Condition of the English Agricultural Labourer, 1871. 340 
wages of the agricultural labourer in the lowest-paid English 
■counties with what they were twenty years ago. Mr. Coode, 
in a report to the Poor Law Board, quoting Mr. Caird as his 
authority, puts the average earnings of the agricultural labourer 
in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Sufiblk, Cambridge, Berkshire, and 
Dorsetshire, in 1851, at 7s. \hd. per week.* Bishop Fraser, who 
certainly does not overestimate these earnings, puts wages in 
jGloucestcrshire, on the Cotswolds, at lOs. per week, with occa- 
sional piecework ; in the vale of Newent, lis., exclusive of drink ; 
in the Vale of Berkeley, 12.9. to 13s.t In Wiltshire, Mr. Norman 
says, wages are put by farmers at an average of 12s. to 14s. ; by 
labourers themselves somewhat lower; but the final result of his 
■observation is, that the wages of all classes of agricultural labourers, 
have increased greatly during the last twenty-five years in that 
county : still, notwithstanding this increase, the labourers appeared 
to be in a more unsettled and dissatisfied condition than in any 
other district he visited. J In the Bishop of Manchester's reports 
-on Norfolk, and Mr. Portman's § on Cambridgeshire, the lowest 
weekly wage is put at 12s., except in a small district of the latter 
<:ounty, where it is stated to be 10s. In Berkshire, || Mr. Culley 
went very fully into the question of average earnings and cost of 
labour, and the lowest weekly wage he puts at Us. to 12s., while 
men in higher positions were earning up to 18s. In Dorsetshire,!! 
which is still one of the lowest-waged counties in England, Mr. 
•Stanhope puts the lowest wage at 8s., with a cottage and certain 
perquisites, of which the money value is not so easily ascertained ; 
and his opinion is that the ordinary Dorsetshire labourer earns 
from 10s. to 12s. per week — carters and shepherds receiving some 
2s. more ; and, in addition, generally the cottage-gardens are 
■large, and the redeeming feature of rural life in this county is 
the large amount of land held by the labouring classes. We 
have lately, through the kindness of Mr. G. Sturt, M.P., re- 
ceived further particulars from six districts of the county of 
Dorset, which generally confirm Mr. Stanhope's figures ; and 
4ilso the fact before mentioned, that the use of steam power in 
agriculture is accompanied by a substantial increase in the 
wages of the men employed in connection with it. The wages 
■we have quoted are the average weekly wages, not including 
piece and harvest work. They certainly compare advantageously 
with those given by Mr. Coode, and, we may say, are generally 
confirmed as to their correctness by the returns of agricultural 
•of something like 75 per cent, increase in the wages of agricul- 
* Supplement to Mr. Coode's ' Report on the Law of Settlement and Kemoval,' 
11th August, 1854, p. 17. 
t First Eeport, p. 2^3. \ Second Report, 18G9, p. 58. ~ 
5 First Report, 1868, p. 9-1. 1| Second Report, 1869, p. 78. t Ibid., p. 4. 
