The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-03 00:00:00

Vie erprtoo.

OUTGOING DUMB.
The uses far Madeira, the Brasile, aid Bums Apse,
will be made up to-ninon, Dee. 4.
'l'be nest mails for Liebe's, Spain, and Gibraltar will be
tale up ea DAe. 7.
The uses eie Karetilles, to the Mediterranean, Egypt,
Dellso, lathe. Ilea`-Kong, Es., will be aide up on
tie evening of Dee. 7.
TM sails for British North dairies end the trultod
Mates will he made up on the erasing of Dre. 14.
The West ladle Mails, escinding Berens* Bananas,
Messes. Honduras, New Orleans, and Nerleo, and including
Owe Ise Madeira, St. J ean-deNisaregus, New Gesnads,
Cllta, end Tin, will be dispatched on Des. 17.
The sees far Gibraltar, Malta, Grow, the lonian lalawis,
vim Ceylon, him and Chime, via Southwaptea, will
be sands up on the 'Writing of Deo. 20.

■ION WATIII AT LONDON 111111011.
TAIA DAl—Minist, SA. ....... Afiermas. 4A.ti o.
trimas.r—lfirtles, 4b. ..... A. Ns.

LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3.

Iv la not the existence of wealth so much as the
activity and intelligence with which that wealth is
turned and employed, that creates the prosperity of
a country, and diffuses it through its several classes.
Within the last week several of the organs of the
English press have turned their attention to our
southern countier, especially to Dorset. Unanimous
and sad are the tales told by all of degraded peasan-
try reduced to a minimum of wages, a minimum of
house comfort, a minimum of morality, providence,
and education.
And yet there is no region in England, with the
exception cf London, end of canna none in the I
World, in which so large a proportion of the popula-
tion are of independent means. Not one-fl tieth of I
the population of oar great manufacturing districtsr-
are possessed of mallard property ; whist one-thi
teeth of the number of our southern counties are
so situated. It is preciwly, however, that
edam which have vested their money in speculations
and in industry, of which they are not partakers
or directors, who have lost meat in such a crisis
as we have passed. And the consequent curtailment
of their expenditure would alone account for a large
increase of destitution and crime in those regions
which generally prosper mere by the expenditure of
money made elsewhere than by the actual making of
it on the spot. The mere flinging of domestic ser-
vants, of which there are each large numbers in these
districts, beck upon ruder modes of earning, is alone
a aerials evil.
The rate of wages some sixty years ago in Dorset
wen a shilling a day in summer and tespenes in win-
ter. The price of wheat was about 435. per quar-
ter. 'lt is thus not of the amount of wages, nor yet
of their proportion to the staff of life that the labourer
First
to complain. It is of the memories.
First of all, the labourer was not then so
completely divorced from the land. Young,
he lived in the farmer's house. Advanced to man-
hood, he could rent a comfortable cottage and garden
for from 30 to 35 shillings a year. Toe same house,
with half the quantity of garden ground, would now
cost him O. or CA a year. It is in foot the rise in the
value and rent of land, which has made a prince of
the landlord, and the veriest pauper of the labourer.
Since 1792 rents have doubled, and in many cases
trebled, while the actual drawbacks of the landowners
have been lessened—for instance, by throwing several
farms together, and tram saving the expense of keep-
ing op one or two out of every three sets of farm
buildings. And during the last five and thirty years
the landowners have carried on an unrelenting war
whist cottages. They seem not to have cared where
their tenants' labourers lived so that they did not gain
settlements in the squire's parish. It was a common
practice with the landowners of the olden time to
grant cottages and gardens on leases for long terms of
years determinable upon lives, bat of late these lemma
hare been allowed to run out, and have generally
fallen into hand in a very dilapidated state, so that to
pull down or rebuff became a necessary alternative.
11nd they were invariably pulled down. Freehold
cottages also have been eagerly bought up for the
same purpose.
We are under no necessity of instituting stn in-
quiry into the condition of the Doreetsbire labourers
