The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-02-06 00:00:00

THZ DORM' LABOtragg&

The letter of Lord Shaftesbury ia the Mill Is
saswersti se ander bir

The Lord-Lieuteeent for the Ortaty ei Doting has
come forth in your *damns under • aeons of duty, to
rectify some errors and miseoneeptioas se te wages, in.,
of Dorset labourers.
He gives tha mate a picture of a bucolic Utopia—
teenets of great lahlfteeee sad liberality ; cottages of
adodrable corisfresti labOwnin working may from
neves n'olaxik to Ire for to. moutlill of the year, ead
the other months, when evade; move hours, reettiving
extra pry; their wages, low, it le tree, in their weekly
sharaeter, but alted out by alleviate@ and perriaketea,
to a am* representing • osry sebstantlal vahm. Oes
hundred and eighty-five labourers, married
ald single, DOOO rrerieim oa the average lees par week
than 10a 114, the mil rod.. if their wady 14s. 60.
plc week. "with • shorter period of lamer by one
boar mad e-balf daily, daring to. meads of the year,
don 0 required in de wentditier precision of Beffead "
Every cottage has • garden, if the rental is 40a. or
upward', th• prods.. of white is worth 44. • week. A
Pool 'MY laurees hew* giving this. an
additional la dd. or Is. • week. Peery duke, sidling
'dub., feel Webs, added to tbe above, is sources of
. lemma sod advastege, leave de oase el dr=
St Hilmee igearen rather uncteedated this o
When I read this hatter if Lord Ntafteehanfs. I sem-
feta, to adagio. of soksietimeat, I alid not Wok la my
eta aim I wed, esparto of. Whom 1 same to Obs wow
eledieg womb, I ewe to onnedieg of that old wombats&
feeling. which is espremed is the weeds "pea might
have knocked me down with • feather." "I have no
doubt," mys Lord Sbeftendary, °' that • similar state-
ment eoialki be made by alreoit every leacksweer in the
ernuity."
I fun quite nedersised • Doreddire landowner
writing in defence of his county, sad eacleavearieg lo
prove some him statements base hese trade about
wages, some Impatetione sized to the thereder of
Dorset which are just as epelientde to other coenties.
Bat Lord Shaftesbury gose far ahead of die Be is not
aostent with showing we aro sot worm then edam : he
I must needs argue that we are as geed, if net bettor,
this th• bed of ether counties.
_ _ _ . . . . .

I eltagether day tiat—any snob statesseal as that
Lord Shaftesbury has pat forth with regard to the
labourite cm ths IS fume, V tree ea them mould be
proved to be true as almost all the Mates of dm
meaty. I know that is samot. I quite believe es
emend "Maks the tenantry a,... highly respectable
and intelligent. On • very few estates the cottages.
with the ("ideas and the alloareset; may be as as
gond • meal; although it is not In my 'specimen that on
say oms "Mate it is so throughout. It is ia my haw-
lam that as some «rbobsitis• eitesee menakawilli.•
ii 5t.4111 assamfolly bd. While ea seam few them is
greet •ftendmat, at the pneent rale of p,uçi, IL
must be many mare Wore the Mate of thiop ems
mid Mash Lord Shaftesbury saps sew sash e almost
every where.

-
I roar loras reenent believe SS en any other
Sato in the essaty, the labourer kr is. swaths in
tin your sly s to work 81 isms, and have al at
awe, 'medians who. is thews seeetbe are Saluda the
bay harvest; so, do I believe that widen she, in
Se other two nsontS vies lb. No• welk "sum "aa
eight roars and a-half they are paid sera spa
AA to angoras I aser gat the sandlest faith Is
lay sletreeld• firs mks vadat about thee. I knew
sirs me lialde be ahem S the mouth ofrataber aad
maa as the redesse4 et the ribs of persisits It
Is for this reeds Se most iarbigeat el the tiwiag ran
of teestry 521 arsiees Is do ass with Sas. As to
Ss or tekwork, there is nothing more !elisions Sea
the argentenie !period a it as • &lOW tO the sr
U he I • thedelsor or h., he his • eldil
ishowers have sot. It soineurds Its Rim. The
work of these as most be dos at eartaln seasons. IS
I. their West, 'ad that rd lbeir eslllo/0". ../4 It
91,16/ darns is Mierstsee was a watts . as-
toaster their rare! advastas. If worlds astre
hoes ring Noir owe maw be* and favigente

