TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 165 
become a sort of social superstition in England ; but when that time came, it was 
hoped that the members of the British Association would be prepared to give 
their support to the recommendations of the Commission. 
Inventors and Inventions. By G. Bett Gatioway. 
Lhe Condition of the Agricultural Labourer, specially in the West of England. 
By the Rey. Epwarp Girpiustone, M.A., Canon of Bristol. 
The progress of manufacture so far from lessening has rather increased the value 
of land. Fortunes made in manufacture are generally invested in land. Skill 
acquired in manufacture is applied to land. Great Britain retains and is likely 
always to retain its character as an agricultural country. Landowners occupy the 
highest positions and enjoy the greatest social previleges. Public opinion, the 
reform of universities and public schools, the facility for foreien travel, and the 
admixture of the manufacturing classes with the old landed proprietors have much 
raised the character and improved the tone of these last. Still, especially in the 
West of England, there are many persons remaining who resist all progress. The 
race of farmers is also much improved, but not so much in the West of England 
as elsewhere. The land is also much improved; a larger acreage is brought into 
cultivation, and each acre is made to yield more. In this respect, also, in the 
West of England there is less improvement than elsewhere. Nowhere has the 
improvement of the agricultural labourer kept pace with that of the landowner, 
the farmer, and the land itself. In the West of England the condition of the 
labourer is very little improved, and in some respects is worse than it used to be; 
wages are low, fuel and provisions dearer. Education has become a necessary 
of life for a family. The poor-rate is so administered as to quench every feeling 
of independence. In the West of England an agricultural labourer had, till lately, 
only 7s. or 8s. a week, and now only 8s. or 9s. Unless he is a horsekeeper or a 
shepherd, he has to pay out of this from 1s. to 1s. 6d., or more, a week, for house- 
rent, and to provide food, clothing, medical attendance, fuel, and every other 
necessary for himself, wife, and family. Potatoe ground he pays a high rent 
for; and fuel he seldom gets except at a cost of as many hours of hard work in 
eng it as are its full value. He has three pints or two quarts of cider a 
ay, and has a portion of his wages often paid in grist, which when corn is dear is 
an advantage, but otherwise a loss to him. He is often not allowed to keep a pig 
or poultry for fear of stealing food for them from his master. He works, nomi- 
nally, ten or ten and a half hours a day, with an hour and a half deducted for 
meals. Heisalmost always, however, in reality kept a much longer time than this, 
and is seldom paid anything for overtime, except by bread and cheese in harvest 
time. Women get 7d. or 8d. a day for outdoor work, with a quart of cider, 
and boys smaller sums in proportion. The men breakfast before they leave home 
on Pikettlc broth, which consists of an infusion of bread and water with a 
little milk, when it can be got. For luncheon or dinner, which they take with 
_ them, they have coarse bread and a little hard, dry, skim-milk cheese at 3d, per 
Ib. For supper, on their return home, they have potatoes or cabbage, with a 
very small slice of bacon sometimes to give a flavour. Butchers’ meat they 
seldom get except it is given to them. They are unable to lay by anything; and 
few comparatively belong to benefit societies. They are long-lived, but even in 
their prime feeble, and at the age of fifty often crippled with rheumatism, the re- 
sult of poor living, sour cider, a damp climate, hard work, and anxiety combined. 
_ There remains nothing for them then but parish pay and the Union. There 
are many exceptions to this general rule, often even in contiguous parishes, owing 
to the presence of an intelligent resident land-owner, or the immediate neighbour- 
hood of a large town, mines, or manufactures. In other parts of England the rates of 
_ wages differ much. The wages of the agricultural labourer are always higher in 
the neighbourhood of towns, mines, and manufactures. More than 100 labourers 
have been sent from the parish of Halberton and other parts of North Devon into 
Bedfordshire, Cheshire, MerGyshirs Durham, Glamorganshire, Hampshire, Hert- 
