THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOUR KK 561 



be earned in the towns ; and even if this means no real advan- 

 tage, if the extra cash is more than absorbed in the ext: 



s, the average man likes to have the handling of money. 

 He does not think of the rent of the squalid rooms, of the cost of 

 the tramcars and the music halls ; he does not reck of the time 

 when he will begin to grow old and be pushed out of his place by 

 some new-eomer from the land. Yonder it is thirty shillings ; 



; is only eighteen. That is what he remembers. So he goes 

 to accomplish his destiny, whatever it may be. 



Hut it is not solely a question of wages ; he and his wife seek 

 the change and the excitement of the streets. Nature has little 

 meaning for most of them, and no charms ; but they love a gas 

 lamp. Nature, in my experience, only appeals to the truly edu- 

 cated. Our boasted system of education seems to make it detest- 

 able a thing to flee from. lastly, in towns, there is a chance of 



; but in the country, for nineteen out of twenty, there is no 



hat they will become farmers on their own account. So the 

 countryman ehooses the town, and as a consequence the character 

 of Knglishmen appears to be changing, not as those who have 



ed certain recent scenes, at Waterloo Station and elsewhere, 

 may reflect entirely for the better. 



Before speaking of possible remedies for evils which are gen- 

 erally admitted to exist. I wish to allude very briefly to the condi- 

 ; in agriculture, as I have found it to be. 

 Of the three elasses connected with tin- land- the landowner. 



iaiU farmer, and the labourer I believe- that, taking the 



country through, the owner has suffered most. In many counties. 



such as Kssex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk, there is often 



nothing at all left for him after the various expenses have been 



it" it is in any way em umbered, landed property is 



round hjs neck. In such counties the possession of 



land is becoming, or has already become, a luxury tor rich taste for 



sjxut. Than this no state of an be more unwholesome 



or unnatural; the land should support men. not men the land. 



'here are more acres than there a folk to buy them. 



In some parts of Kn^land, however, the landlords are still 



on their rents, but where they have no other resou;. 



