The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-03-26 00:00:00

good example in tl.o field, and careful protection et
home. They are not of those who sin may entrap,
bee-ome they byre hail no melte; to suspect it,, fall
mower to dust; oy. h:irly, , too early, have they
known its Inuemosee te the ear, seen to what it can lead.
In the home, and the parents there, in what is there
taught an I doll.), must be OW claildron'e chief antidote.
The "Mince to mit testy, to chastity, and piety received
in the slay's work, tweet find its antidote in the pore
:1 ...Iql.lltru of the Immo. I have had a linme experience
in watching the of the labouring poor. Long
setae I artieri at the conviction that there is no elms so
f -en nil thee CHI protect from evil and
sixeire I.• ti', ino•eir rule of them by good
;lamas. I em in simsi trews safely predict what the
.13 501 olae.;:iter will bo from what the parents are
under their own roof. .ta the father of the
I unity, it is the leetielen duty of the lalemnir never
to allow any Lied of dialtenesty it, hin child-en, in
any hoteatit IllS roef. Pilfering in the enialleat matters,
ptelliing, the taking wrongly enything which in the
Property of another, is robbing. Childrin guttered to
take a few apples, a little wood, or • lion permitted to
bring home a Habit, may be held, and anm often held by
I' trent:, irs eared>, thus; wr mg; at all events, not
er,otit enough for switeia a dice. These tonall mimes
at Itifl, alph abet of advanced ,gailt. If overleoke I in ,
Or: child or ynuth, they 101 l WI to life that will find
tier lemon of tegewf ,1 pleasere by the indulgence of
dishonest): mi any seek in which it may prolong itaelf.
I have now, gentlemen, finished my task. I am well
aware the! it has been lint weakly done. It was one of
ue comieen dielculty. Von may, perhapa, he inclined
to pay, I have represented the landlord mu one with the
despeti: Neer of a mevereign Over his estate ; the
tenant as hohling, 1111 l ler much restriction, telly a tick.
itcul authority ; the lab timer as little better than a
serf, bound for life to the locality of his aettiement, with
no to the muter be will serve, the terms of
his hiring, or the native of his dwelling. I slid
not meet you to draw upon my imagination for
voar amasement ; but to speak of things as
I see awl knew them. Si far as regards mere legal
right, the landowner doe's held his acres with almost
unlimited power as to the use Ito makes of thsoth If it
is his pleasure t. let them his barren, I know no law to
prevent Mon. If fur profit or for pleasure lie chooses
to cultivate them, or to let theta to others to do no, in
either CAW it is a matter sahject to his own xoverrign
will. Ile make his own terms, although he Call coin•
pet none t • accept them. But it is tortured in this
country that the wards And deeola of our live* are Inure
or legs sal.j,et to another law, beaitleg that of Comic
of du tice. Public opinion louver ready to isimi verdicts
uipoit us, whos wuiiglut MU MI hardly venture to defy.
Theprerogative of the Monarch is not only wisely limited,
but if it should attempt to interfere with what the
weal selse of the nation declares to be right it must
bow to the national opinion. Tlld landowners' high
puaititon in England owes uot a little of its honourable
character to the fact, that the power which his freehold
of the I old gives 111.11, bo exercised, subject
to certaiu deference, to what all classes acknowledge to
be just. Lot I • ho found using hiapower only to abuse
it, he will quickly find himself unsupported by Ilia OV/II
" order," end deepised by others. The contempt of
socizty will soon bring him clown from any secial
height, to which the greatest landed possessions may
have ratted him. If I have claimed for him the pet-
vileve which are clearly his own, I have used no Logi-
Will.' language as to the responsibility under
which': he ii entitled to eujoy. I may have
described your position as renting tenants in a
light iii which you appear subject to a good deal of
I restriction, and in such only exercising your calling on
the goud will of your landlord. I have made it nu
matter of degradetion to you that it is so. If I have
drawn a strong defined line between ownership and
tenure, by renting. I have tried to render to the latter
all the iefluence, all the social importance, it clearly
ought to possess. I would far rather regard you in the
honour ble poeition of won who admit that am renters,
they must to more or loot dependent, than on those
who would a-snine on the grounds of a hired occupation,
all the independence of an owner. As a body, the
tenant farmers are very powerful, and will, I believe,
become more so, hut the xecret of your power will consist
in the proper underatanding and right use of your real
station in life, not in any attempt to raise yourselves by
encroaching on what justly belongs to the etati ~,, of the
landlonl. On the whole, I know nut one profession in
life which has inure personal enjhyable freedom than
your coin. It calls forth a whet...nue activity of 'Mud
and body; it gives you, without interfering with your
business, a great deal of social enjoyment ; it exempts
you front the depressing nature end strict confinement
attendant en almoat every other kind of beisineas. I
ain not one who ever says, in these slays, you
can make great money gain, but you mutt
pardon me when I my that in toy opinion
a muleru tenant farmer hohla a posiaiun of
freedom, of comfort, of authority in very
many things, I know no other man to command from
the manic amount of capital. I cannet gratify my
opinion of the utter dependence of the labourer's posi-
tion. It is the result of a ceinliination of cirannetances.
