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In
the
year
1863,
an
official
inquiry
took
place
into
the
conditions
of
nourishment
and
labour
of
the
criminals
condemned
to
transportation
and
penal
servitude.
The
results
are
recorded
in
two
voluminous
Blue
books.
Among
other
things
it
is
said:
\"From
an
elaborate
comparison
between
the
diet
of
convicts
in
the
convict
prisons
in
England,
and
that
of
paupers
in
workhouses
and
of
free
labourers
in
the
same
country
...
it
certainly
appears
that
the
former
are
much
better
fed
than
either
of
the
two
other
classes,\"92whilst
\"the
amount
of
labour
required
from
an
ordinary
convict
under
penal
servitude
is
about
one
half
of
what
would
be
done
by
an
ordinary
day-labourer.\"
93
A
few
characteristic
depositions
of
witnesses:
John
Smith,
governor
of
the
Edinburgh
prison,
deposes:
No.
5056.
\"The
diet
of
the
English
prisons[is]
superior
to
that
of
ordinary
labourers
in
England.\"
No
50.
\"It
is
the
fact
...
that
the
ordinary
agricultural
labourers
in
Scotland
very
seldom
get
any
meat
at
all.\"
Answer
No.
3047.
\"Is
there
anything
that
you
are
aware
of
to
account
for
the
necessity
of
feeding
them
very
much
better
than
ordinary
labourers
–
Certainly
not.\"
No.
3048.\"Do
you
think
that
further
experiments
ought
to
be
made
in
order
to
ascertain
whether
a
dietary
might
not
be
hit
upon
for
prisoners
employed
on
public
works
nearly
approaching
to
the
dietary
of
free
labourers
...\"94\"He
[the
agricultural
labourer]might
say:
'I
work
hard,
and
have
not
enough
to
eat,
and
when
in
prison
I
did
not
work
harder
where
I
had
plenty
to
eat,
and
therefore
it
is
better
for
me
to
be
in
prison
again
than
here.'\"
95
From
the
tables
appended
to
the
first
volume
of
the
Report
I
have
compiled
the
annexed
comparative
summary.
96
The
general
result
of
the
inquiry
by
the
medical
commission
of
1863
on
the
food
of
the
lowest
fed
classes,is
already
known
to
the
reader.
He
will
remember
that
the
diet
of
a
great
part
of
the
agricultural
labourers'families
is
below
the
minimum
necessary
\"to
arrest
starvation
diseases.\"
This
is
especially
the
case
in
all
the
purely
rural
districts
of
Cornwall,
Devon,Somerset,
Wilts,
Stafford,
Oxford,
Berks,
and
Herts.
\"The
nourishment
obtained
by
the
labourer
himself,\"
says
Dr.
E.
Smith,
\"is
larger
than
the
average
quantity
indicates,
since
he
eats
a
larger
share
...
necessary
to
enable
him
to
perform
his
labour
...
of
food
than
the
other
members
of
the
family,
including
in
the
poorer
districts
nearly
all
the
meat
and
bacon....
The
quantity
of
food
obtained
by
the
wife
and
also
by
the
children
at
the
period
of
rapid
growth,
is
in
many
cases,
in
almost
every
county,
deficient,
and
particularly
in
nitrogen.\"97
The
male
and
female
servants
living
with
the
farmers
themselves
are
sufficiently
nourished.
Their
number
fell
from
288,277
in
1851,
to
204,962
in
1861.
\"The
labour
of
women
in
the
fields,\"
says
Dr.Smith,
\"whatever
may
be
its
disadvantages,
...
is
under
present
circumstances
of
great
advantage
to
the
family,
since
it
adds
that
amount
of
income
which
...
provides
shoes
and
clothing
and
pays
the
rent,
and
thus
enables
the
family
to
be
better
fed.\"
98
One
of
the
most
remarkable
results
of
the
inquiry
was
that
the
agricultural
labourer
of
England,
as
compared
with
other
parts
of
the
United
Kingdom,\"is
considerably
the
worst
fed,\"
as
the
appended
table
shows:
Quantities
of
Carbon
and
Nitrogen
weekly
consumed
by
an
average
agricultural
adult:
99
\"To
the
insufficient
quantity
and
miserable
quality
of
the
house
accommodation
generally
had,\"
says
Dr.
Simon,
in
his
official
Health
Report,\"by
our
agricultural
labourers,
almost
every
page
of
Dr.
Hunter's
report
bears
testimony.
And
gradually,
for
many
years
past,
the
state
of
the
labourer
in
these
respects
has
been
deteriorating,house-room
being
now
greatly
more
difficult
for
him
to
find,
and,
when
found,
greatly
less
suitable
to
his
needs
than,
perhaps,
for
centuries
had
been
the
case.
Especially
within
the
last
twenty
or
thirty
years,
the
evil
has
been
in
very
rapid
increase,
and
the
household
circumstances
of
the
labourer
are
now
in
the
highest
degree
deplorable.
Except
in
so
far
as
they
whom
his
labour
enriches,
see
fit
to
treat
him
with
a
kind
of
pitiful
indulgence,
he
is
quite
peculiarly
helpless
in
the
matter.
