THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



125 



( Hear, hoar). Wherever the use of steam was introduced, 

 it would tend to improve the social condition of the agri- 

 cultural labourer; of this he had become thoroughly satis- 

 fied by experience and observation on his own farm. 



Mr. Emiu.vDS (Rugby) said that subject was neces- 

 sarily one of deep interest to all of them. Everyone who 

 had seen the Times of tliat day must have observed that 

 another great blow had been struck at the agricultural in- 

 terest (loud cheers), the main object being evidently to de- 

 preciate the agricultural as compared with the manufac- 

 turing districts. Now, having lived in the midland 

 counties, and been a member of a board of guardians for 

 some years, he denied that the condition of the labourers 

 there was as bad as some persons would have the public 

 believe. He admitted that much more ought to be done 

 for the benefit of the labourer ; but still he maintained 

 that the subject should be regarded in a practical point of 

 view. Whoever knew what was tlie state of things 30 

 years ago must feel that there had been great improvement 

 since that period. He would appeal to any impartial per- 

 son whether manufactures or commerce — whetlier any 

 interest had made as great strides as agriculture had dur- 

 ing the last 30 years. Where would the Kansomes and 

 Howards have been 30 years ago? Where would such men 

 be now if they had not intelligent and improving agricul- 

 turists to deal with ? (Hear, hear). He granted that the 

 benefit was mutual ; still the fact remained that the far- 

 mers of the present day were very ditierent men from the 

 farmers of the period to which he had referred, and so 

 surely as the farmers were elevated as a class, must the 

 labourers be, to some extent at least, raised along with 

 them. If they wished to receive the full benefit from the 

 implements now in use, they must have intelligent 

 labourers to manage them. The first essential in the 

 improvement of the labourer was the improvement 

 of his dwelling (Hear, hear) ; but that was not so 

 much a tenant's as a landlord's question. Wherever 

 they found a good landlord, there they found also 

 comfortable cottages, good scliools, and etforts to make 

 the labourer what he ought to be ; but when an 

 estate was overbiu-dened, and would hardly keep the pro- 

 prietor, how could it be supposed that it would keep the 

 peasantry? (loud cheers). The first grand requisite was, he 

 repeated, for the labourer to have a proper place to live in. 

 No cottage ought to contain less than three rooms. 

 One evil which ball often struck him was that the sewage 

 from the cottage and from the pigstye was often seen run- 

 ning close to the labourer's door ; that was an evil which 

 might surely be easily remedied. It was the duty of the 

 parish authorities in all such cases to make representations 

 in the proper quarter (Hear, hear). Moreover, all the in- 

 habitants of the neighbourhood were interested in the 

 matter. So long as the labourer was at work in the fields, 

 the sewage might not much affect him ; but if he got into 

 an ailing condition, lie might soon have typhus fever, which 

 would perhaps spread from the cottage to the farm-house, 

 and from the farm-house to the abode of the landlord. The 

 subject of education was also well worthy of serious atten- 

 tion. He would ask any member of a board of guardians 

 to compare the condition of the pauper's child in the work- 

 house, as regarded education, with the condition of the 

 child of the labourer, who was maintaining himself and his 

 family out of the workhouse. Was not the condition of tlie 

 former preferable to that of the latter? (Hear, hear.) 

 Did it not generally receive a much better education ? 

 (Hear, hear.) In his own neighbourhood an immense 

 amount of good had been done by night schools. In the 

 winter, boys employed on the farm generally left oft' work 

 by 5 o'clock, and thei-e was nothing to prevent an hour or 

 an liour-and-a-half being devoted to the work of education. 



Mr. T. B. Beowne fSalperton Park, Andoverford) said 

 no one present could doubt that the duty of providing 

 proper cottages for farm labourers devolved upon the 

 owner's, and not upon the occupiers of the soil. As re- 

 garded the cost of a good cottage, he did not concui- in the 

 estimate of a preceding speaker. As a landlord, he had 

 had some experience in that matter, and he was of opinion 

 that a very good cottage might be built for about ^70. 

