ioo ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



green where a fish hawker named Furness assumed the 

 leadership. 



Furness, who was a dissenter of a pronounced type, said 

 to the crowd : " Now look here. Let's have a touch of 

 the Salvation Army about this," and taking the big drum 

 and placing it on the ground he threw a shilling on to it. 

 " Let us collect enough money to send these men back to 

 their homes in Yarmouth," he said. Sufficient money for 

 this purpose was subscribed and it was decided to march 

 the men into Norwich railway station next morning, and 

 during the night the men were locked up in a cottage and a 

 guard stationed round it. 



Early the next morning, at the call of the bugle and the 

 beat of the drum, with cheers from the villagers, the men 

 were marched into Norwich, and from that station they 

 were returned to the bosoms of their families and never 

 reappeared. 



But the farmers had their revenge on the fish hawker. 

 They displayed no animus against the farm labourers, for 

 probably the incident was talked over at many a bar par- 

 lour with a gust of grim laughter in admiration of the auda- 

 city of the labourers. But the fish hawker was not a farm 

 labourer. What business was it of his ? Besides, he was 

 a ranter, and a ranter was disliked almost as much in those 

 days as a trade union agitator ; so he was summoned and 

 put out of harm's way for four months at the expense of 

 the taxpayers of the country. 



A subscription was immediately raised in Norwich, and 

 when the fish hawker had served his four months (becoming 

 no doubt in that period a more convinced rebel than ever,) 

 his exit from the prison gates was made with musical hon- 

 ours and a presentation of a purse of 80. His return to 

 St. Faith's was triumphal. 



In the Annual Report of the Eastern Counties Federation 

 for 1892 occurs the following passage : 



" The present distressed condition of many farmers is brought 

 about by their own conduct towards their agricultural labourers, 

 and the sooner they alter their course of action and treat their 

 working-men as human beings, and as Christians, instead of 



