10 PREFACE 



with our rural life must be on his guard. It 

 is by no means easy to discuss the social 

 conditions of the countryside without being 

 drawn, perhaps almost insensibly, into the 

 vortex of party politics. All existing accounts, 

 in fact, of rural life and economy have been in 

 a greater or lesser degree coloured by the 

 convictions and sentiments of the writer. 

 This is self-evident, for example, in the writings 

 of Cobbett, Young, and Joseph Arch. Those 

 who love the country and its neglected people 

 are bound to feel strongly, and, in face of our 

 heavy arrears of national duty to the village, 

 tend to grow impatient with further delays, 

 excuses and compromises. Nevertheless, the 

 writer of this little book will do his best to 

 prevent any personal sympathies from mini- 

 mising or obscuring the beneficent efforts 

 of political opponents working for a common 

 end. No Liberal can write with fuller know- 

 ledge, a more heartfelt sympathy for the poor 

 village labourer, or a more genuine desire 

 to improve British agriculture than Mr. 

 Christopher Tumor, a Conservative landlord, 

 or Mr. Jesse Collings, to whose clear and 

 interesting volume on " Land Reform " we 

 owe so much. 



My grateful acknowledgments are due to 

 Mr. C. R. Buxton, who generously placed at 



