THE AFTERMATH OF THISTLES. 81 



over the rents charged, whieh were often anything from 25 

 per cent, to 500 per cent, above the rents charged to farmers. 



Vexatious rules were often imposed which made the grant- 

 ing of an allotment dependent upon the labourer's good be- 

 haviour in attending church, or on condition that it should 

 not be worked on Sunday mornings, not even before break- 

 fast. It is not surprising that under such conditions allot- 

 ments in one county -Kent had fallen from 2360 in number 

 to 300 in i 88 i. 



John Stuart Mill welcomed the rise of the Agricultural 

 Labourers' Union as a political force as well as an industrial 

 one. Though he died in 1873 he saw in it a lever for 

 obtaining the franchise, better houses, and better education. 

 He also appeared to be in favour of the peasant proprietor- 

 ship aims of its leaders, though he seemed to regard 

 allotments academically as a " contrivance to compensate 

 the labourer for the insufficiency of his wages." 



The fact that allotments had been more popular in low 

 paying counties like Oxfordshire and Norfolk, lends an 

 argument in support of Mill. On the other hand, we find 

 that, as wages rose, allotments became more popular in 

 these counties, and in the north where wages were much 

 higher the men who boarded with the farmer naturally showed 

 little desire to cultivate allotments, and the married men who 

 lived in their own cottage had little spare time, for their cus- 

 tomary hours were much longer in the summer than those of 

 the southern labourer. Though better fed than the 

 southern labourer, in some respects the young unmarried 

 stockman's life was hardly distinguishable from domestic 

 servitude, being at the beck and call of the farmer or the 

 farmer's wife at all hours. Then in a county like Cum- 

 berland men had far better opportunities of acquiring a 

 small farm in that county of small holdings than in the 

 south. 1 



Much evidence was brought forward that labourers in 

 certain villages did not want allotments and did not trouble 

 to cultivate those which were in existence. But labourers 



1 In 1917 there were 3,831 holdings under 50 acres in Cumberland and 

 only 150 over 300 acres. Cmd. 25. 



VOL. II. G 