and their dwellings. We are contented with the tes-
timony of one of themselves, the Rev. S. G. Osnottan,
who published in 1814 his account of them They
were so crowded, he told tl9, as "to put decency oat
of the question, and so dilapidated as to be unlit for
human beings, though the rents were exorhitemt.*
Mx OSBORNE tells of many large farms in Dorset-
shire without a single cottage on them ; and he de-
sceibes landowners us invariably averse to the build-
ing of any cottages, lest it should lead to an increase
of the poor rates.
It is pretty evident that it is this dread of the per-
petuation of a peasant and an agricultural race, this
determination to detera trate and render them uncom-
fortable as a step to their destruction—it is evidently
this, which has peopled the poor-houses and impo-
verished the farm, although the intention was pre-
duly to enrich the farm and leave the poor-house
empty. If, seekisg a contrast to Dorsatshire we visit
any really prosperous agricultural district—the farms
of the Lothians, for example—we infallibly observe
cottages for the term servants, built as regularly
and prudentially. as stalls and sheds for cattle.
To farm on the principle of all for the beast and no-
thing for the man, may be economy in the eyes of a
Dorsetehire squire ; but it is really the road to ruin
both for himself and his district, to the practical agri-
culturist.
Dorsetshire hag 570,000 productive acres of ground,
With a population of 175,000, of which not more than
20 per out. are engaged in agricultu:e. This gives
shout one sixteenth of a soul per productive acre.
Yet the landlords tell us they cannot possibly support
this sixteenth part of a soul. And in order to
avoid doing so, they thrust these fractious
el humanity out of cottages first, and into pigstyes;
than, finding them discontented in pigstyes, into paw
houses ; and finding them mote discontented there
than ever, into )jail. Such is the conduct of the Dor •
setehlre landlords to the poor sixteenth part of a man
per acre.
The Chronicle has sent a commissioner to the spot,
who declares the unfortunate sixteenth very badly
used, but neither he nor his principal durst propose a
remedy. Th. Times, too, has put on its spectacles to
examine the cue, and having; duly felt the poor Dor-
metatarsi labourer's pulse, and the Dorsetshire squire's
taste, that learned authority gravely proposes emigra-
iims.
This is certainly the best thing that could befall
the poor Dorsetshire labourer; and richly the
Dorsetshire squire deserves
to be made to pay for the
transportatiom. But we beg to say that this would
sot improve the condition of the Doreetabire squire
who, if he cannot employ and feed the sixteenth part
el a soul per acre, cannot employ the one thirty-second
part done either. He wants energy, capital, and la-
bour • and because he csnnotfind the capital, you take
from him the (to him) superfluous elements of pros-
perity. Yon do to him much as you do to the
Lbourer whom yen send to the workhouee. Yon
annul and shelve the Mee usefulness that is in him.
But at the same time you let the land run to weeds,
the revenue and resources of the country dwindle
and disappear—what for? Why, that these very
noodles of bankrupt squires may awake some day and
throw all the blame upon free trade.
Now, we too have our nostrum. And it is by no
means that of a law of emigration to rid Donetshire
of the ore thirtieth part of a soul per acre. It is an
Encumbered Estates Bill, extending not merely to
the indebted and impoverished, but to the incapable
and cruel landlord. We would not interfere between
any individual sad his creditors, except his ember-
Moments were such ss to prevent his doing justice to
his position, as holder of a portion of the soil and re-
sources of, England. We would not be contented
with repeating, that landlords had duties as well ail
rights; but we would see to their execution. We
have laws and inspectors to prevent the owners of
factories from overworking and endangering the
manufacturing population. We should have both to
guard against the existence of large farms without a
single cottage to shelter a peasant, and of immense
tracts of fertile land thrown waste, because landlords
may want the skill, or the will, or the money to cul-
tivate them.