THE FINAL PHASE 159 



interfere to increase the number of allotments and small 

 holdings, and thus reconstruct the old system under 

 which every countryman who needed it should have a 

 plot of land. This turmoil of talk had some effect. 

 Parliament had already in 1875 legislated on the 

 question of compensation for improvements, and more 

 effective statutes were subsequently passed. 1 The ques- 

 tion of increasing the number of small holdings was 

 also brought before Parliament in 1885, to be shelved 

 for over twenty years, during which time the landlords 

 and farmers continued, as they had done in the past, 

 to incorporate small plots into the larger farms. 



The position of settled estates was also considered, 

 and legislation was carried which made it comparatively 

 easy for such property to be sold. 2 Parliament also 

 gave to agricultural tenants the right to kill the ground 

 game,3 relieved them of one half the rates on their 

 land,4 and placed the responsibility for the payment 

 of tithe on their landlords.4 



The labourers' organizations had been greatly weakened 



by the agricultural catastrophe. Thereupon the leaders, 



seeing no chance of increase of wages, 



The labourers p ut t h e j r j^t energy into a demand for 

 trade unions, allotments and also joined in an agitation 

 for the extension of the Parliamentary 

 suffrage to labourers. It was in part the result of this 

 agitation that the franchise was extended in 18845 to 

 householders in the counties. In the following year 

 Arch was returned to Parliament for a division of 

 Norfolk. The Union, though much weakened, continued 

 for many years; its successor, founded in 1906, exists 



1 See Appendix, p. 175. 2 Ibid. p. 176. 



3 Ibid. p. 172. 4 Ibid. p. 176. 5 Ibid. p. 167. 



