14 



hand, and the increased competition of tradesmen 

 on the other. Taking these facts into consideration 

 they probably receive less profit than formerly, 

 and where the custom is as limited as it is in rural 

 districts, they most likely cannot live with less. 

 Therefore the relief that the farmer will receive 

 under this head of expense will be but trifling. 



With respect to the wages of labour, which, next 

 to rent, are the greatest outgoing to which the 

 farmer is subject, indeed on inferior soils, well 

 cultivated, they are a heavier outgoing ; but when 

 I remark that they are the second great outgoing, I 

 speak of their general position. Wages are a 

 matter of " private bargain, open from time to time 

 and regulated by competition," and, in some mea- 

 sure, by the prices of the necessaries of life. " The 

 general condition of the agricultural labourer in 

 full employment," as the Committee remark, " is 

 better now than at any former period, his money 

 wages giving him a greater command over the 

 necessaries and conveniences of life." And why 

 is it that his money wages are higher in proportion 

 to the prices of the necessaries of life than at any 

 anterior period ? Is it because the demand for 

 labour is great? Is it because the circumstances 

 of his employer are so unembarrassed and easy as 

 to enable him to place the labourer in this condi- 

 tion ? Certainly not ! it is because the evils aris- 

 ing from wages insufficient for a poor man to sup- 

 port his family decently and comfortably upon have 

 been so apparent; it is because farmers began to see 



