CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

 BENEVOLENCE. 



THE dark pictures of peasant life presented in the pre- 

 ceding pages are relieved here and there by flashes of 

 kindness. Farmers are not by any means all bad, 

 although, as we have seen, sordidness and ungenerosity 

 have run, in numbers of instances, to extremes. The 

 rule unfortunately has been unjust treatment of the 

 labourer. The exceptions are all the more welcome. A 

 good deal of generosity has emanated, in a considerable 

 number of instances, from the vicarage or rectory of a 

 country parish, and the ladies of the minister's household 

 have often proved active agents for good works. The 

 institution of " coal " and " clothing " and other benefit 

 clubs has been one kind of help, and they have 

 often been founded on the excellent principle of 

 encouraging thrift. The labourers have been invited to 

 contribute something, however small, to a Christmas 

 fund planned to help those who help themselves ; and 

 so subscriptions beforehand from the labourers have been 

 encouraged by the adding of sums similar in amount, all 

 to accumulate against what is called a " rainy day." 



In some villages there were, as there are to this day, 

 " charities " of different kinds originating with a fund 

 left in trust by some beneficent founder for distribution 

 amongst the poor, who, with few exceptions, would be 

 found to be either farm labourers residing with their 

 families and living lives of half starvation, struggling 



painfully to keep body and soul together, or destitute 



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