TOWN versus COUNTRY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—Permit me to state a fact which confirms Mr. Booth's statement as to the proportion of the increase of the popula- tion of London, which is due to incoming from the country. The winter before I left the East End, I gave a supper to one thousand dockmen, in ten batches of a hundred each. During the evening, I put the questions to each guest.—" Where were you born ?" "What trade have you learnt :" The answers showed that 9 per cent. were country-born, and 7 per cent. had learnt some sort of trade. I must confess that the figures startled me.
London fascinates everybody, especially the East-Ender. I often discovered the hatred which country-born Londoners bad for their native heath. I remember one case, because of the epigrammatic reply of a man who had come up to London, was getting old, and could get little work. "Will you go back into the country if I get you work ?" "No," he said, "I would rather take a single ticket to Bow Cemetery than go into the country."
Now, part of the social problem will have to be solved in the
country. Some little time since, the Bishop of Ripon dropped a very suggestive sentence, "It is time that more attention was given to the country." Few Nonconformists hold so high an opinion as I do of the great work done by the clergy of the Established Church. In saying what I do, there will be no suspicion, I hope, in the mind of any clergyman that I am seeking to write the clergy down. Bat from all that I remember of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire villages, and from all that I have seen of scores of villages since, I cannot but deeply regret that the parsons of all creeds, and the squires of all political parties, have not done more to make the life in the country brighter, broader, and better physically and in- tellectually. I am constantly told by my clerical friends that the country folk are so dull. My experience is that nine people out of ten in London and Manchester are dull in the presence of parsons until they find out that the white tie means that for fun, healthful recreation, friendliness, and manliness, no one can have a chance with the man who wears it. A very grave responsibility rests upon the parsons and the squires for the dulness of country life. They have, in a sense, cared for the politics and the religion of the people; but for the humanities, as I understand them, their care has been less, lacking in inventiveness and practical power. I hope many will see to it, acting on the Bishop's suggestion, that the country is better looked after than hitherto it has generally been.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Cavendish House, Manchester. GEO. S. REANEY.
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