RURAL COUNCILLORS. 119 



limits, so my experience goes after serving 

 on two different parish councils. And the 

 appearance of Hodge as an unpaid public 

 servant is no assurance of a democratic force 

 at work. I remember a wealthy shipowner, 

 who was also a large landowner in Kent, 

 endeavouring to impress me by saying, 

 " Hang it all, look at me ! aren't I a democrat ? 

 My gardener and gamekeeper and bailiff sit 

 on the Parish Council, and I am chairman ! " 



On parish councils constituted like this one 

 Hodge, of course, sinks to a mere cypher. 

 Yet it is not the landowner whom he fears to 

 face so much as the large farmer. Even where 

 the landowner is often willing to let his land 

 to small holders the large farmer is in 

 opposition. It is not that the large farmer 

 has any greater measure of human wickedness 

 than any other class of the community. He 

 is often very hospitable, and generous in his 

 gifts ; but when he is asked to give up a field 

 or two of his farm, he feels that he is asked to 

 give up some of his income for the purpose, 

 forsooth, of making some of his labourers 

 more independent, eventuating probably with 

 the loss of some of his best workers. 



From his narrow point of view, looking 



