I have to add to this the subject which is more immediately before us at the present meeting-the evils of statute-hirings-or, it would be more correct to say, the evils of the statutes at which our farm servants are hired; for there could be no objection, of course, to hiring at statutes were it not for the sights and scenes to which these young people are exposed on such occasions. Those you know better than I do; I will only call to your mind that at the annual statute these young men and women—or rather, boys and girlshave their one great holiday in the year, when, relieved from their labour of the past year, they are excited and more liable to impressions from without than at any other time; that they meet together in crowds in one of the towns, without the eye of their parents or friends upon them, surrounded with temptations which the publicans and others put in their way, and without any check upon them, or very little, for the fear of losing their character, or the wish to maintain one they have already obtained. You are well aware that it is scarcely possible to pass through a town, or a road in the neighbourhood of a town where these statutes are going on, without seeing enough to show how much mischief and immorality they must occasion; and I believe there is many a man and woman who has had to rue to the end of their lives the evil which they have learned there." The Bishop concluded by thus summing up the assumed advantages of the new plan: "It gives a value to character (and that is a very great point); it renders unnecessary, at any rate, the hiring at statutes; and it encourages-indirectly certainly, but still it does encourage the servants to remain more than one year in the same situation."

The next speaker was one of the best farmers in the county, the well-known Mr. William Torr of Aylesby. It will be impossible for us to follow him throughout the whole of his very telling address, but we may give the chief points in answer to what had already been advanced :-"The hiring of farm servants was a different thing to the hiring of domestic servants. In the first place it was positively essential that the farmer should see the men he wanted to hire. In order to do this, there could not be a better arrangement than having a day when both classes should meet and have a choice. The Bishop said that characters were not reckoned of any consequence on such occasions; but he (Mr. Torr) believed that characters were generally inquired about in the case of the better class of servants. He was free, however, to admit that characters had not been sufficiently attended to, but that was not the fault of the statutes; it was the fault of the masters, who did not attend the statutes, and who were consequently not there to speak to the character of the servant who was looking out for another place. Now, supposing registration offices were established throughout the county (though he did not believe them to be practicable), how would a farmer be able to make his selection? Say there were two names down-one William Smith, who had lived 19 years with Mr. Brooks, and the other James Brown, who had lived 19 years with Mr. Iles, both wanting situations as waggoners, and having good characters. He (Mr. Torr), wanting a waggoner, might pitch upon William Smith; and when he had an interview with him might find that he was knock-kneed, very weak in the back, with an excellent character, but not an atom of use as a waggoner, while he had lost the chance of obtaining the other man Brown, who was a strong active fellow, and just the man he wanted. Such a system would never do. But in the statute you could pick your man out. It might be called a white slave market; but he maintained that it was the best way of doing it. A

man had a right to make the best bargain he couldthe master in getting his labourer, and the labourer in disposing of his services; and both of them had the best chance in these statutes, where a large number of them met for the purpose. He thought that the statutes had been overtaxed with an enormity of crime. He was free to admit the immorality that prevailed on such occasions, but he meant to say that whenever her Majesty's subjects met together in large crowds, there was the same sort of thing-whether it was a statute, or country fair, or an excusion train (which he believed presented the worst scene of all), or at Epsom or Doncaster Races."

Then, again, as to what certainly looks at first like a weak place in the system, Mr. Torr explained that— "The changing of servants was a matter of necessity rather than choice on the part of both masters and servants. He found, as a master, that if he hired a boy to mind a pair of horses, and kept him a second year, when he would have to mind four horses, he was not as well served; so he gave him a character, and the boy got another place, and the change was better for both parties. He (Mr. Torr) would be sorry to do anything that would tend to lower the agricultural status of this county, believing that they had an excellent lot of labourers now, and that registration offices would by no means improve them. He had the lowest possible opinion of the existing registration offices." Mr. Skipworth had also "a very poor opinion of registration. It would be impossible for a man to hire all his labourers in that way: he would be travelling two months in the year to select his servants. As to character, when a youth conducted himself well, the master or his foreman was there at the statute to say so, and a more truthful character was obtained in this way than could be procured by any registration-office. The remedy proposed was totally impracticable." There were other speakers for and against, but the argument is almost altogether embraced in the speeches of the Bishop and Mr. Torr. As the feeling of the meeting was seen to be going against the proposal, an attempt was made to show that in the establishment of register-offices there was no desire to abolish the hiring fairs. If, however, the movement meant anything, it must have tended directly to ignoring the latter. And the farmers, to whom, as the Bishop admitted, the consideration of the subject most properly belonged, would not have The formal resolution the proposition on any terms.

to establish a "Servants' General Registration Society" was met with an amendment that the institution be rather called "The Lincolnshire General Servants' Amelioration Society" and the amendment was carried by a very large majority, the numbers being thirty-one to seven.

