CHAPTER XII 

 PEASANT REVOLTS {continued) 



A REVIEW of the *' rebellions " of the English peas- 

 antry would be incomplete without some reference 

 to the movement of the labourers led by Joseph 

 Arch in the seventies of last century. This uprising 

 was not, like previous outbreaks, a struggle for the 

 retention of rights in the land, because the divorce of 

 the peasantry from the soil had been completed some 

 years before. It was nevertheless a revolt — a revolt 

 of that which is a portent for any nation — a landless 

 peasantry — against conditions of life that had become 

 unbearable. 



The year 1872 must be looked upon as an epoch in 

 the history of the agricultural labourer. The nation 

 as a whole had been rapidly increasing in wealth, but 

 the condition of the labourer had been steadily on the 

 down grade.^ The attention of influential men be- 

 came more and more fixed on this blot on our social 

 life. The continental Press, now and again, com- 

 mented with much sarcasm on the shocking condition 

 of the rural population in " the richest country of 

 Europe," and compared it with the different state of 

 things which existed in most of the continental States. 



The town workmen, by Trade Unions and other 

 combinations, had secured better things for themselves. 

 The severe penal laws against such combinations were 

 partially repealed in 1824, and Trade Unions became 

 legally recognized in 1871. The changes in the rela- 



^ The alleged betterment of the condition of the agricultural labourer 

 by the fiscal policy adopted in 1846 will be dealt with later on. 



164 



