r and away they troop. So I think that some
part of the distaste for farming visible about us is due to change
of sentiment--to feeling repelled--as well as to unfruitful years.
Men have stood out against weary weather in all ages of agriculture,
but lately they have felt hurt and repelled, the sentiment of
attachment to home has been rudely torn up, and so now the current
sets against farming, though farms are often offered on advantageous
terms. In the same way, besides the stubborn facts that drive the
labourer from the village and prevent his return to settle, there is
a yet more stubborn sentiment repelling him. Made a man of by
education--not only of books, but the unconscious education of
progressive times--the labourer and his son and daughter have
thoughts of independence. To be humbly subservient to the will of
those above them, to be docilely obedient, not only to the employer,
but to all in some sort of authority, is not attractive to them.
Plainly put, the rule of parson and squire, tenant and guardian, is
repellent to them in these days. They would rather go away. If they
do save money in cities, they do not care to return and settle under
the thumb of these their old masters. Besides more attractive facts,
the sentiment of independence must be called into existence before
the labourer, or, for the matter of that, the small farmer's son,
will willingly settle in the village. That sense of independence can
only arise when the village governs itself by its own council,
irrespective of parson, squire, tenant, or guardian. Towards that
end the power to vote is almost certain to drift slowly.

Nothing can be conceived more harshly antagonistic to the feelings
of a naturally industrious race of men than the knowledge that as a
mass they are looked upon as prospective 'paupers.' I detest this
word so much that it is painful to me to write it; I put it between
inverted commas as a sort of protest, so that it may appear a hated
intruder, and not native to the text. The local government existing
at this day in country districts is practically based upon the
assumption that every labouring man will one day be a 'pauper,' will
one day come to the workhouse. By the workhouse and its board the
cottage is governed; the workhouse is the centre, the bureau, the
_hotel de ville_. The venue of local government must be changed
before the labourer can feel independent, and it will be changed
doubtless as he becomes conscious