19 



we may save some of them. And because the hearts of men are 

 in Thy control, to turn them as it seemeth best unto Thy godly 

 wisdom, take away from among us, Lord, all blindness and 

 prejudice, and whatever else may hinder the advance of the cause 

 we have at heart, so that the number of faithful hands and earnest 

 hearts being continually increased, we may be at length permitted 

 to attain to the end at which we aim, a Temperance Reformation 

 in our beloved land ; grant this Heavenly Father, for Jesus 

 Christ's sake, our only Lord and Saviour. Amen." 



APPENDIX. 

 * TEA V. BEER IN THE H&EVEST FIELD. 



A well-attended Conference of the Members of the Newbury Chamber of 

 Agriculture was held on July 2o, 1878, in the Town Hall, Newbury, to con- 

 sider " How far it was advisable and practicable to introduce non-intoxicating 

 drinks into the Harvest Field." 



The chair was occupied by the President of the Chamber (Mr. E. J 

 Deverell), 



T. Bland Garland, Esq., J. P., Burghfield, Reading, said he had recently, 

 at the request of the Oxford Dioce.san Secretary of the Church of England 

 Temperance Society, written out his experience on the subject now before the 

 Chamber, which was as follows : — 



"Previous to 1871, in common with all other employers in this neighbour- 

 hood, I had been in the habit of giving my labourers beer during the hay and 

 corn harvest ; after much x-eflection 1 came to the conclusion that the practice 

 was quite unjustifiable, that it was worse than the very worst form of the 

 " truck system," as it did not even give the labourer the option of selecting 

 the articles which he received in part payment of wages, but obliged him to 

 receive, and practically to consume, an expensive and unnecessary article, in 

 such quantities as to be prejudicial to his health and the well-being of his 

 family ; in other woi'ds, that the practice amounted to exp'ending about a 

 fourth of his wages, without his consent, in the purchase of beer, and obliging 

 him to drink it. Employers sometimes say, '' We do not give the beer to our 

 people in part payment of wages, but as a gift in addition to wages ; and we 

 do not oblige them to drink it, — we only offer it ; they may take it or leave 

 it." These are mere idle evasions. H' an employer pays his labourer 2s. 6d. 

 per day in money, and expends Is. more in purchasing beer for him, clearly 

 he estimates the value of his labour at 3s. fid. per day, and pays that sum 

 for it. Again, if he employs a number of people in thirst-creating labour, 

 such as that of the harvest field, and supplies them exclusively with a drink 

 which they have been educated to prefer, he practically obliges them to 

 drink it. No better system could be devised for insuring the drunkenness 

 and poverty of our agricultural labourers. As mere children, they are 

 tempted to drink excessive quantities of beer, because it appears to cost them 

 nothing, and they learn to consider the quantity consumed as a test of 

 manliness. 



It is no exaggeration to say that in those districts where beer is supplied by 

 employers in the harvest field, its cost, and the further amount expended in 

 its purchase by the labourers in consequence of the taste for it thus acquired, 

 would sufiice amply, with careful investment, to provide for the comfortable 

 maintenance in sickness and old age of the whole agricultural population. 



I maintain most positively that nothing can be more unsuitable as a thirst- 

 quenching beverage during hard work in hot weather than beer. Even 

 at the best it is an unnecessary luxury, which our agricultural labourers can- 

 not afford, and I submit that their employers do tliem a grievous harm by 

 encouraging them to use it. 



In 1871 I determined to supply no more beer to my labourers under any 

 circumstances ; and I agreed with them, as an alternative, to pay the men 

 * Those marked thus are published as Leaflets by the Church of England 

 Temperance Society. 



