The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-02 00:00:00

LORD PALMERSTON AT ROMSET.

On Tuesday the annual meeting of the "Labourers'
Encouragement Society" was held at the White Horse
Hotel, Romsey, Hampshire, under the superintendence
of its president, the Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston.
Money prizes, ranging from 10s. to 21., were awarded
to shepherds, teamsmen, ploughmen, seedsmen, and
drillmen, rickmakers and thatchers and turnip hoers,
labourers with neat and clean cottages, and others who
had been for a long series of years in one service, and had
educated and " got out" their families without any parish
aid.

The successful candidates, to the number of about 100,
were regaled with a substantial dinner of beef and
plum-pudding. The awarding of the prizes followed,
and then
Lord PALMERSTON addressed the labourers as follows :
—I have great pleasure in being president of this most
useful institution, and it affords me infinite gratification
to see so many of my neighbours here, who have by their
good conduct in every possible way earned the
~ re-
wards which have now been bestowed upon them. tis
unnecessary, in addressing those who have distinguished
themselves as you have done, to say much touching that
course of conduct which is calculated to secure for the
person comfort and respectability, and call down upon
him the approbation of his neighbours. But, neverthe-
less, it is always well that people should bear in mind
general principles. Now, in addressing you, whom Pro-
vidence has placed among the labouring classes, it may
not be out of place to remind you that the distribution
of wealth and poverty--the arrangement by which there
are comparatively few rich and comparatively many poor
—is the condition of the world in which we live, and
that no human institutions can alter this arrangement,
and make all the poor rich ; it might be possible to
snake all the rich poor, but the condition of comparative
poverty must inevitably be the lot of a great portion of
the human race. But although it has been the pleasure
of our Maker, in a world which is a world of trial and
transition, and not the ultimate destiny of mankind—
though it has been the pleasure of our Maker to sub-
ject a great portion of the human race to trials and
privations to enable them to qualify themselves for
the future state that awaits them, yet Providence
has not been niggardly in the distribution of those
qualities which are calculated to secure happiness
to those who conduct themselves well upon this
•artl3- (Cheers.) All the good qualities of human
nature—the qualities of mind and of heart—everything
that tends to dignify our species and to enable men to
distinguish themselves in the condition in which they have
been placed—these qualities have been sown broadcast
over the human race, and are as abundantly dispersed
among the humblest classes as they are among the
highest classes of the land. (Renewed cheers.) You
will find that all children are born good ; it is bad edu-
cation and bad associations in early life that corrupt the
minds of men. It is true that there are now and then
exceptions to general principles. As there are men who
have been born with club feet, born blind, or with other
personal defects, so also will it happen that children will
he born with defective dispositions, but these are rare ex-
options. Be persuaded that the mind and heart of man
are naturally good, and it depends upon training and
education whether that goodness implanted at birth
shall continue to display itself, or whether by bad asso-
ciations it shall be corrupted and destroyed. (Hear,
hear.) Therefore the first thing you would infer from
this truth is, that it is the duty of all parents to see that
their children are well and properly educated—that they
are early instructed not merely in book learning, in read-
ing and writing, and acquirements of that kind, but in-
structed in the precepts which indicate the difference
between right and wrong, and that they are taught the
principles of religion and their duty towards Gud and
man. Now the way in which that can be done is by the
father and mother building up their household upon that
which is the foundation of all excellence in social life—l
mean a happy home. (Applause.) Now, o home can
be happy if the husband be not a kind and affectionate
husband and a good father to his children. Bearing
this in mind, he must avoid two great rocks on which
t so many men in the humbler ranks make shipwreck—
the tobacco-shop and the beer-shop. The tobacco-shop
ruins his health and leads to all kinds of diseases. If
he were a man living on a desert island and isolated
from society this might be a matter of comparatively
little importance, and be might ruin his constitution
just as he pleased ; but the labouring classes must re-
member that their health and strength are the support
of their families, and if they ruin the one and reck-
lessly waste the other they not only injure themselves,
but do irreparable damage to those who are depending
upon them. So much for the use of tobacco, which many
to their detriment indulge in. But the beer-shop and pub-
lic-house e) further, because the habits there contracted
not only lead to the degradation of the individual and
the impoverishment of his family, bat they lead to offences
and crimes which tend to place the man in the condi-
tion of a felon and a convict. No man who indulges in
drink can fail to feel degraded when he recovers from his
intoxication, and that sense of degradation leads him
again to drown his care in renewed intoxication, and
from step to step he falls into the lowest condition that
human nature can be degraded to. Now, do not ima-
gine, because I say these things, that I consider them
necessary to those whom I have the pleasure of addres-
sing. The very fact of your being here, with the best
credentials of good behaviour, is a proof that you have
avoided the errors I have pointed out; but
you are y
enti-
tled to give good advice to your neighbours, to those
who have not been so fortunate as you have been, or
who may not be so alive as you are to your duties to
yourselves and your families. I must repeat it is very
gratifying to see so many men who have, in the
various pursuits of agricultural industry, entitled
themselves to the rewards which have just been dis-
tributed; but there is one thing connected with the
list of piz-smen which I confess is peculiarly gratifying
tai me to think of. I mean that among you there are a
certain number who have lived so long in the employment
of particular masters. This circumstance not only shows
that those who have so lived in service have been
most deserving men, and therefore have done honour
to the class to which they belong, but it does equal
honour to the masters in whose employment they have
remained. [The noble viscomit then read the names of
eight labourers who, on an average, had each remained
33 years with one employer, and concluded as fol-
lows trust that next year we will have a larger
list of premiums, and that the example of those prize-
men who go forth to the world with the honourable
marks of public approbation will serve as an induce-
ment to others to imitate them, and that the good con-
duct of the labourers will more and more entitle them
to the confidence and good-will of their employers, and
thus that the two classes who depend upon each other
will find their relationship more cemented by mutual
attachment and respect ; and that, let me tell you, is a
condition of things most important to the interests of the
nation at large.
Great applause followed the conclusion of his lord-
ship's address. He immediately afterwards called upon
the assembly to drink " Success and prosperity to the
labourers of Hampshire," an appeal which was responded
to in bumpers of strong ale. His lordship then retired
amid "three cheers" from the stentorian lungs of the
ploughmen, shepherds, &c., present.