The locked-out labourers of Kent and Sussex held a meeting
in Exeter Hall on Wednesday, the really important fact of which was that the men who were too poor to come were assisted with money by the London artisans. That is the first time, we believe, in which the townsmen and the labourers have heartily sym- pathised, or that the Labourers' Unions have been recognised as part of the general Union system. The speeches were not important, except in this,—that all present seemed to see a cure in the alteration of tenure, the liberation of the land till every acre has an owner who can well. A good deal of sense was uttered about emigration, and a good deal of nonsense about rich proprietors, the prevalent notion of the meeting being that for John Smith, farmer, to reduce wages might be right, but for Lord Blankshire, landlord, to reduce them must be wrong,—which is merely a survival of the old, bad idea that a ploughman should not have the wages he earns, but some charity from the rich. Mr. Simmons, the secretary to the Kent and Sussex Labourers' Union, who encouraged that idea, ought to have more sense. Curiously enough, the labourers who applauded this voted for the "abolition of tithe." That is, they voted for giving an addition of about six per cent. on their rent-roll to these very landlords, who would at once add the tithe-charge to their rents. Do the labourers really believe that the increased wealth of the landlords would compensate them for the want of an independent clergy ?
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