AGRICULTURAL POPULATION. 55 



the almost absolute impossibility of rising above the estate in 

 which they are born, render them, to a great degree, reckless 

 and improvident. Character becomes consequently of far less 

 importance than it would otherwise be. There are wanting, 

 consequently, the motives to that self-respect, which constitutes 

 the highest security of virtue ; and under such a condition of 

 things, it is not surprising to find a laxity of morals, which pro 

 duces swarms of illegitimate children. This is attended by the 

 usual consequence an absence, on the part of the parents, of 

 that sense of obligation to support and provide for their offspring, 

 which is to be found in its purity and strength only in legal 

 wedlock. 



There are two practices in regard to agricultural labor, not 

 universal, by any means, but prevailing in some parts of Eng 

 land and Scotland, which I may notice. The first is called the 

 &quot; gang system.&quot; In some places, owing to the size of farms being 

 greatly extended, cottages being suffered to fall into decay and ruin, 

 laborers have been congregated in villages, where have prevailed 

 all the evils, physical and moral, which are naturally to be expected 

 from a crowded population, shoved into small and inconvenient 

 habitations, and subjected to innumerable privations. In this case, 

 the farmer keeps in permanent and steady employment no more 

 laborers than are absolutely required for the constant and uninter 

 rupted operations of the farm ; and relies upon the obtaining of a 

 large number of hands, or a gang, as it is termed, whenever any 

 great job is to be accomplished, that he may be enabled to effect 

 it at once and at the smallest expense. Under these circum 

 stances, he applies to a gang-master, as he is termed, who contracts 

 for its execution, and through whom the poor laborers must find 

 employment, if they find it at all ; and upon whose terms they 

 must work, or get no work. The gang-master has them then 

 completely in his power, taking care to provide well for himself 

 in his own commissions, which must, of course, be deducted 

 from the wages of the laborers, and subjecting them, at pleasure, 

 to the most despotic and severe conditions. It is not optional 

 with these poor creatures to say whether they will work or not, 

 but whether they will work or die they have no other resource 

 change their condition they cannot contract separately for 

 their labor they cannot, because the farmer confines his contracts 

 to the gang-master ; and we may infer from the Reports of the 



