INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES. 283 



the more we have of them, the more shall we 

 have of the inventive genius, the want of which 

 is so justly complained of in this country (by 

 W. Armstrong, amongst many others). We 

 must not wonder, therefore, if we see so many 

 small trades in this country ; but we must re- 

 gret that the great number have abandoned the 

 villages in consequence of the bad conditions of 

 land tenure, and that they have migrated in such 

 numbers to the cities, to the detriment of agri- 

 culture. 



In England, as everywhere, the small industries 

 are an important factor in the industrial life of 

 the country ; and it is chiefly in the infinite 

 variety of the small trades, which utilise the 

 half -fabricated produce of the great industries, 

 that inventive genius is developed, and the rudi- 

 ments of the future great industries are elaborated. 

 The small bicycle workshops, with the hundreds 

 of small improvements which they introduced, 

 have been under our very eyes the primary cells 

 out of which the great industry of the motor 

 cars, and later on of the aeroplanes, has grown 

 up. The small village jam-makers were the 

 precursors and the rudiments of the great fac- 

 tories of preserves which now employ hundreds 

 of workers. And so on. 



Consequently, to affirm that the small indus- 

 tries are doomed to disappear, while we see new 



