174 LAND REFORM 



labourers left the great calling of agriculture and dis- 

 appeared into the towns. These, with \vives and 

 children, represented probably above two million 

 persons. 



In the olden times the higher clergy bearded the 

 baronial magnates, even in the king's court, and in 

 their presence, and rebuked them for their unjust treat- 

 ment of the tillers of the ground. In these modern 

 times, politically and socially, the clergy are more or less 

 allied to the territorial order. Their kindness towards 

 the labouring classes, as a rule, is in the form of 

 charity — charity, the practice of which is ever increas- 

 ing, and which, as opposed to self-help, bids fair to 

 become the curse of the English people. 



Since the revolt of 1872 the relations between 

 farmers and their men have changed. Labourers are 

 now scarce, are largely of the casual class, and less 

 dependent on their employers. But even now the old 

 feeling is seen in places and on occasions where it can 

 be safely shown. 



In a letter received from a country clergyman 

 (1905) the following appears: "I am obliged sorrow- 

 fully to admit that very many of the clergy do exhibit 

 a lamentable lack of true and active sympathy with 

 the aspirations and wants of the rural population. 

 They lean far too much to the side of the squire and 

 to bie farmers. Hu^e farms have been the bane of 

 England. I have long been convinced of this fact 



by my own past experience in a rural parish in , 



where most of the land is in the hands of one larofe 

 farmer, who treats the labourers like bond-servants. 

 Recently a young labourer told the farmer he meant 

 to quit the village : instantly the farmer said he would 

 turn the young man's father out of his cottage if he 



