The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-17 00:00:00

Mr.„ HENLEY, M.P., rose amid cheers that were

renewed again and again. The right hon. gentle
man said—Gentlemen, I hardly know how to
return you my thanks for the great honour you
have been pleased to confer on my colleagues and
myself, and for the reception which you have been
pleased to give a toast with which the chairman
has been pleased to associate my name. (Cheers.)
The right hon. baronet has been pleased to make
particular mention of my name. (Cries of " You
deserve it !" and cheers.) I can only say that I
have had an opportunity of serving the county for
a longer period than my gallant colleagues; but I
have no doubt that if they be afforded the same '
opportunity as myself, they will show themselves
quite as zealous and faithful in the discharge of
their duties as your representatives as I have endea-
voured to prove myself. (Cheers.) I heartily con-
gratulate my friends in Woodstock on the meeting
of this day, which was a most creditable one for a
newly formed society. The utility of such associa-
tions has become so manifest that we find them
spreading over every county. When the example
of establishing one has been set in a county we find
it quickly followed, and several others founded
within a very short period of time. The specimens
of garden produce shown in Woodstock to-day are
very creditable to the labouring class of agricul-
turists. Allusion has been made to the supposed
benefit—l will say the actual benefit—which
societies like this have been to that class. I am not
one of those who would exaggerate the advantage
of agricultural associations to that class. I believe,
nevertheless, that they have been of advantage in
that way. I hold that those who, like myself, can
look back for a good many years, cannot but see
an improvement—a great and manifest improve-
ment—in all that relates to the conduct of that
class of the community. I do not attribute that
improvement to those societies, but I am of
opinion that the improvement in the habits of
the labouring classes which the circumstances
of the country generally have contributed to
produce has enabled the agricultural labourers to
take advantage of those societies—has put them in
a position to come to those associations and see what
is best to be done. (Hear, hear.) The question of
the rate of remuneration which the agricultural
labourer should receive from those who employ him
is one of great interest and great difficulty, but I
am one of those who believe that it must be settled
by the relation of demand and supply. (Hear, hear.)
I believe that any attempt to settle the question by
artificial means must prove hopeless. If you get six
men to do the labour of ten, what are you to do with
the other four? You must divide the money among
them. I shall not go into the nzinutice of this large
question, but you may depend on it that supply and
demand must regulate the price of labour. (Hear.)
I must congratulate this society and the county at
15rge, not only on the increased interest taken in the
dwellings of the humbler classes, but also on the
feeling which makes these classes themselves wish
for a better description of dwellings. And depend
upon it, if they wish for it they will have it. Like
everything else, if they are content to pay a better
they will have it. (Hear, hear.)
price for the thing, ear,
Some benevolent persons may, through benevolent
motives, wish to erect a better description of dwel-
lings for the labouring classes, but that is not what
will bring the desired object about. What will do
it will be the desire on the part of the labouring
classes themselves to bebetter accommodated. Many
old persons like myself remember the old cottages,
without any upstairs, and with an earthen floor.
Well, thank God, they have almost entirely disap-
peared. You may now ride a horse to death with-
out seeing one of them. (A laugh, and hear, hear.)
We may say that they have ceased to exist ; and
why ? Because people do not like to live in them.
When people do not like to live in them they dis-
eppoar. (Hear, hear.) The first move in the way of
improvement was to build two rooms upstairs, and
now everybody who goes to build wishes to have
three rooms upstairs. That is an improvement
weich I have lived to see in my time ; but such im-
provements can only be effected gradually.
It is
impossible that cottages can be swept away whole_
a course
sl:e in order that threenr iu rooms
he u
m tsmanya natural built
l whereof
have been only two, b
events the cottages of labourers, like our own dwelt.
ings, fall into decay, and when new ones come to be
erected they will be of an improved description.
(Hear, hear.) It is not only in the cottages of the
Poor that the improvement is taking place; we see
it in our own houses also. And so it will ever be;