The Express.
London, England, 1855-10-13 00:00:00

etc Oxpreoo.

TO CORRISPONDIMTO.
• Wertimeride lermisd tar - The Illayers." Laded draw rim
meet be a dr 011ek le. Berreberreet. by Tye wog es dr
My of pedilerdr.

lava •• m••••o. m. ••••—•
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£o7oollra4cipiDAT, 042103.13 IS.

We are shut to make an applaud le the orentry
gentlemen of the United Kingdom. Ws are not
going to invite them to ante into any emabinatios
for the overthrow of the existing Governmeat. Our
*blest is not political, bat rarsly social. It is a mat-
ter of peat Wares** to us--and to th* peat ma-
jority of th* people in this coontry—whetber or not
Mr. Dist= has had an interview with Mr. GLAD-
STONE, has coalemed with Mr. Bllallt or has added
another hair-brained freak to the theme* and ow
mosntrioitise of his political Gamer. What wo ask of
our landowner—from the proprietor of dooming

extending as far es the eie can reach, to
the humble possessor of a hw Beres of
British soil—is to spend a little mom thus
than they seem inclined to do upon their *statist,
and to divots themselves, heart and soul, to
improving the condition et their labourovs. We Sr.
very glad to see them in London for two or throe
months in the year. By all means, Ist them have
their "season". For no consideration would we de-
prive them of their annual visit to the metropolis ;1
bat we should like to see their time of maidenes here
eartailed. The otountry, not London, is ask

home t they will find
_there
.ne leek

occupation, the work lOU multiply on their
hands ; and —if we may be exemed for,

resorting to so sordid an argument in presence of
the high-could and self-forgetting men who own the
soil on which we tread—they will find it very much to
their own advantage to fbllow our advice. Improve
the condition of your labourers, and you will improve
the condition of your estates.
Our attention has been called to this subject by an
admirable speech delivered the other day by the Earl
of LILICLVIZZ, to the members of the Dorking Agri-
cultural Association. That nobleman tells us that
agricultural associations are all very well in
their way ; that a certain amount of good is
achieved by offering rewards for the encourage-
ment of labourers; bet that, after all, the real
work must be done " first by the owner of the cottage
In which the labourer resides, and next by the occupier
of the land on which he is employed." It is no ex-
aggeration to say that, even in this year 1866, in
these days of political, social, edocatiooal, and
every other kind of reform, the condition of
our agricultural population is a disgrace to
the noble lords and fine gentlemen who
think that the whole duty of the British landowner
consists in spending his rent-roll, while he leaves his
tenants and labourers to the tender mercies of his
steward. Only look at the cottages in which many
of our hardworksd farm labourers are doomed to
spend their days. According to our modern notions
of civilisation they are not fit for human beings to
live in. They are as bad as anything that can be
found in the most wretched quarters of this metro-
polis. The evil is as enormous, and the excites is
wanting. It ie next to an impossibility to improve
the condition of our monster cities in proportion
to our desires, or the emergency of the case.,
But, surely, it is within the power of a
landed proprietor to take oare that the
human beings whom be pays to till his soil, on whose
Woos he depends, shall not be condemned to live in
hovels. The evil of years cannot, of course, be re-
medied in a day. It will require a certain length of
time and no inconsiderable amount of expenditure to

accomplish all that could be desired in this respect.
The example, however, has already been set, here,
and there, by more than one wealthy landowner,
and we hope that it will be speedily followed
in every county in the land. It is the
mare necessary to insist upon this because
it is admitted on all hands that improvement in the
physical condition of the poor must form the ground-
work of every other improvement. Leta man live in
• hovel—let him be surrounded by filth—let him be
a stranger to conveniences which once were luxuries
bet now are necessaries, and you may despair of
trying to ameliorate his condition in any other m-
oppet. Cleanliness, some one said, is next to godli-
ness. We should rather say that • man who lives in
dirt has no chance whatever of attaining to the
condition of a moral and intellectual being. He may
dig, and plough, and go through his daily task like
a horse or a machine; but a brute he is, and a brute
he will remain.

We are far from wishing to arouse any morbid
sympathy in behalf of the agricultural population.
We do not wish to set class against class, nor to libel
the Bridal landowner by describing him as an op-
prusive tyrant, or an inhuman monster who cares
not for the present or future good of the labourers in
his employment. But we do say that many of his
class may justly be charged with gross and suicidal ne-
glect of the human beings to whom they certainly owe
some duties beyond that of paying their wages. We
annot expect these poor creatures to help themselves.
The example meet be set by those above them. The
other day Lord Malatesta told the labourers in
hie employment that drunkenness was the real source
of a large proportion of the crime committed in this
country. The Earl of Lalcuma myth "One of the
groat evils we have to contend against is the vice of
drunkenness. Assn employer, I find that I can deal
with men so long as they are not given to drunken-
ness." For further testimony to the truth of these
statements we have only to road the charges dell_
vend at every •seise that is held. Our Judges are all
unanimous on this point. And yet, what can we ex-
pect P What efforts doss the landowner make to pre-
vent his labourers from contracting habits of drunken-
Rees? In how many cuss doss he look at them
in any other light but that of tillers of the soil P In
how many villages is there any other place of resort
for the farm labourer bat the publio-house ? What
inducements are held out to him to spend the few
hours he can snatch from his daily work in any nobler
occupation than that of swilling beer ? The truth is
that the muter does not take a sufficient interest in
the well-being of his servants. So long as
the work is done, he cares too little
about the labourers, forgetting all the while
that " a good master makes • good man,' and
that the quality of the work depends on the quality
of the workman. At all events, it is much more
agreeable to think that ones fields are ploughed and
one's seed nattered in the ground by human beings
with whom one has established higher relations than
those which subsist between man and the brute trea-
ties. As for edeeatieg an adult labourer, the
attenipt would probably be hopeless. But that only
makes it the mere incumbent on as to take are
that the next ',Reredos of farm labourers shall be
better than the present on.. If we despair of dole"
much in the way of intelleeteal advasument for the