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Observer, Volume 2, Issue 36, 21 May 1881, Page 388

In the 19th century the yeomanry and peasantry have practically ceased to exist. They held the suffrage by virtue of the land they owned and with the sale of the land they ceased to exercise political power. The tenant farmers are at the mercy of their landlords and seldom hold a lease for more than year to year. The great mass of the people have ceased to hope ever to become possessors of land beyond that which they will occupy in a pauper's grave. Formerly the land was covered with cottage homes from which went forth multitudes to earn their daily bread — homes to which they could retreat and where they could find, among their own kin, support and comfort during sickness or temporary distress. Now they have only the permission to occupy, at the owner's Avill, a hired cottage during youth and health, with the workhouse to retreat to in times- of need. ' ' Thus, " to use the words of an eloquent writer, "a soil eminently adapted by natural gifts to sustain a numerous and nourishing rural population of every grade, has almost the thinnest and absolutely the most joyless peasantry in the civilised world. Its chief end, as regards human beings, seems only to be a nursery for over population and misery in great cities."