[TO THE EDITOR. OF MI SPECTATOR:1 ST12,-1 perceive that one
of your correspondents, "Another Radical Squire," invites discussion and correspondence upon the subject of labourers' cottages. As it is a topic upon which a good deal of exaggeration is afloat, TI willingly contribute my mite to the general sum of knowledge. Lord Napier, in his address at the Social Science Congress, asserted,* if I understand him aright, that the whole of the dwellings of the labourers should be pulled down and rebuilt, at the cost of many millions. This is quite unnecessary. It would have been—I beg pardon of the noble lord—more business-like to show where the capital necessary to make such changes is to come from, and what return it is likely to bring, for unless we can do this, we may long wish for, but never realise, this important improvement.
To this problem I now address myself. My land agent, an intelligent person, will always recommend the tenant-farmers to give 5 per cent. for cottage accommodation where needed, pro- vided that the first cost does not exceed £300 the pair. For this sum, first-class cottages can generally be built, even taking into
* [Lord Napier did not assert this. His assertion was that some 700,000 new labourers' Cottages were wanted. which he considered, we believe, to be about one- third of the total number in the United Kingdom, and these he calculated at 4100 apiece, Snaking 470,000,000.—En. Spectator.]
account the recent rise of prices and wages—cottages, I mean, with three bedrooms and all requisite family accommodation. No doubt, the cost varies much, but in naming £150 per cottage, I take a full rather than a medium price.
To both landlord and tenant, I conceive such a bargain as I have described a fair one. The tenant, looking merely to the rent he will receive, will probably be a loser to a small extent, 'for few labourers can afford to give more than £5 41. per annum, or 2s. a week, as rent. In return, the master gets a good man in the prime of life, bringing up his family respectably, in good habits, and teaching them agriculture, a point of no small importance, when the high wages which the artisan gets are constantly taking away the young to our cities, where the sea-faring life holds out temptation to many, and emigration to more. But this is not all ; he gets his man fresh in the morning, upon the spot, instead of being obliged to make him walk from the neighbouring village. He has him always under his eye. Mutual kindness and a spirit of accom- modation are almost sure to spring up between man and man under such conditions.
Next for the landlord. Does the £5 per cent. give him a fair return for his capital? Hardly so, we fear, unless he, like his tenant, looks to general considerations. Cottages wear out, and fences need repair. Looking to the fact that to each cottage a quarter of an acre of fenced garden ground is usually added, and to the cost of general repairs, a difference of £40 per cent., even upon well-built cottages, between the gross and the net rental is not an extravagant deduction. But here two general considera- tions come into play. A thriving tenantry and a moral, intelli- gent, and increasing population, upon any estate, must add very greatly to its pecuniary value.
I have hitherto spoken of new cottages with three bed-rooms. A word about the old, which are so much abused. It is not every labouring man who needs superior accommodation for a family ; some are unmarried, some elderly, some without offspring, some with only one or two children. For these our existing dwellings are well fitted. Speaking roughly, and with limited experience, I should imagine that not 20 per cent. of our labourers are forced into our villages because dwellings cannot be found for them on the farms they cultivate. For these, however, accommodation can and ought to be procured without much difficulty, always excepting the case of heavily-encumbered estates. The sooner these can be brought to the hammer the better, says the intelligent public ; but as this topic is a wide one, and though intimately connected with land improvements, would take too much time to discuss, I beg, for the present, to subscribe myself, Sir, yours, &c.,
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