8 
Condition of the Agricultural Labourer, with 
either in the all-important affair of marriage or in anything else 
to which thev mav be prompted bv their fancy or their passions ? 
— Would it be reasonable under such circumstances to look for 
sober, ^eady, industrious habits ? — Must not. on the contrary, such 
a state of things tend to destroy the better feelings of our nature, 
and to brutalise the whole rural population ? — Such, it is feared, 
must too surelv be the consequence of thus leaving the young 
unmarried agricultural labourers without supervision or control ; 
and the remedy appears to lie in a return to the old practice, ot 
every farmer engaging a number of yearlv servants, accordmg to 
the size and circumstances of his farm, to reside with him in the 
house under his own immediate inspection. This would in fact 
be enlarging the field of labour, by rendering it continuous to 
the individuals so engaged ; whilst it would restore a very important 
link in the social chain, which circumstances have of late years 
tended to weaken. It would moreover help to prevent improvi- 
dent marriages, and would conduce in various ways to improve 
the habits and condition of the labouring class, whilst it operated 
at the same time beneficially for the farmer. 
Seeing the evils arising from youths and young men being thus 
left without control, one of our large landowners (whom for 
obvious reasons I omit to name) has adopted the practice on 
his estate of placing a certain number of the best conducted 
youths with the head workmen, who take charge of them, and 
exercise a kind of parental authority over them. They reside 
with the foreman at the homestead, and are provided with board, 
washing, and mending, at a moderate charge. A small library is 
formed for their use and that of the other labourers, and the 
whole is under the immediate superintendence of the farm bailiff. 
This is perhaps the nearest approximation to the old practice 
which circumstances admit of, and is earnestly recommended for 
adoption where the owner farms his own land, or where the 
farms are sufficiently large to admit of it. In the majority of 
instances, however, this plan will perhaps not be applicable ; and 
the only effectual remedy for the evil in such cases will be, to 
return to the old practice of each farmer keeping a certain number 
of youths and young men, as yearly servants, under his own roof. 
Our landowners ought, moreover, to use their influence for 
changing another practice that now operates injuriously to the 
labourer, and by altering which the field of employment would 
be practically enlarged, whilst both the farmer and the labourer 
would be benefited — nainelv, by making employment more cer- 
tain and continuous, by doing away with those breaks in his en- 
gagement to which the labourer is now often subjected, and 
employing him permanently throughout the year. There can be 
no doubt that the labourer's earnings within the year, however 
