HIRING FAIRS.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3081, 2 January 1879, Page 1

HIRING FAIRS.

Of all the bad legacies left of a half. barbarous agricultural age, there are none so bad—not even the miserable hovels for rural laborers which still morally disfigure the landscape, albeit picturesque under the painter's pencil—as hiring market*, which are now in full swing over a large portion of the United Kingdom. It is Eity, but 'tis true, that when a custom as become traditionary, it is one of the most difficult things in the world to get it abolished. No matter how much it may be opposed to social—and even in some cases individual—interests, people cling to it as tenaciously as if it were the essence of truth in principle, and of perfection in practice. The people of an old country like Great Britain are ever timid of change, and rash innovation in any matter is to be dep'ored; but at the same time there is danger in absolutely standing still. Progress is Nature's universal law; Stagnation is a universal curse. What we are too slow to recognise, especially those belonging to the agricultural interest, is that— The-old order changeth, giving place to new, And God fulfils Himself in many ways Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. We cannot or will not see that a custom admirably adapted to the condition of the people during the early period of our history is not only wholly unsuitable in a later era, but actually pernicious to the well-being of society. The hiring fair is the offspring of a primitive age; it has long ago served its purpose, and its influence now is decidedly a corrupting one, and the sooner it is done away with the better.

In England hiring markets, we know, originated in 1349. I cannot find oat at what early period in the agricultural history of Scotland feeing fairs or trysts became permanent institutions. In the reign of Edward 111. that human rinderpest, the Black Death, had slaughtered hundreds of thousands of our people. It was particularly severe npon those engaged in agricultural pursuits. A thinly populated country as England then wag could not sustain such loss of the sinews and strength of tbe community, without feeling it very heavily. The basis of society had been undermined by the plague, and the superstructure was threatening to tumble in consequence. The labour market had been well nigh emptied by that stern employer Death, whose bidding no one can resist; and those who escaped the plague naturally sought to obtain higher wages for their services. Such demands were too much for the then employers of labour, who regarded^ the labourers as indispensable machines merely, in no way entitled to take advantage of the commodities—bone and muecle —which they had'to offer. They at once appealed to the King against the knaves, and he, nothing loth, sent "to the Rev. Father William, Archbishop of Canter* bury, Primate of All England, greeting," informing him that, " t Because a great portion of the people, especially workmen and servants, late died of the pestilence, many, seeing the necessity of masters and great scarcity of servants, will not serve unless they may receive excessive wages, and some rather willing to beg in idleness than by labour to get their living; we, considering the grievous incommoditie? which, of the lack especially of ploughmen and such labourers, may hereafter come, have, upon deliberation and treaty with the prelates and noble and learned men assisting us of their mutual counsel," ordained certain statutes relating to labourers, providing, among other things,

that-*'every person, able in body, under, the age of sixty years, not having to live on, being required, shall be bound to serve him that doth require him, or else be committed to jail until he find surety to serve.'' These statutes baring failed in their object,» more compulsory ones; were enacted in the following year; the reason for them thus being stated in the preamble: ---"Forasmuch as it is given the King to understand in this present Parliament,' by petition of the Commonalty that the ■, said servants' hare no regard to the ordinance (that of 1349) but to their ease and singular cbvetise,*do withdraw themselves to«erve great men and others unless they have livery and wages to the Rouble and treble of that they were wont to take, | to the great damage of the great men, and ! the impoverishing of the commonalty, therefore," &c. Among the etceteras of 1350 was one enacting that all ploughmen and agricultural labourers should be hired, not only by the day, but for the full.period of one year, "or other usual terms," and that such lab6ureTr~'Tftr~ openly carry in their hands in market towns their instruments of labour, and be there hired in a public place, and not ' privately." To carry the instrument of tabour themselves was no easy matter, and the difficulty being recognised by the authorities, it was permitted servants to wear emblems of their particular branch of employment in. their hats, a practice which is continued in some parts of England to the present day. Thus the horseman brought a piece of whipcord* the shepherd a bunch of wool, the cattleman a few hairs'out of the cow's tail,- and so on. It is nob at all improbable that the decorations on smock frocks, which have now degenerated into apparently meaningless matters of mere taste and fancy, were at first employed to set forth the occupation of the wearer. In their origin the3e fairs were grossly ■unjust to servants and a Tile outrage upon economic laws, yet they undoubtedly' proved of advantage afterwards in bring* ing masters and servants together from. different parts of the country. Indeed, it is difficult to see what other moans of communication could have been devised when the people, were so few and so widely scattered. 'Still the tyrannical,, way in which' the laborers were at first, forced into the market made it little bettajgj than a slave-mart, to which the hiring!

