iio LAND REFORM 



take their bodies and to imprison and chastise them. 

 Every ingenious method is adopted to make their lives 

 unbearable until they submit to the claims of their 

 oppressors. 



The persecuted husbandmen of all classes found a 

 new vent for their sufferings in the form of popular 

 songs which circulated throughout the country and 

 became household words. These ballads show the 

 miserable and oppressed condition of the rural popu- 

 lation. Many of them are quaint, forcible, and 

 pathetic in their language/ One or two examples 

 will show their kind : — 



" A Song of the Times " : 



" All the land of England is moist with weeping. . . . 

 The fraud of the rulers prevails; peace is trodden 

 underfoot. . . . Right and law lie asleep. . . . The 

 wealth of the rich is increased by exacting gifts ; 

 almost all the nobles spend their time in contriving 

 evil ; the mad esquires delight in malice. Lo ! the 

 rapacious men appear on every side." 



Song against the King's Taxes: 



" He sins who takes the money of the poor without 

 cause. . . . It is no trouble to the orreat to orrant the 

 King's tax; the simple must pay it all, which is con- 

 trary to God's law. . . . How well they perform good 

 deeds out of the sweat of the poor. . . . They are 

 proud ; with other people's goods they hold great 

 court. . . . Such tribute can in no manner last long ; 

 out of emptiness who can give ? . . . People are 

 reduced to such ill plight that they can give no 

 more ; I fear, if they had a leader, they would rise 

 in rebellion." 



' " The Political Songs of England,'' collected from various sources, 

 and published by the Camden Society, 1839. 



