The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-15 00:00:00

UUR RURAL POPULATION.

The infra of iseries of lectures given tinder the auspicss
Of the Reform League, in, furtherance of the political edu•
*ion of the people, was delivered in St. James4B Hall
last evening, by Professor Fawcett, M.P.—Subject. " The
Future of Our Rural Population."

The chair was taken by Mr. Beale!, iterorm League.
Professor FAwcxrr, who was received with loud eheeni,
commenced his lecture by remarking that the wealth of a
huooagfft Thehtt
hwtheeet oa
wealth
ttnehutagiellwl
wealth
English
snehsdotodpifumi
distributed
ratheritpeelboeluNcw_toe eir4:t whichtaonowb bmyltyuhtzeill
su:
tiastemdecudiaiens amongtn cumulativeoemr
coughei
whichtdno earbtai otainosamount.tnt6
the lower classes of society. Taking the case of any ordi=
nary agricultural district, ft must be evident that a labourer
whose wages amounted to 10s. a week must, at a time
like the present, when bread was ls. sd. the 81b. loafs
be in a fitate of semi-starvation, while his children had
their minds ruined by preralture work, and their
lives blaited by the blight of ignorance. As the sub.
jeot of his lecture was the future of the rural popu-
lation it was unnecessary to go at length into their
past history. One of the main features presented by a
cursory review of that past was the fact that it had
widened throughout an undue preponderance of power on
the part of the owners of the soil, and, as the late Mr.
Cobden had once said to him in allusion to this topic,
" A great battle has been fought already, but one is left
behind which will require perhaps greater efforts, and that
will be the endeavour to secure free trade in land."
(Cheers.) Looking abroad, a great part of the soil, both
in America and on the Continent, was cultivated by
peasant proprietors, and the people were contented and
happy, because of the interest they thus acquired in the
soil ; but this interest was wanting aim elgst those who
cultivated the soil of Great Britain. The yeomen of Eng.
land, who achieved such great results in the past history
of the country, upon whom Elizabeth had relied for re.
sistance to the projected Spanish invasion, and from whom
Oliver Cromwell had derived his main support, had been
swept away, and the old common rights were also fast
disappearing with the absorption of the common lands.
The present system of the aggregation of land in England
was fostered by the law of primogeniture, which asserted
the justice of leaving the whole of a man's property in
land to his eldest son, even in the event of the younger
children being beggared. The effect of this, altlioneh
probably not very powerful directly, had considerable
influence in an indirect manner, and it was to be hoped
that a reformed Parliament would demand an altera-
tion of the law of primogeniture. Another law, the law
of entail, gave to lauded proprietors the power of settling
estates on unborn children, the result of which was that
the estates so settled were for many years destroyed as
a marketable commodity. This tended to diminish the
quantity of saleable land, and consequently created a
monopoly price with regard to what remained, while it,
also prevented improvements from being carried out upon
the soil. Another circumstance which likewise tended to
place a monopoly price upon land—the effect of this
monopoly price being to prevent the cultivation of the
land—was the fact that hitherto great political influence
had been associated with the ownership of the soil. It
was thought in some quarters that there would be a dearth
of political cries for the ensuing general election, but he
would suggest that if the abolition of the law of primo-
geniture was not sufficient, they might also demand house-
hold suffrage for the counties as well as for the boroughs.
It might be that this would confer votes on a number of
agricultural labourers, and that at first those labourers
might be subjected to something like undue influence, but
he had great faith in the educational power of the fran.
chise, and did not see why the agricultural labourer,
should be completely ostracised and cut off from all poli-
tical power in the country. He should like to hear from
the representatives of the farmers and the labourers what
they thought of the game laws—what they thought of
the extension of a law which gave a few distinguished
personages the power of enjoying a mighty slaughter of
half-tame pheasants. (Laughter.) It should be remem-
bered that the men who possessed these privileges
were the men who were appointed by an irrespon,
sible authority to the magistracy,' in which capacity
they administered the law and controlled the finances
of the counties in which they acted. Those magistrates
were not chosen from among the ablest and best educated
men in the counties, and he knew it as a fact that the most
stupid and ignorant youth who was ever plucked at college
would, if he became the owner of a landed estate, be made
a magistrate.' (Hear, hear.) When popular rights come to
be Conferred on the counties, these and other anomalies
would, he was convinced, speedily vanish, and the country
Would be happier and more prosperous in consequence.
legislat i nagndfoirt
n s id eLe d
education,in
e
behoved the country to watch well the kind of education
tOhne future of the
grant
of
rural tpopulation be c°
that would be hereafter attempted fur the agricultural
labourer. During the past session the principle of the Fac-
tory Acts had been extended to every industry except that
o? agriculture. Of course this exceptional state of things
could not long exist, and it would be necessary to see that
in the system of education which might be adopted care
,:hould be taken that no children under 13 years of age
should be employed unless they attended a school so
many hours a week. (Cheers.) Mr. Fawcett went on to
advocate the desirableness of establishing between farmers
and their labourers a sort of co-partnership, under
which farmers would say to their men, " After we have
obtained a certain fair rate of profit on our capital, the
surplus profits stall be divided between us and you."
(Cheers.) If this system were adopted, he believed the
labourers would be united to their employers by the strong
bond of pecuniary interest, and their energies so power-
fully stimulated that the employers would confess they:
had embarked in the best speculation they had ever mad&
in their lives. By and by, when this principle had made
progress, the co-operative principle might be resorted to,
so ,that a certain number of men might unite in the culti-
vation of extensive farms. Another point on which he was
desiroui of insisting was the establishment of a compulsory
system of education, which he should only vote for on con-,
dition that it was coupled with power to compel the
attendance of neglected children at school. It might he
that such a system would lead to the imposition of a cer-
tain amount of taxation, but there could be little doubt
that the ultimate result would'be to strike a heavy blow
at crime and pauperism, which were the chief sources of
country.
-1 a vote of thanks
a large proportion of the rates now levied throughout the
Mr. C. WENTWORTH IM propos,
to Professor Fawcett for the lecture he had deliveret
The motion was seconded by Mr. ELT, and carried with
accltunation.

THE JAMAICA COURTS-MARTIAL.—Mr. J. s.
barrister-at-Law and Judge-A4v6tAte, who
gelierOtply 4Olunteered, without eipectation of Temunera-
tiO, tb defen4 the officers of the army against whom
0-erjotit elyge4 were mfefrzed for acts alleged to have
den baghy ttzei4 dairing the rebellion of October 1865,
itid WEI o,f4.oent vertices recognised by the War Offic-.
kb/VA:U.IOO ativi e fifth.

THE' LATE EDITION of " THE SUN" at
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Strarrl.