their own speoial skill, they Übe meth • centmet, I hold
It to be meril folly as sell it in the iodate 4 •• *Un-
thee sr sergebile tos thew Again, with Mood to
Shrnip holing, harvest work, sell btber pirth work, the
*en contren to dp so moth of II Id • Weals pair. It
litre. limr earn larp wage. fet theism ; bat, as they
give mete hours Is • day, they, 1=411114 wog t some
If
eight der to Sae tbboth ; Mosey
*need 4 these days will bring their real wagis beck to
the original mule, sad se mad ban in mind that at
pies work the men hes by wet data. They bars also
by this strain on their powers of 'teleran*, taped them
to the asi not °Ply rag-id moth w, ar and tear
of clothing, but speded /I greater eireditare for food.
Thd a Outwore thmilion apt ef whole Goa r
et to Mrgemaistheat theetudir 001,10 P
hefted is gaits bid 11081 N
uiu
Ith OKA &thing. op,. if tha side, I
pent —lt= soda fo warm ever boteansass
all it ma
It is in my °Moho nerds in the extreme to bring
seta of obsztty into the male of waged; to saleadale the
vales of the bradlood given for pouter, or the firm
carted as as thief ash of wage.. las quite sure The
present ram of teamt-foreners trindd be misused to do
eo : at least they megl.t to be.
I hove yet to learn that allotments, revel debit, sod
elothieu debt do not 'gist in the condos whene higher
wages are paid. lii. altogether wrung to throw sock
matters Into the scale anus moth prod of low wogs
Shut eked mit.
If the latter of Lord fikeitethory (alb late the heeds
if labouren who tan reed, it will eartenly rause them
so little ammensent ; thly are well seam of how the
ease of the masters Nue be maths est, bet I doeht
whether they ever saw it eo made sot baton. MI
invitee any who me theredialoes to walk over the estate
sod go through his eolleetios of Bruen be. I wish ha
ovoid go through personally the heath sad breadth of
eamety, sod study to arrive at the real hush; be
would return to St. Gdes's • more sad, if not • wiser
MID.
I ano quite forgive him endeavouring is wipe of
is.. of the mud through whisk Dorset has at late boon
dram*. but I deeply regret he Oswald lune pet forth
• iiesint aa true of • whole scanty whkilt, ist aims
meditators, I duly to he tree of soy part.
Mater, are mending. Wages must rim, for that, is
• cell for labour shorthorn which will oxen therm our
supply of able emu to • &pm which will make it a
matter of nemosiry to pay them sad lodge them bailor.
Then MUM be IWO voltages bah, for the farms eastern
be worked without than. Achaties has dose its
meek. It forted into light the foul Meow. a AA A
Modern fanning, in the penmen of tiro ISOZ
ieuentry, ma wow Apt he on bottle. I rely no
Wager on eletieneet or aldlualoopy ; I am sontest
to
abide the ratios of what I les around as. Ths rola of
the landlord and the tuned are alike Involved in the
question how for had mai be sallitvidet to • elt by 6
popeletion shin; °sly weak, theinetented 'labour, in
natant far kV wags, eked est by pernMeWs, band
insullairmtly, often find with nod' buten they tem-
menet their Int hoses work.
As for the Utmea d Lord Shaftesbury, Is. silo-
pther ineredaloes that it represents the real °iodides
of any mu evanly In England ; I sheakl, indeed,
rejoice if it was thything Ithe a true piston of ess
tenth of Dorestathire.

