200 Qiiarterli/ Repwt of the Sussex Associaiion 



Anon.: Quarterly Report of the Sussex Association for improving the 

 Condition of the Laliouring Chisses. 8vo. London, 1831. No. I, 



We feel great satisfaction in giving publicity to the benevolent efforts of 

 this Association ; for though we look upon tiiesc efforts merely as pal- 

 liatives, till some radical measures of improvement shall be adopted by 

 government, we still think they will do good. We wish we could see, in 

 addition to the reserve of labour, which it is the object of this Society to 

 procure for every man in his own garden, a national reserve, in the im- 

 provement of the public roads and rivers, and a national system of edu- 

 cation, high, equal, and universal. Mankind will never have a fair chance 

 till they are placed upon a perfect level in respect to useful education, 

 agreeable manners, and civil rights. When this shall be the case, every 

 part of society will be able to take care of itself, without depending on the 

 patronage of any other part ; and services and goods will be exchanged 

 with as little sense of obligation on either side as men now give shillings 

 for sixpences. 



At a meeting held on the 17th of March, 1831, at the house of J. Smith, 

 Esq. M.P. Grosvenor Square, Westminster, to consider of the expediency 

 of lorming an association for improving the condition of the labouring 

 classes in the county of Sussex; John Smith, Esq. M.P., in the chair; the 

 following resolution, among others, was unanimously agreed to : — 



" Resolved, That we now present do form ourselves into a Society, to 

 be called the Sussex Association, for improving the Condition of the Labour- 

 ing Classes, and that the following declaration be adopteil as the general 

 outline of its objects : — The proposers of tiie Association have observed 

 with regret, that the state of the agricultural labourer in Sussex and the 

 adjoining counties has of late years been gradually tleteriorating; the 

 extraonlinary political circumstances of the country having induced a 

 very general misapplication of the poor's rate, and the adoption of a rate of 

 wages inadequate to the due encouragement of provident industry, and too 

 often to the necessities oi' life. The peasant being unskilled in any mechanic 

 art, has only his labour to sell, and is compelletl to take market jjrice for it. 

 If one labourer will not work for what is ofiered, another will ; and the 

 consequent depression of wages is a proof that there is too nuich of the 

 article labour in the market. The obvious remedy for this is, to enable the 

 peasant to sell, at least, a jiortion of his labour to himself; ami this may 

 easily be effected by |)rocuring for him, at a fair rent, as nuich land as may 

 emi)loy that portion of his labour for which he cannot obtain from the, 

 farmer a renuuierating price. This all-important remedy for the miseries 

 now endured is easily ap|)licable in every place by the proprietors of land. 

 The experiments which have been carried ow fur some years [)ast on the 

 (iravely estate, at Liutlficld, near Cuckfield in Sussex, prove, that by allow- 

 ing an acre of land to the labourer, at a fair rent, and making him cultivate 

 one half of it in potatoes, and the other half in corn, proper attention being 

 paid to the preservation and application of manure, he will be enabled, 

 while earning fair wjiges from the farmer, to su|)port his family in comfort 

 and inde|)endence, and to avoid the ilegrading necessity of being a burthen 

 to the parish. Deeply impressed with tiie value of the labouring class to 

 the community at large, and fully aware of the strong claim that it has to 

 the sympathy and protection of the classes above it, and with the necessity 

 that exists for enquiring, more minutely tlian has yet been done, into the 

 nature of the privations and sufferings of the peasant, with a view to pro- 

 pose me.nsures for his relief by all lawful and practical means, we have 

 formed the Association for the accomplishment o( the following object : — 

 We will endeavour to obtain connect information relative to the circiunstances 

 of the agricultural and other labourers in the different parts of the county 

 of Sussex, also details of all measures and i>lans which may have proved sue- 



