428 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



days throughout Europe, we may safely infer on remember 

 ing that down to the 13th century in France, it was in the 

 power of a father to imprison a son who displeased him: the 

 implication being that he could force his son to undertake 

 whatever work he pleased. Though in England paternal 

 power never went to this extreme, yet we see in the usages 

 and ideas of quite recent times, how subordinate were chil 

 dren to parents, and especially to the father. If, even down 

 to the earlier part of this century, filial duty was supposed to 

 include obedience to parents in respect of marriage, it must 

 also have included obedience in respect of avocations. AVe 

 have indeed, in this matter, direct evidence given by a well 

 recognized authority on rural life in general the late Mr. 

 Jefferies. The following extract exhibits the filial and pa 

 ternal relations among farmers 



&quot;The growth of half-a-dozen strong sons was a matter of self-con 

 gratulation, for each as he came to man s estate took the place of a 

 labourer, and so reduced the money expenditure. The daughters 

 worked in the dairy, and did not hesitate to milk occasionally, or, at 

 least, to labour in the hay -field. They spun, too, the home-made stulfs 

 in which all the family were clothed. A man s children were his ser 

 vants. They could not stir a step without his permission. Obedience 

 and reverence to the parent was the first and greatest of all virtues. 

 Its influence was to extend through life, and through the whole social 

 system. They were to choose the wife or the husband approved of at 

 home. At thirty, perhaps, the more fortunate of the sons were placed 

 on farms of their own nominally, but still really under the father s 

 control. They dared not plough or sow except in the way that he 

 approved. Their expenditure was strictly regulated by his orders. 

 This lasted till his death, which might not take place for another 

 twenty years.&quot; 



This state of things is still in considerable measure that 

 which the law recognizes; for the son under age is held to 

 be legally his father s servant, and, as shown by an action for 

 seduction, the deprivation of a daughter s services is put 

 forward as the ground of complaint. 



Let us not omit here to note the evidence furnished that 

 coerciveness declines simultaneously in political, ecclesiasti- 