Whether
he
shall
find
house-room
on
the
land
which
he
contributes
to
till,
whether
the
house-room
which
he
gets
shall
be
human
or
swinish,
whether
he
shall
have
the
little
space
of
garden
that
so
vastly
lessens
the
pressure
of
his
poverty
–
all
this
does
not
depend
on
his
willingness
and
ability
to
pay
reasonable
rent
for
the
decent
accommodation
he
requires,
but
depends
on
the
use
which
others
may
see
fit
to
make
of
their
'right
to
do
as
they
will
with
their
own.'
However
large
may
be
a
farm,there
is
no
law
that
a
certain
proportion
of
labourers'dwellings
(much
less
of
decent
dwellings)
shall
be
upon
it;
nor
does
any
law
reserve
for
the
labourer
ever
so
little
right
in
that
soil
to
which
his
industry
is
as
needful
as
sun
and
rain....
An
extraneous
element
weighs
the
balance
heavily
against
him
...the
influence
of
the
Poor
Law
in
its
provisions
concerning
settlement
and
chargeability.100Under
this
influence,
each
parish
has
a
pecuniary
interest
in
reducing
to
a
minimum
the
number
of
its
resident
labourers:
–
for,
unhappily,
agricultural
labour
instead
of
implying
a
safe
and
permanent
independence
for
the
hardworking
labourer
and
his
family,
implies
for
the
most
part
only
a
longer
or
shorter
circuit
to
eventual
pauperism
–
a
pauperism
which,
during
the
whole
circuit,
is
so
near,
that
any
illness
or
temporary
failure
of
occupation
necessitates
immediate
recourse
to
parochial
relief
–
and
thus
all
residence
of
agricultural
population
in
a
parish
is
glaringly
an
addition
to
its
poor-rates
....
Large
proprietors
101...
have
but
to
resolve
that
there
shall
be
no
labourers'dwellings
on
their
estates,
and
their
estates
will
thenceforth
be
virtually
free
from
half
their
responsibility
for
the
poor.
How
far
it
has
been
intended,
in
the
English
constitution
and
law,
that
this
kind
of
unconditional
property
in
land
should
be
acquirable,
and
that
a
landlord
'doing
as
he
wills
with
his
own,'
should
be
able
to
treat
the
cultivators
of
the
soil
as
aliens,
whom
he
may
expel
from
his
territory,
is
a
question
which
I
do
not
pretend
to
discuss....
For
that
(power)
of
eviction
...
does
not
exist
only
in
theory.
On
a
very
large
scale
it
prevails
in
practice
–
prevails
...
as
a
main
governing
condition
in
the
household
circumstances
of
agricultural
labour....
As
regards
the
extent
of
the
evil,
it
may
suffice
to
refer
to
the
evidence
which
Dr.
Hunter
has
compiled
from
the
last
census,
that
destruction
of
houses,
notwithstanding
increased
local
demands
for
them,
had,
during
the
last
ten
years,
been
in
progress
in
821
separate
parishes
or
townships
of
England,
so
that
irrespectively
of
persons
who
had
been
forced
to
become
non
resident
(that
is
in
the
parishes
in
which
they
work),
these
parishes
and
townships
were
receiving
in
1861,
as
compared
with
1851,
a
population
5
1\/3
per
cent.
greater,
into
houseroom
4
per
cent.
less...
When
the
process
of
depopulation
has
completed
itself,
the
result,
says
Dr.
Hunter,
is
a
show-village
where
the
cottages
have
been
reduced
to
a
few,
and
where
none
but
persons
who
are
needed
as
shepherds,
gardeners,or
game-keepers,
are
allowed
to
live;
regular
servants
who
receive
the
good
treatment
usual
to
their
class.102But
the
land
requires
cultivation,
and
it
will
be
found
that
the
labourers
employed
upon
it
are
not
the
tenants
of
the
owner,
but
that
they
come
from
a
neighbouring
open
village,
perhaps
three
miles
off,
where
a
numerous
small
proprietary
had
received
them
when
their
cottages
were
destroyed
in
the
close
villages
around.
Where
things
are
tending
to
the
above
result,
often
the
cottages
which
stand,
testify,
in
their
unrepaired
and
wretched
condition,
to
the
extinction
to
which
they
are
doomed.
They
are
seen
standing
in
the
various
stages
of
natural
decay.
While
the
shelter
holds
together,
the
labourer
is
permitted
to
rent
it,and
glad
enough
he
will
often
be
to
do
so,
even
at
the
price
of
decent
lodging.
But
no
repair,
no
improvement
shall
it
receive,
except
such
as
its
penniless
occupants
can
supply.
And
when
at
last
it
becomes
quite
uninhabitable
–
uninhabitable
even
to
the
humblest
standard
of
serfdom
–
it
will
be
but
one
more
destroyed
cottage,
and
future
poor-rates
will
be
somewhat
lightened.
While
great
owners
are
thus
escaping
from
poor-rates
through
the
depopulation
of
lands
over
which
they
have
control,
the
nearest
town
or
open
village
receive
the
evicted
labourers:
the
nearest,
I
say,
but
this
\"nearest\"
may
mean
three
or
four
miles
distant
from
the
farm
where
the
labourer
has
his
daily
toil.To
that
daily
toil
there
will
then
have
to
be
added,as
though
it
were
nothing,
the
daily
need
of
walking
six
or
eight
miles
for
power
of
earning
his
bread.
And
whatever
farm
work
is
done
by
his
wife
and
children,
is
done
at
the
same
disadvantage.
