THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 151 



moderate views, and he secured considerable support 

 from men of all classes. 



The movement with which Arch's name is associated 

 started on the 7th of February, 1872, at a meeting at 

 Wellesbourne in Warwickshire. The word ' had been 

 passed round,' says Arch, and some two thousand men 

 had collected round an old chestnut-tree. Arch, standing 

 on an old ' pig stool,' addressed the men. The outcome 

 of this meeting was the spread of Trade Unionism 

 throughout rural England and the formation of a 

 Federation the National Agricultural Labourers' Union 

 which at one time represented at least 80 thousand 

 men. The Union demanded a wage of i6s. a week 

 for labourers, is. a week more than had been asked 

 for and very generally promised in 1830. A wide- 

 spread agitation was conducted throughout England. 

 Month after month and year after year Arch and his 

 associates held their meetings throughout the counties, 

 encouraging the men of the scattered villages to 

 stand together for their common cause. They en- 

 countered bitter hostility amongst a large section of 

 the landed gentry, the clergy and the farmers, the last 

 of whom formed counter-organizations to resist the 

 labourers' demands. But still they went steadily on. 

 Strikes and lock-outs were common features of the 

 movement, and the Union also emigrated many thou- 

 sands of labourers to the colonies, and transferred 

 others from one part of the country to another. 

 Although the Labourers' Union secured no dramatic 

 successes, there was, as the result of its work, a 

 general rise in wages amounting to is. to 43. a 

 week. The movement lost much of its strength 

 after the agricultural catastrophe that occurred about 

 1879. 



