PREFACE 



IN the midst of the great industrial develop- 

 ments which followed the close of the 

 Napoleonic wars the claims of the rural 

 population were to a large extent overlooked. 

 So amazing was the realized and prospective 

 wealth of a " nation of shopkeepers " who 

 had made good their claim to control the trade 

 routes of the world that the eyes of the nation 

 were turned almost exclusively upon the towns 

 and seaports. In the present century again, 

 amid the ever-increasing volume of England's 

 trade and her abounding riches, accompanied 

 at the same time by a social unrest of unpre- 

 cedented force, the attention of our country 

 and those who guide its destiny is chiefly 

 centred upon urban interests and urban 

 demands. Trade rivals have menaced or 

 destroyed some of our monopolies, and our 

 earlier claim to be the workshop of the world 

 must nowadays necessarily submit to modifi- 

 cation ; but we have not yet as a nation learnt 

 the true value of our fertile fields and the 

 men who cultivate them. Agriculture, indeed, 

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