The Duke of Devonshire on Wednesday made a valuable speech
to the Rural Labourers' League, which held its third annual meeting at the Westminster Palace Hotel. After some well-merited compliments to the founder of the League, Mr. Jesse Collings, the Duke admitted that part of the present competition to benefit the labourer arose from a desire for his vote, but thought that competition in no way unnatural. What he desired to point out was the difference in the terms proposed, the Gladstonians offering principally Parish Coun- cils, which could not possibly satisfy the exaggerated hopes which they were raising in such an immoral way. They were, moreover, fostering, as the Rural Conference showed, the dis- like of the labourer to the squire and the parson, and ignoring the tenant-farmer, except as a man who made improvement difficult. The Unionists thought that was folly, as the tenant- farmer could not be disestablished, and besides promoting the extension of allotments and small holdings, believed that the comfort of labourers depended greatly on better wages, which, again, depended on the condition of tenant-farmers. The Duke therefore, while entirely approving the objects of the League, which are, substantially, to increase allotments and small holdings, begged its members not to neglect the old Liberal methods, the removal of all restrictions on the sale of land, and the substitution of good landlords for bad, which means, as a rule, the introduction of landlords with means to foster good tenants. The caution is a wise one. The necessity of extending small holdings is now practically conceded ; but in the South of England an increase of wages is even more required, and it can come only from improvement in the in- telligence, the capital, and the secmity of the tenant-farmers.
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