200 Quarterly Report of the Sussex Association 



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

 Condition of the Labouring Classes. 8vo. London, 1831. No. I. 



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

 this Association; for though we look upon these 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 forming 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 adopted as the general 

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

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

 adjoining counties has of late years been gradually deteriorating; the 

 extraordinary 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 of life. The peasant being unskilled in any mechanic 

 art, has only his labour to sell, and is compelled to take market price for it. 

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

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

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

 peasant to sell, at least, a portion of his labour to himself; and this may 

 easily be effected by procuring for him, at a fair rent, as much land as may 

 employ that portion of his labour for which he cannot obtain from the 

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

 now endured is easily applicable in every place by the proprietors of land. 

 The experiments which have been carried on for some years past on the 

 Gravely estate, at Lindfield, 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 wages from the farmer, to support his family in comfort 

 and independence, and to avoid the degrading necessity of being a burthen 

 to the parish. Deeply impressed with the 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 than has yet been done, into the 

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

 pose measures for his relief by all lawful and practical means, we have 

 formed the Association for the accomplishment of the following object : — 

 We will endeavour to obtain correct information relative to the circumstances 

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

 of Sussex,also details of all measures and plans which may have proved sue- 



