170 BECORDS AND BEMINISCENGES OF GOODWOOD 



When the Earl of Clarendon introduced the bill 

 for permitting the distilling and brewing of beer 

 from sugar, the Duke of Eichmond could not support 

 it, believing the liquor to be unwholesome for the 

 labouring classes ; in fact, he maintained that it would 

 half poison them. Again, when the Earl of Elles- 

 mere moved the second reading of the Factory Bill, 

 his Grace objected to it. In reply to Lord Brougham, 

 who supported it, the Duke as usual defended the 

 agricultural labourers' interest, by stating that " while 

 the noble and learned Lord had asserted that an 

 agricultural labourer at the age of forty-five was 

 not so strong as one of their Lordships at seventy, 

 he (the Duke) could produce labourers in Sussex of 

 the age of forty-five, who could carry every one 

 of their Lordships out of that House. They sat on 

 the sunny side of a hedge and ate their meat and 

 drank their beer, and would drink more of it if the 

 malt-tax were repealed. Where had the noble Lord 

 been living, for he very much doubted whether 

 he had ever been inside an agricultural labourer's 

 cottage." During the debate, the Earl of Clarendon 

 asked the noble Duke whether he would consent to 

 a law that should limit the work of the agricultural 

 labourers ? His Grace most emphatically replied, 

 " If one half of the agricultural labourers die from 

 excess of labour, as the manufacturing labourers do, 

 I should certainly agree to a law that limited their 

 labour." 



