cheques to be cashed on the other side of 

 Jordan." The old villager is as a rule without 

 any great desire to avoid the inevitable end. 

 Life has never been very sweet, and so death 

 loses half its bitterness : he is tired and willing 

 to sleep. The mental indifference to eschato- 

 logical possibilities which marked the closing 

 scenes of Bettesworth, the Surrey labourer, is 

 typical : dimly and dubiously he trusts the 

 larger hope : he is neither scared into the paths 

 of virtue by the threats of punishment nor 

 led thither by hopes of future recognition and 

 happiness. 



In the country districts of Ireland the 

 Roman Catholic priests indubitably exercise 

 a powerful influence over conduct, and rural 

 Britain generally is free from crimes of out- 

 rage and violence. Economics and ethics are 

 largely connected. The soberest counties of 

 England, for example, like Oxfordshire and 

 Wiltshire, are also the worst paid. Never- 

 theless no fairminded critic of our social life 

 can avoid the conclusion that the standard of 

 sexual morality is extraordinarily low in many 

 parts of rural England. The Report of the 

 Poor Law Commissioners for 1834 contains 

 an appalling description of degradation, im- 

 morality and semi-barbarism produced by the 

 rate-aided relief of the period : and there are 



