually, the Laio of Settlement and 

 Removal. Parliament as yet has not moved respon- 

 sively to these demands. " No voice is heard," it says, 

 " and the amendment cannot be needed. We have 

 other ' fish to fry,' and can let this abuse lie till there 

 is a louder demand for its remedy." A petition from 

 each union will suffice. Be up and doing ! 



ALPACAS IN AUSTRALIA.-Few enterprisea of mo- 

 dem times have been marked with more determined energy 

 or greater perseverance under unexampled difficulties than 

 that which Mr. Ledger has at length happily accomplished. 

 To the English public generally the name of this gentleman 

 is but little known ; but, unless we are greatly mistaken, the 

 manufacturers of this country will at no distant date owe him 

 a debt of deep and lasting gratitude, while his name will be 

 remembered in the Australian colonies as one who had coatri- 



