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

BLANDFORD FARMERS CLUB.

THE DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF
LANDLORDS, TENANTS, AND LABOURERS.

On Saturday evening lad a lecture on the above
subject was delivered by the Rev. Lord Bydney
Godolphin Osborne, at the Crown Inn, before She
members and friends of the Blandford Farmer.'
Club. About 100 gentlemen were present. The
chair was taken by the president of the clot, for the
present year,
Mr. R. FOWLER, who stated that he had the au-
thority of Lord 8. O. Osborne, to state that he was
not the writer of the letter in the limes newspaper,
signed "Observer," nor did he know who did write
it. He thought it well to set Use meeting right on
that point, as it was strongly suspected by some that
his Lordship was the author of it. He believed,
however, that it was generally well known that his
lordship always wrote openly--not anonymously—
signing himself S. G. 0.
1..M1 OSBORNE now entered the room amidst con.
siderable applause.
The CHAIRMAN again rose, and said he felt ex-
tremely honoured that evening, in having to call oo
Lord Osborne to introduce the subject a discussion
viz., on the "Duties and Responsibilities of Land.
lords, Tenants, and Labourers." His Lordship.
would, no doubt, express opinions with which they
-
did not all heartily agree, but let them not on that
account set it down that his lordship was wrong, and:
they were right. He would ask for bis lordship.
a patient hearing, and trusted that they would
, receive his opinions with the most kindly feeling,
however much they might differ from their own.
Lord 8. G. OMBORNI said,—Gentlenien, at your re-
quest, made to toe through your chairman, I am now
out to deliver an address to the members of the
Blandforti Farmers' Club, the subject of which is, "The
Respective Duties of Landlords, Tenants, and Labour-
ers." I was offered the choice of any other subject I
might prefer; I thought it right to accept the one
suggested to me. I cordially admit the propriety of the
intimation conveyed to me, that you do not wrb any
subject to be treated in a way which shall have any per-
sonal application or be in itself of apolitical nature. In
the consideration of my subject I feel myself bound to
keep in view—who it is I am addressing, individuate.
engaged, as the rulers in business, as tenants of farina,.
for the most put obtaining their income from the profit.
they derive by the cultivation of the land they occupy,
who have formed themselves into a club to discus. sub-
jects incidental to their own position u cultivators of
the soil—as tenants, in emnection with the landlords
from whom they rant their farms—and as employes, in
connection with the labourers they hire to do the work.
I shall endeavour to confine my remarks upon the
duty of the three classes, within the limit of that view
of it which affects their condition in their direct mutual
relation to each other. From local circumstanced I
shall LlAlltle that I aui to speak of two or three partite
as I find them here and in many other counties—that
is, as resident landlords, possessed of large estates—
tenants, in the occupation of large holdings. Dales I
mu misinformed, your club numbers about 100 member.
the gross rent of some of its tenant members being as
high as £lOOO. The subject of the duty of the landlord
leads me, first, to consider his responsibility as ono
bound to act justly in his dealing with those from wholes
he is to derive income, from that portion of his estate
he lets to tenants. lam not to regard him simply as
• landowner, hut as a landlord ; not as one possessed in
fee of a certain portion of soil, but as one, so possessed,
who deputes to others that cultivation which is to cause
it to return its fair value in rental to himself. It see.
not be denied that land is coveted as • posousier,
because of all others it is the most enduring. It mOll
also be admitted that very great value attaches to the
peculiar position in which a landowner is plumed bens
the very nature of his property. He HOS only bre what
is called a large stake in the country, but Ma=
more than this. If the value of his estate were ix
in the funds he might get his interest punctually paid ;
but funded property gives him no more of position in the
county, no more direct influenes in it, than berm purchaser
by his wealth from day to day. As • landowner on a
large scale he at once obtains that which we all love—
an influence over others, capable of beings:erased for
great good. A large tract of God's soil, by man's
laws, under God's ordinance, made entirely lies own—
his to the greatest depth he may meek to penetrate, to
the highest elevation of soy structure he may seek to
erect. True, he is a subject to the laws which seem
him the quiet possession of his property, and must pay
according to its value towards the support of the
State; but as the owner of large landed property, the
State most wisely treats him with special deference, is
always ready to accord him certain privileges, place him.
in high authority, oftentimulgive to him and his heirs.
high rank. Those who live in his neighbourhood are, when
he acts worthily as landowner and landlord, ever dis-
posed to offer him • respect which gives great local value
to his position, increases its power souse it for the general
good, just as a man has others dependent upon him,
does his own wordly importaoce and responsibility in-
creau, but the nature of the tie between him and those
who thus have to look up to him being subject to
his .good or ill will, has a great dui to do with the
real weight of his position. The landowner
becoming • landlord, has first to consider the
question how lie can best obtain in income a
fair owner's *hare in the value of the land he lets to
tenants. Here at once arises the question of rest.
He has also to consider how he can hest obtain this, and
yet preserve to himself that social position as bead of
the estate which sonstitutes. not only one wrest element
in the value of landed property, but involves also his
power of making his estate, through those who live on
at, a healthy portion of the commonwealth. His
tenants, in their degree, will have their position in the
exist fabric; they have their dependents, and the
welfare of these, the largest number of dwellers on the
estate, will much depend upon what manner of men
their imiuediate employers may be. It follows, then,
that one duty of a landlord is, to secure in the obtaining
his rental, so Ur as may be possible, that lie obtains it•
uuder conditions which niay give him a tenantry who
will fulfil their duty to him and to those they employ,
as he is also bound to do hisduty to both. The landlord

