PEASANT REVOLTS 163 



At the time Goldsmith wrote the process was be- 

 coming more and more rapid by which the real 

 peasantry were reduced to mere labourers. The story 

 of the Enoflish agricultural labourers is one of the 

 saddest in our history. Until they, as a class, became 

 emancipated by flight from the land no pen can ex- 

 aoorerate their sufferino-s and the lowness of their 



00 o 



condition. There were numbers of rural labourers in 

 every country, but in no country but ours were they 

 a class apart, a caste, a permanent part of a land 

 system composed of landlords, tenants, and labourers. 

 Our landless peasantry became a unique class, and 

 their counterpart could be found in no other country 

 in Europe, In all but the name they were worse off 

 than serfs of olden times, for serfs, though slaves, had 

 plenty of food, generally land to cultivate, and dwell- 

 ings which they regarded practically as their own. It 

 was sound economy for a feudal lord to keep his serfs 

 — like his horses — in a condition fit for work.^ 



^ In times of famine, which often occurred, "freemen from above, 

 could and did descend into serfdom " for the sake of food and shelter. 

 "The English Village Community," Secbohm. 



