million and a half. Now, I
have no hesitation in saying that the improvement in their lot
during the last forty years has been progressive and is remarkable.
I attribute it to three causes. In the first place, the rise in
their money wages is no less than fifteen per cent. The second
great cause of their improvement is the almost total disappearance
of excessive and exhausting toil, from the general introduction of
machinery. I don't know whether I could get a couple of men who
could or, if they could, would thresh a load of wheat in my
neighborhood. The third great cause which has improved their
condition is the very general, not to say universal, institution of
allotment grounds. Now, gentlemen, when I find that this has been
the course of affairs in our very considerable and strictly
agricultural portion of the country, where there have been no
exceptional circumstances, like smuggling, to degrade and demoralize
the race, I cannot resist the conviction that the condition of the
agricultural laborers, instead of being stationary, as we are
constantly told by those not acquainted with them, has been one of
progressive improvement, and that in those counties--and they are
many--where the stimulating influence of a manufacturing
neighborhood acts upon the land, the general conclusion at which I
arrive is that the agricultural laborer has had his share in the
advance of national prosperity. Gentlemen, I am not here to
maintain that there is nothing to be done to increase the well-being
of the working classes of this country, generally speaking. There
is not a single class in the country which is not susceptible of
improvement; and that makes the life and animation of our society.
But in all we do we must remember, as my noble friend told them at
Liverpool, that much depends upon the working classes themselves;
and what I know of the working classes in Lancashire makes me sure
that they will respond to this appeal. Much, also, may be expected
from that sympathy between classes which is a distinctive feature of
the present day; and, in the last place, no inconsiderable results
may be obtained by judicious and prudent legislation. But,
gentlemen, in attempting to legislate upon social matters, the great
object is to be practical--to have before us some distinct aims
and some distinct means by which they can be accomplished.

Gentlemen, I think public attention as regards these matters ought
to be concentrated upo