Social Transformations of the Victorian Age: A Survey of Court and CountryEscott, T. H. S. (Thomas Hay Sweet)
History
Social Transformations of the Victorian Age: A Survey of Court and Country
Escott, T. H. S. (Thomas Hay Sweet)
Great Britain -- Civilization -- 19th century; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
is decided in the affirmative, and the allotment or village green
extension, as the case may be, is carried, a measure of expropriation may
follow, should the County Council, as superior body, sanction the scheme,
and should the Local Government Board, after hearing the case of the
dissidents, confirm the parochial proposals. As a check to parochial
extravagance, the money to be advanced by the central authority is not to
exceed one-half the value of the local rates. Inheriting the power of the
vestries which they displaced, the bodies now mentioned have in their
hands the appointment of overseers of the poor. 'One man, one vote'[25] is
the universal principle. The employers of labour, that is the farmers, are
consequently liable to be placed in the minority by their servants. Hence
proceeded the assertion that the signal withdrawal of the farmers from the
Liberal party, as being morally responsible for the measure, largely
brought about the crushing defeat of the Gladstonians at the general
election of 1895. If the farmers were animated by any such resentment
towards the party which they identified with the real authorship of the
Act, the feeling has already to a great extent passed away. What remains
of it will no doubt evaporate as eventually sentimental grievances of this
kind seldom fail in England to do. Impartial evidence, gathered at first
hand, does indeed show that the increased mutual knowledge generated
between farmers and their hands in the parish meeting room has resulted in
an actual improvement of the relations between the two classes. All the
national processes which legislative change sets in motion have worked
slowly in England. It was not till the third or fourth appeal to the
constituencies under Household Franchise was made that the permanent
results of the peaceful revolution in 1868 could be computed with even
approximate accuracy. The final consequences of the extension of the
franchise to counties by the Liberals in 1884 have not yet declared
themselves. It would, therefore, be premature as yet to make any definite
deductions, social or political, as to the working of a system which has
been operative only since 1894.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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