WOMAN'S PART IN THE WOKK 327 



smile even for a place where to lay his head. All is ordered — regie et 

 reglemente — under old customs and venerable usages, or else under 

 amending new Acts, with one Act badly piled upon the others, as 

 records of our efforts to mend what is amiss, by very piecemeal and 

 hesitating legislation. However the cement which is to bind all 

 these multiform and diverse fragments together into one solid, 

 coherent and self-sufficing fabric is wanting. There lie the bones, 

 as in the prophet Ezekiel's vision — not too many of them — and very 

 dry they are. We are labouring now to lay sinews and flesh upon 

 them and even endeavouring to cover them with skin. No one can 

 pretend that, either in Parliament or on the spot, minds and bodies 

 are not trying to effect the union desired. We are likewise forming 

 village clubs, erecting village halls, getting up meetings, entertain- 

 ments, we are training social organisers, exerting ourselves to 

 interest people of various classes to gather together and take a joint 

 interest in what is going on to bring life and joy and gladness — 

 counter attractions to those with which the town allures our young 

 country folk — into the village. However, the life-giving " breath " 

 of the vision, which is to make of the dry bones living creatures, 

 refuses to blow. In spite of all our efforts and entertainments, 

 there is not much more " laugh " yet in " Arcady " than there was 

 when Canon Jessopp wrote his tragic lines. The " dead hand " — 

 similarly to the " dead hand " of bequeathed incumbrances which 

 lies upon so much of our land and fatally lessens its productiveness — 

 the " dead hand " of old habits, old class distinctions, old institutions 

 still lies heavily upon our rural world. There are still " classes/' 

 between whom a gulf invisible to many, but none the less real, 

 remains " fixed," who can talk to one another across it, as Dives 

 did to Father Abraham, but cannot shake hands or sincerely join 

 company. There is landownership and employership standing in 

 the way, creating abject dependence for house-room and thereby 

 indirectly for the means of living. Though, as a newspaper has 

 triumphantly recorded, " carters' wives and peers' daughters may 

 meet at formal gatherings as if equals, and appear to speak their 

 mind freely, still there is an invisible but very solid wall to 

 separate them, there is that " slit " in Jeannette's petticoat which 

 so disconcerted our friend Sterne. Our British Naboth cannot say 

 " No " to the local " Ahab." . His cottage stands on " Ahab's ,: 

 land, and his tenure of it is dependent upon " Ahab's " pleasure. 

 Our land system, our class system, our dovetailing of political iuto 

 property interests prevent the " setting " of the cement which we 

 try to apply — so there can be no doubt, with the very best intentions. 



