The English Gentry.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 859, 17 August 1888, Page 5

The English Gentry.

THEIR SOCIAL PRIVATIONS AMD HARDSHIPS. When ‘ landlordism ’ is talked about in England, do those who abuse it know’ any. thing of the real truth ? Do they know of the social privations, and even hardships, which all over England, have accompanied the reduction of rent and the remission of arrears? They have still, it seems, to learn how largely the peaceable and uncomplaining attitude of the English farmers under their almost unparalleled misfortunes is due to the present consideration and sympathy of their landlords, and the influence of old associations handed down from generation to generation. And shall nob the men who, in an age of revolution and lawlessness, contribute so largely to the maintenance of a better class of feeling among the people, be rightly styled public benefactors 1 And wliat Bhall we say to those who, either from a desire to curry favour with the mob, as the shortest road to political success, or, what is even worse, from social jealousy, vilify, deride and calumniate the English cauntry gentleman from year's end to year’s end, though he is all the tune engaged in fulfilling borne of the highest duties cf a citizen, and iu preserving those moral relations between the higher and the lower orders without which no society can long prosper, and which really lies at the foundation of all national happiness ?—From the English Gentry, in Blackwood's Magazine.