Nor
is
this
nearly
all
the
toil
which
the
distance
occasions
him.
In
the
open
village,cottage-speculators
buy
scraps
of
land,
which
they
throng
as
densely
as
they
can
with
the
cheapest
of
all
possible
hovels.
And
into
those
wretched
habitations
(which,
even
if
they
adjoin
the
open
country,
have
some
of
the
worst
features
of
the
worst
town
residences)
crowd
the
agricultural
labourers
of
England.
103....
Nor
on
the
other
hand
must
it
be
supposed
that
even
when
the
labourer
is
housed
upon
the
lands
which
he
cultivates,
his
household
circumstances
are
generally
such
as
his
life
of
productive
industry
would
seem
to
deserve.Even
on
princely
estates
...
his
cottage
...
may
be
of
the
meanest
description.
There
are
landlords
who
deem
any
stye
good
enough
for
their
labourer
and
his
family,
and
who
yet
do
not
disdain
to
drive
with
him
the
hardest
possible
bargain
for
rent.104It
may
be
but
a
ruinous
one-bedroomed
hut,
having
no
fire-grate,
no
privy,
no
opening
window,
no
water
supply
but
the
ditch,
no
garden
–
but
the
labourer
is
helpless
against
the
wrong....
And
the
Nuisances
Removal
Acts
...
are
...
a
mere
dead
letter
...
in
great
part
dependent
for
their
working
on
such
cottage-owners
as
the
one
from
whom
his(the
labourer's)
hovel
is
rented....
From
brighter,but
exceptional
scenes,
it
is
requisite
in
the
interests
of
justice,
that
attention
should
again
be
drawn
to
the
overwhelming
preponderance
of
facts
which
are
a
reproach
to
the
civilisation
of
England.Lamentable
indeed,
must
be
the
case,
when,notwithstanding
all
that
is
evident
with
regard
to
the
quality
of
the
present
accommodation,
it
is
the
common
conclusion
of
competent
observers
that
even
the
general
badness
of
dwellings
is
an
evil
infinitely
less
urgent
than
their
mere
numerical
insufficiency.
For
years
the
over-crowding
of
rural
labourers'
dwellings
has
been
a
matter
of
deep
concern,
not
only
to
persons
who
care
for
sanitary
good,
but
to
persons
who
care
for
decent
and
moral
life.
For,
again
and
again
in
phrases
so
uniform
that
they
seem
stereotyped,
reporters
on
the
spread
of
epidemic
disease
in
rural
districts,have
insisted
on
the
extreme
importance
of
that
over-crowding,
as
an
influence
which
renders
it
a
quite
hopeless
task,
to
attempt
the
limiting
of
any
infection
which
is
introduced.
And
again
and
again
it
has
been
pointed
out
that,
notwithstanding
the
many
salubrious
influences
which
there
are
in
country
life,
the
crowding
which
so
favours
the
extension
of
contagious
disease,
also
favours
the
origination
of
disease
which
is
not
contagious.And
those
who
have
denounced
the
over-crowded
state
of
our
rural
population
have
not
been
silent
as
to
a
further
mischief.
Even
where
their
primary
concern
has
been
only
with
the
injury
to
health,often
almost
perforce
they
have
referred
to
other
relations
on
the
subject.
In
showing
how
frequently
it
happens
that
adult
persons
of
both
sexes,
married
and
unmarried,
are
huddled
together
in
single
small
sleeping
rooms,
their
reports
have
carried
the
conviction
that,
under
the
circumstances
they
describe,
decency
must
always
be
outraged,
and
morality
almost
of
necessity
must
suffer.105Thus,
for
instance,
in
the
appendix
of
my
last
annual
report,
Dr.
Ord,
reporting
on
an
outbreak
of
fever
at
Wing,
in
Buckinghamshire,mentions
how
a
young
man
who
had
come
thither
from
Wingrave
with
fever,
\"in
the
first
days
of
his
illness
slept
in
a
room
with
nine
other
persons.Within
a
fortnight
several
of
these
persons
were
attacked,
and
in
the
course
of
a
few
weeks
five
out
of
the
nine
had
fever,
and
one
died...\"
From
Dr.Harvey,
of
St.
George's
Hospital,
who,
on
private
professional
business,
visited
Wing
during
the
time
of
the
epidemic,
I
received
information
exactly
in
the
sense
of
the
above
report....
\"A
young
woman
having
fever,
lay
at
night
in
a
room
occupied
by
her
father
and
mother,
her
bastard
child,
two
young
men
(her
brothers),
and
her
two
sisters,
each
with
a
bastard
child
–
10
persons
in
all.
A
few
weeks
ago
13
persons
slept
in
it.\"106
Dr.
Hunter
investigated
5,375
cottages
of
agricultural
labourers,
not
only
in
the
purely
agricultural
districts,but
in
all
counties
of
England.
Of
these,
2,195
had
only
one
bedroom
(often
at
the
same
time
used
as
living-room),
2,930
only
two,
and
250,
more
than
two.
I
will
give
a
few
specimens
culled
from
a
dozen
counties.
(1.)
Bedfordshire
Wrestlingworth.
Bedrooms
about
12
feet
long
and
10
broad,
although
many
are
smaller
than
this.
The
small,
one-storied
cots
are
often
divided
by
partitions
into
two
bedrooms,
one
bed
frequently
in
a
kitchen,5
feet
6
inches
in
height.
Rent,
￡3
a
year.
The
tenants
have
to
make
their
own
privies,
the
landlord
only
supplies
a
hole.
As
soon
as
one
has
made
a
privy,it
is
made
use
of
by
the
whole
neighbourhood.
One
house,
belonging
to
a
family
called
Richardson,
was
of
quite
unapproachable
beauty.
\"Its
plaster
walls
bulged
very
like
a
lady's
dress
in
a
curtsey.
One
gable
end
was
convex,
the
other
concave,
and
on
this
last,unfortunately,
stood
the
chimney,
a
curved
tube
of
clay
and
wood
like
an
elephant's
trunk.
A
long
stick
served
as
prop
to
prevent
the
chimney
from
falling.
The
doorway
and
window
were
rhomboidal.\"
Of
17
houses
visited,
only
4
had
more
than
one
bedroom,
and
those
four
overcrowded.
The
cots
with
one
bedroom
sheltered
3
adults
and
3
children,
a
married
couple
with
6
children,
&c.
Dunton.
High
rents,
from
￡4
to
￡5;
weekly
wages
of
the
man,
10s.
They
hope
to
pay
the
rent
by
the
straw-plaiting
of
the
family.
The
higher
the
rent,
the
greater
the
number
that
must
work
together
to
pay
it.
Six
adults,
living
with
4
children
in
one
sleeping
apartment,
pay
￡3
10s.
for
it.
The
cheapest
house
in
Dunton,
15
feet
long
externally,
10
broad,
let
for
￡3.Only
one
of
the
houses
investigated
had
2
bedrooms.A
little
outside
the
village,
a
house
whose
\"tenants
dunged
against
the
house-side,\"
the
lower
9
inches
of
the
door
eaten
away
through
sheer
rottenness;the
doorway,
a
single
opening
closed
at
night
by
a
few
bricks,
ingeniously
pushed
up
after
shutting
and
covered
with
some
matting.
Half
a
window,
with
glass
and
frame,
had
gone
the
way
of
all
flesh.
Here,
without
furniture,
huddled
together
were
3
adults
and
5
children.
Dunton
is
not
worse
than
the
rest
of
Biggleswade
Union.
(2.)
Berkshire
Beenham.
In
June,
1864,
a
man,
his
wife
and
4
children
lived
in
a
cot
(one-storied
cottage).
A
daughter
came
home
from
service
with
scarlet
fever.She
died.
One
child
sickened
and
died.
The
mother
and
one
child
were
down
with
typhus
when
Dr.
Hunter
was
called
in.
The
father
and
one
child
slept
outside,but
the
difficulty
of
securing
isolation
was
seen
here,for
in
the
crowded
market
of
the
miserable
village
lay
the
linen
of
the
fever-stricken
household,
waiting
for
the
wash.
The
rent
of
H.'s
house,
1s.
a-week;
one
bedroom
for
man,
wife,
and
6
children.
One
house
let
for
8d.
a-week,
14
feet
6
inches
long,
7
feet
broad,kitchen,
6
feet
high;
the
bedroom
without
window,fire-place,
door,
or
opening,
except
into
the
lobby;
no
garden.
A
man
lived
here
for
a
little
while,
with
two
grown-up
daughters
and
one
grown-up
son;
father
and
son
slept
on
the
bed,
the
girls
in
the
passage.
Each
of
the
latter
had
a
child
while
the
family
was
living
here,but
one
went
to
the
workhouse
for
her
confinement
and
then
came
home.
(3.)
Buckinghamshire
30
cottages
–
on
1,000
acres
of
land
–
contained
here
about
130-140
persons.
The
parish
of
Bradenham
comprises
1,000
acres;
it
numbered,
in
1851,
36
houses
and
a
population
of
84
males
and
54
females.This
inequality
of
the
sexes
was
partly
remedied
in
1861,
when
they
numbered
98
males
and
87
females;increase
in
10
years
of
14
men
and
33
women.
Meanwhile,
the
number
of
houses
was
one
less.
Winslow.
Great
part
of
this
newly
built
in
good
style;demand
for
houses
appears
very
marked,
since
very
miserable
cots
let
at
1s.
to
1s.
3d.
per
week.
Water
Eaton.
Here
the
landlords,
in
view
of
the
increasing
population,
have
destroyed
about
20
per
cent.
of
the
existing
houses.
A
poor
labourer,
who
had
to
go
about
4
miles
to
his
work,
answered
the
question,
whether
he
could
not
find
a
cot
nearer:
\"No;they
know
better
than
to
take
a
man
in
with
my
large
family.\"
Tinker's
End,
near
Winslow.
A
bedroom
in
which
were
4
adults
and
4
children;
11
feet
long,
9
feet
broad,
6
feet
5
inches
high
at
its
highest
part;
another
11
feet
3
inches
by
9
feet,
5
feet
10
inches
high,sheltered
6
persons.
Each
of
these
families
had
less
space
than
is
considered
necessary
for
a
convict.
No
house
had
more
than
one
bedroom,
not
one
of
them
a
back-door;
water
very
scarce;
weekly
rent
from
1s.4d.
to
2s.
In
16
of
the
houses
visited,
only
1
man
that
earned
10s.
a-week.
The
quantity
of
air
for
each
person
under
the
circumstances
just
described
corresponds
to
that
which
he
would
have
if
he
were
shut
up
in
a
box
of
4
feet
measuring
each
way,
the
whole
night.
