306 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



labourers formed the first Parish Council, and seven labourers 

 have held the citadel ever since ! The farmers fought the 

 first two or three elections and then gave up the contest 

 in despair. But Hitcham is, I think, unique in the history 

 of Parish Councils. 



Now a greater breath of freedom was abroad in the 

 land and it was the Union, and not a Liberal Association, 

 or a Gladstone League, which fought the elections as an 

 organised political body, and some democratic successes 

 were achieved. 



In the parish of Ascot Wing, where six members of the 

 Workers' Union were nominated, all were elected with a 

 big majority. Amongst the defeated candidates was 

 Mrs. Leopold de Rothschild, who, I have been told, owns 

 practically the whole parish. 1 



Another remarkable election took place which throws a 

 flood of light on the moribund condition of many a Parish 

 Council and the quickened political sense of the workers. 

 At the Parish Meeting of Idsworth, Hants, held at the 

 Parish Hall, Rowlands Castle, on March 17, 1919, besides the 

 chairman, vice-chairman and clerk, only one Local Govern- 

 ment elector attended. The clerk explained that no nom- 

 ination papers had been asked for up to the time. The 

 chairman decided to wait until 8.15, but as no other persons 

 turned up, and as none of the old members offered them- 

 selves for re-election, the chairman, after waiting a little' 

 longer, declared the meeting closed and instructed the 

 clerk to report to the Returning Officer at Havant the 

 state of affairs. 



In the meantime, the local branch of the Workers' 

 Union became very active, and a further Parish Meeting was 

 summoned on June 16. There were fifty persons present. 

 Seven nomination papers were handed in this time, all from 

 members of the local Labour Party, and these were unan- 

 imously elected by the fifty persons present. Amongst 

 the Labour candidates were a major and a parson. 



1 " You should have seen the old ones ; they was like anything mesmerised ; 

 it seemed to take them by storm as the saying is, didn't seem to realise 

 it could be true," writes a farm worker to me. 



