master and man, the care and sympathy shown for old workmen or their widows for instance, to which I can personally testify, entirely belie that accusation as one of general fact. It may be that in our part of England we are a little old-fashioned and still believe with Carlyle that "Cash-nexus" is not the sole relation between man and man. I confess that I, for one, have yet to learn that the present teachings of political economy, competition, and cash payment, have improved the honesty of work; or that the dismal science, as it has been called, fulfils entirely the highest aspirations and purposes of humanity. Future relations should be less feudal and more federal, but not less human.
Now for the practical remedies of this question. In every case they will be best applied by individual farmers and landlords on their several farms and estates: and it will be for the distinct interest of both to improve the status and quality of their workmen. Permanent improvement must be gradual, there is room for a little in most cases, and that apart from the question of direct wages, which is by no means the most essential element in this matter as S. G. O. says in the Times of the 4th inst. And the best of the men acknowledge this: "I would sooner have ten shillings a week, with the chance to keep a cow, than fifteen shillings a week without it," said the spokesman and leader of some labourers at a meeting in North Herefordshire the other day, and he was applauded by his fellows to the echo. This man was considered the best workman for many miles round, and had saved over fifty pounds:—his opinion is worth having.
The means of practical improvement then, are chiefly these:
1. Classification, such as is in use with contractors, creating as it were two or three grades of workmen, according to their efficiency, and paying them accordingly.
