The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-08-29 00:00:00

CANON GIRDLESTONE ON THE WAGES
OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS.
(From. the Timm.)

A bondeshell in a powder magazine Ivi old hardly
produce a greater commotion than has followed upon
one of the papers read before the British Association
at Norwich (remarks the Times). The Rev. Canon
Girdleston, well known for his exertions on behalf of
the Agricultural Labourer, delivered an address on the
condition and prospects of that class, in which neither
landlords nor farmers were very tenderly handled.
True, the lecturer applied his remarks especially to
the West of England, whereas Norwich is the capital
of the East • but Norfolk is eminently an agricultural
county, and the squires and their tenants who had
come in to hear something of the marvels of science
were naturally taken aback by a strong assertion of
the rights of labour and the duties of property. Nor
does Mr. Girdlestone appear to have minced his wonls,
for even his excuses were uncomplimentary, while the
picture he drew of the dependent class was anything
but agreeable to those who were naturally regarded as
more or less responsible for the results :

'the rev. canon commenced by saying that the progress of
manufacture, so far from lessening, had rather increased the
value of land. Fortunes made in manufactures were gene-
rally invested in land, and (treat Britain retained, and was
likely always to retain, its character as all agriculturist COUll-
try. Landowners occupied the highest positions and enjoyed
the greatest social privileges. Public opinion, the re-
form of Universities and public schools, the facility for
foreign travel, and the admixture of the manufacturing
classes with the old landed proprietors had it raised the
character and improved the tone if the latter Still, espe-
cially in the west of England, there were many of the old
school remaining who resisted all progress. The race of
farmers was much improved, but not so much In the west of
England as elsewhere. The 'awl was also nmch improved ;
a larger area was brought into cultivation, and each acre was
. .

nta4 to yield more. 'ln this respect :Ilse in the west of
England there was less improvement than elsewhere. No-
where had the improventent of the agricultural labourer kept
pace with that of the landowner, the fanner, and the land
itself. In the west of England the condition of the labourer
was very little different, and in some respects it was worse,
than it used to be. Wages were low while Mel and pmvisions
were dear, and the poor-rate was on, administered as to
quench every feeling of independence. In the west of
England an agricultural labourer had till lately only Os. or
Os. a week, and tow only Os. or Os. Unless he was a horse-
keeper or a shepherd, he had to pay out of this from Is. to
Is. Cii. a week for house-rent, and provide food, clothing,
niednal attendance, fuel, and every other necessary for him-
self stile. mid family lie paid a high rent for potato ground,
and fuel he seldom got except at the costa! ninny hours hard
work. Ile had three phtts or two quarts of eider a day, and
be had a portion of his wages often paid in grist, which when
grist was dear was an advantage, lmt otherwise a loss to hint.
Ile was often not allowed to keep a pig or poultry, lest he
should steal food for them from his master. lie worked
nominally ten or ten allti as half hours a day, with On hour
and at half deducted for meals. Ile was most always, how-
ever, kept a much longer time than this, and was seldom
paid anything for overtime, except by bread and cheese in
harvest tone. N 1 4'men got id. or lid. per day for out-door
work, with a quart of cider, .d the I mys small sums in pro-
portion. The men breakfasted ',eh Ire they left honte on "tea-
kettle broth," which consisted of bread and water with a
little milk if (which was not often the case) it could be got
For luncheon and dinner, which they took with them, they
bad coarse bread and a little hard, dry skim-rank cheese, at
Off per pound. For supper, MI their return home, they had
potatoes or cabbage, with an very small slice of bacon some-
times to give a flavour. Butcher's meat they seldom saw,
except it was given to them. They were unable to lay by
anything, and few comparatively belonged to benefit snide-
ties. They were long-lived, lint even in their prime
feeble, and at the age of fifty they were often crippled with
rhemnatistii, the result of poor iisittg, sour cider, a damn
climate, hard work, and anxiety conthined. There remained
nothing for them mitt parish pay and the union. There were
many exceptions to tins general ride, often even in contign-
Onns parishes, owing to the presence of an intelligent resident
landowner, or the immediate neighbourlumd of a large town,
mines, or manufactures. The wages of the agricultural
labourer were always higher in the neighbourhood of towns,
mines, and manufactures. The condition of the agricultnal
labourer varied, indeed, in different parts of England ; but
the fact that in agricultural districts the poor-rate was.. very
high, that there more marks than signatures in the marriage
registers', that recruits from the sante districts were seldom
able to read or write, that our prisons were filled from the
same districts, and the general conviction that agricultural
labourers were wholly unfit to inc trmsted with the fray chise
were real and reliable evidences of the low condition of this
class of men. That width was really required for the agri-
cultural labourer was in one ss ord " independence." At pre-
sent he was the most dependent of any class of labourers. In
' order to this—firstly, good wages were required in propos.-
' tion to quantity andquality of work, but always in the case
of an able-bodied and industrions man, enough to keep him
and his family, with a margin hr insurance against old age
or sickness; secondly, well-drained and ventilated houses,
with at least three bed rooms and all other appliances for
leniency, with a provision also against taking in lodgers, such
houses to Inc in the control of the landowner rather than the
fernier; thirdly, greater facilities fir education should he
afforded ; fourthly, all " mops" and hiring-fairs should lie
aloolished, and a good system of registration should be gene-
rally adopted and made known through the instrumentality
of the penny papers throughout the country; fifthly, agri-
cultural labourers' unions of a strictly protective character,
and well guarded against intimidation, to either employers
or fellow-workmen, might be formed with advantage—the
whole system of uniouts was not to be condemned because of
outrages committed by a few ; sixthly, there should he legis-
lation in favour of the agricultural labourers, especially as
regards education, and the administration of the Poor Law
by a central board of disinterested officers, instead of by a
local board of landowners and farmers. Legislation so
far hail done less for the agricultural laboilrers than for any
other class. although landowners and farmers had a special
pecuniary interest in the improvement of the rural work-
man.
' . .

The outspoken language of this paper provoked
frequently excited interruptions of dissent.
The section was very numerously attended,
and the excitement occasioned by Canon Girdlestone's
pamf was very great.

In the Economic Science and Statistics Section, after
the reading of Cation Girdlestone's paper on " The
Condition of the Agricultural Labourer, especially in
the West of England," an animated discussion ensued,
in the course of which,
Sir Willoughby Jones said he should not attempt to jnitify
such small wages as Sc. or its, a week. As to a suggested
payment of over-time, that already exist. M Norfolk, the
labourer being paid 3d, an I. or for such work. Part pay-
ment in kind did not exist in Norfolk. With respect to
cottage accommodation, he admitted that there should be
three bedrooms in a cottage, so that the separation of the
sexes might lie complete ; Ind the average in Norfolk was
only two. Efforts were being made to remedy this defect,
and until it was accomplished he suggested that the sons of
the labourer should sleep in the sitting-room of the cottage.
Ile entirely differed from the Rev. Canon's opinions upon
Miners, believing that if they wished the labourers to be
be decent, respectable people, they must not drive them into
matrimony at the age of IS, which they would do if they
gave no opportunity for taking private lodgings ; or else the
public-home, with *Rite attendant evils, must be resorted to;
Ito believed the real solution of the labour question to be the
bantling of a certain number of clauses on etch estate, anti
so arranged that it will be impossible for young men to be
" taken in and done for" (laughter) by old people as lodgers,
and not be compelled, for the purpose if vetting their food
cooked, and their clothes washed, to be married at the age of
20. c . With regard to wages earned, adding harvest, over-time,
I task work to the ordinary wages, the lalmurer's income
l was brought up to las, per week, and he contrasted this with