Reading the reports" of six or seven labourers' meetings, we
are 'struck by three points which come out.in all of them. The first is, that the men invariably demand lanthif farmers' rent" in aid of silver wages, the quantity fixed on being apparently _half an acre per head, wife and children included ; the second is that the Poor-Law allowance of five shillings a week now paid for board- ing-out pauper children has seriously deepened the labourer's conviction that he is unfairly paid, (" Whoy I my childer don't get half on it," was one man's exclamation) ; and the third is, that the leaders are looking round anxiously for some peaceful method of showing that the men are dissatisfied. They want apparently to convince the big people that they are feeling deeply. Their last wish is quite reasonable, and not difficult to gratify. On the first Sunday after 1st September, when all the squires are at home for the partridges, let every labourer in England, Churchman or Dissenter, attend morning service in the parish church in his working dress. That is a peaceful and a courteous demonstration, it will bring the facts home to the most educated men in the villages—the clergy—and it will put an end at once to the idea
that the discontent is local. .
