The Emancipation of Labcmr. 509 



and better educated ; so tkat in frogality, faitkfiiliiess and in- 

 dustry, they compared faronrably witii their brethren in the 

 $outh. The writer of the Seport for the cotinty of Hereford 

 corroborated this view, and stated " that if a certain propor- 

 tion between the price of labour and the average price of 

 wheat cotdd be fixed by law. ao as to render the applications 

 for parochial relief necessary only in cases of very large fami- 

 lies, of xmusnal sickness, of scanty seasons, or any other real 

 emergency, the measnre it is presumed wonld be honotrrable 

 to the cotmtTT. wcTild stimnlate indnstry and fidelity, check 

 dishonesty, and endear to their native soil a numeroiis class of 

 nsefol persons." 



This principle of co-operation wonld have made an ally of 

 the peasant instead of an antagonist, in the stmggle over the 

 Com Laws. It would have kept hi-m from a daily or weekly 

 visit to the markets, where he wonld be likely to pick up 

 dangerons doctrines from the stnmp orator, and spend m<Dney 

 uselessly on the whims of the moment. The practice of hav- 

 ing his employes on the premises, s«3 that they slept and 

 lodged in a portion of the farmhonse, bronght them into 

 such close contact with the husbandman that an identificatian 

 of interests ensued. Instead of going to a publie-hotLse for his 

 meals, the labourer lived a great deal more c£«mfortably and 

 cheaply under his master's roof, was always available when 

 wanted, and lost no valuable time in going to and from his 

 place of abode. 



Where, howev^. as in Surrey and oth^" southern counties, 

 the labourer was hired by the day instead of the year, he 

 was far more independent of the goodwill of his employer, 

 less sober and provident, and constantly becoming reduced to 

 that condition of want which rendered him a burden to his 

 parish. At the period of harvest, while he was working by 

 the acre, he was tmusnally flush of money, which tempted him 

 to indulge in an improvidence which he must have bitterly 

 rued during other periods c-f the year. 



The rate of wages varied considerably in different districts 

 and at different periods. During the last twenty years of the 

 eighteenth century it had considerably increased, ajEwi the 



