62 



The Landed Interest. 



their state 

 in some 

 of the 

 southern 

 counties 

 long a 

 subject of 

 reproach, 

 but now 

 mending. 



this blot on the EngHsh system, by enacting 

 that no child shall be employed at any kind of 

 labour until he is of the age of ten, nor above 

 that age unless he can show a certain degree of 

 proficiency in education. This excellent rule is 

 a virtual compulsion of education, as parents 

 and employers alike are liable to penalties for 

 its infringement. And as it is now accompanied 

 in all parts of the kingdom by the establishment 

 of duly regulated schools, no child can avoid an 

 elementary education. 



The state of the agricultural labourer of the 

 southern counties has long been the subject of 

 reproach, and, till a recent period, not without 

 good reason. In many parishes the average 

 rate of wages was below the means of main- 

 taining a man's bodily strength adequate to 

 good work, and the result was that two men 

 at low wages were kept to do the work of one 

 well-paid labourer. The employer was a loser 

 by this ; and though he might be aware of it, 

 he could not help it, for there was a redundancy 

 of labour seeking employment, and which had 

 to be maintained either by wages or poor-rates. 



