Condition of the English Agricultural Labourer, 1871. 345 
the inventions of the engineer must necessarily progress in skill 
and ability, and fit themselves to earn the higher wages which 
are paid to those who attend similar machinery in the factory and 
the forge. In this, as in every other department of agriculture, 
there is ample scope for improvement. A better education, both 
elementary and technical, is wanted for the agricultural labourer ; 
this, combined with more comfortable and healthy dwellings, 
would stimulate his mental faculties and improve his working 
powers, and so enable him to earn a better wage for himself 
without becoming a more costly servant to his employer. 
Recent Parliamentary inquiries have thrown much light on 
these matters, and for those who wish to pursue the subject 
farther it may be well to indicate the sources from which much 
of our information is derived. On the 18th of June, 1865, the 
Commissioners who had been making inquiry into the employ- 
ment of children, young persons, and women, in trades and 
manufactures, were authorised to extend their investigations to 
the sy stem of organised agricultural gangs, which existed in some 
of the eastern counties. The Report of that inquiry, and the evi- 
dence on Avhich it was founded, were presented to Parliament, in 
1867, and led to an Act being passed for the Regulation of Agri- 
cultural Gangs, and to a further extension of the Commission, on 
the 18th of May in that year, in order " to inquire into and 
report on the employment of children, young persons, and women, 
in agriculture, for the purpose of ascertaining to what extent, 
and with what modifications, the principles of the Factory Acts 
could be adopted for the regulation of such employments, and 
especially with a view to the better education of such children." 
The Commissioners made their first and second Reports, with 
two accompanying volumes of evidence, in 1868 and 1869, on the 
English counties ; and their third and fourth Reports, witli appen- 
dices of evidence, on Wales and Scotland respectively, in 1870. 
These volumes present a mass of information, not merely on the 
employment of women and children, but on the rate of wages, 
the food, lodging, education, and social position of the labourer, 
and incidentally on the cost of his labour to his employer, and 
on the variation of wages according to the system of agricul- 
ture pursued. In 1870, a Report on the Wages of Agricultural 
Labourers in Ireland was made ; and Reports from her Majesty's 
diplomatic and consular agents abroad respecting the condition 
of the Industrial Classes in Foreign Countries, were presented to 
Parliament in the same year, and include some interesting infor- 
mation as to the agricultural labourer. 
Mr. Nicholls* pointed out four methods of improving the con- 
dition of the agricultural labourer : — 
* ' Eoyal Agricultural Society's Journal,' vol. vii. p. 5. 
VOL. VII. — S. S. 2 A 