We confess that our opinions go very much with this majority. There has been a vast deal of overstrained sentiment about our "white slave markets"-Where Will stands with a bit of whipcord in his wide-awake, or Jack mounts a curl of wool from his last place; and Mary comes in hopes of getting a better place than she ever would in her own hamlet. Beyond this, we do not quite see the sin or danger of a boy or girl going a little way from home. It is well known that our domestic female servants never do better than when they are out of reach of the meddling influence of "mother," or the continual promptings of some neighbour Busybody. We are not so sure, either, but that boys may become sharper, quicker, and abler men from the same change of scene-one, that in a higher station of life is considered almost a necessary part of their education. Of course they are never left entirely to their own control, and we cannot but refer again to Mr. Marshall's essay as to how they do really fare and prosper.

It was observed by the late Earl of Leicester, better known as Mr. Coke, of Holkham, that the Scotch farmers were most excellent cultivators of the soil, in that they drilled every root crop, as he had adopted that system from them; and at the same time they were the very worst imaginable in sowing the grains in broadcast, for he had used the drilling in rows of the culmiferous crops. The same very enlightened and patriotic individual strongly advocated leases of twenty years, and continued the threshing of grain by flail. The judicial Lord Kames of Scotland, who lived about 1770, very strongly recommended leases of twenty years, and as strongly urged the superiority of the ox over the horse for farming purposes, wondering all the while that a wilful blindness of daily growth seemed to prefer the horse, which 'was superseding the ox. The quick perception and powerful intellect of these gifted and enlightened individuals failed to rid the prejudice that threshing machinery diminishes labour, and to see that grain crops only reap the benefits of the root crop preparation, and do not confer any benefit on the land. The same organ which established the very large benefit of twenty years' leases, failed to perceive that nature has decided the superiority of the horse over the ox, for farming purposes, in the muscular formation of the animal, and that quick motions are in almost every kind of operations more effectual than sluggish actions of distant repetition. The late George III. farmed for thirty-two years at Windsor for the express purpose of showing that oxen were superior to horses, and the very contrary was proved; just as the chemists discover new things, or contrary things, in the progress towards an object which was intended. When prejudices surround and encumber such minds as have been mentioned, no wonder need be made that the common cultivators are tied and manacled by apathy and mental servitude.

The question between thrashing by machinery and flail is soon settled: the very object of machinery is to diminish labour on non-productive points, and to apply it to the increase of production, and not to the cost of manufacture, than which there can be no greater blunder in social economy. It relieves manual labour from the most brutifying performances, and leaves to it the nicer operations that are beyond its sphere of application; for machinery has its limits prescribed. The question of leases needs no discussion, but the drilling of crops may admit some useful notices.

The drilling of root-crops at the distance of twentysix to thirty inches is certainly the most eligible practice that has yet been devised for the purpose of cleaning and pulverizing the ground, destroying the weeds, applying the manure, and preparing the land for the future crops. The drills are opened by the common plough, the dung is spread evenly along the hollow intervals, the drills are split by the plough, and reversed over the dung, when the seeds are immediately deposited in the freshly-stirred soil. This mode is most admirable in Scotland and the North of England, where the climate affords frequent rains and many dews, and where the soils are cool from being fresh-water loams of alluvial formation, that are superimposed on the primitive rocks. Over the southern half of England an arid climate succeeds, and a totally different geological series of deposits; marine clays, oolites, chalks, and greensands afford a most varied mixture of soils, which require very different implements and courses of cultivation. The soils are in many cases very open in the tex

ture, and easily dried, and crumbly 'and cloddy from clay, and easily penetrated by drought. The Scotch mode of twice drilling the ground, by opening and reversing the drills, has been found to dissipate the moisture, by exposing the land so much during the driest season of the year; and on this moisture the success of the turnip crop almost wholly depends.

