224 



CHAPTER XIX. 



AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 



Standing as agricultural labourers do on the brink of 

 pauperism, the slightest slip downwards carries them over 

 the verge. But the most cheering symptom in rural 

 distress at present, as contrasted with the past, is that 

 hired labourers have been the last, and not the first, tc> 

 suffer by depression. Looking back to the period oi' 

 protection from 1790 to 1840, their condition was de- 

 plorable, a disgrace to civilisation generally, and to land- 

 lords and farmers in particular. Between 1770 and 1850 

 the average rent of arable land had more than doubled, 

 while wages increased b}^ one-eighth, the rent of cottages 

 rose by a half, and the commons, by which the labourer 

 had improved his income, were enclosed— rarely, indeed, 

 without compensation, but generally without any per- 

 manent equivalent. The old Poor Law degraded peasants 

 to parish pensioners, checked the circulation of labour, 

 deteriorated its efficiency by fixing pay with reference to 

 wants rather than services, encouraged the growth of a 

 surplus population by rewarding the most productive 

 couples. The standard of life from 1800 to 1834 sank 

 to the lowest possible scale ; in the South and West wages- 

 paid by employers fell to 3^. to 4.s. per week, augmented 

 by parochial relief from the pockets of those who had no 

 need of labour : and insufficient food has leffc its mark in 



