The Liberal Government has not been in power six months,
and already the farmers have obtained two important benefits. Mr. Gladstone's Budget removes their greatest economic griev- ance, which the Tories, though specially their friends, have never ventured to touch ; and the Ground-Game Bill removes, in theory at all events, the most galling caste distinction kept up against them. They may now kill the rabbits out of doors, even though rabbits amuse land- lords, as they may kill the rats inside. Next year they will be raised in the management of their own affairs to the level of greengrocers and workmen in towns. That is to say, they will be permitted to elect councils to tax themselves, and spend their own money on roads, buildings, and police, and even pos- sibly to elect their own officials. These are great changes, so great, that it would not surprise us in 1882 to hear a Chamber of Agriculture describing English farmers as a self-governing class. Hitherto, though the farmers elected the county Mem- bers, the phrase would have been too ludicrous.
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