362 THE OLD MANOR HOUSE 



The three acres were all ready all that was 

 wanting was the cow! But "once bitten, twice 

 shy." They have not been caught by the doctrines 

 of "ransom," or by the promise of old age pensions, 

 so often dangled before them. Nor can they under- 

 stand, at present at all events, how a tax on foreign 

 corn, and so, an increase in the price of bread, can 

 redound to their ultimate advantage. A prominent 

 statesman has recently complained that if there is 

 so much as "a comma" wrong in one of his 

 speeches, he is immediately called to account for 

 it ; but a comma misplaced has, ere now, turned 

 the vote of one, and if of one, then, probably, of 

 many, Dorset labourers. A clergyman whom I 

 have the best of reasons for knowing, when Dis- 

 establishment was to the fore, some years ago, 

 breaking through his usual rule of non-interference 

 in elections, asked some of his parishioners to vote 

 for a candidate who would support an institution 

 in which they were all so deeply interested. One 

 of the labourers was not at home; but his wife 

 answered for him, that her "husband would 

 never vote for the like of he." "Why not?" 

 asked the clergyman. " Because he do use such 

 terrible bad language." "I have known him for 

 many years, and I have never heard him utter an 



