118 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



part of its Owners and Occupiers, and all who come 

 between the two. The signs are not easily mistake- 

 able; beggared land, beggared labourers, beggared 

 parish-funds, and beggared public finances can be 

 recognized afar. They reach every sense : the eye can 

 see it, the ear can hear it, the nose can smell it, the 

 hands can handle it. In time the perception reaches 

 the inner senses : and the mind begins to understand 

 that this corruption is the work of mistaken selfish- 

 ness. The social laws of Nature press gently and 

 agreeably around a man, till he offends them by long 

 neglect, and the selfish notion that they can be starved 

 and stinted, harmlessly. Then they come in force : 

 and evince their presence and reality by pain, instead 

 of pleasure. Then the great problems of society 

 begin to work themselves out under high pressure. 



In the early stages of the world they are simple 

 enough. When every man tilled his own field, the 

 duties of Landlord and Tenant needed small defini- 

 tion. But advancement complicates relations : pre- 

 sently the time comes when you begin to see one man 

 cultivating the soil of another: and that not only 

 without wages, but paying the owner for leave and 

 license ! Mouths have increased upon the land ; but 

 the land measures the same. Acres don't grow. New 



