174 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



and was living on an annuity purchased by Lord Tweed- 

 mouth, Mr. Tom Ellis, and other influential Liberals. 



Arch, with old-fashioned peasant hospitality, immediately 

 called to the kitchen for a bottle of beer and set his tobacco 

 jar upon the table, and I should like to record here some of 

 the answers made by Arch to the questions put to him by 

 Mr. Higdon. 



" Do you take any part in politics, locally, Mr. Arch ? " 

 " Me ? No ; I'm too old for that now. Besides, Parish 

 Councils cannot do much neither good nor harm. I have done 

 a little for the village in my time. I can remember when the 

 people in this village had no idea of freedom or liberty. I have 

 taught the villages something of freedom. But my work is all 

 done now, sir. My work is all done," he repeated sadly. 



It must have been with a gleam of triumph that the 

 veteran agitator compared the wages received by farm 

 workers in 1909 with the wages he managed to get for them 

 in the 'seventies. 



" What is this new Labourers' Union they have there now ? " 

 he asked suddenly. 



" You have heard about it, then ? " 



" A little ; not much," he said rather sarcastically. 



" I think its objects are similar to those of your own Union 

 better conditions and wages. It also takes up the matter of smal 

 holdings.' 



" What are the wages in Norfolk now ? " he next enquired. 



" About I2s. or 133. a week," was the reply. 



" Is that all ? Why," he exclaimed, " I got them up to 155., 

 i6s., and 173. a week. They got it in Norfolk, they got it all 

 down about here. They got it everywhere." 



" The new Union has not done that yet," I said. 



" Ah, we did then in our Union," he said, with evident 

 satisfaction at the remembrance of the accomplishment. 



" Could those wages have been kept up, Mr. Arch ? " I asked. 



" Kept up ? Yes. Why weren't they kept up ? Because 

 the Union went down and the wages went down with it. The 

 Union was wrecked. They broke up their Union and left me 

 without a penny." 



" You could do no more for them, then ? " 



" No ; of course I could not. I stood by them to the last. I 

 could do no more. If they had kept up their Union they would 

 have been in a very different position to-day." 



" You sympathise with the labourers still ? " 



