506 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[JULY 25, 
is now known to tell most favourably upon the land- 
owner ; because, doing well for himself, he increases 
the fee-simple of the property he occupies. So far, 
therefore, from the farmer being an obstacle to the 
collection of statistical returns because they would 
instruct landlords, we hesitate not to say that that 
very reason would induce him to promote their col- 
lection to the best of his ability ; for they would 
tend to give the landlord that knowledge which is 
necessary to promote a proper relation between 
owner and occupier. Another obstacle to the col- 
lection of these statistics, say some, is their inquisi- 
torial characte Without fearing any adverse 
results from affording such items of information, 
there are many men of independent means, or secure 
i i n, who would oppose or at least not as- 
beintermeddled with. Butthisisnottheindependent 
spirit which claims our praise—this is mere selfish- 
ness. - Great good to the community would arise 
from this enquiry ; and we are persuaded that there 
are not many who, on the ground of mere personal 
feeling,would oppose it. But even were the charge 
well grounded, if the enquiry be determined on, we 
cannot talk of the inquisitorial tendency of the en- 
quiry being fatal to its execution ; for have we not 
evidence to the contrary in the successful working 
of an income and property tax, not to speak of that 
more direct evidence which: continental and other 
countries afford us, for in France and Belgium these 
returns are procured annually, and in America every 
10 years. 
The reason why the attempts made to collect the 
statistics of agriculture have failed, is not in the 
nature of the labour, it is in the inefficiency of the 
means that have been adopted. Our Government 
has attempted to work with unpaid agents, and this 
is the cause of the failure. How canit be expected 
that parties having no personal feelings in the mat- 
ter will gratuitously perform a labour requiring so 
much assiduity as this? 
The grand motive of personal and individual fame 
which may actuate one person to accomplish an unpaid 
labour is not felt by the multitude, and they cannot 
be expected to work together unless they have an 
object in view, which is as welcome to the multi- 
tude as honour to the individual—and self-interest 
is the object which all men listen to. ‘It is true 
that benevolent feeling will often induce individuals 
to execute much where self-interest has no influence. 
But in a work like this of many parts, each required 
to be correct and complete, if one agent grew 
careless owing to want of a stimulating motive, and 
another failed to give time to an enquiry so unpro- 
fitable, the whole enquiry would be injured because 
it would be imperfect. One weak link destroys the 
use of the chain. 
"This, then, exhibits the true cause of the failure 
of all previous efforts to collect agricultural statis- 
tics; paid agents must be employed. We can then 
select our workmen and hold them responsible for 
their reports. 
We have Commissioners for countless objects,— 
for carrying out the poor-laws; tithe commutation; 
income-tax, &c., for executing various public works ; 
and for numerous other civil and ecclesiastical pur- 
poses. And we would add to these a board of com- 
missioners ofstatistics. The public is no gainer from 
parsimony in the execution of its business; and all 
that we have to regard in the appointment of this 
commission, is the selection of men who are com- 
petent to execute the work, and willing to devote 
their talents entirely to the-question. 
We have no space to enter upon the mode of 
action which the board should adopt to render the 
inquiry so useful as We expect it to be. It will, 
however, be clear, that three or five active men, 
versed in political economy, would be able to 
organize a body of intelligent suk issi 
acquainted with agricultural practices, and to place 
before them a method of inquiry which would 
enable them to make parallel and contemporary 
observations throughout the country. 
From the detailed reports of these sub-commis- 
sioners, each of whom might take a special district, 
the board would be able to condense the informa- 
tion acquired, and to tabulate the results in a 
manner that would, as we have previously exhi- 
bited, throw light on the relations of the various 
interests of the country; simplify the study of 
political economy ; direct future legislation, and at 
the same time foster the spirit of agricultural im- 
provement, and direct the capital and energy of 
the country into the most profitable channels. 
For these reasons we hope that the casual admis- 
sion of the importance of this subject in the House 
of Commons will not be forgotten ; and at the same 
time we protest against the failures which have 
taken place in executing the work being any argu- 
Ment against the possibility of its accomplishment. 
nciple that private affairs ought not to |: 
THE LABOURER. 
[WE are happy in being able to lay before our 
readers, from the Newcastle Advertiser, a corrected 
report ofthe valuable speech by Mr. Grey, of Dilston, 
in connection with the above toast.] 
