Condition of the Labouring Classes. 709 



Upon the English estates of the Marquess of Stafford, the character of the 

 numerous cottagers is an object of great solicitude; without any inter- 

 ference with the manner in which a man may choose to occupy himself, 

 their regular and decent behaviour is made the subject of care and atten- 

 tion ; and the steward has strict directions to watch carefully over them, and, 

 where it may be possible, to promote their improvement. Whenever a 

 potato-garden can with advantage be adJed to their cottage, that accommo- 

 dation is afforded them. In the vicinity of Trentham the cottages are of 

 the best sort ; and these, with their gardens, are kept in the nicest order. 

 To almost every one of them is attached land for the maintenance of one 

 or two cows. It is a circumstance worthy of remark, observes Mr. Loch 

 {Lord Stafford's Improvements, 1820), tJiat, of all the labourers ivho possess a 

 cow, none receives relief from the poor-rates, except one widow at Trentham, 

 who has a large familt/ ; and, even in this instance, the relief she receives is in 

 a less ratio than any person labouring under similar difficulties would seem to 

 require. The Earl of Beverly, I^ord Carrington, Lord Stanhope, Sir John 

 Rushout (now Lord Northwick), Mr. Burdon of Castle Eden, Mr. Babington 

 of Rothiey Temple, near Leicester, Sir John Swinburne : we could easily name 

 many other landed proprietors, and also many incumbents of parishes in their 

 glebes, v/ho have adopted similar means of improving the condition of their 

 labourers ; and disappointment has rarely, if ever, attended the experiment. 

 Their rents have been punctually paid ; their conduct respectful and 

 orderly ; their industry unremitting ; no allowance from the parish on ac- 

 count of children, or of time lost from want of work. Even in the most 

 trying years, times of scarcity or agricultural distress, very few of the la- 

 bourers enjoying these advantages have been found to apply for parochial 

 relief. They are uniformly found to be most steady and trustworthy work- 

 men, and are, therefore, the last to be throvvn out of employment by agri- 

 cultural reverses ; and the produce of their allotment being mostly green 

 crops is less exposed to casualties from the seasons than the corn crops of 

 the farmer." 



It is impossible not to dwell with pleasure on the foregoing picture, and 

 to revere in the landlords sentiments productive of so much good ; but we 

 must be allowed to say that the picture is deficient, from the total absence 

 of any appearance of schools. It would be of considerable importance, 

 both morally and politically, to know the precise state in which the children 

 of the families, thus rendered comfortable on these different estates, are 

 with respect to education. Is there a sufficient number of schools within 

 their reach ? Do the parents send their children thither ? For what length 

 of time ? And what do they learn ? Or do the parents employ the children 

 chiefly in assisting them to cultivate their gardens ? To make the most of 

 school education, as a check upon population, and as a stimulus to emigra- 

 tion when the population is superfluous, it is not only necessary that there 

 should be a sufficient number of schools, but that it should be obligatory on 

 parents to keep their children at school till the age of puberty; not to 

 forbid their assisting their parents in their gardens out of school hours, but 

 to render them the fitter subjects either for staying at home, or emigrating, 

 and what we have chiefly in view at present, to enhance the difficulties and 

 expense of bringing uj) children. If a high and equal education could once be 

 rendered as essential to the bringing up of the children of the labouring 

 classes respectably, as it is among the middling classes, it cannot be doubted 

 that it would operate as a very powerful check. It would raise wages, 

 and prevent early marriages. At present the little that the labouring 

 classes think on the subject at all may be presumed to be on the wrong 

 side ; the doctrine " increase and multiply " is held to be of the highest 

 authority, and, unfortunately, it is the interest both of clergymen and 

 medical men to support this opinion. We would therefore wish to know, 

 whether, and to what extent, any thing has been done for the minds of 



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