PEASANT REVOLTS 171 



movement altogether, but a large number of them 

 showed a bitter hostility to it.^ 



The Union was carried on vigorously for some 

 years, but the difficulties in the way of forming a 

 permanent combination among agricultural labourers 

 were very great, and proved to be insuperable. It 

 was not like dealing with men working together in 

 large numbers, in mines, factories, and other industries, 

 who could continually meet together and discuss 

 matters, and so become united in purpose and action. 



The rural labourers were so sparsely scattered in 

 villages, hamlets, roadsides, and on single farms, that 

 occasions of meeting in numbers were few ; the com- 

 mon help and spur which numbers give were wanting, 

 and the strength which fellowship begets was therefore 

 lacking among- them. 



Besides these difficulties there were the continued 

 and determined efforts of their masters to stamp out 

 the Union by every means that could be adopted. 

 These efforts had, to a very large extent, the desired 

 effect when directed against men who for so long 

 a time had been in a servile condition, and who as a 

 class had hitherto been in a state of hopeless submis- 

 sion to their lot. So, after some years' existence, the 

 National Labourers' Union died out. 



But the Union — like earlier uprisings — though de- 

 feated, was by no means a failure or fruitless of results. 

 During the years of its existence the labourer learnt to 



1 There were some worthy exceptions. Promhient among them was 

 the late Canon Girdlestone, who for years had taken great interest in the 

 men. The present writer had much correspondence with this good man 

 touching plans for helping the labourers. " My heart aches," he wrote, 

 " when 1 think of their condition." The late Cardinal Manning (then 

 Archbishop) heartily sided with the men, and appeared on their plat- 

 forms. 



