The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-03 00:00:00

[PRICE 4D. STAMPED SD•

TilE EARL OF ALBE-.4IARLE ON THE
.LABOURING CLASSES.

I, The E:141 of 'Albemarle has returned to the charge
[' t the drunkenness- which now disgraces the agrf-
-2,,..
cu10r...148,
• al labourers, of East Anglia, and to which he re-
! ferfel at the recent meeting at Benham, Norfolk. The
lt,inual meeting of the Shrophana and Gciltcross Associ-
ation was held at East Harling, near Thetford, on Tues-
day, snd.his lordship addressed the recipients of prizes
at consi,lerdble length: After some observations of a
local and complinv,ntary character he said,7--As•Presi--
dent of this association, my first duty is to intimate to
all V71.,0 have been recipients of prizes to-day that they
• are not intended as rewards for any services you may
haze performel to your employers, but as au earnest of
ttie goodwill and good feeling of the members of the
•associaticn -towards meritorious cottagers, labourers, and
servants. They are also intended to secure that which
every day becomes more important—the promotion of
harmony and good feeling among all- classes of agri-
cultural society. I see by the certificates here given—
certificates 'signed either by your employers, by the minis-
ters of the parishes in which yon live, or by one of the
members of the association—that you are sober, honest,
and industrious. I rejoice to hear it; and Ido not think
I should be discharging my duty as President of this
association if I were not to implore all of you by precept
and example to preserve that character, and to endeavour
to extend and spread it among your fellow-labourers in
yoUr respective parishes. This is a matter which I con-
sider of the deepest importance, and every day, as the
circumstances of the times alter, it is becoming more so.
Certainly the public accounts are most appalling and
alarming from an opposite course—the want of sobriety
in the taboo' ing ci Lsses, and especially, I 1.0 ,ret to say,
in the Mow Lig classes of these counties of •

Suffolk. 1 had some little time ago occasiot.
a taro body of the,labouring clawee tip,ofiche,sauie sulx,
deti, 444 :sl. poi*itect-iukkidifi
fearful. loss of life and health which diunkemnees occa
sions. I would just for a moment allude to another loss
—the loss of money. That agdin is a most fearful feature
of the case. Toe labouring classes (it is stated :by public
. .

docutnent.4) spend one-third, if not one-half, of their earn-
ings, which should go to•the sustenance of their families,
in drink. They are said to spend in this way annually

the enormous sum of 57,006,000/. ; that 57,000,0001.
would pay the whole of the national expenses. It would

pay, including the expense of the army and navy, in
time of peace, and the miscellaneous estimate; the in-

terest upon 808,000,000/. of debt. It would pay all
local ratei acd taxes of every sort, tithes, county rates,
and whatever comes under the denomination of local

:axes ; and it would support 1,000,000 families at the

rAte of 1.65. per week. My duty will not allow me to pass
the subject over quite in silence at the present moment.
I wont inflict my speech at Banhain again upon you,
my friends, but if any of you have any curiosity to know
what I said upon that occasion, I will tell you that a
neighbour of mine, Mr. Seott Surtees, has published the
transactions of that meeting together with a number of
other valuable documents—l don't include my speech

among them, of course—(laughter) —which may, I ihitik,
be read with advantage by every class and by every
per .on I have n,w the honour of addressing. I have
we some copies of the pamphlet Mr. Surtees had pub-

shed, and I shall be happy t; give a copy to any person

who will do me the honour to ask for it, provided they

will enter into an agreement that they will read it

.elves, and, if possi—b!e, to their neighbours and families.
I h.tve d,velt, now, upon sobrikty. Yiu are said hero
tr: be honest, sober, and industrious, and I have omitted

the other words, because I have not much fear of
honesty and industry if sobriety be preserved. If there
be a departure from it the others are in very great
jeopardy. Tile point upon which I dwelt when 1 last
spoke upon this subject was the connection between
drunkenness and crime ; and you will find by this small
pamphlet which I have mentioned to you, that I quoted

six judges of the land to show the effect which was pro-
duced by drink. Among the rest I quoted the dying
words of Mr. Justice Tals3urd, and if I now men ion
his words again, it is not with reference so much to the

labouring classes as to the rest of the community. Mr.
Justice Taifourd accused others besides the labouring
c asses. He distinctly accused the class to which I my-
self belong, and witb which I am immediately in con-
nection. I will not read all that he said, nor would I
quote a word if I were addressing merely the Shropham
and Guiltcross Association. But there's a'• chielainang
us taking notes," and the words that are said 'ere will
_ _

go frotri-one end of the country to the other—at least
from one end of the county to the other ; and I am not

addressing you particularly, but landlords, tenants, and
•abourer; all over the country. Mr. Justice Taltour t

says : —" I cannot help thinking that this drunkenness
may be in no small degree attributable to the separation
between class and class which is the curse of British so-

