372 LAND REFORM 



ruins of the baronial castles mark the destruction of 

 feudalism.^ 



The following extracts from a paper, written by the 

 present writer just forty years afterwards, show how 

 these alluring foretellings had been falsified and the 

 sad condition to which a class of men whom we love to 

 call the backbone of the nation had been reduced : — 



"When the working classes are spoken of, the rural 

 labourer is, as a matter of course, excluded from the 

 term. In Blue Books, agricultural newspapers, and 

 at farmers' meetings, the position and standing of the 

 labourer are described and descanted on by his masters. 

 The description of his flourishing condition evokes 

 astonishment in the minds of those who know his 

 actual status. Any attempt to reveal to the general 

 public the real condition of the labourer is resented 

 with indignation by the agricultural interest. 



"It is true he is often treated with condescending 

 kindness, and as a deserving object of charity so long 

 — and only so long — as he is docile and subservient, 

 but any attempt at self-assertion or independence is 

 punished and put down by many forms of social perse- 

 cution which are in the hands of his superiors. 

 Propertyless, and with no security for house or home, 

 he has no means of helping himself, and any attempt 

 of others to help him — except by social or benevolent 

 means — is felt to be, and is frequently described as, 

 a criminal attempt to unsettle the minds of happy and 

 contented men, and to set class against class. For his 

 wrong-doings he is judged by a rural magistracy who 

 feel themselves set in authority over him, and who 

 now and then award punishments so severe and un- 



^ Speech in Covent Garden Theatre, quoted in " Pauperism." Henry 

 Fawcett. Macmillan, 1876. Mr. Fox, by pen and speech, was one of 

 the most prominent and best known among the workers in tlie cause 

 of repeal. He wrote the Anti-Corn Law League's '-Address to the 

 Nation.'" 



