STORY OF THE ENGLISH LAND 33 



them in sickness and destitution. On the 

 other hand, the triumph of Parliamentary 

 Government stereotyped for centuries a class 

 domination which wasted the lives and 

 earnings of the poor in reckless wars, deprived 

 them of their land, sapped their independence, 

 and denied them any share in the government 

 of their country. The laws, as a village 

 catechism of Devonshire puts it with brutal 

 candour, were established to " safeguard the 

 rights of property and control the vicious 

 poor." 



Under the " Speenhamland " system of 

 " allowances " at the close of the eighteenth 

 century, the English labourer reached the 

 low-water mark in the sad history of his 

 organized degradation. The subsidizing of 

 cheap labour from the rates enabled the farmer 

 to pay sweated wages from the pockets of the 

 general public whether employers or not. 

 The agricultural labourer became a pauper 

 by law. Nevertheless the actual motive 

 which underlay this clumsy and vicious 

 system was a sound one. The conscience of 

 England was very slowly being aroused by the 

 hopeless poverty and demoralization of the 

 agricultural labourers and the general decay 

 of the countryside. Appalling misery was 

 inflicted on the poor by high protective 



