The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-08-02
The English Peasautry.
from the London Tablet. !

From the London Tablet
There ia no question of more social or
moral Importance to a country than that of
the condition of it's working classes. Yet
it is only of late that this subject has be
gan to occupy anything like the prominence
it deserves in the minds Of our legislators,
or attracted in any great degree the at
tention of the public. In his very inter-
esting work Mr.. Heath lays before us sta
istics, collected with much care and per-
sonal observation, regarding the condition
of the agricultural population in the South
and West of England. These prove the
farm laborers in those fruitful districts to
have long been living in a state ofsqualid
destitution, of moral, mental, and physical
degradation frightful to contemplate, and
highly disgraceful to a civilized country.
Miserable wages have scarcely sufficed to
keep soul and body together, wretched
howell homes have involved overcrowding
and its attendant evils whilst a total alb
sence of education, combined with the
tyranny of employers, have induced a be-
sotted, hopeless submission to their lot
which has reduced the unhappy sufferers
almost to the level OF brutes. The late
movement of migration to the maufactur-
ing and better-paid agricultural districts
of the North, instituted by Canon Grid
lestone, and carried on by tie well-known
Mr.. Joseph Arch, as we'll as the extensive
system of emigration organized by the
"National Agricultural Laborers' Union,"
have been instrumental in ameliorating in
some measure the condition of those who
were left behind. Bat these remedies are
in themselves becoming great evils,
and the question presses urgently for solu-
ton. What can be done to promote the
permanent welfare of this large and i'm
portant portion of our community 7 And
that this enquiry is one of vital moment
there can be no doubt since the future
fate of agriculturists is bound up SO very
81, ~, f,N,, sl
wise of the country at large. With a con-
tinually increasing population there has
been no corresponding augmentation in
the supply of provisions, and that English
agriculture has been very generally neg
lected is beginning to be the well founded
universal belief. Many political econo
mists, indeed, are of opinion, that were our
soil cultivated to its fullest extent, it's pro-
duce might be more than doubled. This
happy issue, however, is hardly to be
looked for whilst the present regulations
with regard to the tenure of land by farm
ers holds force. A man who may be elected
from his holding at six months notice,
ton for any improvements be may have
made upon the estate of another is not
likely to invest, in making those improve.
ments, more capital than is absolutely
necessary for his own special purposes. A
reform in the direction of providing greater
security for the farmers is therefore per-
emptorily demanded.
But it is with the poor uuderpaid laborer
of the Southern and Western Counties of
England, whose misery is only exceeded by
that of the Irish peasant, under the cottier
system which has so long prevailed in this
country, that Mr.. Heath's book has prnci-
pally to do. Throughout Europe there is
no paupersm or degradation equal to that
of the British agricultural labOrer. In
Italy, where the metayer system ia prac-
tised, this class is comparatively prosper
GUS and happy while ia all parts of Den
mark, Russia, Switzerland, and France,
where the peasants are the real proprietors
of the soil, the produce is abundant, and
the agricultural race thrifty, deligent, and
self-respecsing.