 With respect to rent, he believed that taking the country 

 generally — there might, of course, be exceptions to the 

 rule — ^the average amount was Is. per week. In a few 



districts perhaps it was Is. 6d. There tvas one difliculty 

 connected with this subject. He had built cottages with 

 three rooms, believing that number to be indispensible to 

 the preservation of female morality ; but when the rooms 

 were provided, there was a difficulty in getting the family 

 to use them all ; they still huddled together ai they had 

 done before. As regarded the education of the labourer, 

 he considered it might be carried too far (" Oh !") The 

 labourer might be injured almost as much by over-educa- 

 tion as by being kept in a state of ignorance. One thing 

 that would do much to raise the labourer was, the* substi- 

 tution of measure or task-work, for the payment of a 

 unifoi-m i-ate of wages (Hear, hear). The extent to which 

 labouring men might be improved by having a sufficient 

 stimulus had been illustrated in his own experience. He had 

 a carpenter, with four men under him, who years ago 

 was a common labourer. It was, he believed, by afford- 

 ing incentives to improvement that they "would do most to 

 elevate labourers. 



Mr James Sandeeson (Westminster) regretted that 

 much exaggeration was often indulged in, with regard to 

 the condition of the agricultural labourer. Foi upwards 

 of 25 years he had mingled daUy with labourers in Scot- 

 land, and he had been struck with their general freedom 

 from vice and immorality. He thought Mr. Burn was 

 too sweeping in his condemnation of the bothy system, 

 which liad not generally been attended with bad results. 

 Tlie Scotcli labourer had equally good accommodation 

 with tlie English labourer, received higher wages, was a 

 more skilful workman, and, in point of intelligence, was 

 vastly his superior. 



Mr. S. Sidney hoped that that question would be dis- 

 cussed every year, because it was one of those questions 

 wMcli Parliament could not reach, and which only could be 

 efl'ectually stirred through the action of public opinion. 

 When a foreigner was visiting England, and he (Mr. Sid- 

 ney) showed him the manufactories and the workshops of 

 England, and the results of agriculture, he felt extremely 

 proud; but when he took him into the cottage of an agri- 

 cultural labourer, he felt very much ashamed (Cries of 

 "Oh!"), Gentlemen may cry " Oh," but every one who 

 had eyes to see, and ears to hear, would agree with him, 

 that a large proportion of the agricultural labourers of this 

 country were, in their food, their clothing, their intelli- 

 gence, and in their social position, by no means what they 

 ought to be. He blamed no man for this, but such was 

 the real state of the case. It should be borne in mind 

 that the peasant of the present day was the son of a man 

 who lived in a still worse condition ; and when they per- 

 ceived how reluctant labourers were to avail themselves of 

 schools and the other advantages ofi'ered them, they should 

 r«collect that the labourer was the child of tradition, and 

 that early associations still cling to liim. To show what 

 was the condition of the labourer 40 or 50 years ago, he 

 would read the following description from an unquestion- 

 able authority : — '■ The agricultural labourers of this coun- 

 try were practically slaves; their labour was put up by 

 auction to the best bidder by the jiarish authorities. The 

 report of the Board of Agriculture in 1816 says, ' The over- 

 seer calls a meeting on Saturday evening, when he puts up 

 each labourer by name to auction, and they have been 

 generally let at from Is. to Is. 6d. per week and their pro- 

 visions, their families being supported by the parish.' The 

 farmer doled out to the labourer head money, not according 

 to his work, but his necessities — discharged his best work- 

 man, if with a small family, to take on the worst, with a 

 large family. A crowd of idlers were paid, on pretence of 

 working at the roads, while the independent labourer was 

 marked as a fool for pretending to earn his bread by the 

 sweat of his face." Parish functionaries — the squire, the 

 parson, a farmer, and sometimes a paid overseer — were 

 led away from the real object of their duty, the administra- 

 tion of relief to the indigent, into the belief that they were 

 the great patrons of the whole labouring population, who 

 could never go alone without their aid. The labourer 

 with a manly bearing, struggling hard for independence, 

 was considered insolent and contumacious ; the whining, 

 lazy hyijocrite, dwelling in squalid misery, was sure of re- 

 lief. Such was the coniUtion of the labouring population of 

 tlii^ country 44 years ago ; and* allowance should be made 

 for it, in judging of their conduct at present. Thus much 



