42 Decay o f the Manor 



from beneath, the yoke of their lords and placed them on separate 

 holdings as proprietors and cultivators. It is only necessary to 

 mention Russia, where the course of events was most of all 

 unlike that in England. The Revolution there is the last illustra- 

 tion of the fatal break between owners and cultivators of the 

 soil, which in Great Britain alone has not taken place. 



The landlord-tenant system is criticized, and no conclusive 

 argument has been advanced to prove that it is the best. Under 

 it there has been a great deal of inequality, but the fact remains 

 that it is on this basis that our agriculture has been developed. 

 The struggles in which this system was evolved from the manor 

 reflect a peculiar feature of the English character. None of the 

 peasants' revolts went near to winning its aims, but none of them 

 left the peasants so helpless as they were before. The successful 

 party in the struggles refrained from taking all the immediate 

 advantage they could have taken from them. The winners gave 

 to the losers some part of what the latter had demanded, and the 

 losers never acknowledged defeat. There has never been that 

 devastating ferocity in putting down a healthy restlessness which 

 drove the aspirations of peasants in European countries under- 

 ground for centuries, and to all appearance had killed them. 

 The ties which have bound the English landlords, tenants, and 

 labourers together have been severely strained, but their con- 

 tinuance is a proof that two or three important classes in the 

 country can work together as they have not done in other 

 countries, and perhaps the ability to do this may be counted as 

 a virtue. 



Beginning of Modern Farming 



IT has been said already that the manorial system of farming 

 was designed to serve the needs of men living in a society where 

 their chief object was to defend their lives and property from 