After a few preliminary remarks, he said :—It has 
been my lot, at some times and at distant intervals, to 
speak to small sections of my fellow-countrymen on 
subjects connected with their common interests—the 
agrieultural interest of the land ; but I have not anti- 
cipated being called upon to address a meeting so dis- 
tinguished for rank, so imposing in numbers, and so 
important in character, as that which I now have the 
honour to survey around me. The toast which has 
been unhappily committed to my hands, is that of the 
labouring classes ; a subject to which none could feel 
indifferent, whether regarded as involving the welfare 
of so-large a portion of our fellow subjects, or exercis- 
ing, .as it does, so powerful an influence on the general 
well-being of society, and. on the whole moral atmo- 
spherein which we live, I should have satisfied myself 
with making these remarks and announcing the toast 
which has been entrusted to my eare, had not that toast 
been committed to me with a request, that as I am 
idered h ore with the circum- 
stances of the labouring classes than some other gen- 
tlemen, I should accompany it with a few remarks, 
which I should not have made, had I consulted my own 
feelings on the present occasion. Those whose lot in 
life compels them to labour for their daily bread, 
although by good management and good conduct they 
may do much to increase their comfort and respect- 
ability, cannot greatly alter their condition or improve 
their circumstances, by their individual exertions. The 
employment on which they depend for the support of 
themselves and their families, must come from sources 
over which they can exercise no control. We must, 
then, look to others than the peasantry themselves for 
any material improvement in their condition. The 
tenant farmers are the parties generally by whom the 
peasantry are employed, and much might be done by 
their consideration and kindness. But then, again, the 
means which the farmer employs, and the spirit with 
which he cultivates, depend greatly on the terms on 
which he holds and the encouragement which he re- 
ceives from his landlord, and thus the various classes 
of society are dependent one upon another. and a direct 
chain of communication is established between 
the owner and the tiller of the soil. It was admitted 
on all hands to be the duty of the landlord to supply 
suitable dwellings for the labourers on his estates, and 
it is his duty as well as his interest to let his land 
to such tenants, and on such terms as are likely to 
insure its good and liberal treatment ; and just in pro- 
portion as a liberal system of cultivation prevails will 
the welfare of the labourers be. No one can have tra- 
velled through the different provinces of this land with 
much observation, without having discovered that the 
condition of the peasantry is generally a sure index of 
the state of cultivation in any district. If they be found 
well housed, well clothed, and of cheerful aspect, then 
be assured they are well employed and well paid; but, 
on the contrary, if we see them with comfortless and 
ili-furnished dwellings, themselves ill-clothed and their 
children ill-educated and of squalid appearance, then as 
surely shall we find that district ill-cultivated and unim- 
proved ; so certainly aud so sympathetically do they act 
and react the one upon the other. Much of the land 
in England, I regret to say, is still held by tenants-at- 
will, or on an annual tenure ; and no system I believe 
is more calculated than this to put a check upon exten- 
sive and spirited improvement. Two things are indis- 
pensable to the good cultivation of the soil. The one is, 
adequate capital in the hands of the occupier ; and the 
other, the knowledge which is necessary to apply that 
capital to profitable and beneficial use. But the uncer- 
tainty of annual tenure, and the consequent. absence of 
good cultivation, deprives the occupier of the means of 
obtaining capital, and of the inducement to acquire 
knowledge ; it leaves the soil in a state of comparative 
sterility, and the tenantry in a state of stationary igno- 
rance. I know it is alleged in favour of this system 
that such a good understanding prevails between land- 
lords and tenants, that changes of tenancy rarely occur, 
and that the confidence so engendered makes up for the 
want of more ample security ; an am willing to 
admit, in its fullest extent, the existence of kindness 
on the part of the landlord and of gratitude on that of 
the tenant. I am willing to recognise the feeling of 
mutual regard and of reciprocal obligation and attach- 
ment, so existing, as one of the sweetest ingredients in 
our cup of social intercourse ; but is that feeling, of 
necessity, stronger and more genuine in the case of 
tenants-at-will than in that of the more independent 
and more spiritedly-improving tenants, who hold upon 
lease and do not grudge the imp: they make, 
is the same which my forefathers tilled.” This, my 
lord, is pretty in language—it is poetical in sentiment, 
but let us see how it bears in the case of tenants'-at-will, 
not only on the ineome of the landlord and the condi- 
tion of the labourer, but on the interests of the com- 
munity at large. Let us see what it is when reduced 
to the matter of fact prose which experience teaches. 
It would tell, I imagine, something in this way. “My 
forefathers occupied your lordship’s farm, and I occupy 
it now. My grandfather farmed this land 60 years ago, 
an industrious but ignorant man, he made a living and 
brought up a family. My father succeeded him and 
did likewise, and here am I now treading in their foot- 
steps. Tt is true no improvements have been made, but 
then the rent has been little advanced. It is true that 
where rushes grew 50 years ago, rushes grow now, but 
then we have incurred no expense. It is true that the 
same wasteful, crooked, and inefficient fences that my 
grandfather patched and mended, I patch and mend 
still. That the same undrained land which he ploughed 
I plough now. And that I reap at this day crops as 
scanty as those which he reaped.” I have been told 
by a gentleman in this room that tenants-at-will with 
whom he is connected don’t desire to have leases. 
