VILLAGE POLITICS 117 



has the cottager in the County Council, upon 

 which, through the ingenious provision of 

 refusing travelling and out-of-pocket expenses, 

 it is practically impossible for a small farmer, 

 village tradesman or labourer to sit ? Doc- 

 trinaire politicians may point as they like to 

 the fact that the County Councils are elected 

 bodies ; they overlook the fact that these 

 rural parliaments are elected under social 

 conditions which rigidly limit the choice of 

 the voters, and in many cases secure the 

 return of an illiberal and unprogressive 

 majority. To take a single example, can 

 any worse dereliction of public duty be ad- 

 duced than the treatment accorded by the 

 County Councils of England to the Small 

 Holdings Act of 1892 a policy of utter 

 neglect condemned by nobody more severely 

 than Mr. Jesse Collings ? If a tenant-farmer 

 ventures to stand for a County Council in 

 opposition to a landlord it is frequently 

 regarded in the district as almost a case of 

 Use majeste. The average labourer regards 

 the election and the work of the County 

 Council with apathy and indifference. If he 

 has failed to secure a small holding after four 

 years' weary waiting as an " approved candi- 

 date," he is told by one set of comforters that 

 he should see that Liberals are returned to the 



