THE SONS OF TOIL. 155 



of paper, but a tangible fact which was embodied in actual 

 cash. 



It is not surprising that the agricultural labourer should 

 be mistrustful of the powers that be. He may not be well- 

 read in history, but he has, deeply rooted in his mind, 

 traditions handed down from one generation to another 

 which are infinitely more powerful in their effects than 

 written books. The enclosure of commons regarded from 

 the point of view of those who were dispossessed of 

 immemorial privileges to enrich landlords and farmers ; the 

 iniquities of the old Poor Law, under which the working 

 man was treated on the same principle as a horse, to be 

 allowed just enough to enable him to live and work ; the 

 cruel suppression, by the straining of a harsh law, of his early 

 attempts at combination to improve his position ; the 

 equally brutal exercise of their superior economic strength 

 by farmers to crush the movement started by Arch these 

 are the facts, coloured and distorted by those who were the 

 sufferers, which make up history as known to the rural 

 worker. If the more intelligent agricultural labourer, 

 doubtful of traditional history, turned to the books, he found 

 as a rule his worst impressions confirmed by historians, who 

 in too many cases allow their indignation to overpower their 

 impartiality. It is impressed on him not only that his 

 forebears were vilely treated, but that they were specially 

 singled out for bad treatment. Evils which were universal 

 are described as if they were peculiar to the country-side; 

 landowners and farmers, who acted in fact no worse, and 

 frequently better, than their contemporaries in trade or 

 industry, are held up to obloquy as sinners above their 

 fellows ; designs, such as the famous Speenhamland 

 system, honestly, though fatuously, well-intended, are 

 branded as instruments of deliberate oppression ; all the 

 sociological and economic nostrums with which the nation 

 at large was afflicted are described as if they were ingeniously 

 devised in a spirit of hostility to the rural worker. No 

 wonder if thus instructed the agricultural labourer cherishes 

 his age-long grievances and cultivates a bitter distrust of 

 authority. 