But
then,
the
ancient
dens
afforded
a
certain
amount
of
unintentional
ventilation.
(4.)
Cambridgeshire
Gamblingay
belongs
to
several
landlords.
It
contains
the
wretchedest
cots
to
be
found
anywhere.Much
straw-plaiting.
\"A
deadly
lassitude,
a
hopeless
surrendering
up
to
filth,\"
reigns
in
Gamblingay.
The
neglect
in
its
centre,
becomes
mortification
at
its
extremities,
north
and
south,
where
the
houses
are
rotting
to
pieces.
The
absentee
landlords
bleed
this
poor
rookery
too
freely.
The
rents
are
very
high;
8
or
9
persons
packed
in
one
sleeping
apartment,
in
2
cases
6
adults,
each
with
1
or
2
children
in
one
small
bedroom.
(5.)
Essex
In
this
county,
diminutions
in
the
number
of
persons
and
of
cottages
go,
in
many
parishes,
hand
in
hand.In
not
less
than
22
parishes,
however,
the
destruction
of
houses
has
not
prevented
increase
of
population,or
has
not
brought
about
that
expulsion
which,
under
the
name
\"migration
to
towns,\"
generally
occurs.
In
Fingringhoe,
a
parish
of
3,443
acres,
were
in
1851,145
houses;
in
1861,
only
110.
But
the
people
did
not
wish
to
go
away,
and
managed
even
to
increase
under
these
circumstances.
In
1851,
252
persons
inhabited
61
houses,
but
in
1861,
262
persons
were
squeezed
into
49
houses.
In
Basilden,
in
1851,
157
persons
lived
on
1,827
acres,
in
35
houses;
at
the
end
of
ten
years,
180
persons
in
27
houses.
In
the
parishes
of
Fingringhoe,South
Fambridge,
Widford,
Basilden,
and
Ramsden
Crags,
in
1851,
1,392
persons
were
living
on
8,449
acres
in
316
houses;
in
1861,
on
the
same
area,
1,473
persons
in
249
houses.
(6.)
Herefordshire
This
little
county
has
suffered
more
from
the\"eviction-spirit\"
than
any
other
in
England.
At
Nadby,
overcrowded
cottages
generally,
with
only
2
bedrooms,
belonging
for
the
most
part
to
the
farmers.They
easily
let
them
for
￡3
or
￡4
a-year,
and
paid
a
weekly
wage
of
9s.
(7.)
Huntingdon
Hartford
had,
in
1851,
87
houses;
shortly
after
this,19
cottages
were
destroyed
in
this
small
parish
of
1,720
acres;
population
in
1831,
452;
in
1852,
382;and
in
1861,
341.
14
cottages,
each
with
1
bedroom,were
visited.
In
one,
a
married
couple,
3
grown-up
sons,
1
grown-up
daughter,
4
children
–
in
all
10
in
another,
3
adults,
6
children.
One
of
these
rooms,
in
which
8
people
slept,
was
12
feet
10
inches
long,
12
feet
2
inches
broad,
6
feet
9
inches
high:
the
average,without
making
any
deduction
for
projections
into
the
apartment,
gave
about
130
cubic
feet
per
head.In
the
14
sleeping
rooms,
34
adults
and
33
children.These
cottages
are
seldom
provided
with
gardens,
but
many
of
the
inmates
are
able
to
farm
small
allotments
at
10s.
or
12s.
per
rood.
These
allotments
are
at
a
distance
from
the
houses,
which
are
without
privies.The
family
\"must
either
go
to
the
allotment
to
deposit
their
ordures,\"
or,
as
happens
in
this
place,
saving
your
presence,
\"use
a
closet
with
a
trough
set
like
a
drawer
in
a
chest
of
drawers,
and
drawn
out
weekly
and
conveyed
to
the
allotment
to
be
emptied
where
its
contents
were
wanted.\"
In
Japan,
the
circle
of
life
conditions
moves
more
decently
than
this.
(8.)
Lincolnshire
Langtoft.
A
man
lives
here,
in
Wright's
house,
with
his
wife,
her
mother,
and
5
children;
the
house
has
a
front
kitchen,
scullery,
bedroom
over
the
front
kitchen;front
kitchen
and
bedroom,
12
feet
2
inches
by
9
feet
5
inches;
the
whole
ground
floor,
21
feet
2
inches
by
9
feet
5
inches.
The
bedroom
is
a
garret:
the
walls
run
together
into
the
roof
like
a
sugar-loaf,
a
dormer
window
opening
in
front.
\"Why
did
he
live
here
On
account
of
the
garden
No;
it
is
very
small.
RentHigh,
1s.
3d.
per
week.
Near
his
work
No;
6
miles
away,
so
that
he
walks
daily,
to
and
fro,
12
miles.He
lived
there,
because
it
was
a
tenantable
cot,\"
and
because
he
wanted
to
have
a
cot
for
himself
alone,anywhere,
at
any
price,
and
in
any
conditions.
The
following
are
the
statistics
of
12
houses
in
Langtoft,with
12
bedrooms,
38
adults,
and
36
children.
(9.)
Kent
Kennington,
very
seriously
over-populated
in
1859,when
diphtheria
appeared,
and
the
parish
doctor
instituted
a
medical
inquiry
into
the
condition
of
the
poorer
classes.
