194 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



stalls were again thwacked, and the claque cheered at his 

 coruscations. It had its effect. " You see," wrote one of 

 the critics in the Stage Box who signed himself P.W.W., and 

 who kindly explained all Government plays to the readers of 

 the Daily News, " abundant evidence is already available 

 to justify the following forecast : 



" The statutory establishment of a minimum wage of at 

 least 1 a week for agricultural labourers. 



" Every labourer who requires a cottage shall have one 

 (with a plot of land) independent of farmer or landlord." 



Then followed the usual epilogue. Five days later, in 

 reply to a question by Mr. Charles Bathurst, who asked if the 

 performance at the National Liberal Club represented the 

 policy of the Government, the Prime Minister answered with 

 some asperity that " Mr. Lloyd George did not formulate 

 any proposals and that any statements which have since 

 appeared in the Press professing to represent the policy of the 

 Government are pure efforts of imagination." 



And the subtle Harlequin himself, when questioned, had 

 to admit with a smile that he had only been having a fling 

 on his own, and had propounded no act of statecraft. The 

 meaning of that smile has not been lost. 



The " gods " were brought down but to be buried ! 



The curtain then went up on an entirely new play. The 

 Prologue had already been uttered, and that great army of the 

 dispossessed who toiled long for a mere pittance, housed in 

 hovels, and still denied access to the land, men who " Learned 

 his great language, caught his clear accents," turned 

 away heart-broken to their desolate homes. Their leader, 

 their one valiant David, who was to have broken the " shack- 

 les of feudalism," had deserted them. On March 10 

 their doom was sealed. The King's Speech had been 

 uttered. There was nothing for them. Instead, out of their 

 labour, money was to be raised to develop cotton growing 

 amongst the Soudanese ; while for them, the Labourers of 

 England, there was nothing, not even better wages. 



Country house parties began to assume a more cheerful 

 aspect. The densest of backwoodsmen began to realise that 

 strong words break no bones, nor do they injure incomes. 