That, however, is not the universal sentiment, for there 
are tenants-at-will, and I regret to say, in this county 
and in my own neighbourhood, who see the improve- 
ments beneficially carried on in other estates and would 
anxiously imitate them if they could have leases, but 
they can’t. There are, however, some who don’t desire 
leases, I am told. It is so. And as I know something of 
that class of people, of their opinions and sentiments, 
I shall tell you why. They argue, my lord, in this way. 
* If we should take leases and improve the land, higher 
rents will be exacted, and perhaps others seeing our im- 
provements may covet our farms and come into com- 
petition with us at our next taking. So long then 
as we are left undisturbed and allowed to go on in 
our own way, let us be content as we are. i 
not for us to trouble ourselves about Mr. Parkes, 
and Mr. Smith, of Deanston, about drain tiles 
and drain pipes, guano, nitrate of soda, and such 
new-fangled affairs" And so, my lord, it is, that they 
come to the philosophie conclusion that “’tis better to 
bear the ills they have, than flee to others that they 
know not of.” We have been told by the noble duke 
on the right (Cleveland), that, unlike machinery and 
manufactures, there is a limit to the improvement and . 
productiveness of land. I am not at all nervous on 
that point—that limit will not be arrived at in our days: 
So long as any land in the country remains undrained 
and unimproved—so long as. annual tenure prevails in 
any distriet, we shall not have reached that period. 
No, my lords and gentlemen, you may rest assured that 
aunual tenure is incompatible with large improvements 5 
generally speaking, both the capital and the knowledge 
to carry them out are wanting ; butif those existed— 
what man would be so foolish as to lay out his money 
in improvements, when, by some change of circum- 
stances, another might step in to reap the benefit? 
How can he tell how soon some cause of disagreement 
may arise between himself and his landlord -—or how 
soon in the mutability that attaches to all human" 
affairs, another Pharoah may arise who knows mof 
Joseph? No man of sense will sow where he has nof 
the certainly of reaping, or invest capital in improving 
land which he has nota pretty sure prospect of recover! 
ing. It is, my lord, on lands ill-tenanted and ill-eulti- 
vated that the labourers are least employed and worst. 
paid. But, my lord, the duties which we owe to the 
labouring classes, whether as landlords or tenants 
or British subjects, are not all fulfilled by giving 
them employment at adequate wages and supply- 
ing them with dwellings conducive to the comforts; 
conveniences, and decencies of life—no ; they have 
still higher claims on our help and guidance, for 
they have minds to cultivate and souls to care for,29' 
well as bodies to feed and to clothe, And if we would: 
elevate them in character and in feeling—if we would 
lay open to them those fair fields of intellectual enjoy- 
ment, from which by reason of ignorance they are to? 
generally excluded : and if above all we would teac! 
them to live and to act under an abiding sense of the 
high obligations which as moral agents and accountable” 
beings are imposed upon them, we must provide for the” 
rising generation a better system of education than the” 
fathers have enjoyed, and that education must be blended . 
with moral and religious instruction. ‘This, my lord, 
opens to my mind so wide and attractive a field of dis* 
cussion, that I must not at this hour venture to enter 
upon it—but it is easy to advert to the circumstances” 
of our sister land, where by a widely diffused and easy 
accessible system of education for the lower classes 
many men have arisen from their ranks who have bee? 
distinguished in the highest walks of literature ani f 
sci n who like Leslie fathomed the depths o! 
knowing that they have time on hand to reap the bene- 
fit, and also that they have landlords eapable of appre- 
ciating the value of good tenants, and willing to give them 
a fair preference at another letting. I could tell, were 
this a time to particularise, of farms which have de- 
scended from father to son by renewed leases for very 
many years, and which have advanced under them from 
a rental of 2007. or 300/. a year to one of 8007., 9007., 
and 1000/., without outlay by the landlord beyond the 
erection of needful buildings, but which under yearly 
tenancy would never, I am satisfied, havé reached more 
than half that amount. It is, nevertheless, a pleasing 
sentiment to entertain, and it has been sweetly said and 
sung, that “ the farm I now hold on.your honour’s estate, 
philosophical truths—or like Leyden, climbed to the top- 1 
most heights of human learning. But, my lord, the. 
value of such an establishment is to be estimated far 
less by the. occasional develop: o disa 
genius and talent, than by the general cB sen a 
knowledge over the great mass of the people. I ir 
that I have detained you too long, allow me to thana 
you for the indulgent hearing with which you p 
favoured me, and in proposing the labouring classes, i ; 
express the wish that the hamlets of our peasantry s 
long send forth the shout of health and joy. Long eu 
the golden harvests that robe our fertile MES. 5 
gathered by them in peace and in plenty—and we 
long may all classes: in this favoured land, combinin| 
Tt ig^ 
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