PEASANT REVOLTS 165 



tionship between employers and employed caused by 

 the increase of machinery, and the development of the 

 factory system were such as to make these combina- 

 tions absolutely necessary to enable the workman to 

 protect himself from the increasing power of the large 

 capitalist. These unions, on the whole, have worked 

 well, and, in spite of some abuses which may exist in 

 connection with them, they have proved beneficial, 

 both to employers and employed.^ 



The spirit of combination had been quietly spread- 

 ing, even among the rural labourers. Their eyes were 

 becoming open to the power of union as a means for 

 bargaining with employers in a manner individuals 

 could not do, and of bettering their lot generally. A 

 man was necessary to voice the new feeling and to 

 lead it, as a man is always necessary to concentrate 

 the forces of any social or political movement. In 

 1872 the man appeared. At an open-air meeting held 

 under a chestnut-tree at Wellesbourne, a village in 

 Warwickshire, Joseph Arch began a movement which 

 was destined to become far-reaching and to have a 

 permanent effect on the character of English labourers. 



Arch himself was a fine representative of the English 

 peasant. Honest, energetic, of good character, and 

 with a great gift of rude oratory that always swayed 

 his audience, he entered into the struggle with the 

 single aim of bettering the condition of his fellow- 

 labourers, whose sufferings he knew so well. He had 

 passed through the bitter experience himself and had 

 discharged special family obligations with a courage 



^ A well-written statement on the subject of Trade Unions is to be 

 found in " Conflicts of Capital and Labour," by George Howell. For a 

 more complete account of trade combination, see " History of Trade 

 Unionism," by Sidney and Beatrice Webb, and " Problems of Modern 

 Industry," by the same authors (Longmans, 1902). 

 G 



