The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-16 00:00:00

THE CONDITION OF FARM LA

BOURERS.
There is a club in Essex, called the Aveley Farmers'
Club, composed of individuals who have something
more in view than the protection of their own i dnivi-
dual interests. They have an eye to improving the con-
dition of the agricultural labourer.
and Heaven
unless knows, he
is in a deplorable plight at present; some-
thing be done for him, instead of a hardy race of English
peasants, we shall soon have a puny, sickly people,
without a particle of iron in their composi-
tion, eat up with scrofula, and a prey to
all the diseases to which flesh is heir. What
do the Aveley farmers mean to do in order to
improve the condition of the labourer. The task is a
difficult one. In the first place, he has been reduced to
pauperism. The Squirearchy boasted that the peasantry
were paid, or should he paid, according to the market
price of corn. When the price ran down the scale,
down also fell wages; but when the price ran up, wages
did not follow. It was a hollow pretence to say that
men were paid wages agreeably with the price of
corn. By degrees, the poor hard-working clod-
hopper was robbed of his labour wages ; and then,
to complete his misery, the bastile was erected
by the instrumentality of the very same class of men, to
receive hies and his family, after they had been made
paupers by their accursed system. A member of the
Aveley Club observed "There were three objects which
he considered espcnially calculated to claim the atten-
tion of the meeting, and of all those persons who, from
their circumstances or position, possessed
,the power of
promoting them. The first of these was the im
portant benefit which would accrue to the labouring
man, if those farmers whose capital enabled them
to enlarge their business would, instead of extending
their occupation, employ it in additional labour; for, by
i this means, they would materially reduce the poor-rates,
increase their profits, and add to the general production
of the country; for it by no means followed, as a matter
of course, that an increase in the number of acres compre-
hended an increase of business, since daily experience
would show that there is frequently as much labour
employed on some farms of two hundred acres
as on others of double the number. Another
means whereby the condition of the labourer might be
exceedingly improved, would be the providing for him a
comfortable cottage, with a garden attached to it. 'On
this subject,' said he, I can speak most feelingly and
from experience, having been in the habit of visiting as
many as 70 cottages in a day, and I am convinced that
nothing is more calculated to demoralize the labouring
classes, and render them unhealthy and unhappy, than the
present crowded and miserable condition in which whole
unifies are frequently huddled together in one or two
small, badly-ventilated, and ill-lighted rooms, without re-
gard either to age or sex. The poor man is thus driven to
seek at the beer-shop that comfort or relief which he ca*.
not fled at home; he is there exposed to the example of
men of bad character, loses his self-respect, becomes reck-
less of himself and indifferent to the welfare of his family,
and thus sinks below the moral standard which, under more
favourable circumstances, he would have sustained."
Well, the upshot of the meeting was this. After some
observations had been made on the subject of the
importance of educating the agricultural labourer,
the meeting came to the following sensible resolu-
tion:—" That this club deeply feels the necessity of im-
proving the moral and social condition of the agricultural
labourer, and strenuously urges on landlords the duty of
co-operating with their tenants in-1. Providing com-
fortable cottages and gardens. 2. Enlarging the field
of labour. 3. Extending the blessings of education."
If this resolution were worked out, and we see no reason
why it should not be, happiness would at once
be brought home to the hut of every labourer.
Whenever the allotment system has been introduced,
upon a favourable system, the labourer's condition has
been improved. In some cases, where the grasping
landlord exacts an excessive rent from the poor devil,
his chances of success are less ; and we regret that, in a
few instances, where a cottier has brought waste land
into cultivation, it has been mercilessly wrested from him
by his bard-hearted landlord. Ti: ere ought to be a fixity
of tenure, whereby a man might be enabled to see his way
clear. He ought not to be pounced upon at a moment
when he has rendered a desert a prolific source of cul-
ture, without being handsomely paid for the improve-
ments, and his toil and anxiety. We are satisfied that
the allotment system might be made to work to the ad-
vantage of the peasant. He might return to the " good
old time" when the labourer kept a pig and fowls, and, in
some instances, a cow—when he grew potatoes and other
vegetables more than sufficient for his own consump-
tion—when he could get a draught of beer after a hard
day's toil, and could buy himself coals instead of going
to the parish, and furnish his house with what he cannot
get at present—namely, coals and candles. We heartily
hope that many Aveley Clubs may start into existence,
in order to secure the labourer his rights. We perceive
that the directors of the South Eastern Railway are
letting small allotments of land; and from what we have
already seen on the line, we are induced to augur
the most favourable results. The plan begets a spirit
of rivalry ; industry is encouraged, and, ere long, thou-
sands
0e
dctaetdoi
of
nbaecttrowe s of land, now lying waste, we hope may b 3
placed
under cultivation. A 'few hundred cottages,
laeTouthreerss,tawthioinles,twhoeyuldwoaufflodrdbgereraetmaucnceerms:
five to the company, and, in cases of accident, assistance
might always
be secured. But it is the landed gentry
k.— Weehly Dispatch.
must be the iror

Apriei.. ARIS
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF P
This day (26th
collector.
ago, I commenced
profession
ne
nefvenrewbesen unwell a single day ; and
PENNY-A-LINER.—
eccor. During all this
ptheeriopdrol
except on the four great yearly
ofthe fetes I have never
correspondence to
failed to write and distribute
ge each
the journals of Paris and
working year leaving for
to this date, laboured 5,760 days for the Cliatilaylvphraeesiel: and
p
in order
have made 5,760 collections of news. On an
collection contained twenty facts or miscellaneeorua
of news. I have thus made the world acquainted with
115,200 differentpieces of information. Every day,
to collect and distribute this news, I have walked ten
r
leagues on an average. This amounts in a year to 3.600
cleirseguumfeesraenndcellol thesixteegl years to 57,600 leagues. The
globe being nearly 9,000 leagues,
it results that I have walked in 16 years, in order to
collect my 115,200 pieces of news, a distance equal to
5 1.3 d times the circumference of the globe. I declare,
on my honour, that I hive never had the least
touch of the gout; from which I conclude that the
citizens who should, like me, walk ten leagues a
day, would not suffer from it either. Lastly, my
quintuple occupation of traveller, observer, news-
writer, printer, and distributor, has b
ithoutrought
eve me r
on the
average I,Boof. (720 per annum, doing
injury to any one, if not to the late Government, which
I opposed to the utmost of my small ability during
sixteen years all but two months, without truce or re-
laxation. The editors of newspapers have thus been
the means of my gaining 28,800 f., of which sum
there only remains to me to-day 12f. 50c. (10s.), which
will serve me, I hope, to the end or the month.
MONEY Oupitas.—The following notice to the
public, and instructions to all postmasters, sub-post-
masters, and letter receivers, issuing and paying money
orders, has been posted at the General Post-office:—
" Ruabon, in Denbighshire, having been constituted a
post town, the post-office there will be opened for the
issue and payment of money orders, on and after the
13th instant." . _

Dispatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-
office, from the Governor of Gibraltar.

ITALY.

L'ltalia Centrale of Modena has a letter from a
staff-officer of the Veneto-Pontificial army, of which
we subjoin the postscript, dated ten o'clock in the
evening of the 30th of April.
" Another alteration of arrangements. We no longer
retreat, and the positions taken up on the banks of the
Piave are maintained: To-morrow night the entire
division of Durand() will be in a position to act when-
ever it is deemed possible to take the initiative. The
Austrian forces between the Taghamento and the Piave
do not amount to 9,000 men."
DEFEAT OF CHARLES ALBERT BEFORE