768 = 502 Tlie Agricultural Labourer. 
labourer, as already indicated, may be due to race, but far mi ? . » 
is attributable, I believe, to the operation of certain laws alii^ 
the existence of certain circumstances which I now proc« 
very briefly to allude to. 
A retrospect. At about the end of the last and the beginning of the pres tf |l 
centuries, stimulated by the high price of corn and of p|»4l 
visions generally, consequent upon the wars in which i 
country was engaged, British agriculture made some very i 
portant strides. In some counties large tracts of land had, 
the skilful application of capital, been reclaimed from tb 
native state of desert heath, and been rendered fertile and p 
ductive. Every inducement would seem to have been affon 
by the high prices of agricultural produce for a continuatior f 
such improvements, and for the larger employment of the at - 
cultural population. The materials for wealth and prospei ' 
were thus apparently available to all engaged in such wor . 
Yet seldom had the condition of the farm-labourer of Engl.- 1 
been less satisfactory than at the period of which I spe 
The supply of agricultural labour was far in excess of 
demand. Wages were consequently very low, and, with 
high price of provisions, quite inadequate to afford a reasoni 
supply of the necessaries of life to the labouring populatv 
The fact was that, as is usual in such circumstances, the geni 
industry of the country was entirely paralysed, and almost 
entire population thrown upon the agricultural interest. 
Poor Law In this time of distress a custom therefore sprang up f 
allowances making every labourer in the rural districts an allowance fr i 
pauperised ° . . r ^ • r •^ i 
labourers. the poor-rate, in proportion to the number oi his family ! 1 
without reference to his employment or non-employm* . 
Direct encouragement was therefore afforded to the multi - 
cation of an already superabundant population. It would e 
difficult to overrate the injurious consequences of this systi . 
Under it every labouring man became in effect a pau] 
deriving a portion of his subsistence, not from the wage-fi 1 
earned by his exertions, but from the rate assessed upon e 
owners and occupiers of property. His spirit of independe e 
was thus sapped at its foundations. Such an evil once permit 1 
to take root was extremely difficult to eradicate. As a ma r 
of fact it became so gigantic a curse, that whole parishes a 
England were abandoned to the relief of their poor, the owr s 
of property deriving no income from their possessions. It s 
not until long after the close of our Continental struggles, i i 
until this serious danger threatened to engulf the whole n 1 
community, that Parliament took steps to abolish this pernici s 
arrangement, and to establish the relief of the poor upoi a 
sounder footing. I , 
J 
