One of the most striking circumstances connected with the countries which we have last considered is the accuracy with which the population seems to be regulated with reference to the demand for labour. In the ill-administered parts of England there is in general no approach to any such regulation. That sort of population which, from our familiarity with it, has acquired the technical name of a surplus population, not only continues stagnant in places where its services are no longer required, but often springs up and increases without any increase of the means of profitable employment. The parochial returns, forming part B. of this Appendix, are full of complaints of a want of labourers in one parish, and of an over-supply in another; without any tendency of the redundancy to supply the deficiency. In time, of course, the deficient parish is filled up by natural increase; but in the mean time the population of the redundant parish does not seem to diminish. In general, indeed, it goes on increasing with unchecked rapidity, until, in the worst administered portions of the kingdom, a state of things has arisen, of which the cure is so difficult, that nothing but the certainty of absolute and almost immediate ruin from its increase, or even from its continuance, would have induced the proprietors to encounter the dangers of the remedy. Nothing like this, indeed, exists in any of the countries affording compulsory relief, except Berne, which have given us returns. But they provide against its occurrence, as we have already observed, by subjecting the labouring classes, indeed all classes except the opulent, to strict regulation and control, by restraining their marriages, forcing them to take service, and prohibiting their change of abode unless they have the consent of the commune in which they wish to settle. By a vigilant exertion of these means, the population of the north of Europe and Germany seems in general to be proportioned to the means of employment and subsistence; but in the countries which have not adopted the compulsory system the same results are produced without interference or restriction. Complaints are often made in the different returns of the idleness, the drunkenness, and the improvidence of the labouring classes, but never of their disproportionate number.
Condition of the labouring classes.
Another and a very interesting portion of the information which the intelligence and industry of His Majesty’s foreign Ministers and Consuls have enabled us to submit to the public, consists of the answers to the questions respecting labourers. In order to facilitate a comparison between the state of the English and foreign populations, the questions proposed were in general the same as had been already answered in England, either by the population returns, or by the returns to the questions circulated in England by the Poor Law Commissioners.
The following questions, being 1, 3, 7, and 8, correspond to the English questions 8, 10, 13, and 14, of the rural queries:—
1. (8 of English questions.) What is the general amount of the wages of an able-bodied male labourer, by the day, the week, the month, or the year, with and without provisions, in summer and in winter?
3. (10 of English questions.) What in the whole might an average labourer, obtaining an average amount of employment, both in day-work and in piece-work, expect to earn in a year, including harvest work, and the whole of all his advantages and means of living?
7. (13 of English questions.) What in the whole might a labourer’s wife and four children, aged 14, 11, 8, and 5 years respectively, (the eldest a boy), expect to earn in a year, obtaining, as in the former case, an average amount of employment?
8. (14 of English questions.) Could such a family subsist on the aggregate earnings of the father, mother, and children; and if so, on what food?
The following is a digest of the answers from all the agricultural parishes in England which have given returns to the corresponding questions circulated by the Poor Law Commissioners:—