APPENDICES. ido 



who never liad allotiueuts before,* (Cheers.) We have 

 done more thau that. We have secured for the lioldcrs of 

 allotments protection for their improvements. Again, in 

 the last leAv years we have obtained for the labo;:ror coni- 

 ponsation in the case of accidents connected v/ith his 

 employment. (Cheers.) Vvhy do 1 remind you of all thisr 

 Not to boast of it, but to say that, vs'hile we had very 

 little assistance from these Eadicals who now ask for 

 your votes, we have shown by our past history that we 

 have some right to call ourselves friends of the labourers. 

 (Loud cheers.; And it is as a friend of the labourer that 

 I ask you to believe me when I say that if I thought the 

 proposals I make to you v>-ould injure you in the slightest 

 dejr''^-^ if I ui^ not b-alieve, as I do believe, that of all 

 classes in the community you are the people who have 

 most to gain, I would never have proposed them. (Cheers.) 

 I am not content to stop with the legislation of the past, 

 and I do not ask for gratitude for what we have done ; but 

 I ask you, looking at the past, to believe me when I say 

 that we have it in our power to do more for you in the 

 future. (Cheers.) That is not, I submit, the position 

 of our opponents. Tliey seem to think that you are 

 now in a position that is so satisfactory, so enviable, that 

 any change would be for the worse (laughter), and tliey 

 accuse me (of all men), they accuse me, of an infamous 

 desire to deprive you of this 'splendid' position, and to 

 throw you back upon the times of famine and of misery 

 in which your ancestors were some 60 years ago ! ! Well, 

 ladies and gentlemen, they have a poor opinion of your 

 intelligence if they think you will believe that story. 

 (Cheers). It is quite true that the condition of the 

 laljourer, and not only of the labourer, but of the artis;;n 

 in the towns, was one of infinite distress in times of which 

 we have been speaking. But why was it one of distress: 

 That is a point to which I am going to call your atten- 

 tion. 



* The Bwal Labourers' League has itself (free of co-f) 

 helped over 14,000 men to secure allotments and small hold- 

 ings; but the number, 100,000, might, in the author's opinion, 

 be doubled. Mr. Chamberlain, however, as usital, errs on 

 the side of accirraci/. 