It has been adopted to sow, on the flat and drilled ground, the artificial manures with the turnip seed, by means of machines with lengthened coulters, which make ruts in the soil at stated distances to receive the contents of deposition. This method sows the seed in a parched dust on the top of the ground, which is always made during dry weather on tilled lands, and the rows being flat, the equal opportunity is not afforded, with ridglets and hollows, of cultivating the intervals with the horse-hoe. But on the lands above-mentioned, it is preferable to exposing the land by being twice drilled. All light lands are best sown with artificial manures, which may be best used in drills 27 inches apart, made with one furrow of the common plough, and the seed being immediately sown, and the drills rolled, nearly a flat state will be produced, and a fresh tilth will be enjoyed by the seed, without exposing the land to drought by lying in open drills. Two common ploughs will employ Hornsby's drop-drill, which splits the ridglets, and deposits the seeds deeply. It is an excellent implement. Light lands may be wholly prepared from the winter furrow by means of Finlayson's harrow, and being reduced by grubbing and rolling, and never turned up to exposure, the moisture of winter will be retained, and do much to secure the crop. The farmyard dung may be mixed with the land by the grubbing of the implement, and the ground drilled and sown as abovedirected.

The root crops used in Great Britain are, potatoes, turnips, cabbages, and beet-root, which grow in roots in or close to the ground, and do not rise to height and impede the cultivation in pulverizing the soil and clearing the land from weeds. The horse-hoe can work during the whole season of summer and autumn, and the hoe and the hands of the weeders can be employed over the matured growth of the plants in cutting and pulling the weeds that grow upon the land. This admission of the tools of cultivation, throughout the season, constitutes the great value of these plants, as the soil is thereby thoroughly pulverized and cleaned by the operations. Beans allow a partial cultivation in the early summer; but the plant soon rises to height, and excludes the implements. The crop is, therefore, only a half-fallow; and the best use of it, in the county of East Lothian, in the south of Scotland, does not form a substitute for the bare wheat and turnip fallows. The drilling of peas and vetches is excluded, by reason of the plants quickly growing over the intervals, and prohibiting any cultivation; and the use of the plants consists in a close crop, thoroughly covering the ground, and smothering every vegetation below the shade. The land is mellowed on the surface, and freshened with moisture, and enriched with the decomposition produced by the exclusion of air and retention of moisture,

The very decisive advantages of drilling root-crops arise from the plants growing close by the ground, and thereby allowing the most complete fallowing of the intervals, and the cleaning of the whole ground from weeds. When the luxuriance of the crop does cover the intervals of the drills, there is still a liberty of hand

private labour. In the former, the insufficiency of the harvest has been counteracted, more than elsewhere, by ingenious combinations, tending, on the one hand, to sell bread below the normal price, and, on the other, to create public works upon a scale till then unheard of. Bread and labour assured, what more was required to attract the populations? They have only too well responded to the appeal, and it is thus that in the five years from 1851 to 1856, the total population of France increased only 256,194, whilst that of Paris, taken alone, has increased to the enormous extent of 305,354 inhabi. tants. From whence, then, arises this excess of the Parisian population, if not chiefly from the contingent made up of the deserters of our agricultural depart

ments?

But this is not all; for we must not only look at the figures in this question of depopulation of the country districts: we must look also, and above all, at the quality of the emigrants. Now, it has been found that the requirements of war have exacted the formation of a numerous army; here is at once an enormous tribute levied chiefly upon the most effective portion, the most productive of our rural population. But we must not speak of this, for glory is the consummation of the tribute. Let us speak of another portion of the emigration-that which has recruited the army from amongst workmen, masons, carpenters, navigators, and other building workmen. Can we believe that the desertion of these has not been more sensibly felt in our rural districts, in that, generally, it acts upon those men in the strength of life, and such as in regard to intelligence and activity might justly pass for the élite of the working population of our villages? Truly such questions are quite common-place; for there is no one who does not know that in the actual state of popular prejudices it is those who are the least favoured by Nature and education who are left in our villages.

