vi PREFACE. 



be found to provide an effectual remedy for the evils 

 pointed out. 



This book will, I think, possess importance as an 

 historical record, and should interest not only readers 

 at home and in our Colonies and in other dependencies 

 of the Empire, but, through translations, in foreign 

 countries. 



The claim of historical interest applies also, I think, 

 to the GLANCE AT THE PAST, which I have relegated to 

 an APPENDIX. The sections there, f ' Some Pictures of 

 1873," and " Seven Years After 1880," recording 

 personal and painstaking investigations made during an 

 extended walking tour through the great agricultural 

 region in our Western Counties, are important as a 

 record of past conditions that, happily, are now rapidly 

 disappearing). 



Whilst I am indebted to Board of Trade and other 

 official returns for a good deal of information, I have 

 expended a large amount of labour in making that 

 information concise and valuable for easy reference. 



My aim, as ever, has been to bring great classes nearer 

 to each other, and to promote the most cordial of 

 friendly relations between employers and employed. 



FRANCIS GEORGE HEATH. 