of the present day has to take.anything but • super.
final view of estate management. His tenantry are
contending with the world's markets, as to the value of
their produce in the matter of corn. and more or less
so sate the value of the stook they breed. Investing a
very large capital in 'their business, they are
dependent for a profitable return upon it, on
their own skill and industry, subject to the uneer-
tainty of the seasons, and thous 'widen turns of the
market which are influenced by political causes at home
and abroad. Their share of local taxation is • very
heavy one. I believe it to be the clue that tenant!'
very generally invest the greater proportion of their
capital in the land they occupy—doing this with the
expectation, at beat, of no very great return, end Om
subject, as to its date and real amount, to great neces-
Lary uncertainty. It should be • cause of very great
thankfulness to every thinking man that the land-
owners have very generally become practically ac-
quainted with the exigencies of modern farming. They
may not have arrived at a perfect knowledge of all the
trials of tenant fanning, but they have acquired some
knowledge of what'll is exposed to from the operations
of bad seasons, epidemics amongst stock, the fluctua-
tions of prices, and other causes impossible to foresee.
In letting • farm the landlord has to regard what on
hi. side must at once be done to put the said farm in
that tenantable condition now necessary to enable the
occupier to farm according to the beet modern practice.
This may involve a large outlay on buildings, with the
necessity for much judgment in their construction and
position. It must be also borne in mind that just in
Proportion as farm builditip are now more cosily than
they were of old, and in their construction require far
more attention to detail, so is it also with the residence
of the tenant. He is a far different man from the
tenant of old. Not only does be embark • far larger
zapind in a more extensive business, but that basin's',
requires an amount of education which the tenants of
past generations did not abeolutely need, even if they
had been able to obtain it. The fann has Income A
factory, in so far that it requires the head of it to be
not merely a man of business and enterprise, but Pc"'
seemed of a skill only to be acquired by a good deal of
study. Men who have the requisite capital and qualifi-
mailing for a modern large farm must have
their dwellings consistent with their position in
life. What would have been luxury in one generation
is nothing more than a proper attention to ordinary
comforts and oonvenience in another. The man who
invests from £5,000 to £15,000 in his occupation com-
mands • position in life calling, for his own sake and
that of his family, for hones occupation con-
sistent with it. It is, then, the clear duty of •
landlord to himself as owner, his tenant as °cell-
pier, to see if he expects the fair rental his
land should return him under fair farming,
that his homestead and farm buildings are such as to
offer to a good tenant all that is these he has • right to
expect. Now, gentlemen, it cannot be denied that in the
cue of every landed proprietor who lives urine hi'
estate, his position upon that estate will depend arm
the direct influence he can himself bring to bear upon
every part of it. Just as its whole economy is more er

(For remainder of Report nee Supplement with &road
Edition.)