The arm of ridicule is very powerful in France, but frequently it is only the shaft of wit against good sense; and such is the course of things that, sooner or latertoo late, unfortunately-good sense carries the day. A day will come, therefore, in which public opinion will do ample justice for that strange accusation launched against those writers who, in our day, have blamed the extravagant luxury of the cities. They have been represented as false puritans, as men who do not comprehend the necessities of our civilization; as pessimists, who, for example, would wish to see Paris laid in ruins. This is, in reality, the disastrous war. It is not necessary

We are

that Paris should cease to be embellished: the whole question is, to hold an even balance between the expenses which may concur in ameliorating a residence in cities, and those which have for their object the amelioration of the rural viability, the clearing of the downs and mountains, the management of the fluvial waters, &c. beginning to engage in this course of reparation towards the poor districts; and M. de Lavergne properly qualifies as a good law that, by virtue of which the State charges itself to execute the work of planting on the plains of Bordeaux to the extent of a sum of 6,000,000 francs. A deputy of the Legislative Corps, M. Guillaumin, justly remarked, in the discussion on the expenditure of the Budget of 1858, that out of a sum total of 1,716,986,190 francs, the budget for public agricultural works figured simply to the amount of 1,850,000 francs; appropriated to the rendering healthy or renewing the forests of Sologne, Doubes, Gascony, Brisse, and Corsica-all countries in which fevers decimate the population. Certainly, looking at these sums, the first so large and the second so small, we cannot say that the rural population have taken the lion's share. And yet, at a period in which sanitary questions, so interesting to the working classes, have assumed so much importance,

what work can be more beneficial than that of rendering healthy the unfortunate countries which up to the present time have known little of our civilization except from the tax-gatherer and the recruiting-serjeant? What unknown miseries exist in these countries! which, after all, demand of the State only what it has done for the richer ones-namely, roads for traffic and sanitary works.

As a general principle, M. de Lavergne is not one of those writers who demand on all occasions the intervention of the State in matters of interest, either agricultural or manufacturing. He does not wish the State to do too many things; for he knows that that system might be construed, to the great detriment of agriculture, into an increase of taxes and functionaries. He prefers much that the country acquire the habit of doing by itself, so far as possible, its agricultural and industrial affairs; for he is persuaded that it is, above all, by the exercise of individual exertion, that a nation learns to conquer and preserve all that gives riches, power, and stability. We can only applaud such doctrines, being those of a good political economy. They teach the love of labour, and divest governments of the terrible responsibility imposed upon them by contrary doctrines, especially in what concerns salaries and the question of sustenance. To this extent, therefore, it is desirable for all, governors or governed, that the doctrine of individual initiative, thus understood, should penetrate into all social circles. The result would not be that the State would have nothing to do for agriculture; it would still be at least evident that the public expen diture ought to bear only upon objects with which the citizens, whether separately or in association, cannot be employed. Now in the actual state of things, it is certain that many great agricultural works, and operations of public utility, such as the replanting of mountains and downs, or the rendering healthy insalubrious countries, constitute in the highest degree works executed at the charge of the whole country. Compelled to become a manufacturing and commercial nation, we have for a length of time already concentrated the strongest part of our public resources in the improvement of the richest districts; and it is time that the poor ones, the disinherited countries, should, in their turns, also have a place in the budget of public works. To say that these poor districts will never reimburse by their own riches the advances of the budget, is to view a great question on its weakest side, and to forget what those countries, now provided with roads and openings, were themselves, before they became the theatre of great public works.

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M. Guillaumin, the deputy of whom I have spoken already, said again, in the Corps Legislatif, in continuing his idea of public agricultural works: Suppose that a capitalist, entering upon a healthy soil, commenced by making costly constructions, by furnishing his stables with selected beasts, by establishing from them splendid teams-by creating a museum of perfect instruments, without reserving capital to purchase manure, carry out the drainage, marling, irrigations, &c., which are, in cultivation, reproductive expenses; should we not have a right to say to that capitalist, 'You have badly arranged the employment of your funds, and have neglected the expenses productive of riches'?"

Well! it is not necessary that a State that is called France should subject itself to the same reproach. In other terms, that the expenditures of luxury and utility, for the embellishment of cities and those dispersed over wealthy territories, should at the same time overlook those great blots called La Bresse, La Sologne, and many other countries. In these there are productive expenses to be incurred. It does not simply consist in increasing our grain and cattle, but to carry labour to the hand of S