EARLY MANHOOD 89 



which omitted the clergy would not be accuscxl of untruth- 

 fulness.' They do not anyAvhere teach the labourer ' the 

 ennobling and fascinating story of science.' The country 

 gentry go more and more into commerce and manufac- 

 ture ; in London they find many with larger incomes, and 

 in the country the big tenant is almost their equal. Dissent 

 divorced the poor from the Church, and it was the first 

 step to independence. The press influence is growing, 

 expanded by wheelwright, blacksmith, or hedge-car- 

 penter, who ' can think for himself.' He dreads the 

 labourer's power after the county franchise, ' unless in 

 the meantime men of intellect, calm thought, and noble 

 views can somehow obtain a hold upon the people,' and he 

 suggests a ' universal militia . . . without the stem re- 

 straint of conscription.' There is no ' general object ' 

 throughout each county — ' no such thing as organiza- 

 tion.' ' The country grows more republican year by year, 

 and yet at the same time more exclusive.' ' The old social 

 links are gone, and no new ones have sprung up.' There 

 is ' a general desire on the part of ever3^body to be above 

 their business or occupation,' yet ' a marked increase of 

 independence.' 



In ' A Great Agricultural Problem ' he sees the growing 

 importance of foreign imports : we must find out where 

 our cheese, butter, etc., come from, and why they have 

 supplanted home manufactures ; we must not dismiss these 

 matters ' while we rest under the ample shadow of the 

 shorthorn.' He asks whether English farmers of any 

 district have ever combined, as the French have in the 

 cheese-making departments, and obtained a reputation 

 for a particular product in a distant country, while filling 

 their purses at the same time. 



' Hodge and his Masters ' was a belated continuation of 

 these studies. There is still a touch of the provincial 

 journalist in such passages as where he describes the 

 labourer brutalized by the lowest public-house — who, 

 ' if he awakes to the wretched state of his own family at 

 last, instead of remembering that it is his own act, turns 



