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liberal than that in force in '^ England itself till within very 

 recent times. Agricultural slavery, which, in this country, 

 originated mostly in voluntary contract, was abolished in 

 1844, and labourers declared to be free to carry their labour 

 where they pleased or to emigrate without being subjected to 

 any harassing restrictions, such as those in force in Russia, 

 for instance, where no peasant is allowed to travel 30 miles 

 from his own commune without observing irksome formalities 

 and paying from 7s. to 10s. for a passport. Labourers freely 

 emigrate to Burma, the Straits Settlements, Ceylon, Mauritius 

 and the West Indies, and as Mr. Clerk, the Settlement OflQcer 

 in Tanjore, points out, very often labourers who have re- 

 ceived advances or loans from landholders "do take their 

 departure without payment." The labourers are now quite 

 aware that the higher classes dare not molest them, and the 

 abolition of the system of corvee or compulsory labour on 

 Government works has taken away all excuse for doing so. 

 The abolition of torture, as one of the recognised methods of 

 enforcing discipline, of collecting the revenue or detecting 

 crime, and the severity with which violations of the law in 

 this respect have been punished, have clearly demonstrated 

 to the landholders that the employment of the old coercive 

 methods in the exaction of work will not be tolerated by 

 Government, and that labourers might be coaxed to remain 

 in their service, but not compelled to do so. The non-recog- 

 nition of class distinctions and the special privileges claimed 

 by mirasidars to keep the lower classes out of the occupation 

 of land, and the uniform treatment accorded to all puttadars, 

 whether recent occupants or ancient mirasidars, in all ad- 

 ministrative arrangements have raised the position of the 

 lower classes, if they have somewhat depressed that of the 

 higher classes. Numbers among the Pariah population have 

 enlisted as sepoys, and several have found employment in 

 the domestic establishments of Europeans as cooks, nurses, 

 horsekeepers, gardeners, &c., and also in factories, plantations 

 and railways. Missionary agencies have also done this class 

 invaluable service by establishing schools and by teaching 

 them to live, whenever their circumstances would permit of it, 

 in a more respectable manner than they have been accustomed 

 to do for ages, and by interceding for their protection and 

 advocating their cause whenever there is any real or fancied 

 danger of their being oppressed by the classes above them. 



" The statute of labourers, the statute of apprentices and a multitude of laws 

 against comleinations of workmen were all enacted in England in the interest of capi- 

 talists. The last remnants of combination laws were abolished only in 1875, and they 

 were enforced wiih considerable severity so recently as 1844, 



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