The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-12-23 00:00:00

THE LASOURERI UNION MIMING.

A meetiog in conneerion with the N.A..L.U. was
announeed for Thunder night at the Working Men's
Club, and .mong the speaker, we to be Mr. Joseph
Arun. There was thus* pretty numerous gathering of
the mlidle and labouring classes, many of the latter
routing in from the village. to ewe the •pontle of the
nw tabot.rcre inovement. Tb. diaappointment was
...ry groat on Its being found that Mr. Arab bad not
r:•71. It may be very well to aay that Mr.
Arct w et,gagod with. moo'. more important meeting
t Birmingham ; but If Weymouth and the villages
vont,l are importuot enough to have nimission foul
taken, they ought to nodes what they exposit is
return. . . . . .
"

Ttu char was takes by Mr. Mayor, and on the
platform were Sir. (lox, J. p., and Mr. Wedmore.
The apeeth of Mr. Colt was very dealer' as to the
fir* pare to that which be made at Dorchester on the
Wednesday evening previous. It was rather curious to
lie* seal an "advanond Mend" as Kr. Cox repeating
the old Protectionist &trainee's against England being
dependent upon f .reign corn. Fie said—Bopposing the
°wintry Is dependent on foreign Dorn it must add to
the east of the loaf, if you have to pay not only for the
production of It, but for its transfer from country to
eountry. Bet there is no neomity, from the propor-
tion of the acreage of this land to the population, that
we should not get here every loaf we require. The
Channel Ishods bays • far denser population than we
bane in liogland, and yet they roansere to grow all their
food and export • great deal. In ono of the islands, he
believed Jersey, they produced • sufficient quantity of
food to support themselvea without importing • angle
article of food, exoept spices and things of that kind,
and they sent out seat an amount that it was equal to
• tm for every man, woman, and chili in the island.
That was owing to the land in Jersey not being divided
among two or three landlords only, for there is no law
or custom of primogeniture, which compels or causes
by forge a habit the land to be given to the eldest eon.
In the Isle of Wight, on the oostrary, though every-
thing there ought to be expoeted to go on well, braving
• reddens, of the Quest', and the great yachting dubs,
they eould not predate nearly enough food for them-
selves, and last year they Imported more than two
millions of querten of wheat, and actoo,noo worth of
potatoes. We altogether imported £80,000,000 worth
of food, and notwithstanding our imports and exports
are so large. and there is *at a large amount of wealth
In England, that does not • bit prove but we may
speedily acme to • mah, and los pressed with snob an
amount of scarcity of food that the population of our
large towns may &Maly stiffer from demotic* If •
war took plea' between Turkey and Swart, that would
cut off an inflames *smut of Der feed supply, even
though we might not be actually engaged in it,
if our supplies from Antal* were eel of, we should
hin
Gad ourselves be • meet deplorable Male. There is •
great neoeadty for producing more feed In the *entry,
and the cetabliebment of the Matioaal Agricaltural
['shouters' Claims will can* better ealtivation of the
lend. After stating that he was at first opposed to
emigration, he now ad roosted the labourers going
out to a country where they might have the
amount of mein their family going up in indepeo-
&OM around the... For so auger* are our Parlianteat
that evee Liberal members do not *eta to ice the
necessity of looking this matter Intl* faoe, and nothing
will moan* them until they are brought fa* to feat
with • great oriels, such as the emigration in large
number" of the labourers. He believed they might
stop this by panto, Palates, memares—Dot, as in
Germany, forbidding the emigration of the people, and
sending emigration agents out of the **entry. In free
England we should
by meaner* to let the labourer, have plot+ of land at
• far rental, and with proper rights. Though he was
• very advanced liberal, and bad mixed up with some
of the most enrolee Radicals he ever hopet to sea
though he had mined with *ems of the most disreputa-
ble—la laugh)—of politicyne, yet he found none of them
who would for a moment think of ieterfering by viol.
ono. with the rights of properly. (We Mr. Odger, who
way known to be in favour of the nationalisation of the
land and had advocated it, said it war a great mistake
to auppoes th.t be wanted to rob any one of it. He
bad iminnitted • plan to Mr. Stuart Mill that when an
potato comes into the market, ti art/body wished to self
kis estate, then that the State ahem I be the first pur-
chaser, and should have the power to take it at a far
value. Why were they &axion, that the State should
get hold of thl+ laud? The mower warn—ln order that
it may be properly oultivaelfi There is a limited
amount of land In this gauntry ; it is the original
source of eh ..,atb, and when people say that lb* land-
lord has an absolute right to turn his whoO property
into • rabbit warren, if he likes, they s.y that ward&
einnot ho aupeertorl by oninnoon sense. Bapposing hat
were recognised generally, (for really landlords do not
dare to du so, except pernaps in remote districts of
Booland, where they turn the land lute deer forests) I
eupposieg 151 people shoes to do so, at once they weld '
depopulate half England, for unfortunatly half ,of
&gland belongs to 150 people—(.haene !) But snob a
waver* as that would breed • revolution at once—
(beer). But this is what does happen—a man comes
