The agricultural meetings go on ; and we see that
here and there landlords are conscious of some necessity for vindicating the utility of such gatherings, by allusions to the welfare of labourers; while a few farmers speak out boldly, and demand adjustments of rent and tenure.
But one of the most peculiar meetings of the week is that of the Drapers Association, at Exeter Hall, to promote abridgment of the hours of labour for drapers' assistants. The movement, we learn, has spread to other trades—in fact, it is growing into a movement to abridge the hours of business, and therefore of irksome attendance, throughout the country. Now, the practice of keeping open shop in the courting of custom, throughout a protracted day, is one that benefits nobody. If one tradesman does it, all do it ; the man who begins in the hopes of catching a stray customer after others have closed, is disappointed, because others keep open too ; and while all keep open a supererogatory fraction of the day in fighting for chance custom, the profit of each is actually diminished by the augmented cost of lighting. " We'll add the night unto the day" has become anything but a jovial bravado. The gratuitous waste of time entails toil, disease, joylessness, enfeebled progeny, and a Lost of ills, on those who are passive ministers in it—the sbopmen. The employers show, the majority of them, a laudable disposition to abate the nuisance ; and those who have tried say that the change works well. The servants, not worn out, are willing and civil, with all their wits about them. The extra time, be it remembered, is not gained, but merely wasted : more is not done, even if that were necessary, but people are chained to the counter to do what might be done in two-thirds of the time. The public might cure the evil at once, by " shopping" early. Why should any business of that kind be done after six o'clock P Let all who have no really solid reason reflect, that by amending they are helping to bring about a great social reform ; and the new custom must soon force those few who have what they think reasons, to find out a way of being sensible and humane.
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