RURAL ENGLAND OF TO-DAY 47 



The influence of the landlord, both for good 

 and for evil, is vastly increased by two things : 

 the great preponderance of his class upon the 

 local bench, and the fact that, as a general 

 rule, he alone among his rural neighbours 

 can afford to be a member of the County 

 Council. These things account for much of 

 the importance popularly attached to his 

 wishes and his example. The result is that 

 the services he renders in these capacities are 

 largely neutralised by the class and party 

 colour with which he invests the institutions 

 concerned. The local bench, which to the 

 countryman's mind represents, far more than 

 Quarter Sessions or Assizes, the machinery 

 of justice, is not regarded with the confidence 

 that is felt, let us say, in the lawyer-magis- 

 trates of the towns. If it is treated with 

 respect, it is the respect due to power rather 

 than impartiality. Similarly, the County 

 Council is not, and is not felt to be, a demo- 

 cratic or representative body : so long as it 

 is practically impossible for a labourer, or for 

 any but the largest farmers, to sit upon it, 

 it is not likely to become so. 



One further fact remains to be noted. This 

 is the influence exercised by the landlord class 

 at elections. So great and widespread is the 

 power exercised by a landowner over the 



