24 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER 



scribed to for thirty years, and who, because he had a spite 

 again c . J L the shepherd, refused to pay him the allowance of 

 6s._ la. week due to him by the rules of the club, until forced 

 'to do so by a court of law. 



However, though the villagers of Halberton had bad 

 masters they had a good parson. 



" How is it possible," he asked himself, " on such wretched 

 wages for a man to house, to feed and clothe not only himself 

 but his wife and children ; and to pay, in addition, the doctor and 

 the midwife when their services were required ; to provide 

 shoes, fuel, light, such incidental expenses as school fees, and, in 

 fact, many other items which cannot be enumerated, but which 

 entered nevertheless into the cost of living." 1 



He tried speaking to the farmers privately, but as this 

 proved fruitless he preached a sermon which raised a ter- 

 rible storm in the parish. At the time a cattle plague was 

 raging, and he took for his text, Behold the hand of the Lord 

 is upon thy cattle. He asked the farmers " if they did not 

 think that God had sent the plague as a judgment upon 

 them for the manner in which they treated their labourers, 

 to whom they had been accustomed to give less considera- 

 tion than to their cattle." 



The farmers now became offensive. When the annual 

 tithe dinner took place it was pre-arranged that when the 

 Vicar's health was proposed, the glasses instead of being filled 

 should be reversed empty. After this, the Canon wrote a 

 letter to The Times giving a clear statement of the wages, 

 and of the condition of the agricultural labourer in the north 

 of Devon. 



This started the migration movement. Letters came 

 from all parts of England and Ireland ; some from employ- 

 ers offering better wages and homes ; other containing 

 money put at the Canon's disposal for the cost of migrat- 

 ing families. Then open war was declared against the 

 Canon in his own district, not only by the farmers but also 

 by the squires and clergy. 



At the Easter Vestry in 1867 one indignant farmer told 

 the Canon in language which cannot be printed that he 



1 British Rural Life and Labour, by F. G. Heath. 



