The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-12-16 00:00:00

A NOVEL AGRICULTURAL MEETING.
A somewhat novel meeting was held at Brampton Bryan,
Herefordshire, on Friday in last week. The chairman was
Mr. 0. Dixon, M.P., and nearly all the speakers were agri-
cultural labourers.

In opening the meeting, the chairman sail be had
been invited there to hear what the men had to say in
regard to their present position, and to see, if possible,
what could be done to improve it. He called upon the
men for a full and fair explanation of the grievances
under which they believed they suffered.
The first epeaker was attired in a cleanly-washed
smock-frock, and, during his statement, twirled in his
fingers a not very modern Jim Crow hat. He said the
wages in the district (part of North Hereford and South
Shropehire) were 90., 10s., or 11s. per week, and the
men wanted lb. He combated the idea that the farm
labourer was better off now than 20 years ago;
if wages were higher, provisions were higher also.
Other speakers pointed out that out of the 10s. per
week Is, had to go for rent, and where there was a
family it took Is. or Os, for bread, leaving only three
or four shillings for all the other necessaries of life.
Flesh meat, the men declared, they seldom, if ever
taste, and one man said he had only had three pounds
of butter in his house in 12 months. The masters, it was
declared, did not as a rule give their men milk for their
families. At present the cottages are all in the
hands of the farmer, who rents them to his labourers,
and when a labourer leaves his " job " he has to leave
his cottage also. The men all argued strongly in favour
of being allowed " a little bit of land to keep a cow."
One or two of the men had grievances of another
character; earning 10s. a week, and having a family
to support, they had "to pay a shilling a week to the
Union to support their poor old parents, which they
didn't care to do if the poor old folks got the benefit
of it, but they didn't." Thie, one man declared, " was
enough to make a fellow give up altogether, and not
try to pay his way no more." Another was "puzzled
how he got on at all, and when he went to bed at
night he often wished he should wake up in the morn-
ing in America or somewhere where a man who
liked to work hard could pay his way, and put some-
thing up for a rainy (lay."
In default of any improvement at home, emigration
seemed to be thought the natural remedy, and letters
were read from emigrants who left the distrkt a few
years ago, and who are now in comparatively prosperous
circumstances.

Having heard the different speakers, the chairman
sail he could not help thinking it would not only be
kind, generous, and just, but wise also, on the part of
the farmers and landlords, if they were to take the
condition .4 the men into their consideration, and try
to improve it. He thought they had made out a
strong case for increased wages and for sufficient
land to keep a pig and a cow. He believed the
real cause of all their grievances was the fact that
there were too many of them upon the ground, and he
agreed with them that the great remedy was emigration.
Mr. John Wight, who had been looked upon as a very
dangerous Radical, but who was now looked upon by
the Conservative party as a very safe man, said if the
farmers and the landlords of England only knew
what their true interests were they would take
care that the condition of the labourer was so much
improved that he would aot be tempted away by the
pleasant prospects held out to him in America and our
colonies. In that ren- wk he thoroughly agreed.
He did not for a moment hesitate to say that
the farm labourers ought to be discontented. They
would not be worthy of the name of Englishmen if
they were not. He said that without hesitation, be.
cause he knew they would only seek to improve their
position by legitimate means. He thought it was a
disgrace to our civilisation that there should be such
habitations in the country as those in which some
labouring men lived. There was wealth enough in the
country to provide decent and healthy cottages for all,
and he wonderod that any one could enjoy that wealth
while he saw the condition in which some of the labour-
ing classes were placed. In responding to a vote of
thanks, Mr. Dixon promised liberal aid to a fund
which it is proposed to raise to enable some of the men
to emigrate.