He
found
that
in
this
locality,
where
much
labour
is
employed,
various
cots
had
been
destroyed
and
no
new
ones
built.
In
one
district
stood
four
houses,
named
birdcages;
each
had
4
rooms
of
the
following
dimensions
in
feet
and
inches:
(10.)
Northamptonshire
Brinworth,
Pickford
and
Floore:
in
these
villages
inthe
winter
20-30
men
were
lounging
about
the
streets
from
want
of
work.
The
farmers
do
not
always
till
sufficiently
the
corn
and
turnip
lands,
and
the
landlord
has
found
it
best
to
throw
all
his
farms
together
into
2
or
3.
Hence
want
of
employment.
Whilst
on
one
side
of
the
wall,
the
land
calls
for
labour,
on
the
other
side
the
defrauded
labourers
are
casting
at
it
longing
glances.
Feverishly
overworked
in
summer,
and
half
starved
in
winter,
it
is
no
wonder
if
they
say
in
their
peculiar
dialect,
\"the
parson
and
gentlefolk
seem
frit
to
death
at
them.\"
At
Floore,
instances,
in
one
bedroom
of
the
smallest
size,
of
couples
with
4,
5,
6
children;
3
adults
with
5
children;
a
couple
with
grandfather
and
6
children
down
with
scarlet
fever,
&c.;
in
two
houses
with
two
bedrooms,
two
families
of
8
and
9
adults
respectively.
(11.)
Wiltshire
Stratton.
31
houses
visited,
8
with
only
one
bedroom.
Pentill,
in
the
same
parish:
a
cot
let
at
Is.
3d.weekly
with
4
adults
and
4
children,
had
nothing
good
about
it,
except
the
walls,
from
the
floor
of
rough
hewn
pieces
of
stones
to
the
roof
of
worn-out
thatch.
(12.)
Worcestershire
House-destruction
here
not
quite
so
excessive;
yet
from
1851
to
1861,
the
number
of
inhabitants
to
each
house
on
the
average,
has
risen
from
4.2
to
4.6.
Badsey.
Many
cots
and
little
gardens
here.
Some
of
the
farmers
declare
that
the
cots
are
\"a
great
nuisance
here,
because
they
bring
the
poor.\"
On
the
statement
of
one
gentleman:
\"The
poor
are
none
the
better
for
them;
if
you
build
500
they
will
let
fast
enough,
in
fact,
the
more
you
build,
the
more
they
want\"
(according
to
him
the
houses
give
birth
to
the
inhabitants,
who
then
by
a
law
of
Nature
press
on
\"the
means
of
housing\").
Dr.
Hunter
remarks:
\"Now
these
poor
must
come
from
somewhere,
and
as
there
is
no
particular
attraction,
such
as
doles,
at
Badsey,
it
must
be
repulsion
from
some
other
unfit
place,
which
will
send
them
here.
If
each
could
find
an
allotment
near
his
work,
he
would
not
prefer
Badsey,where
he
pays
for
his
scrap
of
ground
twice
as
much
as
the
farmer
pays
for
his.\"
The
continual
emigration
to
the
towns,
the
continual
formation
of
surplus
population
in
the
country
through
the
concentration
of
farms,
conversion
of
arable
land
into
pasture,
machinery,
&c.,
and
the
continual
eviction
of
the
agricultural
population
by
the
destruction
of
their
cottages,
go
hand
in
hand.The
more
empty
the
district
is
of
men,
the
greater
is
its
\"relative
surplus
population,\"
the
greater
is
their
pressure
on
the
means
of
employment,
the
greater
is
the
absolute
excess
of
the
agricultural
population
over
the
means
for
housing
it,
the
greater,
therefore,in
the
villages
is
the
local
surplus
population
and
the
most
pestilential
packing
together
of
human
beings.The
packing
together
of
knots
of
men
in
scattered
little
villages
and
small
country
towns
corresponds
to
the
forcible
draining
of
men
from
the
surface
of
the
land.
The
continuous
superseding
of
the
agricultural
labourers,
in
spite
of
their
diminishing
number
and
the
increasing
mass
of
their
products,
gives
birth
to
their
pauperism.
Their
pauperism
is
ultimately
a
motive
to
their
eviction
and
the
chief
source
of
their
miserable
housing
which
breaks
down
their
last
power
of
resistance,
and
makes
them
more
slaves
of
the
landed
proprietors
and
the
farmers.107Thus
the
minimum
of
wages
becomes
a
law
of
Nature
to
them.
On
the
other
hand,
the
land,
in
spite
of
its
constant
\"relative
surplus
population,\"
is
at
the
same
time
underpopulated.
This
is
seen,
not
only
locally
at
the
points
where
the
efflux
of
men
to
towns,
mines,
railroad-making,
&c.,
is
most
marked.
It
is
to
be
seen
everywhere,
in
harvest-time
as
well
as
in
spring
and
summer,
at
those
frequently
recurring
times
when
English
agriculture,
so
careful
and
intensive,
wants
extra
hands.
There
are
always
too
many
agricultural
labourers
for
the
ordinary,
and
always
too
few
for
the
exceptional
or
temporary
needs
of
the
cultivation
of
the
soil.108Hence
we
find
in
the
official
documents
contradictory
complaints
from
the
same
places
of
deficiency
and
excess
of
labour
simultaneously.
