settled on their estates, from hurt by changes
which, however inevitable, it is the duty of all
to make, as far as possible, simply beneficent.
If there be truth in this belief, then the new
ways opened to improvement of the position of
farm labourers will be found worthy of special
and generous consideration.  These useful
members of the community will be more than ever a
class by themselves, and as the work will, therefore,
be better done, the country will, under the
known principle of "each man to his trade,"
become the gainer.  The farm labourer has, indeed,
means of raising his position above the point he
has hitherto attained.  The difficulty is to
convince him of it, and make him his own friend.
Assistance may be afforded him, information
may be offered, good legislation may be substituted
for that which appears unsound; but, after
all, we cannot compel him to better himself any
more than he can force his horses to drink after
taking them to water.  Let us give him all fair
means of bettering his lot.  And let us keep the
stream of his life pure as we may.

Whatever be the difference of wages to farm
labourers—and the range is considerable—the
average payment throughout the country is, we
are told, eleven-and-fourpence a week.  An
industrious man, in good health, can, with the help
of his household, earn enough honestly to
maintain himself, his wife, and family, with much
about the same struggle in one part of England
as another.  Therefore, we need not go into any
question of comparison of those who have cheap
fuel, gardens, low rent, permission to keep a
pig, and nine shillings a week wages, with others
who live in expensive districts where every perch
of land is wanted by a farmer, paying nearly
double the amount in cash wages, but adding to
them few perquisites or pickings.

Neither is the average day's work of ten
hours too much for an able-bodied countryman.
It may be noted that the steam-engine compels
a fair day's work for a fair day's wages, and the
reaping-machine has done much to discourage
strikes for increase of wages among the reapers,
at the critical juncture of a ripe crop and a
sunny morning.  Generally, also, now that
prejudice is adjusting itself to the new phase of
farming life, there is a better and more social
feeling between the workmen on the farm,
which is a pleasure and a gain to men and
masters.

But what we said years since of the unfenced
factory machinery, it is to a certain degree
necessary to repeat of the use of steam-engines
among the farmers.  Enough has not yet been
done to secure farm labourers against accidents
arising from machinery.  So long ago as the
meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society at
Chester, in 1858, the danger was thus pointed
out in the judges' report in a rather alarming
manner:

"On entering the show-yard at Chester, the
visitor's direct path to the stock and implements
lay through an avenue of steam-engines, neatly
arranged at equal distances, their fly-wheels in
(perpetual) motion, presenting a very animated
scene; but what would have been the effect
produced on the visitor's nerves had he known
that three of these engines were liable to burst
at any moment?  It is hardly necessary to say
that the stewards, on being informed by one of
the judges of this serious fact, immediately
ordered their fires to be extinguished; and the
police had strict injunctions to remove any man
from the show-yard who should attempt to get
steam up in a dangerous engine."

There may have been reasons for limiting the
action of the Society to protecting visitors to
its own show-yard, but a danger to the farm
labourer, thus deliberately foreshadowed, ought
surely to have been met and averted.  Yet no
legislative interference appears to have been
attempted, and that which was threatened has
come to pass.

In the course of the recent harvest, fatal
accidents have occurred by the bursting of such
engines.  In one case, at Plaxtol, in Kent,
where a life was lost, skilled evidence was given
before the coroner, to the effect that the plate
which burst was "decomposed generally."

Another fatal accident, in which two lives
were lost, happened from the same cause at
Clearsfield, in Suffolk.  The agricultural society
of the county has in consequence, it is said,
passed a resolution under which the association
recommends the appointment of a competent
engineer as "inspector of such motors."  The
inspection is proposed to be made at least half-
yearly, at a certain fixed payment per engine, to
be shared between the owners and the society.
The inspector is further to examine every
"engine driver" as to his fitness, and will certify
his fitness, and authorise him to wear a badge
in testimony of the same when at work.

The danger of bursting is certainly not likely
to decrease as such machines become old; and,
unless measures of precaution be taken before
next harvest, we may fairly expect a further
waste of human life.  The recommendation of
the Kentish jury is surely worth the attention
of parliament.  Why should it not be made
somebody's duty to provide generally that
security which the county of Suffolk is already
striving to obtain for her own farm labourers?

Engine-driving, as it is called, would thus
become, as it should be, a distinct occupation,
by which a higher rate of pay in one new
occupation for the better class of farm labourer
would be obtained.  But it is a notorious evil,
that a common farm labourer, who knows no
more of the steam-engine than he does of
logarithms, should be entrusted with its management.
Such men are painstaking, and with instruction
would, no doubt, qualify themselves
for the duty.  We asked one of them recently
why he was not at work on the engine?  His
reply was:  "Well, sir, I thought she was
getting very old, and, if she blowed up, my
Reputation would be blowed up with her"—he
did not think about his life—"so I came
along home."

The class of accidents on farms is fast coming
to resemble those in mills: loss of fingers or