CHAPTEE XXVI. 



IN CONCLUSION SUMMARY OF THE SOCIAL, MORAL, AND 



RELIGIOUS STATE OF THE PEOPLE. 



AN impartial survey of the life to which these illustra- 

 tions refer, is fitted to suggest various reflections more 

 or less to the purpose. On its material side, as com- 

 pared with the life of the present day, it was poor ; and 

 that poverty permeated the " commonality" more or less 

 in all its sections. In the measure of absolute wealth 

 owned by the comparatively well-to-do amongst the 

 rural population, the thousands of to-day may almost 

 literally be said to have been represented by hundreds 

 in the time at which we have glanced ; and the 

 hundreds by tens. And though the relative value of 

 money has very much decreased, the social conveniences 

 and comforts enjoyed, or that could be commanded, by 

 even the " bein" householder of the eighteenth century, 

 were meagre indeed in comparison with those in which 

 a large part of the population now participate without 

 difficulty, and as a matter of course. 



The condition of the labouring population at any 

 given period affords a reliable index to the general 

 civilisation and social well-being of the community of 

 which they form an indispensable part. And although 

 the separation of classes was not by any means so dis- 

 tinctly marked seventy or a hundred years ago as now 

 the farmer and his helps, male and female, ordinarily 

 eating their meals at the same table, while the weaver, 

 the smith, and the tailor, could meet either class on a 

 common footing yet was it the case that those whose 



