310 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



Another weakness of the rustic, and one 

 not altogether confined to the uneducated 

 classes, is its petty parochialism, displaying 

 the mean spirit of the little Englander. I 

 remember, when captain of a village cricket 

 club, after a season of matches which were lost 

 through the stream of ale running too freely 

 on the cricket-ground, I wanted to institute 

 certain reforms, and the secretary, who was, 

 as usual, the village publican, demurred at a 

 general meeting, declaring that for his part 

 he '* wasn't going to be criticised by a bloom- 

 ing furriner," by which term he meant one 

 who was born outside his parish. 



By the fostering of this spirit of parochialism 

 we get the appalling lack of solidarity so often 

 to be found amongst country workers. 



At a meeting of large landowners, united by 

 a common hate of the Land Clauses in the 

 Budget, I heard one gentleman sedulously in- 

 flaming the lower and unpatriotic passions of the 

 labourers by asking them what was the good of 

 the Development Grant to them ? How would 

 the afforesting of waste places, he argued, 

 help any to find work in a parish of flat 

 meadows and well -tilled land. And yet, 

 surely, as a large landowner he should have 



