354 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



cheaper and more healthy, fuel is generally a per- 

 quisite, and many farmers give their labourers 

 vegetables. Finally, the connection between the 

 farmer and his servant is of a closer nature than 

 is the connection between the manufacturer and 

 the employee. To be wealthy, according to Mr. 

 John Stuart Mill, is to have a large stock of useful 

 articles. Money is only a means of exchange. 

 The agricultural labourer who has plenty to eat 

 and drink and a sound roof over his head is richer 

 on a sovereign a week than the town mechanic or 

 City clerk on two pounds a week. 



It would have been interesting if Mr. Wilson Fox 

 had been able to tell us how many agricultural 

 labourers who had migrated to large towns had been 

 successful in their venture in comparison with those 

 who have failed. I have tried to learn this for 

 many years. My experience has been that most 

 men, who spent their boyhood in the country as 

 the sons of agricultural labourers, do not succeed 

 in London, unless they had some special training 

 and have influence. Thus many London 'bus-drivers 

 and cabmen are country -bred, but they possessed 

 a knowledge of horseflesh before they came to 

 town. The same applies to the employees at livery- 

 stable yards. As a rule, however, the unskilled 

 son of the soil has to resort to cleaning the streets 

 and similar menial work. He may elect to become 

 a porter in one of our big markets, where he does 

 have a chance of success if he takes the trouble 



