Suggestions for its Improvement. 
9 
he may be employed, ought to be sufficient to support him 
throughout the year ; and the farmer should endeavour so to form 
his arrangements as to keep his labourers always in work, since 
they must be always maintained. It is certain he cannot do with- 
out them for a large portion of the year ; and if he discharges 
them when they are less wanted, they must still be maintained in 
some way, and towards their maintenance the farmer must in 
some shape contribute. Would it not then be better for him to 
keep them continuously at work, which, although it might not be 
altogether remunerative, would yet be so to some extent, rather 
than have to contribute towards their support without deriving 
any return whatever? 
This is the economical view of the matter ; but the question is 
of far greater importance when viewed w ith reference to its moral 
consequences. To discharge labourers at every trick and turn, 
tends to break up the kindly relation which ought ever to subsist 
between master and servant. Can the labourer be expected to 
feel attachment to the person or regard for the interest of an em- 
ployer, who, the moment it becomes possible to do without him, 
will, he knows, throw him upon the union for support? Can 
that kindly confidence exist between them, which ought always to 
exist between persons so intimately connected and mutually de- 
pendent? Does not their position, in fact, become in some sense 
antagonistic, and of a nature to awaken evil passions, tending to 
the demoralization of the labourer and the injury of the employer ? 
Must not a good industrious workman feel it a great hardship, if 
not a positive injustice, to be cast upon the parish or the union 
during the slack season of the year, instead of being enabled to 
live throughout the year by the fruits of his own honest labour ? — 
These are questions of deep interest to every owner and occupier 
of land, whom it behoves carefully to consider their tendency and 
import. 
Some landlords, actuated by the best spirit, have endeavoured 
to supply a remedy for the evil above adverted to, by giving em- 
ployment at moderate wages during the slack months to all who 
apply for it. This has been attended with very satisfactory results, 
and IS an example worthy of being followed : but the landlord's 
influence ought at the same time to be exercised among his 
tenantry, to induce the farmers to provide permanent employment, 
and to keep their labourers at work throughout the year. This 
^ would establish a durable connexion between them, but such 
connexion, and the attachment naturally springing out of it, can- 
not exist if the labourer is turned adrift the moment he can be 
dispensed with ; and the sooner this practice is abandoned, and 
continuous employment provided, thereby restoring the natural 
dependence of the servant on the one hand, and the natural influ- 
