The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-17 00:00:00

.IBOLITION OF STATUTE FAITS.

A counts- meeting, convened by the Lord-Lieu-
tenant of Worcestershire, was held at the Shire•
hall at Worcester on Saturday last, "to consider
the best method of improving the system of hiring
agricultural servants." The subject had been much
discussed at the agricultural gatherings in the
county, and the demoralisation introduced and en-
couraged by adhering to the old custom of hiring
at " mops" and statute fairs was loudly denounced.
Accordingly, a requisition was presented to Lord
Lyttelton (the Lord-Lieutenant), requesting him to
convene a county hall to consider the subject, and
the meeting. was held on Saturday. The chair
was taken by Lord Lyttelton, and among those
present were the Hon. F. Lygon, M.P., the Right
Hon. Sir J. Pakington, M.l'., Sir E. A. H. Lech-
mere, &c.

Lord LYTTELTON, in opening the business of the
meeting, said that in his part of the county mops
were not known ; but an attempt had r( cently been
made to establish them, and he thought he could
trace the origin of the attempt to the same influ•
enco as that described by Mr. Hastings iu
his paper read at the Social Science meeting at

Liverpool recently—viz., to the enterprise of some
publican in the district. lie was not prepared to
enter fully into the subject, but he would say that
if the custom of holding mops and " statutes'' had
prevailed in a less degree in the county than he
now learnt it did, he should not have hekdtated in

convening the present meeting; for certainly, from
all he had heard and read, he was convinced that

the evil which it was their present object to correct
was a serious one. (Hear, hear.) That these mops
were evils was beyond controversy; the only ques-
tion was whether they were necessary evils, or were
counterbalanced by attendant advantages. Looking
at these mops as applicable for the object which
they professed—the engagement of agricultural
servants—he could not see that they wore either
convenient or desirable means to the end. The re-
lations between master and servant ought to be
commenced on a different footing ; there should be

some previous mutual acquaintance, and some
knowledge of the respective character of both
master and servant, which could not exist under a

system of hiring at mops. All must depend, as it
were, on an engagement at first sight, and depen-
dent upon the physical qualities of the servant.
But, beyond this, there must be an evil in the
promiscuous gathering together of young persons
of both sexes without control, and there was

with mops an evil which did not necessarily
attend other public gatherings for a particular
object. Why should the assembling together
of farmers and their servants for the purpose of
hiring entail these evils ? The answer given was
that it was not necessary at all, but that the col-
lecting together of large numbers of persons at-
tracted others for the sake of profit. This was no
answer to the question why this particular mode
should be adopted in the hiring of agricultural ser-
vants in contradistinction to the mode adopted for

hiring other servants ; no doubt the custom of hir-
ing at mops arose originally from the isolated posi-
tion of the agricultural classes, but that isolation
was now broken. He had no doubt that if mops

and statutes were simply abolished at once, other
modes of hiring would be found, as in other coun-

ties. It was not, however, proposed to do this now,

but to introduce a system of registration. At the
same time he did not think there was any objection
to the simple abolition of mops. With regard to the
question of providing some recreation and amuse-
ment for the labourers in lieu of the mops, he was
aware that that point had been discussed, but it
was not intended to propose at this meeting any
organised system of recreation for those classes.
He thought that was a subject that might safely be
left, to take its natural course. It was a subject which
was very much thought of in these days, and he
thought that the employers of labour, under the
advice of the clergy and gentry resident around
them, would be found willing and ready to provide
a better and a far more unobjectionable mode of
amusement than that afforded by the mops for those
' whom they employed. (Hear, hear.) His lordship
then briefly stated the course which was proposed
to be adopted for establishing a system of registra-
tion in lieu of statute hirings.
Sir JOHN PAKINGTON then proposed the first
resolution :--
That the present system of hiring servants at statutes or
mops does not conduce to the interests of the master or the
servant, and that its alteration and amendment, without in-
juring the employer or employed, is most desirable.

