things he would like to do--the drains he
would like to lay down, the manure he would like to spread abroad,
the new stalls he would gladly build, the machine he so much
wants--and then, shrugging his shoulders, reflect that he has not
got the capital to do it with. Almost to a man they are sincerely
desirous of progress; those who cannot follow in great things do in
little. Science and invention have done almost all that they can be
expected to do; chemistry and research have supplied powerful
fertilizers. Machinery has been made to do work which at first sight
seems incapable of being carried on by wheels and cranks. Science
and invention may rest awhile: what is wanted is the universal
application of their improvements by the aid of more capital. We
want the great garden equally highly cultivated everywhere.

VILLAGE ORGANIZATION

The great centres of population have almost entirely occupied the
attention of our legislators of late years, and even those measures
which affect the rural districts, or which may be extended to affect
them at the will of the residents, have had their origin in the wish
to provide for large towns. The Education Act arose out of a natural
desire to place the means of learning within the reach of the dense
population of such centres as London, Birmingham, Manchester, and
others of that class; and although its operation extends to the
whole country, yet those who have had any experience of its method
of working in agricultural parishes will recognize at once that its
designers did not contemplate the conditions of rural life when they
were framing their Bill. What is reasonable enough when applied to
cities is often extremely inconvenient when applied to villages. It
would almost seem as if the framers of the Bill left out of sight
the circumstances which obtain in agricultural districts. It was
obviously drawn up with a view to cities and towns, where an
organization exists which can be called in to assist the new
institution. This indifference of the Bill to the conditions of
country life is one of the reasons why it is so reluctantly complied
with. The number of School Boards which have been called into
existence in the country is extremely small, and even where they do
exist they cannot be taken as representing a real outcome of opinion
on the part of the inhabitants. They owe their establishment to
certain causes which, in process of time, bring the parish under the
operation