PEASANT REVOLTS i6i 



In previous chapters the agrarian policy of the landed 

 aristocracy has been traced down to modern times, and 

 the economic and social effect of that policy has been 

 described. It remains now in this account of the 

 English peasantry to inquire how the peasant fared 

 under that policy after he ceased to be a real peasant 

 (a man possessing land or rights in land) and became 

 a mere wao^e-receivino- labourer. There has been 

 much correspondence lately in the Press on the sub- 

 ject of " The Deserted Village." That correspondence 

 seems to have left the question pretty much where it 

 was, for the simple reason that the writers have ignored 

 the root cause of the depopulation they deplore, in- 

 stead of makinof it the basis of their discussion. 



The charming and pathetic poem from which they 

 borrow the very heading of their letters, was written 

 with the sole object of describing the policy which 

 caused the depopulation of our country-sides. 



In a letter (1770) to Sir Joshua Reynolds — to whom 

 the poem was inscribed — Goldsmith writes : — 



" I have taken all possible pains, in my country 

 excursions, for these four or five years past, to be 

 certain of what I allege, and all my views and en- 

 quiries have led me to believe those miseries real 

 which I here attempt to display. ... In regretting 

 the depopulation of the country, I inveigh against the 

 increase of our luxuries ; and here also I expect the 

 shout of modern politicians against me." 



A few lines will recall the object and meaning of 

 the poem. Looking at the idyll by the light of our 

 present experience, we shall see that the insight of the 

 poet was truer than the arguments of the political 

 economist. 