Into posseeeiou of a I.rge quantity of land, and owing
li, the custom which has a most obliged it to be left to
the eldest son, and obliged the various allowances to
the younger members to be paid out of the and, bah*
uot capital to cultivate it properly, and so it goes partly
out of ailtivation. Then some of these men prefer
their own oafish meets to the good of their country,
and *Arc of the Iflld which might produce wheat is let
go to moor with the only inhebitenta about one game.
keeper to the priers mile, and the only produce som
grouge—(Blmate I) Catlin of the lauds *cupid
by roads, mime, towns, stony and barren else's, and
all others that cannot possibly be oultiviited there are
in the United King:dim sot less that 8,000,000 acres
of worst" laeds--('iensatiott.) Boum have estimated the
wasteland, at 11.000000, but if you want • very safe
animate, given on authority that man* be oat Irradiated,
then remember that the Beaman, Comeassieeers have
stated that there are lying waste, no lees than 2,000.000
acres, actually It for the plough—(hear, hear.) What
he Llama( would like to me would be that the Imperial
Raritan:tad should say to the owners at thee, land.—
"It Is • necessity for the *entry, for the food of the
people, that these wastelands should be oultivsted." In
this 2,000 000 *ores he did not loalude wire, because
they might grow • little pasture • bat he Included nab
plates as grow* moors and he did say that such land
ought to be cultivated—(bmar, hear.) The Parliament
has always noognissd the prinaple that the State is
the int lead-owner. If • railroad from place to phies
I, wanted, sad it batmen proved to the metafiction of
Parliament that It le required, no matter if UM land.
owner in the way object', It goes right through his
land. It takes away, perhaps, a *rip of his park; it
might even pull down his hone", and that Is not oen.
eidered spoliation, for be rosiest toompensatioo' he ts
paid a certain amount. An Act had been pensed, of
which he was very fried—that when • aortae
site was required for a Board Bobcat,
that site should be taken, the owner campenested,
and the *hoot built If it bad not been for that Let,
in many oases, they woad not have lad rite' for the
Board schools at ii; bet the Let had preelaimed that
the bane& of the State Is superior to any Italia
Interests of leadownees—(appiaue). When the Bill
mom on he expected a great eatery and a hard light;
but to his great surprise it pawed without •
sad the sileam of the Booservative party when
e truth of the name 114.-. 10 gave
peeved
lb.
the "stupid party"—lianghter), Following
out this prinelpis he wanted that the Parliament should
decide that the commiadoewn should have power to go
into 'may twenty and way to the landowurs— 'Here
I. this amount of and, you must cultivate it'" and If
the landlord decline than that the Blake Monk' step
Is , take it from him at • far value, and samurai,
labourers to settle on It. He hoped yet to see the
State **memo co-operative agrioulture—(epplause).
He would go farther than that, be did not see why the
State should not advisees mealy to the labourers to
enable them to work the land—Gnarl. The Biala had
always been ready to glee to those who have. In one
year it advanced £8,000,000 be landownen for drainage
parpuiee—(hear, hear)—end he did not sae why it
should not lend to these who have not -(applause).
Aroh and himself had an Interview with Mr. Glad-
stone the other, sod pnween something like this upon
him. Mr. Gladstone &eked " What parable security
eould the country heal, if it were to lend money to
nrarti!tural labourers?" The speaker told him there
would be no difficulty about that, for there was the
Labourers' Union with plenty of fends- (applause). Mr.
Gladstone seemed to think that sometiflog might be
done on the lands in possealon of the Crown
(hear, hear). The labourers could not hope for mush
from this Parliament, but he did hope • good deal
from the next, of perhaps frogs the next parliament
after that. It seemed to him that those who were in
earnest should be determined to get into the House of
Commons 'eine fifty or nit, men, to form a nucleus of
Do • party, rather then to "fee Mr. Gladstone an
immeese miijority whioh might by degrees fall off
(hear), If they could only get a strong body of advanced
Liberia:. Into the new Parliament, it would not live out
half Its days, and • still bettor one would tome—
(aptlause). The day Is ooming when the 'meaty
franobise menet be kept beck from the agrloultura
labourers ; but now the county members only represent
the opinions of • few squires and farmers—(haer), If
the whole country were polled, Its voles would he in
opposition to this state of things, and if their opponent,
are satlefied the country is against the adesuoed Llearati%
why do they not join in getting everybody's vote and
ootniog to the tost—(bear, hear). There ws, still the
great question of the re-distribetion of seas to some.
One pia* in Ireland may had 136 voters, anil yet it
senile its member. A,nother got. teller House sent b
19 000 voter% end y..t will, 134 at his shook has
• vAcre as strong in the deadens of the Legialature as
Oi to
Lord
ailing
uthe i
urressismegieb.wea.m7britUlici6l.4o Cefl,tltueuy of •
ad(
nrteht
dr
tos t)
Portinfn warned them of—liting about disturben
t in
to law. So, when be
Doe-
rioli-burnirms, • .1 the like. B,,ee-ger hare, ii,aia°64,it
that
at the time of meet their large meeting, at Dorchester,
body of pollee were in readiness ; but the smashers
always hammed on the men Um extreme neeeselty of