THE UPSTANDING CROP. 45 



the trade union movement of the towns, which was then 

 becoming a force. He mentioned with approval in his 

 autobiography that 



" Some of these gentlemen who had the good of the cause at 

 heart warned me against having anything to do with professional 

 agitators ; Mr. Bromley Davenport, M.P., was one of those who 

 cautioned us, and there were others who said, ' Arch, don't let 

 this movement be complicated by trade union interference.' I 

 had made up my mind to keep clear of them all." 



It was curious that he did not seem to realise that he 

 himself had become a professional agitator. 



Farmers locked-out union men in many counties, but 

 being unorganised they failed to defeat the men in 

 1872. Migration and emigration went on apace. Emigra- 

 tion officers scoured the countryside, and so active did 

 they become that Joseph Arch in 1873 was invited to 

 Canada to satisfy himself as to the better conditions of 

 life in that freer country and to arrange for the settlement 

 of thousands of labourers. 



Arch tells us that he opposed emigration in the first 

 instance ; but it was only human to give way, seeing that his 

 fellow-workers had a chance to breathe a freer atmosphere 

 in a new country where they were able to till their own land. 

 When he gave evidence before the Royal Commission on 

 Agriculture in 1881 he estimated the number of persons, 

 men, women, and children, who had so far emigrated at 

 the instance of the unions at 700,000. There is no doubt 

 that the action of the British public, combined with that 

 of the Colonial Governments, broke down the stubborn oppo- 

 sition of farmers, and the unions succeeded in raising wages 

 by is. 6d. or 2s. a week and in some cases 35. or 45. 



Although the agricultural unions won in 1872 they were 

 to suffer a defeat in 1874 from which they really never 

 recovered. Migration and emigration was an expensive 

 business, depleting the funds of the National Union alone 

 in the financial year of 1874-5 of 5,997. 



The rule appears to have been to give every emigrant 

 i and every migrant los. Canada, New Zealand, and 

 Australia gained at the expense of English agriculture. 



