They have their faults and follies still--for when will young blood be other than hot blood?
But when one finds, more and more, swearing banished from the hunting-field, foul songs from the universities, drunkenness and gambling from the barracks; when one finds everywhere, whether at college, in camp, or by the cover-side, more and more, young men desirous to learn their duty as Englishmen, and if possible to do it; when one hears their altered tone toward the middle classes, and that word 'snob' (thanks very much to Mr. Thackeray) used by them in its true sense, without regard of rank; when one watches, as at Aldershott, the care and kindness of officers toward their men; and over and above all this, when one finds in every profession (in that of the soldier as much as any) young men who are not only 'in the world,' but (in religious phraseology) 'of the world,' living God-fearing, virtuous, and useful lives, as Christian men should: then indeed one looks forward with hope and confidence to the day when these men shall settle down in life, and become, as holders of the land, the leaders of agricultural progress, and the guides and guardians of the labouring man.
I am bound to speak of the farmer, as I know him in the South of England.

In the North he is a man of altogether higher education and breeding: but he is, even in the South, a much better man than it is the fashion to believe him.

No doubt, he has given heavy cause of complaint.

He was demoralised, as surely, if not as deeply, as his own labourers, by the old Poor Law.

He was bewildered--to use the mildest term--by promises of Protection from men who knew better.