British Agriculture, 301 = 35 
"ind delicate duties thus intrusted to them. Where they possess 
iuch an amount of general knowledge as enables them to carry 
heir employer with them in all equitable arrangements for 
naintaining the property in a state of high agricultural effici- 
>ncy, they perform a most useful function, and add very greatly 
0 the welfare and comfort of all connected with the estates 
vhich they administer. A very eminent living authority rests 
he tenure of property on the fulfilment of duty ; and a most 
mportant part of that duty is to see that no good land upon it 
s suffered by neglect or mismanagement to remain unpro- 
luctive. 
The third class comprises the agricultural labourers, who The labourers 
re necessarily much more numerous than both landowners and 
cnants. They cannot be said to have any other capital than 
lie furniture of their dwellings, their well-acquired experience 
1 all the details of husbandry, and the bodily strength to use 
The English labourer, of the southern counties especially, 
as hitherto had but little education, except in his business. 
he Scotch have had their parish schools for three centuries, 
nd the Irish a national school system for the last forty years, 
^he legislation of 1876 has removed this blot on the English 
\ stem, by enacting that no child shall be employed at any kind 
t labour until he is of the age of ten, nor above that age 
nless he can show a certain degree of proficiency in education, 
his excellent rule is a virtual compulsion of education, as 
arents and employers alike are liable to penalties for its in- 
ingement. And as it is now accompanied in all parts of the 
ingdom by the establishment of duly regulated schools, no child 
in avoid an elementary education. 
The state of the agricultural labourer of the Southern their state in 
)unties has long been the subject of reproach, and, till a some of the 
■cent period, not without good reason. In many parishes the ^^^''j^j*™ 
verage rate of wages was below the means of maintaining a subject of 
lan's bodily strength adequate to good work, and the result reproach, but 
as that two men at low wages were kept to do the work of one mending, 
ell-paid labourer. The employer was a loser by this ; and 
H)ugh he might be aware of it, he could not help it, for there 
as a redundancy of labour seeking employment, and which 
id to be maintained either by wages or poor-rates. The 
bourer himself was uneducated, having little knowledge of any 
istrict outside his own parish, no means of moving beyond it, 
hile he risked the loss of his legal right to the parish relief in 
Iness or old age, if he left it. In such circumstances it was 
xrdly possible for the agricultural labourer to attain any degree 
independence. There was no margin for saving, no surplus out 
