THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER 573 



they were learning by sharp experience the meaning of the word 

 starvation. I have often wondered what became of that man, or 

 if he took my advice to get him back to the country as quickly 

 as he might. 



But, as I have said, such examples do not deter those who 

 want to go, who are young and strong and forget the day when 

 they will be grey-headed and turned from door to door. They 

 think that they will be among the fortunate ; that they will not 

 find themselves sick and friendless in the ward of a London hos- 

 pital ; that their children will develop no disease in the crowded 

 slums. Or perhaps they do not think even so much as this. 

 They are weary of their lack of outlook and of working the fields 

 that their forefathers worked before them for hundreds of years, 

 and do not reflect that in this pursuit, humble as it seems, there 

 is in truth great dignity ; weary also of the control of village 

 opinion and of the dulness of village life. Education has taught 

 them to dislike manual labour, which they look down on ; while 

 newspapers, and friends who have been successful there, tell 

 them of the glories and high wages of the town, of the music 

 halls and the beautiful processions. 



So they go, and it is hard to blame them. But what will be 

 the result upon England at large indeed what is the result 

 already ? Again, I ask, can it be denied that the national tem- 

 perament is undergoing modifications subtle perhaps, but none 

 the less profound ? To " maffick is a very modern verb, but one 

 of which the significance is daily widening. Moreover, the phy- 

 sique deteriorates. This was a fact that came home to any who, 

 after the country -bred yeomen were exhausted, took the trouble 

 to compare with them the crowds of town-reared men that pre- 

 sented themselves at the London recruiting offices to volunteer 

 for service in South Africa. The intelligence too is changed ; it 

 is apt no longer to consider or appreciate natural things, but by 

 preference dwells on and occupies itself with those more artificial 

 joys and needs which are the creation of civilized, money- and 

 pleasure-seeking man. 



I am convinced and this is a very important national aspect 

 of the question that most of our reverses during the recent 



