It was by “going to the parish” that the labourer could bring home to the landlord the idea that the spirit of ambition and self-reliance fostered by the possession of two acres and a common right was of value to the nation. The national emergency due to the famine prices of food during the French War, which produced the complete change in the spirit of the administration of the Poor Law associated with the “Speenhamland Act of Parliament,” also forced into public attention the desirability of both providing agricultural labourers with some other supplement to their wages, and of encouraging them to avoid pauperism. We accordingly find the Board of Agriculture offering for 1800 three gold medals:-- “To the person who shall build on his estate the most cottages for labouring families, and assign to each a proper portion of land, for the support of not less than a cow, a hog, and a sufficient garden--the Gold Medal.” “To the person who shall produce the most satisfactory account of the best means of supporting cows on poor land in a method applicable to cottagers--the Gold Medal,” (doubts having been raised with regard to the practicability of cottagers keeping cows except on rich soil). “The Board having received information that the labouring poor of Rutland and Lincolnshire, having land for one or two cows, and a sufficiency of potatoes, have not applied, in the present scarcity, for any poor law relief; and it appearing to be a great national object to spread so beneficial a system, the Board will give to the person who shall explain, in the most satisfactory manner, the best means for rendering this practice as general through the kingdom as circumstances will admit--the Gold Medal.” (“Communications,” Vol. II.) Each of these medals was again offered in subsequent years. The question appears to have been first brought before the Board of Agriculture by the Earl of Winchilsea, in a conversation at the Farmers’ Club with Sir John Sinclair, President of the Board, in 1795. At Sir John Sinclair’s request, the Earl of Winchilsea put his views in writing, and they were submitted to the Board, in the form of a letter, dated Jan. 4th, 1796. This letter is a convincing statement in favour of the case for “three acres and a cow,” and deserves the attention of politicians of to-day.