THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT. 123 



the Labourers' Unions had almost ceased to exist, and the 

 labourer had nothing at his back and nobody to stand by 

 him, if farmers chose to serve him with a notice to quit his 

 cottage or to leave his employment. 



In the first year, in the full flush of testing the value 

 of the new power put into their hands, many farm workers 

 did seek to capture the Parish Councils and some of them 

 succeeded. We learn from the Daily Chronicle, March 9, 

 1895, that in the village of Alderminster, Warwickshire, 



" a Union labourer has received notice to quit his cottage in 

 March. No reason is given for noticing the labourer to leave, 

 and the only reason that can be imagined is that the labourer is 

 secretary of the branch of the Union, and that he not only stood 

 as a candidate for the Parish Council, but being defeated by the 

 show of hands insisted, in spite of the squire, who is sole land- 

 owner, and the vicar, in demanding a poll . . . the labourer has 

 been a householder under the squire for upwards of twenty years 

 and in a month's time, in the ordinary course, he will be driven 

 like an outlaw from his native parish, apparently for no other 

 reason than exercising the rights of citizenship." 



It is interesting to note that in another Warwickshire 

 village, Barford, where Joseph Arch lived, though he appar- 

 ently now took no active part in the life of the place, the 

 secretary of the Warwickshire Labourers' Union succeeded 

 in being elected as a member of the Parish Council. 



It is very difficult to collect much evidence of the Parish 

 Councils where labourers were successful in capturing seats. 

 In Warwickshire, however, where the Warwickshire Agri- 

 cultural Labourers' Union was still in existence the labourers 

 managed to give a good account of themselves. One 

 Parish Council, that of Tysoe, took the Glebe Farm in 

 1895, and let it as small holdings. 



In the twenty-four parishes with branches of the Union 

 where Parish Councils had been established, 91 labourers 

 were returned out of a total of 140 councillors elected. 

 Of the 91 labourers' candidates elected, 54 were farm 

 workers, the rest being artisans or tradesmen adopted and 

 run by the local branches of the Union. 



In three parishes in South Warwickshire, Whichford, 

 Ilmington, and Stretton-on- Fosse, where there were branches 



