VILLAGE POLITICS 113 



have never clamoured for any political panem 

 et drcenses impossible or difficult to provide. 

 All they asked for in 1906 was old-age pensions 

 and access to the land at a reasonable rent. 

 The first of the boons has come to stay, a 

 measure magnificent in the humanity of its 

 purpose and absolutely unique in the records 

 of modern legislation. Had the land policy 

 of the Liberal Party kept pace with Mr. 

 Lloyd George's great measure, the adherence 

 of the rural labourer even allowing for that 

 unpleasant factor, political ingratitude might 

 have been more firmly secured. 



The Labour Party has hitherto made no 

 impression on the rural constituencies. Its 

 leaders are essentially urban in knowledge and 

 experience, and amid the crowded problems 

 of city life no room is found for any concen- 

 tration on the needs of the village. In theory, 

 of course, Labour politicians recognize that the 

 influx of labourers from the country tends to 

 diminish wages in the towns, and their sym- 

 pathies have always been extended towards 

 such palliative measures as have been framed 

 from time to time for the benefit of the farm- 

 labourer. After the middle of the nineteenth 

 century a marked decline took place in the 

 wages of the riverside labourers on the Thames; 

 this was due to the inrush of Irish peasants 