The
temporary
or
local
want
of
labour
brings
about
no
rise
in
wages,
but
a
forcing
of
the
women
and
children
into
the
fields,
and
exploitation
at
an
age
constantly
lowered.
As
soon
as
the
exploitation
of
the
women
and
children
takes
place
on
a
larger
scale,
it
becomes
in
turn
a
new
means
of
making
a
surplus
population
of
the
male
agricultural
labourer
and
of
keeping
down
his
wage.
In
the
east
of
England
thrives
a
beautiful
fruit
of
this
vicious
circle
–
the
so
called
gang-system,
to
which
I
must
briefly
return
here.
109
The
gang-system
obtains
almost
exclusively
in
the
counties
of
Lincoln,
Huntingdon,
Cambridge,
Norfolk,Suffolk,
and
Nottingham,
here
and
there
in
the
neighbouring
counties
of
Northampton,
Bedford,
and
Rutland.
Lincolnshire
will
serve
us
as
an
example.
A
large
part
of
this
county
is
new
land,
marsh
formerly,or
even,
as
in
others
of
the
eastern
counties
just
named,
won
lately
from
the
sea.
The
steam-engine
has
worked
wonders
in
the
way
of
drainage.
What
were
once
fens
and
sandbanks,
bear
now
a
luxuriant
sea
of
corn
and
the
highest
of
rents.
The
same
thing
holds
of
the
alluvial
lands
won
by
human
endeavour,
as
in
the
island
of
Axholme
and
other
parishes
on
the
banks
of
the
Trent.
In
proportion
as
the
new
farms
arose,not
only
were
no
new
cottages
built:
old
ones
were
demolished,
and
the
supply
of
labour
had
to
come
from
open
villages,
miles
away,
by
long
roads
that
wound
along
the
sides
of
the
hills.
There
alone
had
the
population
formerly
found
shelter
from
the
incessant
floods
of
the
winter-time.
The
labourers
that
dwell
on
the
farms
of
400-1,000
acres
(they
are
called
\"confined
labourers\")
are
solely
employed
on
such
kinds
of
agricultural
work
as
is
permanent,
difficult,
and
carried
on
by
aid
of
horses.
For
every
100
acres
there
is,
on
an
average,
scarcely
one
cottage.
A
fen
farmer,
e.g.,
gave
evidence
before
the
Commission
of
Inquiry:
\"I
farm
320
acres,
all
arable
land.
I
have
not
one
cottage
on
my
farm.
I
have
only
one
labourer
on
my
farm
now.
I
have
four
horsemen
lodging
about.We
get
light
work
done
by
gangs.\"
110
The
soil
requires
much
light
field
labour,
such
as
weeding,
hoeing,
certain
processes
of
manuring,removing
of
stones,
&c.
This
is
done
by
the
gangs,
or
organised
bands
that
dwell
in
the
open
villages.
The
gang
consists
of
10
to
40
or
50
persons,
women,young
persons
of
both
sexes
(13-18
years
of
age,although
the
boys
are
for
the
most
part
eliminated
at
the
age
of
13),
and
children
of
both
sexes
(6-13
years
of
age).
At
the
head
is
the
gang
master,
always
an
ordinary
agricultural
labourer,
generally
what
is
called
a
bad
lot,
a
scapegrace,
unsteady,
drunken,
but
with
a
dash
of
enterprise
and
savoir-faire.
He
is
the
recruiting-sergeant
for
the
gang,
which
works
under
him,
not
under
the
farmer.
He
generally
arranges
with
the
latter
for
piece-work,
and
his
income,
which
on
the
average
is
not
very
much
above
that
of
an
ordinary
agricultural
labourer,
111depends
almost
entirely
upon
the
dexterity
with
which
he
manages
to
extract
within
the
shortest
time
the
greatest
possible
amount
of
labour
from
his
gang.
The
farmers
have
discovered
that
women
work
steadily
only
under
the
direction
of
men,
but
that
women
and
children,
once
set
going,impetuously
spend
their
life-force
–
as
Fourier
knew–
while
the
adult
male
labourer
is
shrewd
enough
to
economise
his
as
much
as
he
can.
The
gang-master
goes
from
one
farm
to
another,
and
thus
employs
his
gang
from
6
to
8
months
in
the
year.
Employment
by
him
is,
therefore,
much
more
lucrative
and
more
certain
for
the
labouring
families,
than
employment
by
the
individual
farmer,
who
only
employs
children
occasionally.
This
circumstance
so
completely
rivets
his
influence
in
the
open
villages
that
children
are
generally
only
to
be
hired
through
his
instrumentality.The
lending
out
of
these
individually,
independently
of
the
gang,
is
his
second
trade.
The
\"drawbacks\"
of
the
system
are
the
overwork
of
the
children
and
young
persons,
the
enormous
marches
that
they
make
daily
to
and
from
the
farms,5,
6,
and
sometimes
7
miles
distant,
finally,
the
demoralisation
of
the
gang.
Although
the
gang
master,
who,
in
some
districts
is
called
\"the
driver,\"is
armed
with
a
long
stick,
he
uses
it
but
seldom,and
complaints
of
brutal
treatment
are
exceptional.He
is
a
democratic
emperor,
or
a
kind
of
Pied
Piper
of
Hamelin.
He
must
therefore
be
popular
with
his
subjects,
and
he
binds
them
to
himself
by
the
charms
of
the
gipsy
life
under
his
direction.
