And on Sundays they go to church in the morning to get a quiet nod. Perhaps it is to them that the Apostle alludes when he says--“And your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” For the only chance of their worship seems to be in their dreams--the daily exposure to the air on the six days making them as drowsy as bats on the seventh. In the afternoon they lean over gates, or play at quoits:--and there is the life of a farmer man-servant, till he is metamorphosed into a labourer by marrying and setting up his cottage, finding himself, and receiving weekly instead of yearly wages. Such is the farm-servant, whether you see him in his white, his blue, his tawny, or his olive-green smock-frock, in his straw-hat, or his wide-awake, according to the prevailing fashion of different parts of the country--and truly, seeing him and his fellows, we may ask with Wordsworth-- What kindly warmth from touch of fostering hand, What penetrating power of sun or breeze Shall e’er dissolve the crust wherein his soul Sleeps, like a caterpillar sheathed in ice? This torpor is no pitiable work Of modern ingenuity; no town Or crowded city may be taxed with aught Of sottish vice, or desperate breach of law, To which in after years he may be roused. This boy the fields produce:--his spade and hoe-- The carter’s whip that on his shoulder rests, In air high-towering with a boorish pomp, The sceptre of his sway: his country’s name, Her equal rights, her churches and her schools-- What have they done for him? And, let me ask, For tens of thousands, uninformed as he?[3] [3] Who would believe it, that such is the profound ignorance amongst the peasantry even of the Cumberland hills--amongst that peasantry where Wordsworth himself has found his Michaels, his Matthews, and many another man and woman that in his hands have become classical and enduring specimens of rustic heart and mind, that such facts as the following could occur, and yet this did occur there not very long ago. The “statesmen,” that is, small proprietors there, are a people very little susceptible of religious excitement; and, we may believe, have, in past years, been very much neglected by their natural instructors. You hear of no “revivals” amongst them, and the Methodists have little success amongst them. Some person, speaking with the wife of one of these “statesmen” on religious subjects, found that she had not even heard of such a person as Jesus Christ! Astonished at the discovery, he began to tell her of his history; of his coming to save the world, and of his being put to death. Having listened to all this very attentively, she inquired where this occured; and that being answered, she asked, “and when was it?” this being also told her, she very gravely observed--“Well, its sae far off, and sae lang since, we’ll fain believe that it isna true!” CHAPTER IV. THE BONDAGE SYSTEM OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND.