Fors Clavigera (Volume 4 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great BritainRuskin, John
General
Fors Clavigera (Volume 4 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain
Ruskin, John
Aesthetics; Conduct of life; Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems; Working class -- Great Britain
I do not care where the land is, nor of what quality. I would rather it
should be poor, for I want space more than food. I will make the best
of it that I can, at once, by wage-labour, under the best agricultural
advice. It is easy now to obtain good counsel, and many of our
landlords would willingly undertake such operations occasionally, but
for the fixed notion that every improvement of land should at once pay,
whereas the St. George’s Company is to be consistently monastic in its
principles of labour, and to work for the redemption of any desert
land, without other idea of gain than the certainty of future good to
others. I should best like a bit of marsh land of small value, which I
would trench into alternate ridge and canal, changing it all into solid
land, and deep water, to be farmed in fish. If, instead, I get a rocky
piece, I shall first arrange reservoirs for rain, then put what earth
is sprinkled on it into workable masses; and ascertaining, in either
case, how many mouths the gained spaces of ground will easily feed, put
upon them families chosen for me by old landlords, who know their
people, and can send me cheerful and honest ones, accustomed to obey
orders, and live in the fear of God. Whether the fear be Catholic, or
Church-of-England, or Presbyterian, I do not in the least care, so that
the family be capable of any kind of sincere devotion; and conscious of
the sacredness of order. If any young couples of the higher classes
choose to accept such rough life, I would rather have them for tenants
than any others.
Tenants, I say, and at long lease, if they behave well: with power
eventually to purchase the piece of land they live on for themselves,
if they can save the price of it; the rent they pay, meanwhile, being
the tithe of the annual produce, to St. George’s fund. The modes of the
cultivation of the land are to be under the control of the overseer of
the whole estate, appointed by the Trustees of the fund; but the
tenants shall build their own houses to their own minds, under certain
conditions as to materials and strength; and have for themselves the
entire produce of the land, except the tithe aforesaid.
The children will be required to attend training schools for bodily
exercise, and music, with such other education as I have already
described. Every household will have its library, given it from the
fund, and consisting of a fixed number of volumes,—some constant, the
others chosen by each family out of a list of permitted books, from
which they afterwards may increase their library if they choose. The
formation of this library for choice, by a republication of classical
authors in standard forms, has long been a main object with me. No
newspapers, nor any books but those named in the annually renewed
lists, are to be allowed in any household. In time I hope to get a
journal published, containing notice of any really important matters
taking place in this or other countries, in the closely sifted truth of
them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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