ciety, and in which we are all in our respective spheres
in some degree responsible. lam afraid that we all of
us keep too lunch aloof from those beneath us, whom we
thus encourage to look upon us with suspicion and dis-
like." In another part of his charge he says :—" This
feeltittc.,arisinz from -that
the British character"=--nothing was ever more true ;
it is that which causes bashful Englishmen t,
be laughed at in all countries wherever they go, and no-
body is feeling it more than myself at the present mo-
ment—" does, I think, greatly tend to prevent that
ming-ring of class with dabs, that reciprocation of kind
words and friendly offices, which tend to the culture of
the affections of the heart and the elevation of the cha-

raster of those to whom they are addressed." I believe
the judge to be right ; I hope he is ; and, if my assurance
as one of the higher classes be of any avail, 1 am sure I
may say that, it the expression of our sympathy with you
will do anything towards producing a kindly feeling to-
wards you and raising your character, I, for one, shall
take upon myself the responsibility of my class, and en-
deavour, as far as my small influence will go, to promote
that good feel mg. Every one present may, in some way
be useful. Every one who betters the condition of the
poor is helping to put down that degrading vice of drun-
kenness which arises, I belive, very much from the want
of that expression of sympathy and those alternations of
friendly offices between one class and the other, of which
Ju-tice Taliourd speaks. There is another class con-
nected with the land to whom I would address myself
most affectionately and most respectfully—l mean the
occupiers: of the soil. I would not for one moment be sup-
posed to be speaking here to the occupiers of the Siirop-
ham and Gui tcross hundreds. I have the honour to have
for my tenants as respectable, honourable, and estimable
a body of men as any in existence. I am on good terms
with all my neighbours, and am not now speasing to in-
dividual=, but to a class ; I am speaking to the occupiers
of the soil in their corporate capacity—end I remember
my kind and dear friend Lord Colborne, with that most
agreeable manner which he had, saying to me one day,
" Corporate bodies can bear being hit rather hard." We
were speaking not of a body of farmers, but of a body
of clergymen—of a dean and chapter, and Lord Col-
borne said, " A dean and chapter shall be composed of
the best men that ever lived ; they shall be unexception-
able in their individual characters, but in their collective
capacity they would divide a murder among
them." (Laughter.) It is in their collective capacity
that I speak to the farmers. I am not now alluding
particularly to this county, but I say that the farmer
ought not to treat the labouring man as a mere machine
out of which a certain quantity of work is to be obtained;
but that he should remember that the power ho naturally
has as an employer of the labourer is a trust to be exer-
cised for the benefit of those whom Providence has con-
signed to his sympathy and protection. My friends,
labouring men, if we tender to you the hand of good
fellowship, have we not a right to ask something on your
parts in return ? What do we ask of you ? Do we ask
for any favour ? No ; we a4e you nut to injure your-
selves—to abstain from drink ; not to do that which in-
jures your health, ruins your family, blasts your charac-
ter, and leads you to the perpetration of crimes. We ask
you not to squander that which would improve your
household comforts and raise you in the scale of society.
I wish to see the labouring men in this country a little
more like freeborn Englishmen ; I wish to see the la-
bourer raised in every possible way. We are the ad-
miration of the world, and ours is the freest country in
the wurl4'. In the southern portion of America, which
calls itself free, there are slaves ; but the moment those
slaves come in England, that moment they are free. A
poet of the last century has said—" Slaves cannot live
in England. When their lungs receive our air that mo-
ment they are free ; they touch our country, and their
shackles fall." But the poet makes no allusion to the
freeborn man who makes himself a slave—a slavet, o
drink—a slave who sells his birthright, not like Eirsiaeunds,
a mess of porridge, but for a pot et beer.
I trust I shall be forgiven for dwelling thus muchMY upon
i at
this subject. I assure you I have your
heart, and as far as it is in my power
I nterests
lwill
want to strike
to promote them. Don't imagine that 'endeavour
at your amusements. I was at a greattlk I wish to drench
tea meeting the
other day, and some of you may thi
you with tea; bur when I spoke against
system of large-s—l am happy to see the abominable
a tenant farmer, in
another part of the county, calling
against
it the diabolical system
of largess—l did not speakofit—its drunkenness, and itsainst the harvest dinner,
but against the abuse
set hisag facenst
against it when harvest against
system of going from.dyoolarhotourdino7m.
anl sto poke
that, and I implore
every
time next comes round. I wish
to see your amusement of
country,
better kind. I wish to see
the manly sports of our such as cricket and
quoits, mere generally practised. Ish mid even like to
see them taught at schools. I regret that a very strong
sense
of duty has obliged me to intrude so ranch upon
your time, and I can only say that my ardent and sin-
cere wish is t raise the labouring cla:,s&.es in the social
scale. (Applause.)
At the dinner, in the evening, attended by the sub-
scribers to the association, his lordship further enforced
the necessity of inducing and assisting the poor to raise
themselves as much as possible by
habits. frugal and virtuous