THE MISSION OF CANON GIRDLESTONE. 233 



necessary to accept the state of things which had been pro- 

 duced by his bold and outspoken protest in the pulpit, Canon 

 Girdlestone determined to put into execution a plan which 

 he had formed. He accordingly wrote a letter t to The Times, 

 giving a clear and plain statement of the wages and of the 

 condition of the agricultural labourers in the north of Devon. 

 The effect produced by this letter was remarkable. The 

 Canon was overwhelmed with letters from all parts of 

 England and Ireland, and with newspapers also from different 

 parts of the country, containing letters and comments on 

 the subject of the condition of the Devonshire peasantry. 

 The private letters contained offers, from farmers and others 

 residing in England and Ireland, of good wages, with the 

 certainty of comfortable homes, for such of the men in 

 Canon Girdlestone's district as would accept them. Some 

 of these correspondents remitted money to pay the whole 

 expense connected with the proposed removal of the men 

 whom they wanted ; others sent money, with the stipulation 

 that a part of it should be returned out of the wages of the 

 labourers in such a manner as they could afford to repay it. 

 Then there were sums of money received by the Canon 

 from philanthropic persons, who placed them entirely at 

 his disposal. This money he determined to lay out in partly 

 paying the expenses of removing labourers when it happened 

 that places were offered without any remittances being sent 

 to pay the cost of travelling and other items. Having 

 obtained the means of securing his object of removing the 

 miserably-paid peasants of Devonshire to places where they 

 would be better remunerated, better housed, and better 

 treated in every way, Canon Girdlestone set himself man- 

 fully at work to organise a regular system of migration. 

 He had the men ; he knew where to send them ; and he 

 had the money furnished to defray the cost of sending them. 

 Only one difficulty now presented itself. How was he to 

 set the stream in motion ? The answer appears simple, 

 but practically the difficulty was not so easy of solution. 

 The peasantry of Halberton and North Devon had been so 

 long accustomed to their miserable circumstances that they 

 dreaded with the want of energy and enterprise which 

 their depressing conditions of life had engendered making 

 any change. A kind of ' home-sickness ' appeared to affect 

 them. They dreaded the journey, in the first place ; they 

 dreaded the change of habits. They feared that perhaps 

 there might be some uncertainty as to their new homes 

 being suited to them. Hence many of them clung to the 

 wretched state of things to which they had become used : 

 to their hovels and to their state of semi-starvation. In 

 some instances they were so strongly affected by this dread 

 of change, that when every arrangement had been completed, 

 and they were just on the point of starting for their new 

 homes, they begged to be allowed to remain, giving back 

 the money they had received towards defraying their ex- 



