of being a Parish Councillor. , The majority can only
elect, It seems to us that a great many people, Tories as well and they have a much more important vote already—the as Radicals, sensible folks as well as faddists, are wander- vote for Parliament—which does not make them any more ing loose in the road of philanthropy in search of an ideal. cheerful. In France and America, the communes and the They dimly perceive the great truth that a big industry township colleens have .much more power than we are is in a bad way ; they would heartily like to make going to give to the parishes, and in both countries the agricultural labourers more comfortable, they are eagerly complaint that those who ought to love the fields greatly looking round for the means, and as it is just now the prefer the streets is as rife as it is here. The labouring fashion to consider the State the universal suckling. folk, in fact, want excitement and chances of rising, and mother, they appeal to Parliament. We have no objec- find both in the crowded towns. There are others, again, tion to raise in theory, for on one point—their object—we including Mr. a Russell, who fancy that the Bill will put heartily agree with them. The agricultural labourers have an end to the despotism of the squire and the parson, and been left a, little behind by civilisation, They are not thus will delight the labourer; but, then, wilt that new sufficiently paid, not sufficiently housed—in a great many freedom amount to much ? Lord Salisbury, at Cardiff, villages, not all—and not sufficiently independent. The answered one part of the question with witty incisive.. object is to remedy all that, as far as may be, and if nese. He disbelieves in the charges. "The squire the benevolent would stick to it, something might be and parson have other things to do than meddle accomplished ; but they will not stick to it. As the with their neighbours' concerns. I have never known American said of his rival's pills, they "keep just fooling a squire who had any extravagant desire to manage around." Now their object is equality, which is not eatable; parish affairs, and still less to manage them in opposi- now the crippling of the squire, which only diminishes tion to the wishes of the parishioners. My limited know- the village surplus ; now some reform iii ecclesiastical ledge of squires leads me to believe that they only wish things, which, except to the imagination, makes no the parishioners to manage their own affairs, and that difference whatever. The labourer will not have his everybody should be in peace and quiet. That passion pound 8, week and his big cottage, or his secure employ, for managing other people's affairs may be a natural even if the squire is worried, and the parson disesta,b- instinct in the Liberal mind, but I can assure them it is lished, and the village in full possession of goose-greens, Tillage meters. But how will this Bill break their power ? Neither squire has ny recreation-grounds, and right of meeting in rooms belong- ing to the parish. We want a dead upheaval of the labourers' condition, and where is it to come from ? As we believe, it can only come from the free sale of land, so that a disgraceful incident like the defeat of Lord Iveagh's effort to buy Savernake shall no loager be possible ; from a great multiplication of small holdings, by which we mean little farms and not peasant-properties ; from sanitary laws executed with unbending rigour ; and, above all, from such a reduction in the village populations that those who want labour must pay high for it. It is scanti- ness of labour, not the return of townsmen to the soil, which makes the wages of Northumberland. so sufficient. We are not, however, in the least wedded to that pro- gramme. Greater experts may have indefinitely better plans. Let UR have any plan, if only it is clear, practicable, and directed to the generally accepted end,—the increase of the villagers' material civilisation. What is the use of talking trash about " serfs' huts," and not enforcing sanitary laws ?—of praising small holdings, and making the sale of land a cause of ruinous lawsuits ? —of bemoaning the low rate of wages, and. seeking to cure it by " attracting " three men to do two men's work ? The land can yield no more than it can, do with it what you will ; and if it cannot feed squire and farmer and labourers in a decent way, let us, if we can honestly, get rid of some of them. But do not let us waste energy and time and money in potter- ing at improvements which do nothing except gratify a preconceived idea that if only villagers can meet and talk together, everything will go right. Who has stopped their meeting on the village-green since the days of Elizabeth, or who limits the talk in the alehouse bar-room? We have not the slightest objection to formulise the meeting and the talk, or to make village decisions executive on village affairs ; but neither of the two reforms will produce the real ones wanted,—namely, more work for fewer people, decent cottages, and for the man who will 'work," as the navvy or the miner understands work, at least seven shillings more a week, to be paid in silver, and not in privileges. Cheap houses are good, and milk is good, and fallen branches are very good, but who is to lay by a five-pound note out of any of those things ? Members of Parliament are working very hard, and most of them out of genuine kindliness for the labourers ; but oh, if Cobbett were only alive to give us his idea of their plans
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