The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-30 00:00:00

IMPROVEMENT OF THE CONDI-
TION OF THE LABOURERS OF DORSET.
DORCHESTER, TUESDAY.—A highly influential meeting,
was held in the Assize Hall here yesterday afternoon,
under the auspices of the High Sheriff of the county
the Lord Bishop of the diocese, and a host of county
magistrates and clergymen, for the purpose of " esta-
blishing a Labourers' Friend Society for the district,
with the view of bettering the condition, morally and
physically, of the rural labourers and working mechanics
and artisans, by carrying out the field-garden allotment
system, under judicious regulations." At the time the
High Sheriff took the chair, we noticed around him—
The Right Rev. Dr. Denison, Lord Bishop of Salisbury;
John Floyer, Esq., M.P.; Richard Brinsley Sheridan,
Esq., M.P.; the Hon. and Rev. W. H. Scott ; A. H. D.
Acland, John Cree, F. B. Martin, Robert Williams,
John Mansell, Esqs. ; Captain Foster, the Rev. J. A.
Templar and John Venables, county magistrates ; the
Venerable the Archdeacon of Dorset, the Revs. C. W.
Bingham, J. Lane, E. Ludlow, G. Wood, R. Smith, G.
Fisher, N. Handley, Sanderson Robins, J. Philips, T.
Thompson, J. Frenow, 0. Fisher, &c. Among the
ladies—Mrs. Sheridan, Mrs. John Floyer, Mrs. C. W.
Bingham, Mrs. Martin, &c. &c.
The Hica SHERIFF, after briefly touching upon the
general objects of such societies as they had met to
form, said that it bad been generally understood from
what took place at a large preliminary meeting of the
committee, that the society would not confine itself to
the objects specified in the printed advertisements, and
he confessed that he hoped to see a considerable exten-
sion of those objects. He hoped to see such an amount
of funds as would enable them to give premiums for such
things as domestic economy—for length of service—for
those who had kept their children at school the longest
time, and with the best results—for the best cultivated
garden—for the best garden produce, &c. He felt a
peculiar pleasure in presiding on that occasion, because
he had occasionally to attend in that Court on much lass
pleasant business ; and if, as the organ of the quarter
sessions, he had had to administer punishment for
offences against the laws, it was now a very pleasing
duty to preside at a meeting for the formation of a
society which was to reward the honest and industri-
ous.—(Cheers.) The High Sheriff concluded by read-
ing letters from H. Ker Seymeur, Esq., M.P., and the
Rev. H. F. Yeatman, apologising for absence, and then
called on
The Lord Bishop of SALISBURY, who proposed the
first resolution. His Lordship said he had listened with
great pleasure to the observations with which the High
Sheriff had introduced the business of the meeting, and
in which he had in some measure anticipated some re-
marks which he might otherwise have been disposed to
make. He would proceed at once to read a resolution
which was entrusted to him, and which was to this
effect:—" That it is obvious that the present state and
condition of the labouring classes are such as to give oc-
casion for the immediate efforts of an energetic and well-
directed benevolence to produce a permanent and effectual
improvement in their condition." He felt that this reso-
lution might more properly, in some respects, have been
committed to the charge of those around him, who, from
their own personal acquaintance with the condition of
the labourers, and more especially with the condition of
the labourers of this county, would be enabled to sup-
port the resolution by statements of facts which it would
not be in his power to bring before them, and by argu-
ments which he had not the means to adduce. The calls
of duty which laid upon him brought him little into
immediate connexion with the labouring poor—with
those whose interests it was the more especial object of
the association which it was now proposed to establish
to advance. But if on that account it might have been
more fitting that such a resolution should have been en-
trusted to some other hands, he might be permitted to
say that there was surely no man who was bound under
deeper or more sacred responsibilities than himself, to
have a deep and earnest sympathy with the condition of
the poor—not only in this or that locality throughout
the county, but in every individual parish and every lo-
cality, with each and all of which he was connected by
a tie the most sacred and the most important. And,
perhaps, in one respect it might be as well that he who
had to move the resolution should not be connected with
any particular parish or locality in that county, more es-
pecially than with the neighbouving county; inasmuch
as it could not by possibility be supposed that in advert-
ing to the condition of the labouring class in general, it
was intended to imply that that condition differed from
the state of the labouring class in any part of the United
Kingdom, placed under similar circumstances; or that
he had any intention to allude to those discussions that
had been raised, and which had excited an angry feeling
in the community. He was sure that it was not the in-
tention of this association to mix itself up with questions
of that kind, and he believed such to be far from the wish
of the committee who framed those resolutions. It was far
from his own wish to assert that there was any difference
in the condition of the labouring classes in that county,
and in the condition of those in the other part of his
diocese in Wilts, or in any part of the United Kingdom
under similar circumstances. But by this resolution was
implied, that the condition of the labouring classes was
worthy to be a subject of more satisfactory contemplation
than they allowed it to be; and he would put it to any
man who understood the responsibilities under which
they laid, whether it was not for their interest to better
that condition by any means which experience could
suggest or reason advise ? As with the social condition
of the individual man, so was it with the conditidn of
the social community. In both conditions it was found
imprudent to stand still, for the nation and individuals
were either advancing to improvement or tending to de-
