The Express.
London, England, 1866-02-01 00:00:00

THE DORBETSHISE LLHOEHEL

" S. G. 0.," the well-known correspondent of the Tines,
confesses to a degree of astonishment on reading Lord
Sbafteibury's letter on the condition of the Dorsetehire
labourer, of which in his old age he did not think himself
capable. He altogether denies that any such statement Ito
that the noble lord has put forth with rezard to the
labourers on the 18 fax me, if tree on them, could be proved
to be true on almost all the se' Aar of the county. Both
as to the state of the cottages, the hours of labour, end the
value of perquisites, "S. G. 0." is altogether at variance
with the noble lord. " I wish," be says, "Lord Shaftes-
bury would go through personally the length end
breadth of the county, and study to arrive at the
real truth; he world rota-n to St. Giles's a more red•
if not • wiser man." But matters are mending. Wages
must rise, for there is a call for labour elsewhere, which
will soon lower the supply of able men in Donetehite to a
degree which will make it • matter of necessity to pay
them and lodge them better. There most be more cottages
built, for the farms cannot be worked without them.
Declining for the present any attempt to strike the balsnoe
between Lord Shaftesbary'a facts and those of "S. G.
the Daily Nears wi'l take what his lordship says as
a truthful—no one can doubt that it is a sincere—represen-
tation of the average condition of the Southern peasant.
It is melancholy to find it brought forward in vindication
of the existing rural economy, or as a proof even of its
comparative excellence. Possibly the collective earnings
of such families as are described may provide them with
the material comforts needful to make life ph7sically
endurable. But at what a cost are these things purchased
Hope is excluded. The head of the family can look for-
ward to nothing but the workhouse as the refuge, or the
parish doles as the support of bis old age, when he is pest
working ; and he can anticipate only • repetition of his
own career for his children. What wonder if, with a prospect
like this before him, and with urgent necessities pressing
him every hour, all thoughtof the future is shunned, and the
man lives like a brute wholly is the present moment'
Emigration, which has relieved Ireland, is not likely to
thin to any considerable degree the agricultural districts of
England, until with the modification of the law of settle-
ment a freer movement ensues among the masses of the
agricultural population, of which the first effect wig be to
produce en approximately uniform rate of wages through-
out the kingdom, raising the average in Dorset and Devon,
and lowering it is the same proportion in Yorkshire and
L►ncashire, end thus stimulating emigration from the
regions which it depresses to the United States
and the British colonies. An exodus at some
future time from the agricultural districts of
England, parallel to that which Is depopulating Ireland,
is not an impossibility. It only needs a beginning.
In co-operation with this, the abolition of the monopoly in
the soil, caused by the laws of entail and of settle-
ment sod the law of primogeniture, by producing
larger investments of capital in it, would have the
effect of improving. in an incalculable degree, the
sondition of the English peasant. A mere abundant
wages fund would exist for division among a smaller
body of labourers. Whatever temporary alleviations
may be wisely employed, emigration from the rural
districts and free trade io the land are the asseetial con-
ditions of a thorough cure of, perhaps, the most grievous '
industrial evil of English society.

It is understood that the title of the bishop whom
the Bishop of Cepetown is about to consecrate in the room
of Bishop Colette°, will be not the Bishop of Natal, but
the Bishop of Pietermeritsburg.
PAILLIANINTAIY EXACTIONS TO COY& --Since
the general election death has mad* two vacant tests In
the new perli►meat ►bout to assemble, and at the same
time that writs issue for sew elections to these, write
will be sent out for London, Louth, Pontefract, and Sun-
derlsed, for whiete Mr. Gosehen, Mr. Chichester Fortescue,
Mr. Childers, mad Mr. Fenwiek will severally seek re-elec-
tdoe, each after hie rt lent appointment to office under the
government. Is Sunderland only, of these four, is there
say preemie* of a content. The two seats vacant by death
are Mvertos, when Mr. Deeman will «wised with Sir
John Ray to emceed the late Lord Palmerston ; and Brecoe,
where the Earl of Breakneck will probably be eke ed,
without opposition, to take the pleas of the late Colonel
Lloyd Watkins.