dfathers were half independent of employers.

In theory, no doubt the advantage ought to be with the present times.
Under the new system a far larger population is able to live in the
parish than could possibly have been supported here under the old; for
now, in place of the scanty products of the little valley and the
heaths, the stores of the whole world may be drawn upon by the
inhabitants in return for the wages they earn. Only there is the awkward
condition that they must earn wages. Those limitless stores cannot be
approached by the labourer until he is invited--until there is "a
demand" for his labour. Property owners, or capitalists, standing
between him and the world's capital, are able to pick and choose between
him and his neighbours as the common never did, and to decide which of
them shall work and have some of the supplies.

And as a consequence of this picking and choosing, competition amongst
the labourers seeking to be employed has become the accepted condition
of getting a living in the village, and it is to a great extent a new
condition. Previously there was little room for anything of the kind.
The old thrift lent itself to co-operation rather. I admit that I have
never heard of any system being brought into the activities of this
valley, such as I witnessed lately in another part of England, where the
small farmers, supplying an external market, and having no hired labour,
were helping one another to get their corn harvested, all being
solicitous for their neighbours' welfare, and giving, not selling, their
labour. Here the conditions hardly required such wholesale co-operation
as that; but in lesser matters both kindliness and economy would counsel
the people to be mutually helpful, and there is no reason to doubt that
the counsel was taken. Those who had donkey-carts would willingly bring
home turfs for those who had none, in return for help with their own
turf-cutting. The bread-ovens, I know, were at the disposal of others
besides the owners. At pig-killing, at thatching, at clearing out wells
(where, in fact, I have seen the thing going on), the people would put
themselves at one another's service. They still do so in cases where
there is no question of earning money for a living. And if the spirit of
friendly co-operation is alive now, when it can so rarely be put in
practice, one may readily suppose that it was fairly vigorous fifty
years ago.

But no spirit of co-operation may now prompt