Coarse
freedom,
a
noisy
jollity,
and
obscenest
impudence
give
attractions
to
the
gang.
Generally
the
gangmaster
pays
up
in
a
public
house;
then
he
returns
home
at
the
head
of
the
procession
reeling
drunk,
propped
up
right
and
left
by
a
stalwart
virago,
while
children
and
young
persons
bring
up
the
rear,
boisterous,
and
singing
chaffing
and
bawdy
songs.
On
the
return
journey
what
Fourier
calls
\"phanerogamie,\"
is
the
order
of
the
day.
The
getting
with
child
of
girls
of
13
and
14
by
their
male
companions
of
the
same
age,
is
common.
The
open
villages
which
supply
the
contingent
of
the
gang,become
Sodoms
and
Gomorrahs,112and
have
twice
as
high
a
rate
of
illegitimate
births
as
the
rest
of
the
kingdom.
The
moral
character
of
girls
bred
in
these
schools,
when
married
women,
was
shown
above.Their
children,
when
opium
does
not
give
them
the
finishing
stroke,
are
born
recruits
of
the
gang.
The
gang
in
its
classical
form
just
described,
is
called
the
public,
common,
or
tramping
gang.
For
there
are
also
private
gangs.
These
are
made
up
in
the
same
way
as
the
common
gang,
but
count
fewer
members,
and
work,
not
under
a
gang-master,
but
under
some
old
farm
servant,
whom
the
farmer
does
not
know
how
to
employ
in
any
better
way.
The
gipsy
fun
has
vanished
here,
but
according
to
all
witnesses,the
payment
and
treatment
of
the
children
is
worse.
The
gang-system,
which
during
the
last
years
has
steadily
increased,113clearly
does
not
exist
for
the
sake
of
the
gang-master.
It
exists
for
the
enrichment
of
the
large
farmers,
114and
indirectly
of
the
landlords.115For
the
farmer
there
is
no
more
ingenious
method
of
keeping
his
labourers
well
below
the
normal
level,and
yet
of
always
having
an
extra
hand
ready
for
extra
work,
of
extracting
the
greatest
possible
amount
of
labour
with
the
least
possible
amount
of
money
116and
of
making
adult
male
labour
\"redundant.\"
From
the
exposition
already
made,
it
will
be
understood
why,on
the
one
hand,
a
greater
or
less
lack
of
employment
for
the
agricultural
labourer
is
admitted,
while
on
the
other,
the
gang-system
is
at
the
same
time
declared\"necessary\"
on
account
of
the
want
of
adult
male
labour
and
its
migration
to
the
towns.117The
cleanly
weeded
land,
and
the
uncleanly
human
weeds,
of
Lincolnshire,
are
pole
and
counterpole
of
capitalistic
production.118
F.
Ireland
In
concluding
this
section,
we
must
travel
for
a
moment
to
Ireland.
First,
the
main
facts
of
the
case.
The
population
of
Ireland
had,
in
1841,
reached
8,222,664;
in
1851,
it
had
dwindled
to
6,623,985;
in
1861,
to
5,850,309;
in
1866,
to
5
millions,
nearly
to
its
level
in
1801.
The
diminution
began
with
the
famine
year,
1846,
so
that
Ireland,
in
less
than
twenty
years,
lost
more
than
5\/16
ths
of
its
people.
119Its
total
emigration
from
May,
1851,
to
July,
1865,
numbered
1,591,487:
the
emigration
during
the
years
18611865
was
more
than
half-a-million.
The
number
of
inhabited
houses
fell,
from
1851-1861,
by
52,990.From
1851-1861,
the
number
of
holdings
of
15
to
30
acres
increased
61,000,
that
of
holdings
over
30
acres,109,000,
whilst
the
total
number
of
all
farms
fell
120,000,
a
fall,
therefore,
solely
due
to
the
suppression
of
farms
under
15
acres
–
i.e.,
to
their
centralisation.
The
decrease
of
the
population
was
naturally
accompanied
by
a
decrease
in
the
mass
of
products.For
our
purpose,
it
suffices
to
consider
the
5
years
from
1861-1865
during
which
over
half-a-million
emigrated,
and
the
absolute
number
of
people
sank
by
more
than
1\/3
of
a
million.
From
the
above
table
it
results:
–
120
Let
us
now
turn
to
agriculture,
which
yields
the
means
of
subsistence
for
cattle
and
for
men.
In
the
following
table
is
calculated
the
decrease
or
increase
for
each
separate
year,
as
compared
with
its
immediate
predecessor.
The
Cereal
Crops
include
wheat,
oats,barley,
rye,
beans,
and
peas;
the
Green
Crops,potatoes,
turnips,
marigolds,
beet-root,
cabbages,carrots,
parsnips,
vetches.
&c.
In
the
year
1865,
127,470
additional
acres
came
under
the
heading
\"grass
land,\"
chiefly
because
the
area
under
the
heading
of
\"bog
and
waste
unoccupied,\"decreased
by
101,543
acres.
If
we
compare
1865
with
1864,
there
is
a
decrease
in
cereals
of
246,667
qrs.,of
which
48,999
were
wheat,
160,605
oats,
29,892
barley,
&c.:
the
decrease
in
potatoes
was
446,398
tons,
although
the
area
of
their
cultivation
increased
in
1865.
精選分類
