The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-12 00:00:00

crease in produce—not by a diminution of labour, but
by an increase of labour. The farmer should gain
in quantity and quality what he lost in price. There
was enough to be found in the land, with the
aid of the improvements that might be brought to
bear, to assist greatly the tenant-farmer in
times of depression." The system of high cultivation
having been enforced, Mr. Fellowes proceeded to
urge upon the farmers the policy. of employing a
larger amount of labour on their occupations—
" He had observed—and he spoke not of that county
alone, but of others as well—that during the
last twelvemonths there had been a diminution in
agricultural labour in some districts ; and he had
been told that the reason of this was the
low price of corn." This "reason" Mr. Fellowes
designated " false ;" but did not even attempt to shew
how the farmer, with diminished prices, and conse-
quently diminished means, could afford to employ an
additional number of labourers—aye, and at increased
wages too. Perhaps this is one of the secret things
which belong to landlords; the unquestioning re-
ception of which is one of the duties they exact
;rom their tenantry. The same grounds on which
the farmer is compelled to vote for his land-
lord's candidate at a Parlimentary election, without
any regard to his private opinion of the gentleman
whose canvassing card is indorsep with his landlord's
name, or to his own opinions on national politics, will
serve to sustain a landlord's dictum upon subjects such
as Mr. Fellowes discoursed upou at Huntingdon on
Wednesday. When landlords condescend to give lec-
tures to their tenants, it is, of course, the obvious duty
of the latter to listen with respect, and to obey, at
whatever sacrifice. It is consolatory to find that
incendiary fires—those appalling results of despe-
ration in suffering men—have forced attention to
the wretched condition of the agricultural labourers
and that of their families. Such blind and des-
perate acts of destruction cannot be too deeply
deplored, or too strongly condemned ; but if
they induce a general inquiry into the causes that
have produced them, and lead to an honest and earnest
effort on the part of the landed interest to raise these
serfs of the soil to a higher grade in the scale of phy-
sical comfort and intellectual and moral worth, even
the incendiary fires, that have spread desolation and
alarm in so many districts, will not have blazed in
vain. We cannot but express surprise and regret that the
suggestions and exhortations to the farmers with
which the addresses of the Commoner and Peer
abounded, were begun, continued, and ended without
any allusion to the reciprocal duties of landlords to their
tenants. No mention was made of leases at rents re-
duced to the level of the reduced prices—of which so
much was said, to enforce the employment of ex-
pensive composts, draining and marling, with other
improvements, joined with an increased amount
of labour, that increased production may compen-
sate for diminished prices. Not a word was
uttered respecting the destruction of crops by the
breeding and preservation of game, nor of the expenses
entailed on the poor-rates by maintaining the wives
and families of convicted poachers, while the men were
expiating their offences against the game-laws in a
prison. Nor did we observe any allusion to plans by
which the condition of the labourers was to be
raised. Nothing was said respecting small allot-
ments of land, granted by the philanthropy of
theowners of the soil, by the cultivation of which
byspade husbandry beibre and after the hours of
labour for his employer, and in which his wife and
some of his children might aid him, an addition
would be made to the labourer's scanty means, and
habits of industry and care be encouraged by the
reward that sweetens labour. All was to be done by
the farmer. The office of the landlords is, it seems,
to point out what the farmers are to do for the im-
provement of the labourer's condition. Like finger-
posts, they indicate the right course ! but move not
in it.