He was glad that he had the alternative of speak-
ing of statutes or mops, as he had been long accus-
tomed to dealing with the former, but had no pre-
tensions to a knowledge of the latter. (A laugh.)
He willingly undertook to move that resolution be-
cause he believed that the present system of hiring
at statutes lest to considerable evil and mischief.
He hoped to hear from other speakers how far the
doing away with statutes could inflict injury upon
the employers of labour. He believed that no in-
jurious consequences would ensue. He believed that
with regard to the object of engaging agricultural
labourers, these statutes were clumsy and ineohve-
nient contrivances, for the reasons which had been
enforced by Lord Lyttelton ; while, on the other
hand, with regard to the other branch of the ques-
tion, there could be no doubt that these gatherings
had a very demoralising tendency. He believed it to
be the fact that very infamous characters were in the
habit of attending these statutes, and that they
imposed on the employers of labour, and inflicted
great moral injury on those who came to be hired.
He only knew of two arguments which could be
adduced in answer to these objections. The first
was the necessity of continuing the meetings with
the view of providing for the employers of agricul-
tural labour that labour which they required. Was
it not then possible to find some other mode of
meeting this requirement, equally. good, and free
from the objections which were raised against it ?
Another argument was that the abolition of the
statutes would deprive the agricultural labourers
of that holiday or day of recreation which they en-
joyed under the mop system. Now he was sure that
it was not the object of those who had originated
this meeting to debar the working classes of any
rational amusement or recreation, in proof of which
he could refer to the proceedings of a meeting held
in that county that very week, some of the princi-
pal movers in which had been forward in promot-
ing the present movement. What they desiderated
was social and legitimate enjoyment on the part of
the working classes. If a yearly holiday was de-
sirable for the working classes, let some other mode
of enjoyment be adopted which would be free from
the evils which attended the holding of statutes.
In conclusion, Sir John expressed his belief that the
abolition of mops or statutes would confer essential
benefits, not only upon the employers of labour,
but upon the labouring e'asses especially.
Mr. B. BULL, a tenant farmer, seconded the reso-
lution, and said he had been compelled to resort to
statutes to get his servants. He likenad them to
going to a fair to buy a horse, with this difference,
that one might be a judge of the quadruped, but
must be in perfect ignorance of the qualities of the
human s,rvant. With regard to the holiday ques-
tion, he thought that was a matter which might be
easily arranged between master and man.
This and the subsequent resolutions were carried
unanimously.
Mr. T. G. CURTLER, county magistrate, moved a
resolution affirming the propriety of establishing a
system of registration in districts, with a central
office at Worcester, thus affording masters and ser-

vants the means of suiting themselves with the least
trouble and inconvenience.

This was seconded by Col. WALL, and resolutions
were also passed for forming a Worcestershire Ser-
vants' Registration Society, of which Lord Lyttel-
ton was to be president.
On the motion of Sir E. A. H. LECIIMERE, se-
conded by the Hon. F. LYGON, M.P., thanks were
voted to Lord Lyttelton for convening the meeting
and presiding, after which the meeting broke up.

THE ITALIAN QUESTION.

(From the Times.)
Italian spirit has not quite died out of the coun-
cils of King Victor Emmanuel. Under the influ-
ence of a too powerful ally the Piedmontese Sove-
reign has given up a large portion of that authority
with which his countrymen has endowed him. Re
had been for ten years the leader of the Italian
people, the centre of their aspirations, the represen-
tative of their nationality. At a time when the
Western Powers, on the one hand, and Russia, on
the other, were soliciting the help of Francis
Joseph, the King of Sardinia still expressed the
enduring animosity of his race to the foreigner, and
joined the Western allianee, in the hope of some
day being strengthened against his enemy. This
position he has retained up to the present day ; but
some of the acts to which he has been forced by the
irresistible might of his late ally have caused the
world to ask whether the son of Charles Albert had
not joined the compact by which the two Emperors
seemed inclined to crush the independence of his
native country. We are glad to believe that Victor
Emmanuel has acted only under compulsion, and
that with the countenance of other great European
Powers, he will take a firmer stand, and, while
acknowledging the benefits to Italy resulting from
the late war, will decline to allow any victorious
potentate to dictate to the Italian populations,
which are both in fact and by the law of nations
independent communities.
As our readers know, the Assemblies of Tus-
cany, Parma, Modena, and the Romagna offered
a few days since the Regency of their respective
States to the Prince of Savoy Carignan, the relative
of the King. Thero was, according to English ideas,
and according, we are sure, to the rights of natioths,
no ground of complaint in this. , European opinion
has long since pronounced against the right of any
State to force a discarded sovereign on another, and
the crowns of France, Belgium, and Greece have
been within the last 30 years disposed of by popular
election. Moreover, France had expressly sanc-
tioned and acknowledged the revolutions in three
of these States. While the British authorities very
properly declined to compliment a Government to
which their Minister had not been accredited, the
French Emperor at once acquiesced in the Tuscan
revolution, and sent his cousin with a French diii-
sion to join the troops of the three Duchies. It is
evident, then, that both by international law and by
the express recognition of France the people of Cen-
tral hay were free from their former rulers, and
competent to choose a government for themselves.
They chose the Prince de Carignan as Regent, to
exercise authority in the name of the King of Sar-
dinia until the diplomatic questions connectei with
the Peninsula were fully settled. The interference
of France, which immediately took place, was cer-
tainly an unjustifiable stretch of power. Victor
Emmanuel was urged in the strongest terms to re-
fuse to his relative the consent supposed to be neces-
sary to his undertaking the office. The King, who
had yielded so much before, yielded once again, and-
the Prince de Carignan took no step to place him-
self at the head of the Government.