market of the present day bears a striking J resemblance in all bat one essential parti- <;

■cuiar, that the laborers have the right of selling themselves. The writer has been present at many of those hirinu fairs and in, many pai-is of Knglarid- and Scotland, and on all occasions hasfejt ashamed that such institutions eduldVexist in an. enlightened country like-oursi^ A ,dei?cription of one xnay jjer,ve,,ajl the],general features being the same ia England and Scotland. First, then, we have a large collection of spice or ""sweety "stands as they call them in Scotland', of itinerant caravans with wild beas-ts, play^ actors, equestrians, conjurors, photographic studios, stuffed horses of tremendous proportions, giants of marvellous size, and dwarfs of almost invisible dimensions. Then there are thieves, swindler^ and vagabonds from all* the neighboring large toWDS, with those who are confirmed vagrants, seducing the rustics to pick the pea from under the thimble, prick the loop in the garter, play at pitch; and toss and ninepins, and. to orhanvnt'. their" gaudy waistcoats with" real gold watch-chains at the low price of old brass." These are the educational surroundings of the hiring market. Those who come to be hired or feo'tl, men-Biid women, stand out upon the street, as ii rule, the females on one side, tlif uifi) on the other, «nd the'masters push out and in amofig them, inspecting their physical points much as they would do those of an oxor a sheep, for it is the bodilj jhrts of the servants that alone can be ret'ogmscd in the hiring market. There is neither time nor inclination on the part of me st masters To inquire into the element o)~ character, ■lirtlie case of women more espt-ciully the fair seems a peculiarly demoralising institution. It is eminently calculated to destroy all sense of propriety and modesty on the part of young girls, and when these barriers to virtue are broken through, the worst degradation follows 'almost as a matter of course. At the 1 fairs in Scotland particularly; * women are engaged not by persons of their onn sex, but by the opposite, who peer curiously into their faces, not always without a leer, xnd m»ke remarks and jests which, to'put them in as euphuistic away as posMbie, are neither so refined nor so ? chaste as they might be. And the young women very soon learn to reply in the same strain ; indeed if they desire to make a good bargain so far as wages are , concerned, they must do so, for those who can best return in kind the '" cli'aff" generally receive the most money. Amid the noise of trumpets and goons, the screeching of ballad-singers, the jabber of caravan men, aud the shouts ol the gamblers is transacted the business which makes a man whom you never caw except at the fair, and about whose character you; liave no accurate information, tbeb, custodian of your horses or cattle for six months, and which brings a! woman, of whom you know equally little that is trustworthy, into ypur house; to mix withijour family for a period of time. In iome places in Scotland old custom sanctioneth on feeing days the opening of unlicensed houses for the sale of pies and porter, and gives perniißsfon for dancing. From the, excitenjento/'the drink apd the dancing what else could be predicted but the- fighting which .alterwaids disgraces the streets, and 'he debauchery which, swells the^ percentage of illegitimacy in the Registrar General's returns ? T^ithin late years registry offices have''done much to lessen the evils of the fairs by .drafting away; a p< rtion of those wlio, wGuJd(Otlierwise ; have participated in tlfeni, tiut.there still remains much to be done. fJ he great drawbK:k is unlortu;.«aiely the servants themselves, who look upon these fairs as a privileged holiday, and (imagine'''that (lie farmers seek their abolition merely that they may deprive Uieri).o! itbyirclierishe.d-.holdings. Could tb y be dis-a! used of this idea by farmers voluntarily conceding them a day or two in the year, perhaps-(heir-prejudice in favour of fairs would vanish, and these hoi beds of- drunkenness' and inijnorality be sliortly improved off the face of the earth.—Graphic. * '