n8 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



children, 135. wages, 135. and cottage ; in East Wilts, 

 with six children, 135. 8|d. wages, 135. 6d. Another in 

 East Wilts with seven children, us. 5|d. wages, ics. In 

 Warwickshire, with eight children, 155.' wages 155. In 

 Norfolk, with two children, 12s. 3d. wages, I2S. 6d. 



It is significant that out of four of these six budgets 

 no item appears for meat, and in three no item appears for 

 milk, though there were families of six, seven, and eight 

 children. No item appears in any of the budgets for cloth- 

 ing or boots, and when asked how these were bought, the 

 reply was they " had to do with something less to eat " when 

 purchased. When questioned how they reconciled an 

 expenditure of us. 5^d. with an income of ics., or 135. 8|d. 

 with an income of 135. 6d., the ready reply came that " they 

 had to run into debt until the children commenced to work 

 and started to pay off the debt." 



Of the two " independent men " in most parishes, the 

 parson and the publican, it appears that of the two the 

 publican showed himself the friendlier, though in one or 

 two villages he dared not allow the Van lecturer to hold 

 a meeting on his premises for fear of being turned out by 

 his landlord. Mr. George Edwards gave evidence at a 

 meeting held in London in 1893 that publicans had told 

 him that they had received notice from their landlords to 

 prohibit Union meetings held in public houses. It was 

 natural, then, that the labourers were looking forward to 

 the use of schoolrooms, which they understood would be 

 granted under the promised Parish Councils Act. 



During the wet months of November and December many 

 of the meetings of the League had to be held in chapels, 

 barns, cartsheds, blacksmiths' shops, inns, or cottages. 



The parson was generally regarded as one possessing the 

 same political prejudices as the landowner and farmer. 

 It was as politician rather than priest that he was regarded 

 with hostility. In the words of one report : l 



" There is very little hostility to the parson as clergyman ; 

 but the parson as the nominee of the squire, the friend of the 

 landlord class, the supporter of ' law and order ' on the magis- 



1 Among the Suffolk Labourers. 



