ON THE COST OF CARRIAGE. 665 



has seriously impaired the economical position of a moiety of 

 English labour. 



We have seen how advantageous was the condition of the 

 agricultural labourer, partly because he held land, and held it 

 on easy terms, partly because he had a great discretion in 

 taking employment from the bailiff of his lord ; most of all, 

 because in consequence of a great and destructive visitation 

 the survivor of the national calamity appropriated by natural 

 causes the inheritance of those who had perished. We have 

 seen how energetic were the remonstrances of the upland- 

 folk, and in the end how successful they were in prosecuting 

 their claims, despite the bitterness with which the lords looked 

 on their complete emancipation, and suspected the boldness 

 with which they challenged equal rights with their social 

 superiors, and discussed reforms in Church and State d . 



It seldom happens that the accounts contain any entry of the 

 cost of carrying letters. The ordinary communication between 

 places was a sufficient means for transmitting such scanty 

 correspondence as the simple habits of the time required and 

 no doubt, if it were necessary to convey intelligence, there 

 were numbers of people moving about who could be entrusted 

 with such letters as were written. The reader will remember 



d The landowners at the conclusion of the fourteenth century must have had very 

 much the same sentiments about these prosperous serfs, when they speak of the servants' 

 4 malice' and ' malignity* in demanding higher wages and more liberty, as the Megarian 

 Theognis had nearly 2000 years before their time. 



*fv eff f}5e *6\is, \ao\ 5e 8)) &\\ot, 

 Cft Trp6ffd' oure 5'iKas rjSecrav, otfre t/6/j.ovs' 



'A\\* a/jLtyl irhevprjffi Sopas alySiv Karerpifiov, 

 v E|o> 8' &(TT* f\a<f>oi Triers' fve/novTO ir6\os. 



Kal vvv eftr' ayaQol, Uo\viraiSri. THEOG. 53 sqq. 



Still the same country, but the people changed. 



Who erst no knowledge had of laws and rights, 

 But clad in goatskins o'er the outland ranged, 



And dwelt like deer beyond the city's heights 

 These are our freemen. 



How bitter is the hatred in Kal vvv, how painful the revulsion of feeling in 

 because the good for nothing become good for something ! 



