74 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



I was sleeping, informed me that he knew a man who was 

 dismissed and evicted for having the audacity to ask for is. 

 a week more wages. His furniture was thrown out on 

 the roadside, and there it remained in all weathers for a 

 fortnight ; and but for the kindly help of a neighbour, who 

 lent him a wagon cloth, the furniture would have been 

 badly damaged. It was many weeks before he could find 

 fresh employment, and then like an honest beggar driven 

 to desperation he was forced to take even lower wages. 



Arch had experience in his trade union work of the diffi- 

 culty of organising a " close " village, in contradistinction 

 to an " open " one. A close village was one in which all the 

 cottages were practically owned by one man ; though it 

 is only fair to add that if these belonged to a landlord like 

 the Duke of Bedford, or Lord Tollemache,or Earl Spencer, 

 the cottages were generally very much better than those 

 in open villages, where cottages were owned by avaricious 

 small men. 



He gave evidence, though, of the Duke of Bedford prohibit- 

 ing his cottagers keeping a pig, or a dog, or fowls. 



" Do any of you attach any importance," he was asked, " to 

 the argument which is used against labourers keeping pigs on 

 account of its giving them encouragement in pilfering ? " 



" The labourer is as honest as any other class," flashed out 

 Arch. 



" I am not saying that it is not so," answered Lord Vernon, 

 " but do you attach any importance to that argument ? " 



" Not at all ; it is an indefensible slur upon the honesty of my 

 class," replied the sturdy champion of the labourer. 



When asked whether landlords, as a body, had opposed 

 the labourers, he answered : " Taking the majority, they 

 have bitterly opposed us." Then he admitted that Sir 

 Edward Kerrison had not, and that the Duke of Grafton 

 had remained neutral, but that Lord and Lady Stradbroke 

 were " formidable enemies." 



When he stated that the labourers, even with a slight 

 decline in wages were paid two or three shillings more 

 than they were paid before 1872, he was asked if labourers 

 had not suffered less than the landlords and tenants since 

 the depression set in. 



