The Speaker of the House of Commons (Mr. Brand) confessed
this day week at the annual dinner to his labourers on the Glynde estate, that his proposal of last year to invest their savings in his land and. give them 2 per cent, interest certain, and a share in any profit that might accrue from the farms above that interest, had been a failure. None of the labourers had accepted the pro- posal; nevertheless he renewed it for another year, and was also quite willing to modify his scheme in any manner that could be shown to be an improvement on the original plan. The truth probably is, that a scheme of this kind would not have much chance of being accepted at all, unless it is accepted by a majority of the labourers on the estate. The interest offered is only that of the Post-Office Savings' Bank, and the chance of any appreciable additional profit would probably only arise in case almost all the labourers worked together to earn it. One or two labourers, however hard they might work, could hardly affect sensibly the returns on the estate. All must move together, if they move at all, to make such a scheme as this attractive ; and there are, we fear, but very few estates where any
great proportion of the labourers is sufficiently educated to see the attractiveness of such an offer, and-to okwe with it.
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