WORKING CREDIT FOR FARAIERS.' 229 



is held in high estimation, this particular form of Co-opera- 

 tion should so long have remained unused. We have 

 talked a good deal about it. It is nearly fifty years since 

 Sir R. Morier, then our Minister at Darmstadt — where he 

 had seen a good deal of the success of Co-operative Credit 

 — sent a glowing account of its triumphs and utiUty to 

 the first National Co-operative Congress held in this country, 

 in 1869. Since then the late Lord Avebury has warmly 

 recommended it in the House of Commons, in 1889. In 

 November, 1893, we formed the Agricultural Banks Associa- 

 tion, to promote specifically agricultural co-operative credit 

 societies. In the succeeding year, as a sequel to my reading 

 a paper upon the subject before the Central Chamber of 

 Agriculture, a committee of that body was appointed to 

 investigate the subject. In the same year Sir Horace 

 Plunkett invited me over to Ireland to explain the system 

 to his Irish Agricultural Organisation Committee. About 

 the same time, in the same month, we formed the first 

 English village bank at ScaM^by in Lincolnshire, thanks to 

 Captain Sutton Nelthorpe, the squire. 



Twice has the matter been brought before Parliament, 

 in the shape of a Bill which, on the second occasion, passed 

 the House of Lords with flying colours, a peculiarly compe- 

 tent Select Committee under Lord ]\Iersey reporting strongly 

 in its favour. After that the Board of Agriculture has 

 professed a keen desire to acclimatise Co-operative Credit. 

 It has begged for a Memorandum on the subject from me, 

 and has tried its own hand at a Bill. The Small Holdings 

 movement has imparted a fresh fillip to the desire to establish 

 Co-operation banking. For everybody recognises that 

 small holdings without easily obtainable and cheap credit 

 have no chance of success. 



And yet at this moment we stand, with regard to practical 

 co-operative credit for Agriculture, only precisely where we 

 did before Sir R. Morier entered the lists as spokesman, 

 and Lord Avebury, as a banker, pronounced his benison 

 upon it ! Ireland never heard of such credit till 1894. But, 

 buckling to its task at once in good earnest, it has, without 

 in any way forcing the pace, achieved a ver^^ satisfactory 



