350 Condition of the Enr/lish Agricultural Labourer, 1871. 
labourers' weekly earnings, issued by the Poor Law Board for 
the spring and summer quarter of 1870. But if we take the 
higher-wage counties — Cumberland, Lancashire, Cheshire, West 
and East Ridings of Yorkshire, the average wage in which was 
estimated at about 135. per week in 1851, we shall find in these 
counties now the ordinary wage 13s. to 15s. per week, with the 
addition of harvest-money and piecework, indicating here also 
a rise of wages, though not perhaps proportionately so great as 
in the lower-waged counties. 
Mr. Sackville West, writing on February 1, 1870, of the con- 
dition of the Departments of the Gironde and the Dordogne, 
in France, describes the agricultural labourer as in an unsettled 
condition, although his wages have doubled during the last thirty 
years. The superior attraction of town labour, the rise in prices 
of all kinds, and the objection felt by women to field-work, 
together with the excessive subdivision of landed property, 
are causing a disturbance of labour which is a serious hindrance 
to cultivation ; while of all the evils incident to the labourer's 
condition the conscription is the worst, the severest burthen 
upon the land, and perhaps more injurious to rural life than 
any of the other causes mentioned. At the same time Mr. 
West considers that in these departments the condition of both 
proprietors and labourers is not bad, but rather progessive and 
improving. In Prussia, Mr. Petre reports: "The want of trustv 
farm-servants is beginning to be felt by the landowners and 
farmers. A large and more varied field of employment has 
been opened by the development of industry and by increased 
facilities of locomotion. A yearning for independence, and 
for the possession of a house of their own, prevails even amongst 
the poorest of the farm-servants. They receive now higher 
Avagcs and better food than formerly, and their condition is 
altogether different from what it was. Improvements have been 
introduced on most of the well-managed properties as regards 
the way in which the farm-servants are lodged, but much still 
remains to be done in this respect. They generally sleep 
in the hayloft, or in a garret in the cowhouse." Of Austria, 
Mr. Lytton, in December, 1869, Avrites : "In 1867 the average 
yearly wages of an agricultural labourer in Austria were from 
3Z. to 4/., exclusive of board and lodging, which is provided by 
the employer. As a general rule the agricultural labourer is well 
fed, and the quantity of food he has the reputation of consuming 
has given rise to the proverb, ' what the plough makes, the plough- 
man takes.' The rate of wages for agricultural labour has risen 
considerably throughout Austria during the last three years, and 
is still rising." The reports of the different Poor Law Inspectors 
in Ireland made to the Government in 1869, give an average 
