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regeneration of the peasantry of England, and in a marked improve- 

 ment ot their condition. From a state of hopeless dependence they 

 have risen to one of some independence, from paupers paid by the 

 parish they are gradually becoming men of self-reliance, who earn 

 substantial, if not high, wages. The labourer is now always in 

 theory, and often in fact, a free and independent elector, one with 

 a voice in the government of his country, whereas at the beginning 

 of last century he had no more influence on the course and the 

 management of public affairs than the cattle whom he tended in 

 the fields. From a state of ignorance he is being raised to one 

 of partial knowledge; his children no longer use their strength in 

 manual labour fields when they should be acquiring necessary ele- 

 mentary knowledge, and they receive a sound education without 

 cost to their parents. They are thus placed, as they should be, 

 in a position of equality with the children of the townsman; they 

 have before them a career. His wife and daughters have ceased 

 to toil in the fields, and they can give to his home due attention 

 as housewives. Those homes are not through no fault of his as 

 healthy and commodious as they should be, but even the rural 

 cottage is becoming better and more wholesome. 



Such are the broad characteristics of the change which has 

 come over this class of the community during the last century, in 

 the beginning of which, owing to various causes, economical and 

 social, the peasantry of England had fallen into a hapless state, 

 and if Dr. Johnson's doctrine be sound, that the condition of the 

 poor is the true mark of national discrimination, then one must 

 admit that, though the state of the peasantry is neither perfect 

 nor ideal, the advancement in their condition is a sign of national 

 prosperity ". 



