48 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



fortunes of tenants and employes of every 

 kind that even his expressions of opinion, 

 unless counteracted by explicit declarations of 

 impartiality, affect large numbers of votes. 

 Some are strong enough to resist this influence ; 

 but a large number, who are not prepared to 

 sacrifice much for their convictions, and who 

 are destitute of the pride and independence 

 engendered by trades unionism and other 

 forms of combination, are inclined to take the 

 easier course. They abandon all attempt 

 to make up their minds for themselves on 

 reasonable grounds, or to maintain courage- 

 ously the opinions which they have formed. 

 This influence is reinforced by the personal 

 ties and the widespread charity to which 

 reference has been made. It is often exercised 

 with little consciousness of the pressure which 

 it involves. On the other hand, there are not 

 a few who, taking a strong line in politics, do 

 not hesitate to use to the utmost extent the 

 power which their position gives them of 

 influencing votes on non-political grounds. 



In a word, the power wielded by the land- 

 lord class is immense in all spheres the 

 social, in which they set the standard for all 

 classes ; the economic, in which they dictate 

 the methods of production ; the political, in 

 which they control the expression of opinion. 