susceptible, I hope in thee, of lauela amendment. Still,
in this our day (del has raised op to him many able and
active Maude Dis condition oectilueu the theugl.ta
and gullets the abilities of many of the most distin-
guished of our public men. The amelioration of his
condition, by improving his dwelling, affording him
education, the means of healthy recreation—these and
many other matters bearing on the labourer's life, have
taken a strong and abiding hold on the public mind. I
look in thee for good results. I hope the dayo of the
Lind of lizttleinent are numbered. I INIVe every con-
fidence that the dwelling tmeation will not fall to the
ground; After all that eel, Is, sill of his lot, there
ms Mill much blessing in it. Working in it narrow
:There, if honest and worthy, be seldom fails to find
good friends in it. The law is as jealous in the
matter of his property and Isis person 2.1 in that of I
the richest. Ile can pass through it life of honest '
labour to a grave to which lie passes not uulenioured.
" Ohl George was a Taal RIM if there was one" says
a master worthy of such a mervaiit. '"fliet he wax," is
the echo from the lips of those who walk after hint
to his grave. The undertaker and the mason may
have hut little to do with hitn in his end, but before
God and every good man that man dies a here, who
has lived hottest, a life of temptation, awl given his
years to industry with no hope of rising beyond the
power to earn a laborer's wages and leave a good
name in a cottage home. (Clierra.)
Mr. Wimp stated that he had listened with a
great deal of interest and attentinn to the address of
tho noble Lord, and fully concurred with all he had
expressed, except on one or two points. In the first
place he held that the cottages ought to be all in the
hands of the tenants and not in theme of the land-
lord, an if they were, the farmers would not have
the saute jurisdiction over their labourers they other•
wise would and ought to have. It was true that
in /10111 P seasons of the year the fanner hod more
hands than Ito knew what to do with ; Mit the evils
to which Lord Osborne had referred were not to le.
cured by taking the cottages out of the hands if
the farmers. Anyone acquainted with farming, and
the difficulties they experieuced in obtaining
labourers in times of pressure, must agree that there
ought to be a certain number of cottages allotted to
each farm, according to its extent. He also took
exception to a remark made by hie lordship to the
effect that as the landlord was the absolute owner of
the land, there was no law te restrict him from
doing what he plasma with the tenant. It was true,
there might be no humite but did
not his lordship believe that the nioral
law was applicable in this respect, as well
as the strong sense and feeling of the people
He maintained that there was tin desire on the part
of time fanners to set up their own iti opposition to
tho landlords and labourers, but on the contrary to
unite with them in promoting the general weal.
Ale. Iticitenns indorsed the opinion expressed be
Mr. Wood. He also took exception to his lordship's
remarks in respect to letting land by tender.
Mr. Mereneee also differed from Lord Osborne
in respect to the cottage question, and held that the
landlord ought to erect is cottage on the farm for
every I Inel acres occupied by the tenant. Ile
also recommended hiring servant/1 by the year, as
there was groat difficulty, especially at certain
seasons of the year, in getting meters and shepherds,
as every man wished to leave hie work at night as
early as passible.
I Mr. HENRY FOOKS agreed with all Lord Osborne
hail said, barring the cottage question. Hu did not
agree with the suggestion of Mr. Mitchell about
lining servants by the year. The hiring fairs, or
mops,such as that hal at Dorchester, was one of the
greatest curets in the country, and were a disgrace to
the ago in which we lived. Ho never hired any
servant by the year. As his lordship haul expressed
that time 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, no he
held that if the tempers of master and servant did
nut agree, they shuuld not be bound together by
covenants. Any servant of his was free to leave At
any time by giving a week's notice.
Mr. ATKINSON asked his lordship to publish bis
lecture for the benefit of the Agricultural intermit.
Lord Osnor.sK replied that he had no oltjectioll to
give it them if they wished to publish the lecture
themselves.
Mr. Lewis said he could not follow his lordship on
theeeotit7age tr.medatien. With his other remarks he
generally
Mr. Srumeen surgeon said that he went into
many cottagee of ,
the labourer, in which there was
great rosin for improventeut in a sanitary point of
view. He was rather disposed to look upon the
cottages as a part of farm buildings, which ought to
be placed by the Luellonl in the hands of the
tenants. Still, there might be with advantage a
certain nunther of cottages belonging to the landlord,
ttnappropriated by hint to the farmers.
The CHAIRMAN also addressed the meeting in a
similar strain on the cottage question to the pre-
, meting apssakers. Ile condemned the system of
, letting farms by tender, and spoke in favour of the
o truck systetn. Ho believed the system worked
well for the labourers when honestly carried out by
m the employers. He acknowledged that it warn oceiv