The proceedings, however, since the arrangement
of Villafranca, seem like a game of chess between the

Italians and the two potentates who claim to decide
on their destinies. We know not by what right the
King could forbid the PrinCe de Carignan to assume
the Regency, except the right of being Sovereign
of Central Italy himself. When the subject of one
State accepts the government of another the most
his own Sovereign can do is not to recognise him;
if, then, he absolutely forbids him to accept, it must
be by some prior right of his own over the State
which has elected the subject. Victor Emmanuel,
then, by the very fact of his prohibition to his cousin,
asserted himself to be the possessor of the crowns
which were offered him six months ago. This right
he seems in the present case to have exercised in
such a manner as to save appearances with his Im-
perial brother without compromising his own claims
or thwarting the wishes of the Italian populations.
The assemblies ofthe four revolutionised States have
created a Regency, and elected the Prince de Carig-
nan to it ; the prohibition of the King is only per-
sonal; he, in his right of Sovereign, objects to the
Prince de Carignan, but leaves it to this latter to name
or recommend a substitute. The Prince has named
M. Buoncompagni, who will, no doubt, be at once
accepted by the Assemblies.
Thus the act by which the two Imperial Govern-
ments thought to neutralise the votes of the Italian
Assemblies has ended in what is really the asser-
tion of the King of Sardinia's sovereignty. M.
Buoncompagni is a subject of the King, and will
exercise the Regency in his name. His greater
acquaintance with the state of affairs in Central
Italy will make him, perhaps, a more efficient ad-
ministrator than the Prince, while his position as a
non-Royal subject will make more conspicuous the
fact that his authority is merely delegated. This
event is certainly not the least important which has
marked the course of the Italian question. It is now
fully shown that the people have entirely broken,
not only with their former Sovereigns, but with
their foreign deliverers. M. Buortcomparii is now
at the head of four Governments which before were
disunited. Unless interfered with by foreign troops,
he may proceed to do the work of amalgam ition
promptly and effectually. He may not only bring
the finances of the Duchies into order, settle the
coudiiions of their union, and arrange the contend-
ing claims of their armies or their official services,
but he may endow the Romagna with a regular
Government after the pattern of the one free State
of Italy. He may complete the severance of the
population east of the Apennines from the patrimony
of St. Peter; he may install lay authorities in the
place of priests and prelates; and, by the exercise
of a wise authority, he may in a few weeks make
the independence of Central Italy a fact so fully
accomplished that not even the most unscrupulous
despotism will be willing to interfere with it.
No one will wonder that the French Govern-
ment should display some irritation at these occur-
rences. It is a signal proof how little at the
present day even the most overwhelming force
and the most brilliant victories are capable of
overawing mankind, that France, whose legions a
few months since marched from victory to victory,
now finds herself obliged to rely on the assistance
of the enemy whom she so lately conquered. We
are happy to believe that the majority of the
great Powers join in the loudly expressed sympa-
pathies of Europe that the Italian people should be
allowed the free choice of their own Governments.
From Lisbon to Moscow, and over the Atlantic,—
wherever there are free, and honost, and thinking

men, the desire is the same—that the petty tyranny
of the Ducal houses should cease. Even in France
it is difficult to find au advocate of the present
Imperial policy bcyon 1 the politicians who obey
every impulse of the Tuileries. We are told that
the King of Sardinia has incurred the anger of the
Imperial Government, and it is asked, how he can
presume to prejudge the decision of the Congress,
which, it is asserted, is about to meet ? But we have
yet to learn what right a Congress has to dispose
of the destinies of the Italians, or why they should
be dependent on its sanctions. In a Congress vari-
ous States meet to deliberate and to settle their
own position with regard to any new events, but
they can in no way interfere with the proceedings
of States as sovereign as themselves. The Congress
may refuse to recognise a state of things diplomati-
cally, and it may advise an alteration ; but it would
be the height of tyranny for a mere majority of
the great Powers to declare that nothing shall be
done in Europe without their consent This, we
are sure, is not the conception which the British
Government has of a Congress, and we think that
these views will be generally accepted.

SUICIDE OF A MILITARY OFFlCER.—Yesterday
afternoon Mr. Bedford, coroner for Westminster, held a
long inquiry at the vestry-hall of St. Martin's-in-the-
Fields relative to the death of Captain Henry Dur can
Dodgin, aged 59, formerly of her Majesty's 20th Regiment,
Inspector-General of Police at Barbadoes, and member of
the Junior United Service Club, who committed self-de-
struction by blowing his brains out with a cavalry pistol,
at his lodgings in Panton-street, Haymarket, on Saturday
morning last. It was proved that the deceased had been in
pecuniary difficulties, and a document in his handwriting
was read, in which he complained bitterly of the treatment
he had received from the Government after many years'
service. It appeared from this document that the deceased
had been summarily deprived of his situation, and that he
considered ho had been cruelly treated. The deceased in
this document spoke of having received sympathy, but said
that was not sufficient for a starving man. The jury re-
turned a verdict that " the deceased destroyed himself while
in a state of temporari. insanity."
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