76 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



and open to reason. I would say to them with con- 

 fidence, as the great Athenian said to the Spartan who 

 rudely assailed him, ' Strike, but hear me.' '' A capital 

 instance of the rich humour in which his speeches 

 abound ! 



Illustrating how the public generally are mistaken 

 in estimating the earnings of the agricultural labourer, 

 I told him I had everj^ year taken out from my labour- 

 book the annual earnings of my ordinary workmen — 

 not my carters, shepherds, cowmen, or Sunday men as 

 we call them — and found they averaged I'js. gd. per 

 week, and that the larger their families, after a certain 

 age, the better off they were ; that 1 had several men 

 who had one or two boys, under fourteen years of age, 

 working on the farms, who supplemented the standing 

 wages of their father of I-JJ'. per week by at least ^. to 

 5^". each, this bringing up their weekly wage to 2jS. to 

 2^s. per week ; and as they had for each family a really 

 good cottage and large garden for is. 6d. per week, 

 they were practically better off than men in the manu- 

 facturing districts, where wages averaged from 2S>s. to 

 30i-. per week, with high rents for inferior dwellings. 

 Lord Beaconsfield replied, " That from his personal 

 knowledge, not only of Hughenden, but other districts 

 of the country, he had no hesitation in saying that the 

 improvement in the lot of the rural labourer during the 

 past fifty years was most remarkable, and that their 

 toil, by the introduction of improved machinery, and 

 also by the introduction of the allotment system, was 

 not so severe as of old." This I endorsed, and said 

 we could scarcely get any one. except old men, to 



