TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9288, 13 December 1895, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Royal Commission on Farming Agriculture inGreat Britain in has followed up its report Cumberland, on the county of Norfolk, which we referred to the other day, by issuing one on Cumberland. The latter is a welcome relief to its predecessor, for whereas Norfolk waa shown to be terribly affected by the agricultural depression, Cumberland is said to show comparatively little outward and visible sign ot bad times, and though enquiry revealed the fact that the fanners are feeling the depression, there is no doubt that it is much less severe with them than in other parts of the country, especially the corn-growing districts. In the last twenty years the acreage devoted to wheat and barley in Cumberland has decreased nearly 80 per nent., and in the tame period cattle show a

considerable increase. A curious custom of renting sheep, called " hearing," exists in the county. The sheep, it ia said, aro let at a rent representing 4 or 4_ per cent, of thoir value. Viewers ou behalf of the landlord and tenant report upon the sheep at the commencement of a tenancy, and the tenant is liable to return the same number of sheep at the end of the term in the same condition as when first let. The oustom iv stated to be a great advantage to those with little capital and has often enabled shepherds to become farmers and small farmers to become large ones. Rants have dropped from 15 to 25 per oeut. since the depression was first felt, but all the land is let aud there are no arrears of rent. Apart from the fact that the Cumberland farmers are not particularly affeoted by the decline in the price of cereals their comparative prosperity is also s_id to be due to their personal industry and economy. "The Cumberland farmer," siye the Coramissiouer, " ia a working farmer, who takes • his full shave of the daily toil, aud sets his labourers an example in zeal aud industry. Hard-headed, hard-working, honest and thrifty, this splendid race of men, of whom the country may be proud, are well fitted to face and grapple with difficult times. On' a large farm the farmer ia usually tho working foreman, on a small one he and hit family are the labourers. Nor are the wives and daughters less zealous or capable." The famous race of " statesmeu " or freeholders iv Cutnberlaud, some of whom cau trace the possession of land in their families back for several hundred years, is said to be decreasing. There seems, however, to be im. planted in the breast ot Cumberland men an unusually keen desire to farm their own land. The advocates of a rural arcadia composed entirely of small holdings would, the Commissioner thinks, ''find a very unsympathetic audience amon_ the hard-headed agriculturists of this county, be they farm servants or farmers. They would find that small farmers iv Cumberland look upon their farms as a means to au end, their one ambition being to become larger farmers, and to this end they toil and strive and save." The quality of the farm labour is mentioned as being of a high standard, due partly to the system of living, uuder whioh they are well led, aud partly, it is thought, to the feeling of friendship whioh results from employer aud employed being under one roof. Wages are paid according to merit, and not all on the same level, and the higher wages earned by the batter men " enable them to look forward to the time when they can take a farm themselves."

Mr Thomas Wardle, Preai* Booming . dent of the -ilk Association of English Great Britain and Ireland, has Silk. written to the English papers announcing in jubilant! terms a fresh departure made by the Association ia attempting to restore the English silk industry to its former prosperity. For some years, under the auspices of the Duchess of Teck and a number of English ladies, exhibitions of silks of l-uglUh manufacture have been held annually. They have conclusively shown that British silk manufacturers can hold their own with the finest and most varied produos of the Continental looms, and this having been established appeals have been made to the patriotic prejudices of all Englishwomen to support a national industry. These appeals, supported by the excellent example set by the ladies of the Royal family in purchasing largely of these silks, and wearing them ia publib, has given a great impulse to the trade, which is now on a very different footing to what it was some years ago, when it was a question whether it was not too far gone to be revived. The ladies of the United "Kingdom having thus done so muoh, the Silk Association turned their attention to the husbands and brothers of these patriotic dames. A man's costume does not lend itself much to the use of silk, bub the Council of the Association, in discussing the matter, dropped upon one article of male dress whioh they thought might be composed of this material, with advantage.! alike to tho wearers and the Silk manufacturers. lb was suggested that the time had arrived when an effort might rationally be made to free gentlemen's evening dreßß of what was called its "sombre and waiter-like "appearance, and it was unanimously agreed that the Prince of Wales should be asked co give his sanction to, and approval of, such a movement by initiating the wearing of figured and coloured silk waistcoats for evening dress. His Royal Highness graciously replied that he would be most happy to select patterns of figured Bilkß for waistcoats from any samples that might be submitted for his inspection. A number of white, black, and coloured patterned Bilks were at once woven by a Spitalfields firm, and the Prinoe not only selected some of them, but gave permission for the fact that he had done so to be made public. Needless to say, the interesting announcement was followed by a large number of orders from other gentlemen for silk waistcoatß, and there is a mild boom in the silk trade. Coloured silk waistcoats may .possibly *be an improvement in male evening dress, but it is a subject as tc whioh there will be more than one opinion, and, in any case, it is to be hoped the colours will be quiet ones. A man can very easily make himselt ridiculous in his dress, and the colour which looks charming on a robin redbreast would look ludicrous if transferred to the waistcoat of a portly -it? father.

In an aocount of Th* "The Times" Times, recently puband Usher!, which, from the Its Employees, fact that it was revised by Mr John Walter, the third of that name, shortly before hie death, may be taken as correct, appear some interesting particulars of the relations between the proprietors of tbe paper aui its employees. It appears that John Walter, the second, the Bon of the founder, went in 1816 to live at Bearwood, near Windsor, where he had purchased a large estate, -he property very soon began to aot as a feeder * to the office in Printing-house square, for as soon as the children of the tenants and labourers on the estate became old enough to Work they went to London and were taken, into the service of the "Thunderer." Ib that service in various capacities, suoh W compositors, pressmen, or meohani-t, they stayed until they died, and were succeeded by their, children and grandchildren. "To-day," says the writer, "you may see three generations of the same family, all born in Bearwood, working side by side in the The Times office. Every brick in the huge building waa made at Bearwood. From roof to cellar The Timet is a monument xo the hereditary system. Now and then the manager receives a note from the master o« the school buile at Bearwood by Mr Walter, saying that William Jones or John Smith " has made good progress at his studies and is almost old enough to go to London ; and begin work in tbe office." One of the , employees is eighty-two, thirty-six are over' sixty, and ten are over seventy.. The active -; management of the paper has always, it is. -. said, been in the hands of young men, but that does not affect the faot that if a servant of The Timet behaves' himself and does his work well he is never dismissed, but it mains in its aerviae as long as ha ia alive. -~