January SR & G. O.
Counneuttng au Lord filhaftether's letter a the
soadition of Dorset Labourers, the Tau says :—"
elm* coesideration settles the whole matter. If the
apposed tecipieut of es. • week, with the aliw o
perquisite% and Item diesibed were o.frfeM
let a week, and nothing am, be would match at the
Caw, but very ma And himself onsiiderably Wee, at;
indeed, gone te lad altogether. Be maid spied 1
all his mean is winter, and grumble at at barks
more in harvest time. He would seedy mice podia or
• allotment' lie maid always be waling aeseethieg
extra forth, keel extra work. When the rain or the
wind earns Is at his roof, his winiews, or his door,
Mass the chimney refund to drew, ad the goer was
&oda. he woad look ebonite vela for the Marna-
tine of the bailiff with his Mal et builders and
cureenters. He would be sarprimed to lad what rat
steads for when4,is anuusesialky eelemintedin7uthe
anal oat of cetera. Ix feet, le bed
Masai • free! benne Is the ens lorrokl..l a l
bricklayer'. Mauer or • 'navvy,' end no ea •
predial savant. But it certainly is rather marion,
111111011117lillf to a national paradox, that jest at • time
when slavery is receiving its last coadeautation by the
civilised world, when the °outstares of mankied is mom
and more on the meet principles of pol.itiml seneomy„
and When we are all seriously coneing bow far we
may extend household infra's, aad Maude the working
dames in the pale of the Onaintioa, we @bald lad
ottreelees estimating the modifies of our agrieialteral
labourers peensely as we s'!ould that of an African
! slave in the Southern Sates. What hes ever been the
'test vice of elsvery ? It is the utter sheen* of the
open market end the money medium between the slave
mad his master. The slave said not obtain the morsel
, worth for his labour ; amid not thereby raise him-
! all, or improve hie lot, by ' putting on the steam' in
I extra labour or marlin intenigenee. In reply to all
I the deelareatioce against slavery, we have always Ward
• pleaaat end almost unanswerable estimate of allow-
aeon, perquisites, houses free, holidays, gardens.
' allamate, medial aturodsece, sad whatever ales was
Deanery. This wee felt to be inadequate, and, evert
, without snag tote the ineetion of slavery, Beglishmen
venally thought that no assonst of dernatie care woe
equivalent to tbe fail matey wages, whisk make a
man every mw and then the possemor of • sum of
! Dray onnev, sad so really his own master. A man
' who never hat a shilling be an sail his own is the
empty seek, which cannot stead upright Bet this is
thefts@ with all our married labourers, and the nay
consolation they naive, let' be told they ought not to
have wires and families. We mass repeat, however,
that, under existing einomestanine, the arrangement
described_ by /,rd libefteshery le not orily aceseary,
bet the best tbai *saki be Issas We as sot even ay
It would be arable to ream a Pada change; bet we
do say that what he dearness is • mad species of
serfdom, and that the anal consequeneee are very
mita such as might be append. No commented
enterprise could be serried on epee sure a system. At
least, it would never stand the competition of perfectly
ties laws, ant wary 'MOM"

Tbe Standard commons on the dierweion that ham
ben going on in respect to tb• rendition of the Dor-
eirahlre labourer.; and protons against the term
slavery and serfdom bees applied windy became the
labourer, reside in his own parish, aid is not • daitiade
mamboed. He may not be (any fed, or alined, or
ebelterrod—he may have no savings—het bet gan it be
to hiss a social hardship that he is in MO waders sense
of the leen, aseriphis gists. Ou lb* ecetrary, it is his
bend& and his 'barter. He is of the soil and belonging
In it, mi long as he remains as oink:antral labourer.
Champs that readition he thanes his relation .sth
the load woo whin, be and Ms family have been
reared; bet wig& it lest.,. have no right to stigmatise
him as a slave. Wbelre Is the slavery He is psi/idly
free ;be works at will; he meson admiring* how his
wools/ter which Si. weld not sommaad in the
market; mad why leash him that he is • •cr=
aervant r why say likaa be is subject to "a wild weds.
of widdom I" Isingesage more prommalive of Anon.
Wet dead hardly he end ogee we sagged epee the
exposure of some henries social mischief. Is it tree
thst landlords in general, or farmers In greeral, regard
their Libation be eay light or in any deems as heeds.
wee No it is net tree. Do they nein them, after
their day's toil, to Om labia@ were or Übe &thou
_pig-
stye Do they command from them a iidng desthilY,
sad hetes Omni to their paean .srlh as triers
tweed by their root.? We bear if the spriell'a.
l
labourer's tanorable cottage. What Dureiridore hovel
we be wowed with the seenithions tessinents is
Hing and Marlin Wrenn Drury-Lae non Is some-
thing worse thee *scraping flaw we imagine, in that
lowlity. We must ne•or eaten that every man of our
community shall have free money le his peeks., or the
mesas of reeking a tartans adventerosely.AU
Is based, in the main, seam the principle that mons=
reel troll the land that gives them their traditions awl
their language; bet the leen. sow intetkiated is that
the sprieeltural labourer I. not an Englishman is the
dear light in which that tens sheen be need, hassees,
wedgies in Dorgenhire, be gets Dessishire wages, lives
Is a Donsitabire renege, is retitled to Dernetsbire
relief, sod must not trauma on Dorsetehire property.