AUTHOR'S NOTE xi 



mother lies prostrate for the daughters to tread out her Hfe. When 

 the towns are full what do they care to-day if the fields be empty ? 

 'Bear our burdens, feed, educate, give us the best of your 

 blood and brain — your hungry Realty can meet the bill. Then 

 you may go starve,' say they ; ' what is that to us who liave 

 enough ? Send us your stalwart men and women : — we will pay 

 you back in sparrows ! ' 



Indeed, the masses of the population, and therefore the govern- 

 ments who seek their suffrages, whatever they may pretend, at 

 heart interest themselves little in the welfare of rural England. It 

 is troublesome with its complaints, half bankrupt, divided by class 

 prejudice, and therefore politically impotent — let it take its chance 

 — that is their attitude — secret if not declared. Countries in China, 

 Central Africa, anywhere, must be seized or hypothecated to 

 provide ' new markets ' — even ' at the cost of war ' — for this is 

 fashionable and imperialistic, and, it is hoped, will bring profit to 

 the people with the most votes and influence, the traders and 

 dwellers in the towns. For these, money, men, everything they 

 ask ; but for the home earth and its offspring, small help, no, 

 scarce the most naked justice. ' Gentlemen, the Cities would 

 never stand it,' runs the accustomed formula of repulse. 



' Open doors abroad ' is the cry — what does it matter if the 

 old-fashioned door at home is shut, that door which in bygone ages 

 has so often stood between the wolf and the Englishman ? It 

 matters nothing at all, is the answer of our masters (short-sighted 

 as some of us think), for British-grown products are no longer of 

 great importance to the community except, perhaps, to an enter- 

 prising section of it, those of the meat-salesmen and traders who 

 use the title as a veil for fraud. 



