The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-04-02 00:00:00

Deaooll4of the year, in getting carters and shepherds,
as every man wished to leave his work at night as
early as possible.
Mr. Hexer Fooes agreed with all Lout o,liorne
hail said, barring the cottage question. Ile did not
agree with the suggestion of Mr. Mitchell about
hiring servants by the year. The hiring fairs, or
anops,such as that hold at Ihlcliester, was one of the
greatest curses in the country, and were a disgrace to
the age in which we lived. Ile never hired any
servant by the year. As his lordship hail expressed
that the tenant ought not to be restricted in the
cultivation of the soil, but should be as free and
unconfined as in the purchase of stock, so he
held that if the tempers of master and servant did
not agree, they should not lie bound together by
covenants. Any servant of his was free to leave at
anLtime by giving a week's•notice.
Mr. ATKINFION asked his lordship to miblish his
lecture for the benefit of the agricultural interest.
Lord OSBORNIL replied that he bail no objection to
give it them if they wished to publish the lecture
themselves,
Mr. Limns said he °mild not follow his lordship on
the cottage question. With Ins other remarks he
generally agreed.
Mr. SPootrife, surgeon, said that ho went into
many cottages of the labourers in which there was
great room for improvement in a sanitary point of
view. He was rather disposed to took upon the
cottages US part of farm buildings, which ought to
be placed by the landlord in the hands of the
tenants. Still, there might be with advantage a
certain number of cottages belonging to the landlord,
unappropriated by him to the farmers.
The eitatnnarr also addressed the meeting in a
similar strain on the cottage question to the pro-
ceeding speakers. Ile condemned the system of
letting farms by tender, and spoke in favour of the
truck system. He believed the system worked
well for the labourers when honestly carried out by
the employers. He acknowledged that it was woo
sionally abused, and then the wrong doer ought to
be made heartily ashamed of his conduct, but it was
not right to condemn 20 farmers, who honestly per-
formed their contract, far one black sheep who I
took advantage under the system to wrong the
labourer. In regard to the gainallaws,he thought that
every confidence should exist between the landlord
and tenant in this respect, and if this were done he
was sere this landlord. would not want for sport.
At the present time, in too many instances, the
tenants were subjected to the caprice of the
keepers, who told the landlords there was no woe
to be found when there was not only an abundance,
but when the lend was so overrun with hares and
rabbits as to very seriously injure the growing
crops. It was greatly to be desired that a proper
understanding on this subject should be conic to
between the landlord and tenant, as last year the
farmer's receipts fell fully to the amount of their
rental.

_
Lord 0/401011, in the course of his reply, said he
had taken up the question in a local point of view,
as the points he had touched upon were intended for
local application. He expressed his surprise that in
Lb. whole range of subjects to which he had ad-
verted, there seemed to be but one point upon which
he and any portion of the company differed—a fact
which proved his notions were not greatly at vizi-
anc• with the commonly received opinion of the
district. His Lordship then reviewed the subjects
touched upon by the other speakers, alter which
Mr. Foolut proposed, Mr. Brooltaa seconded, and
It was carried unanimously, "That the thanks of
the Club be given to Lord Osborne for the very ex-
cellent lecture with which be had favoured them."
The meeting then separated.