alone ought never to be esteemed an equivalent for the evils attendant upon this practice. The improvements in the mode and operation of farming, are now so much greater than formerly, that much less labour is required, and now eight or ten hands can supply the necessaries of one hundred where twenty years ago, it took 35 persons to raise food for 100; and a century prior to this, it took as many as it now does in Italy, viz., from 75 to 85. By this, we may observe, that a large portion of the rural population have necessarily been deprived of employment, and one portion compelled to seek refuge in the cities and manufacturing towns to escape absolute starvation; there to augment the abundant mass of misery and crime, while the other has been compelled from the increased competition which has been thus created, to accept lower and lower terms, until the present condition of the farm labourer surpasses very little that of the multitude who are employed in the large cotton manufactories. In this country the existence of the poor-law has, perhaps, rendered it more difficult to grind down the labourer than in Scotland where they are left entirely to the tender mercies and conscientious principle of those who may require their services, for the remuneration must ever be higher than can be obtained by them as paupers, or their labour could not be secured. England therefore, is a little in advance of Scotland; in considering land simply and solely as a machine for the production of wealth; but the evidence affor ded by the increase of pauperism, and the continued and extensive migrations to the manufacturing districts, sufficiently prove that the condition of the English agricultural labourer has been for the last fifty years sensibly deteriorating. Formerly almost every villager had his cow and plot of land; now it is extremely rare to find a common labourer possessing either one or the other. Since 1760, no less than 3742 bills for enclosing commons, have been passed and between 1801 and 1835, 3,511,770 acres of common land have been enclosed. This in many respects is a national advantage, but as regards the labourer in each particular district where it has happened it is in nine cases out of ten, an unredeemable and uncompensated loss. He loses pasturage for bis cows, and alas! has no equivalent made him. Even if wages had risen considerably the condition of the labourer must under these circumstances, have undergone a change for the worse; but the fact is, wages have not risen in anything like the proportion which will increase the labourers command over the necessaries of life. On an examination of the agricultural population, in Scotland it will be found that the condition of the class residing in the Highlands and Hebrides, is in no respect superior to that of the poor Irish. In the reports of the committee for the encouragement of emigration, it is stated that there are between 2 and 3,000 persons who were compelled to live on shellfish and wild mustard in 1837 ; and would have perished from hunger but for relief affor ded by a subscription made in England. These are a class of peasants living on a small patchs of groundbarely sufficient to employ their labour when the fisheries fail, and whose landlords require a species of surfage for the privileges of using the land. In closing this review of the agricultural population, a few remarks arise on the special duty of the clergy, to mitigate the hardships which fall to the lot of many of their parishioners. Yet seldom are their labours directed to this christian object, their wealth is proverbially large, and much of it is gleaned directly from the farmer, and indirectly from the labourer. They frequently manifest little sympathy in human wretchedness, and as an instance of their indifference to the welfare of the people, we may observe that at the numerous public meetings held in 1822, to relieve the distresses of the Irish, not a single Irish bishop attended; when it was considered the immense sums abstracted from the produce by that class had been a prominent cause of the destitution of the people. The clergy might be usefully employed in personally investigating the causes of the miseries and privations of their people, and inculcating principles conducive to their comfort and independence. In the agricultural districts where there authority is least disputed, where the private sufferings of the inhabitants are greatest such a course might be pursued with peculiar advantages. They are the Pastors of the public, (the Shepherds crook, they are sometimes pictured with being the symbol,) and in the double capacity of guardians and guides, they are bound to endeavour to conduct the labouring poor, at least to temporal as well as spritual happiness. But it is the inefficiency of the clergy as public teachers, and the hurtful influence their example has on the labouring population, together with their inertness in the promotion of measures of general utility; that induces men to murmur at the immense revenues expended in their support, and disposes them to ask for a reformation. • See articles on education and religion. CHAP. XXX THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. The condition property and intelligence of the fishermen-the Shetland and Scotch fisheries-Surfage-the high wages, habits, and profligacy of the bargemen and boatmen―their extreme ignorance attributed to working on the Sabbath-resemblance of the habits of the navigators and bargemen-the peculiar grievances of the seafaring men-their neglect of education -habitual intemperance-wages-advantages of the marine fund-description of the mining population--character of the Cornish miners-zeal of the Wesleyan Methodists in converting the ignorance of the miners in the iron and coal mines-clothing of their children-John Whitakers opinion of religious reformation in the mining districts-their pauperism-comparison between their present income and that of 1680-division of the classes-Stanary reports of the cities-character of the English gentrymiddle and lower classes-striking traits of our national character. THE Condition of the population employed in the fisheries is decidedly superior to that of the agricul tural labourer. Many of them are a superior race of men, and in the possession of some little property, or of some interest in property which is essentially necessary to preserve the unskilled labourer from becoming a mere piece of machinery, to be bought at the minimum market price at which it can be procured. With the exception of a few who have a proneness to intoxication, and improvident habits, in most parts of the country (Scotland included) they are religious, intelligent, and well conducted, and as a class, there seems no reason to assign them a lower grade in society, than that of the best description of agricultural labourer, small farmers and tradesmen, and artisans in villages and country towns, for many of them are also acquainted with some trade or calling independent of the fisheries; which they follow as occasion requires, or inclination dictates. Even in Ireland this class stands higher than any other labourers and they are frequently the pos sesors of a little property, or owners of shares in the nets. In Cornwall we are told that the social condition of the fishermen is just on a par with that of the working tradesmen and manufacturers, and is sometimes superior to the agricultural population And in the Isle of Man they are comfortable, and have no appearance of poverty. In Shetland and some parts of the Hebrides, the condition of the fishing population is however much worse, and extreme poverty prevails, which is ascribed to a species of surfage to which the tenantry are subject; a certain portion of land being allotted them; to which a right of fishing is attached upon conside ration of their supplying their landlords with fish at a fixed rate, much below the market value. This system has had the double effect of tending to dis courage enterprise and industry; and of converting the kindly feelings which should subsist between tenant and landlord into those which are engendered by a griping speculation in fish, and an impoverished contractor. In the Hebrides the poverty which there prevails may also be partially attributed to the general distress created by the removal of the No. 17. 88 8 |