40 AGRICULTURE IN MODERN EUROPE. 



Twenty years after the accession of William the Conquerer, 

 nearly the whole territory of England had been wrested from 

 its original proprietors and given away, making the condition 

 of the agricultural population even worse than before. Still 

 the art of agriculture progressed, thanks to the monks, and the 

 proportion of freemen increased in consequence of the neces 

 sity for handicrafts which required intelligence and skill. By 

 the year 1367, forty-eight mysteries of labor,&quot; as the va 

 rious employments of saddlers, brewers, masons, etc., were 

 called, had been established in London and were strongly 

 organized into guilds and fraternities. But the laws strictly 

 forbade the teaching of any mystery to a husbandman or son 

 of a husbandman. The mechanics having achieved an ac 

 knowledged political position as free subjects of the crown, 

 the agricultural serfs showed signs of following their exam 

 ple. A statute of the First Kichard (1377), is made &quot;at 

 the grievous complaint of the Lords and Commons of the 

 realm, that in many parts the villains who owe services and 

 customs to said lords have of late and do daily withdraw their 

 services, and affirm them to be utterly discharged of all manner 

 servage, due as well of their body as of their said tenures, and 

 will not suffer any distress or other justice to be made upon 

 them, and which more is, gather themselves in great routs, and 

 agree by such confederacy that every one shall aid the other to 

 resist their lords with the strong hand.&quot; 



The memorable request of such a &quot; confederacy,&quot; headed by 

 Wat Tyler, &quot;for the abolition of slavery for themselves and 

 their children forever; for the reduction of rent, and the privi 

 lege of buying like other men in fairs and markets,&quot; resulted 

 in the addition of insult to the injuries of this long-suffering 

 class. &quot;Kustics ye have been, and are,&quot; the king told them, 

 &quot;and in bondage ye shall yet remain not such as ye have 

 heretofore known, but in a condition incomparably more vile.&quot; 

 From that time it was enacted that all persons who had been 

 employed in any labor or service of husbandry until the age of 

 twelve should from thenceforth abide at the same labor, and be 

 forever incapable of being put to any other business. The evil 

 effects of this irrational discrimination exercised toward agricul 

 tural industry, were not confined to the farming class, nor to 

 England alone. Tenancy at will and tenant rights are more se 

 rious matters for English statesmanship to deal with now than 



