lU 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



reganls) the fact that evils great in number and appalling 

 in results are connected with the condition of oui- agricul- 

 tural labourers, there is just as singular a diversity of 

 opinion as to how and in what manner these evils can 

 best and quickest be remedied. But while mindful of 

 the deference due to the opinions of others, I shall not 

 fail, where occasion serves, to give my own with all plain- 

 ness of speech. I may speak warmly where I conceive 

 warmth to be necessaiy ; remembering that there are occa- 

 sions where, to quote the sentence of the old di-amatist, 

 " not to be warm is to be frozen." There are many evils 

 of a grave character connected with the condition of our 

 labourer, which cannot be too p)lainly exposed ; and 

 the evil done in ijci-petuating those — whether this be 

 the work of the master and man singly or both com- 

 bined — too pungently denounced. I am no advocate 

 for using fine names to designate foul deeds or bad pro- 

 ceedings ; for I do most assuredly feel, that much greater 

 horror of evil would result, and a more earnest endeavour 

 would arise to get rid of it, if we accustomed ourselves to 

 talk of it, think of it, and look at it in all its native 

 hideousness, rather than to dress it up with outward decen- 

 cies of name and looks, which do not in any wayor by any 

 means belong to it. Wliile I shall try to deduce some 

 practical points bearing upon the question, as to how best 

 the evils are to be remedied which we all so heartily de. 

 plore, I shall endeavour to bear in mind that there is no uni- 

 iversal panacea for these evils — no one cure for the disease. 

 As the evils have arisen from a complexity of causes, 

 this complexity must be well considered before the cure can 

 be discovered. Good cottages, for instance, with decent 

 accommodation, will not alone obviate the evils ; for vice 

 can be, and is perpetrated in the palace as well as in the 

 hovel, and disease and death reap their harvest of pain and 

 woe as well from the one as from the other. Education — 

 the three R's — " reading, writing, and rithmetic," as they 

 have been called — will not alone raise the position of the 

 labourer; for we know well that along with the finest con- 

 dition of the intellect, a depraved heart, and a vicious 

 life, are too often united. High wages and cheap 

 food will not do all that is required ; for along 

 with them we often find a reckless expenditure 

 of the one, and a wanton waste of the other. 

 From the persistency with which one section of this 

 reform, which we thus see to be so many-sided in its 

 character, has been paraded by some, as the thing which 

 once carried out is to set all to rights, I believe much 

 harm has arisen, and the improvement of the social con- 

 dition of our agricultural labourers greatly retarded. Some 

 take a fancy for a hobby, and think they have only to 

 mount it, and push it well on, when it will lead to the de- 

 sired end. The tj'rant Procrustes, of whom we read in classic 

 storj', had a bed to which all visitors were compelled to be 

 adjusted in their length, the operation in those who were 

 too short being effected by their being drawn out, and on 

 those too long by theh' having their feet cut off. So in 

 like manner do we find several who have theories to which 

 evei7 thing must be adjusted, the operation being as un- 

 pleasant in its results and futile for good as in the case of 

 the unfortunate visitors of old Procrustes. I confess to 

 havingin by-gone days sinned somewhat — possibly I should 

 say considerably— in this way, but more extended observa- 

 tions and larger experiences have shown me that there are 

 an infinitely greater number of causes at work, modifying 

 and inducing the peculiar condition of our agricultural 

 labourers, than I at one time thought of. Again, some 



discuss the subject from a purely philanthropic point of 

 view ; forgetful of the fact that there aro circumstances 

 which materially modify the operation of laws, or which 

 affect considerably the high standard which they may set 

 up. On the other hand, some take a purely practical view 

 of the subject, referring all the points to the decision of 

 expediency, or asking themselves perpetually, wUl it pay to 

 do this, or to undo that ? In this, as in other matters, the 

 middle com'se is perhaps the safest one to follow, and likely 

 to lead more rapidly to the end. For the philanthropist is 

 not entitled to ignore the peculiar circumstances of the 

 position in which the farmer may be placed, wliich may 

 absolutely put it out of his power for the time being to 

 obey the high behests of a rigid right ; just as much as the 

 practical man is not entitled to sneer at what he may call 

 the high-flown notions of the philanthropist, or to forget 

 that in so far as they are founded upon the principles of 

 "right," "justice," and "mercy," so must they be the 

 standard to which all should aim at arriving, and by which 

 all matters must ultimately be decided, I have said that 

 the middle course is perhaps the safest ; it may be the 

 most difiicult to discover — doubtless it is — but because we 

 do not see our way to it at present, this is no reason for 

 asserting that it does not exist : not seeing may prove 

 perhaps our blindness or deficiency of eye-sight, not the 

 non-existence of the object talked about. Still further, we 

 often find the subject discussed, as if all the evils connected 

 with the condition of the agricultural labourer were de- 

 pendent on, or caused by the classes above him — as his 

 employer or the landowner — and as if the work of ameliora- 

 tion coiild alone be carried on by these. This may appear 

 to be the truth of the case by men who make an outside 

 or far-off examination of the subject only ; but that it is not 

 the truth, nay, that it is indeed anything Ijut that, those who 

 are acquainted with the peculiarities of peasant life know 

 full well. There are indeed some things which the labourer 

 cannot do for himself; but I insist that there are many 

 things which he, and he alone, can do. And it is just be- 

 cause I have seen, during the course of a pretty extended 

 experience of working-men, so comparatively little real 

 desire to raise themselves in the social scale — such a 

 jealousy, petty and narrow-mmded,in the extreme, of those 

 who attempt to show them the value of such a rise in life, 

 and the necessity that exists that they should exercise the 

 virtues of self-denial and self-control, in order to secure 

 it — that T have lost much of the enthusiasm with which I 

 at one time viewed the question, and that I now have daily 

 more and more sternly fixed upon me the conviction that 

 the reform of the social condition of the labourer wiU be 

 a much slower process than we all wish for, if the work 

 in connection with it is to be done only by one class, the 

 farmer or the landowner, unaided by the labourer himself- 

 and I conceive he is the truest friend of the labourer, as 

 well as the kindest, who, while not failing to denoirnce the 

 sins and shortcomings of the master, is no less decided in 

 denouncing those of the servant. We hear much of the 

 lack of sympathy between master and man, and I deplore 

 it as heartily as any one, looking upon it as antagonistic at 

 once to the benevolence which we admire, and the dictates 

 of Christianity we profess to believe ; but I protest against 

 the view which is too often now taken, that the out-flowing 

 of sympathy from the master to the man, is what is only 

 wanted — ignoring the truth, that there is as often a failnz'e 

 of the stream of sympathy in the contrary direction, from 

 the man to the master. I am sure that those who practi- 

 cally know the labourer, know that often the motives of 



