18 
Condition of the Agricultural Labourer, with 
imposing additional labour upon him without any countervailing 
benefit to his employer — indeed, to the employer's actual injury, 
for the exertion of going and returning must necessarily lessen 
the labourer's capacity for other exertion, and the employer will 
have by so much less work done. The labourers required for 
cultivating a farm, ought therefore to be provided with habita- 
tions conveniently situated within its limits, or immediately ad- 
joining. This would unquestionably be for the farmer s interest, 
and if the farmer's, it must likewise be the landlord's, for the 
interest of each requires that the land should be so cultivated 
as to yield the largest amount of produce at the least amount of 
cost. 
In many instances it may be necessary that the cottages should 
be situated on the farm on which the labourers are employed, and 
this is more especially necessary where the farm is large, in which 
case they would of course be provided by the owner of the land. 
In other instances, a neighbouring village may possibly afford the 
best means of accommodating the labourer ; but in this latter 
case, neither the landlord nor the farmer ought to consider him- 
self exonerated from the duty of attending to the state of the 
dwellings. They should see that the labourers are provided with 
suitable habitations, and moreover that they obtain them at suit- 
able rents. Exorbitant rents are often exacted for miserable 
dwellings, in which the requirements of comfort and decency 
are alike disregarded, and in which if health be preserved it 
amounts almost to a miracle. Such cottages are for the most 
part the property of some village speculator, or they belong to 
the village shopkeeper, who stipulates for supplying the in- 
mates, and on whom the labourer thus becomes in a double sense 
dependent. 
From these and similar hardships and impositions it is the duty 
of employers to protect their people, which can only be effectually 
done by providing suitable cottages for them to reside in, at rea- 
sonable rents. That it is the interest of the employer to do this 
is clear, for if the labourer be compelled to pay an exorbitant 
rent for his dwelling, or an exorbitant price for the articles 
which he consumes, he must be paid higher wages. If this be 
not done, the labourer will sink below the level in point of 
comfort which it is necessary that he should maintain in order to 
ensure the full development of his physical powers, in which 
case he will not only be less eflicient, but he can then hardly be 
expected to feel contented in his position. 
Many of our landlords, influenced by these and similar con- 
siderations, have incurred much expense in repairing and enlarg- 
ing the cott.iges on their estates, and providing suitable dwellings 
for their labourers ; and they have been re\varde<l by seeing a 
