276 AAVAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



I must give instances. Here is one from an 

 Oxfordshire paper of a couple of months ago. 

 A labourer is inducted as 1 have described. 

 He stays one day and goes. His plea is that 

 he had not seen the inside of the cottage ; that 

 it was raining, and that he had no choice but 

 to put his furniture and family under cover. 

 The master's son says he took him round, and 

 that he had a * chance' of seeing the inside 

 before he took the place. I have no doubt he 

 might have seen it if he had insisted. But 

 labourers have no courage to insist. He had 

 not seen it. Fined £2 : 6s. ; a month's wages, 

 I suppose." 



The younger generation are alert enough to 

 know that their subjection is complete when 

 once they are inside a farm - tied cottage. 

 Hence it is that we get that strong disinclina- 

 tion on the part of the young men to become 

 agricultural labourers and so forfeit the freedom 

 which they feel is enjoyed by those who live 

 in towns ; and it is useless to expect that the 

 blow to sever the letting of the cottage from 

 the farm is to be struck by a subject race. 

 The reform must come from the town, like 

 nearly every other reform which shall affect 

 the life of the agricultural labourer. 



