uncomfortable, with blue scarves over the shoulder, headed with a
blatant brass band, and going first to church, and then all round
the place for beer? They eat their dinner and disperse, and then
there is an end of the matter. There is no social bond of union, no
connection.

It is questionable whether this desultoriness is a matter for
congratulation. It fosters an idle, slow, clumsy, heedless race of
men--men who are but great children, who have no public feeling
whatever--without a leading idea. This fact was most patently
exhibited at the last General Election, when the agricultural
labourers for the first time exercised the franchise freely to any
extent. The great majority of them voted plump for the candidate
favoured by the squire or by the farmer. There was nothing
unreasonable in this; it is natural and fit that men should support
the candidate who comes nearest to their interest; but, then, let
there be some better reason for it than the simple fact 'that master
goes that way.' Whether it be for Liberal or Conservative, whatever
be the party, surely it is desirable that the labourer should
possess a leading idea, an independent conviction of what is for the
public good. Let it be a mistaken conviction, it is better than an
absence of all feeling; but politics are no part of the question.
Politics apart, the villager might surely have some conception of
what is best for his own native place, the parish in which he was
born and bred, and with every field in which he is familiar. But no,
nothing of the kind. He goes to and fro his work, receives his
wages, spends them at the ale-house, and wanders listlessly about.
The very conception of a public feeling never occurs to him; it is
all desultory. A little desultory work--except in harvest,
labourer's work cannot be called downright _work_--a little
desultory talk, a little desultory rambling about, a good deal of
desultory drinking: these are the sum and total of it; no, add a
little desultory smoking and purposeless mischief to make it
complete. Why should not the labourer be made to feel an interest in
the welfare, the prosperity, and progress of his own village? Why
should he not be supplied with a motive for united action? All
experience teaches that united action, even on small matters, has a
tendency to enlarge the minds and the whole powers of those engaged.
The labourer feels so little interest in his own progress, because
the matter is only brought be