no Rents > Wages, and Profits in Agriculture 



decrease of the rural population has reduced 

 overcrowding, and left the worst cottages 

 empty. Education is free, sanitation and 

 water supplies are better, there are more 

 opportunities for allotments, and compen- 

 sation for accidents in the course of 

 the employment is obtainable. (Statistical 

 Journal, June, 1903.) 



As already observed, one of the best signs 

 of progress is in the differentiation of classes 

 within an industrial group. In the early 

 mediaeval period the great body of agri- 

 cultural workers were in a state of 

 serfdom ; by the end of that period there 

 had emerged out of the masses important 

 classes of peasant proprietors, substantial 

 tenant farmers, and well-paid free labourers. 

 In the course of time the small proprietors, 

 e.g., the statesmen of Cumberland and 

 Westmoreland, to a great extent dis- 

 appeared, but the tenant farmers have 



