296 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



wandering, in spite of this, because there is no fixity of 

 tenure. ' You cannot have a fixed population unless it 

 has a home, and the labouring population is practically 

 homeless. As to the allotments, cottagers do not think it 

 a favour to be allowed to rent land at three times what the 

 farmer pays for it.'* Why, he asks, cannot landowners 

 let cottages direct, and give the labourers security so long 

 as rent is paid ? Better still, let them give facihties for 

 the gradual purchase of the freehold by the labourers. 

 They ' deserve ' settled homes. ' Deserve '! The word 

 is revolutionary, and that Jefferies should soberly point 

 out what a class of men deserves, as if that were some 

 reason for giving it, marks an interesting change from the 

 year of his letters to the Tunes ; it marks the intrusion 

 of his ideals into practical matters. Writing as a practical 

 man, he says that the labourers deserve settled homes. 



The labour question, he sees, is everywhere. Books 

 and papers are ' carefully flavoured to suit the masses 

 who work. ... Is it religion ? The pickaxe is already 

 laid to the foundation of the church tower.' Though the 

 son of a farmer who hated the ranters, he is delighted 

 with the chapel where the labourer is not despised. 

 ' Was it,' he asks, ' merely a coincidence that the clerical 

 eye was opened just at the moment when Hodge became 

 a voter P'f Money is more and more ; in the posthumous 

 ' Thoughts on the Labour Question '% he pictures men 

 working hard in great heat or amid great risks, all for 

 the golden sovereign. ' Throw a golden sovereign upon 

 the mahogany table and listen. The circular disc of 

 heavy metal rebounds and rings clear as a bell — as a 

 bell calling slaves to obey the hest of its owner.' * It 

 is,' he writes, ' a great game of roulette, this world of 

 ours — a huge gambling establishment. You who are so 

 bitter against Capital, how dearly you would like to be 

 a Capitalist ! Then, for Heaven's sake, let us all have a 



* ' Idle Earth,' in Long-man's, 1894. 



f ' The Country Sunday,' Field and Hedgerow. 



X Pall Mall Gazette, November 10, 1891. 



