occurred, making it clear that a new era had begun for the Agricultural Labourer; and this fact may lend an interest to these "Walks and Talks " beyond their intrinsic merit.
After this came the sketches of typical English Peasants here reproduced. William Cobbett, John Clare, and William Huntington are types of the tangled, distorted lives lived by men of genius who come from the lower ranks of English rural life. It is not so much in what these men did, as in what they were unable to do; not so much in the degree of fame to which they individually attained, as in the warping of their lives, in the positive sacrifice of their souls, that the interest lies. In this trilogy each life is a tragedy, and each tragedy is more tragic than the one it follows; and the lives of these men represent those of thousands that have been lived in England. On whom must the blame fall, but on those who have hitherto monopolised power and authority in the rural districts, as well as all the means of higher education?
The articles latest in point of date are those placed at the opening and conclusion of this book. As expressions of the growth of convictions resulting from practical experiences, supplemented by a careful looking up of authorities, those articles are, I venture to think, the more important of the series. With regard to the "English Via Dolorosa: or, Glimpses of the History of the Agricultural Labourer," if any one cares to look at the former Edition, they will find a long list of the sources consulted. Chief among them I must mention Sir Frederick Eden's "History of the State of the Poor." This precious work, now relegated in the Library of the British Museum to an obscure place on the
