ably in maintaining superior services on the turn, and thus the farmer himself would naturally become interested, and would give his support to the system. Youths would gain at one and the same time primary education at school and practical information on the farm, and the two descriptions of knowledge would tell with increasing advantage upon each other, and would finally effect what is really wanted—an improvement in the quality of the labourer's work, so that he may command increased wages for that work from his employer.[1]
At present the beer-shop is a great bar to the improved condition of the agricultural labourer. The influence of drink on an uneducated mind cannot be better shown than by the fact that beer or cider will go much farther than its equivalent in money in inducing men to exert themselves, although the money could be taken home by the labourer for the benefit of the wife and children as well as himself, while the beer or cider if drunk is dissipated in selfish indulgence. The quality of the beer and cider sold in the lowest-waged districts is the worst. If it be right to facilitate the selling of beer and cider, let it be wholesome and pure. At present beer is generally adulterated, or "doctored," as they term it, to suit the taste of the labouring man, and its effects are not to be measured by its immediate action on the system. It tells equally upon the physical energies of the man as upon the moral powers of his mind. It prostrates both. The quantity of beer drunk
- ↑ Mr. Prebendary Brereton says: "Your remarks on technical or practical education are interesting and important." "I am convinced that much may be done and ought to be done in this direction, but public opinion, especially in the influential classes, has been all against it." Mr. Lawson, of Morpeth, writes to me:—"The proposal of training labourers (youths) to particular kinds of labour is thoroughly sound."
