Another Sheaf

his dragoman of the Angel who was moving his head

Angel answered, "to

agoman, doubtfully. "You will

d the Angel, spr

minutes, "are the Chilterns-they will serve; any pa

yes with his hand, stood peering into the distance on every side. "As I thought," he said; "there has b

peaceful spot,"

ght fly sixty miles in any direct

el. They flew a hundre

his is Leicestershire. Note the ro

y," said the Angel.

that we shall have the greatest difficulty in finding any inhabited dwel

"I have come for a d

asked his dragoman; "for I

, and they dropped on to a

el, "we are hungry. Would you g

reless, 'ave yer? Got an observer, I see," he added, jerking his grizzled chin at

outh was already black with bilberr

or the presence of a man in the country." He took the old person by his last button and led

s settled on the land at the conclusion of the Great Skirmish

where the mansions of the great, the thriving farmer, the contented peasant, t

towards the old man, "that is the rural population, and he a cockney ha

el; "is no food grow

ragoman; "not a mustard and cr

ouch with much that is of interest. Give me, I pr

tional Debt of ￡8,000,000,000, a further election was needed. This time, though the word Peace remained, the word Plenty had already vanished; and the Laborious Party, which, having much less to tax, felt that it could tax more freely, found itself in an overwhelming majority. You will be curious to hear, sir, of what elements this Party was composed. Its solid bulk were the returned soldiers, and the other manual workers of the country; but to this main body there was added a rump, of pundits, men of excellent intentions, brains, and principles, such as in old days had been known as Radicals and advanced Liberals. These had joined out of despair, feeling that otherwise their very existence was jeopardised. To this collocation-and to one or two other circumstances, as you will presently see, sir-the doom of the land must be traced. Now, the Laborious Party, apart from its rump, on which it would or could not sit-we shall never know now-had views about the resettlement of the land not far divergent from those held by the Patriotic Party, and they proceeded to put a scheme into operation, which, for perhaps a year, seemed to have a prospect of success. Many returned soldiers were established in favourable localities, and there was even a disposition to place the country on a self-sufficing basis in regard to food. But they had not been in power eighteen months when their rump-which, as I have told you, contained nearly all their principles-had a severe attack of these. 'Free Trade,'-which, say what you will, follows the line of least resistance and is based on the 'good of trade'-was, they perceived, endangered, and they began to agitate against b

"To me, indeed, it seems that this must h

ou know, is most necessary, and have ever asserted that they were fostering it to the utmost. But they forgot to remember that our circumstances, traditions, education, and vested interests so favoured town life and the 'good of trade' that it required a real and unparliamentary effort not to take that line of least resistance. In fact, we have here a very good example of wha

ou refer?" as

the towns. To this I shall introduce y

ot a town?" asked t

re pleasure village. To which real

a good dinner." So-saying, he paid the rural