176 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



stood well how to speak to his own class, but he was no adminis- 

 trator, and failed in all matters of management and detail. 

 Like all such men he was intensely egotistical, and when we first 

 came here, he compared his fame with that of Shakespeare ! 



" He was a man of very moderate opinions very conservative 

 in all his views, and strongly opposed to socialism. He was 

 simply out to get justice for his fellow- workmen in the matter of 

 wages and allotments, and this purpose he pursued with sim- 

 plicity, honesty, and enthusiasm. He possessed no political 

 imagination : being simply a Liberal of moderate John Bright 

 views, taken more or less secondhand. And I do not think he 

 even understood the elements of Liberal politics. He was, 

 however, capable of considerable independence in matters within 

 his ken, and would on his own subject obstinately maintain his 

 opinion. The House of Commons was a great trial to him. He 

 could not stand the late hours. 



" I found his opinion in all matters of farming well worth 

 listening to, and in my opinion far from ' making money out of 

 agitation ' I think he would have done better in his calling as a 

 hedge-cutter, at which he was very skilful. 



" He was so ignorant that he actually started a Co-operative 

 Society on his own in this village with no connection with the 

 great co-operative movement. I gather he had never heard of 

 the Rochdale Pioneers. 



" As far as this village was concerned he had no folio whig, and 

 was defeated in a local election very easily. I don't think this 

 is much to go by, as there are many flunkeys and grooms here, 

 and his co-operative failure naturally did not help him. But 

 he was very bitter about the desertion of so many labourers from 

 his Union. The clergy, I think, backed the farmers, with a few 

 exceptions (such as Osbert Mordaunt of Hampton Lucy, and the 

 late Dean of Hereford), but Arch was very abusive and certainly 

 went for them." 



In a Cotswold village there still lives an old farm labourer 

 who will relate how he once carried half a pound of candles on 

 his hat to light " Joseph Arch's fe-ace " whilst he was speak- 

 ing in the open. This same man will also tell you how he 

 was fined before a Bench for poaching and how he vowed 

 as he walked down the Court steps that he would snare a 

 rabbit for every step he descended ! 



In 1910 a faint wind of freedom arose and stirred the dry 

 bones of a shrunken rural democracy. Again it was the 

 men of Norfolk who began a revolt of the fields which though 

 temporarily a failure had a far-reaching effect. 



