THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER 571 



labourers of England and Wales numbered 1,253,800 and that in 

 1 89 1 they had shrunk to about 780,700. What the census of 1901 

 shows their number to be I do not yet know, but I shall be much 

 surprised if it records any advance. Taking it on the 1891 basis, 

 however, it would seem that whereas between 1 8 5 1 and 1 89 1 

 the population of England and Wales had increased by about a 

 half, its agricultural inhabitants during this same period had 

 actually decreased by over one-third, with the result that whereas 

 in 1 89 1 the urban districts could show a total of about 25,000,000 

 people, the rural districts held only about 7,500,000, that is, some 

 23 per cent of the population, as against JJ per cent living in 

 towns or their immediate neighborhood. These figures are very 

 eloquent and very ominous, especially if a careful analysis of those 

 of the last census should prove them to be progressive in the 

 same directions. 



In days that are quite recent, as the remarkable Necton docu- 

 ment quoted in my chapter on Norfolk shows, folk were haunted 

 by an absolute terror of the over-peopling of the rural districts. 

 Now they suffer from a very different fear. The plethoric population- 

 bogey of 1830 has been replaced by the lean exodus-skeleton of 

 1902. People are deserting the villages wholesale, leaving behind 

 them the mentally incompetent and the physically unfit ; nor, at 

 any rate in many parts of England, although in this matter 

 East Anglia is perhaps better off than are most other districts, 

 does the steady flow to the cities show signs of ceasing. Yet and 

 this is one of the strangest circumstances connected with the 

 movement those cities whither they go are full of misery. Dis- 

 ease, wretchedness, the last extremes of want, and the ultimate 

 extinction of their families will be the lot of at least a large 

 proportion of these immigrants. Has not this been shown by 

 Mr. Rowntree and others ? 



On the other hand, low as the wages are, it is not too much 

 to say that in the country, or at least in that large area of it with 

 which I am acquainted, there is in practice but little real poverty. 

 Cases of misfortune there are, and always must be, together with 

 cases of accidents and cases of these a great number where 

 the drunkenness or other ill-behaviour of the breadwinner has 



