CHAPTER XXXIII. 

 CHARACTER AND EDUCATION. 



THERE are exceptions to every rule ; but it may be 

 said that a sturdy honesty characterises the British 

 peasant. In other respects, however, it may be that 

 lapses in what is called morality should not be too 

 hardly pressed, bearing in mind the circumstances under 

 which he is born and brought up. General ignorance, 

 including to a rather appreciable extent inability to 

 read and write, was widely spread at the period, now 

 about forty years ago, particularly under review. It 

 is probable that the old system of parish apprenticeship, 

 with its numerous attendant evils, has largely, if not 

 quite entirely, died out. It oftentimes involved much 

 cruelty, both to the children apprenticed to the farmers 

 as well as to their parents. Under certain circum- 

 stances it might have proved advantageous ; but it is 

 to be feared that, in the majority of instances, it led 

 to suffering and immorality. The case of the western 

 counties was, it must be feared, largely representative 

 of other agricultural counties. One of the Commis- 

 sioners for the inquiry of 1842-43, Mr. Austin, wrote, 

 referring particularly to Devon, Dorset, Somerset, and 

 Wilts : 



" A great many women, accustomed to work in the 

 fields like other women of the same class, are unable to read 

 and write, or if to do either, it is very imperfectly. 

 This is more particularly the case with the women above 

 thirty ; but generally, even where they have been taught 

 to read and write, the women of the agricultural labouring 



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