gradation and decay. It might be that in the body po-
litic different actions might at the same time be going
on in different portions, and that one member of the body
might dwindle and waste away whilst other parts were
subjected to an unnatural and unhealthy growth. No
one that looked around him would fail to see that there
was going on in this country a progress, and growth, and
increase entirely unexampled. Science was every day
bringing to light new discoveries, which in their applica-
tion to the mechanical arts were giving occasion for the
increase of capital and tke growth of the na-
tional wealth. Knowledge was more widely distri-
buted. Agriculture, trade, commerce, each had in
an astonishing degree increased. But it might be
a subject of inquiry, whilst there was this growth
of wealth, this accumulation of capital, whether the
great mass of the community had their due and proper
share in the improvement of the general state. If it
were the case that there was in this country at the pre-
sent time a tendency of wealth, whilst it had increased,
to accumnlate itself in fewer hands—if there were such
a tendency, that whilst the rich grew richer the poor
grew poorer—that whilst the few had a large share of
the luxuries of life, the labourers and the men who sup-
plied those luxuries, had a smaller portion of even that
which their necessities required—this was a state which,
while it could not but make the philanthropist grieve,
must give uneasiness to the statesman and the politician,
and it gave them the more readiness to avail themselves
of any occasion on which such a tendency might be cor-
rected, honest industry be improved, and the labouring
man be encouraged with hope in the exercise of his
honest calling. And this he conceived to be the inten-
tion of the association which it was proposed to-day to
found—not founded as if that or any association could
take the place of the responsibilities of the individual
man, or could do that which, after all, depended mainly
upon the exertions of all those who were conscious of
those responsibilities in his own private sphere to carry
out himself. Ile conceived that this society could not
perhaps do very much in its own corporate capacity, but
he conceived that every individual who united himself
with that society pledged himself thereby, in his own
particular sphere, to do that which God placed within
his reach for the improvement of those beneath him—to
encourage their industry, promote their education, and
raise as far as possible their social state. And, indeed,
he might be permitted to state that they were already
all members of an association which promised these
things. They were already, by virtue of their incorpo-
ration into the church of Christ, under the law, that
when one member suffers, all the members suffer with
it ; and that when one member rejoices, all the mem-
bers rejoice with it—they were members of an associa-
tion, the rule of whose conduct was, "to bear one
another'sl burden, and so fulfil the law of Christ"—
(Applause.) The association which they proposed to
found was but a practical means of carrying out the
higher law. He conceived that they were in the path of
duty when endeavouring by all means ie their power to
lighten the burden of poverty, and to stimulate indus-
try, to encourage honest exertion, to cheer depression,
and by raising the physical state of the labouring classes,
to give a better opportunity for the cultivation of their
spiritual being.— (Much applause.)
Mr. florna, one of the members for the county,
seconded this resolution, and said he did so the more
readily because he believed it required very few obser-
vations. It would be highly improper in him to make
any particular mention of his interest in the labouring
classes, which if he exhibited in that sphere in which
Providence had placed him, might well be spared, and if
he showed a neglect of that interest in his private
sphere, such observations would be idle and fruitless.
How the labouring classes might be brought to a parti-
cipation of those luxuries and comforts enjoyed by all
other classes, was a subject which had ts cfived much
consideration ; but he thought if they wished to do real,
permanent, and vital good, it must be through the means
of the labouring classes and the mechanics themselves.
It was known that the system generally adopted in the
neighbourhood was for the cottage to have a garden at-
tached to it, and where that garden was accompanied by
an allotment of potato ground in the field, he believed
this was one of the best means of meeting the wants of
the labouring classes. He thought there were many
reasons for coming to this conclusion, one of which was
that (before this visitation) a lug of potato ground gene-
rally produced two bushels ; 20 lug would therefore
produce 40 bushels, or a larger amount of food than
he thought could be furnished by any system for the
improvement of the labouring classes. He was not
prepared to say that where this was carried out the
allotment system was an improvement, but there was
abundant room for the operations of this society
if they left outfololfowaecdcount all the places where
this system was
adjoining that town there . It was well known that
as a large parish in which
there were dwellings without
y gardens at all, and the
incumbent ef which had endeavoured in
din vain for a length
of time to obtain land. He believed there were many
eiliedition, and he
places to a certain extent in the same
thought that for the first few
years
thou have
quite as much as they would be enabled to
don
Mr. A. H. DYKE ACLAND proposed the
reso-
lution to this effect :—" That it is evident from extth
port of the Select Committee of the House of C e re-
m:no:was
asiitAltility of allotments of land to the poor, and from
- QUO other authentic documents, that land allotments
061 e field-garden system, under judicious regulations,
„...1
to add to the resources, to the comforts,
.sWiesprove the moral habits' of the labouring classes."
Me speaker enforced by argument drawn from the re-
(vs
M
aport alluded to the various principles enunciated in the
It, resclition ; and he did believe, he said, that if there
mere say tkretßitalifflis contained in these two texts of
. 1 S-;