CHAPTER III 



THE RURAL EXODUS 



IN dealing with the agricultural labourers 

 a warning against generalization is needed 

 most of all. More even than in the case of 

 the landowner and the farmer, we must 

 remember that many local varieties are 

 necessarily left unmentioned in a survey such 

 as this. 



In discussions concerning the farm labourer 

 stress is sometimes laid on the admitted fact 

 that his condition has improved considerably 

 during the nineteenth century, and that in 

 consequence he is usually " quite contented, 

 if only he is left alone." These beliefs are 

 doubtless encouraged by the stolid endurance 

 and amazing patience of an almost inarticulate 

 class. But even granted that the labourer 

 is more prosperous than he was granted that 

 milk and groceries and, at times, butcher's 

 meat are found nowadays on his table, it is 

 at any rate clear that these added comforts 

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