THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT. 119 



terial bench, and the autocratic manager of the school and other 

 local institutions, is denounced among the labourers with an 

 invective which is almost Elizabethan in its freedom and inten- 

 sity. . . . Where one man owns the land and is at the same 

 time the patron of the living, the whole government of the 

 village, civil and ecclesiastical, is in his hands." 



The Reverend Arnold D. Taylor, rector of a parish in 

 South Devonshire, discussed in an outspoken article on 

 " Hodge and his Parson " in the Nineteenth Century for 

 March, 1892, the relationship between the labourer and 

 the clergyman. He tells us that wages in Devon were 

 less than los. per week. He denies that the way to the 

 labourer's heart is through his stomach. " The way to his 

 heart," he says, "is through his sense of justice." Also 

 that there is a great feeling of dislike to the parson in some 

 country places, and he tells us w r hy. 



"In a great number, I should say in the vast majority, of 

 country parishes, the squire, the parson, and the large farmers 

 form a ' ring,' which controls all parochial affairs, so that no 

 outsider has a chance even of knowing what goes on, much less 

 of exerting any real influence on the management of those affairs. 

 This ' ring ' practically is the vestry. Whoever heard of lab- 

 ourers coming to the vestry meeting, and expressing their view 

 of affairs ? If they did come what would be the good ? Who 

 would listen to them ? And the parson is ex-offlcio chairman 

 of the vestry. He is the leader in Hodge's eye of this exclusive 

 ' ring,' and perhaps Hodge thinks he is mainly responsible for 

 its existence. Hodge may be unjust in this. But who can 

 wonder at his suspicion when he never sees the parson insisting 

 on having the labourers' side heard, or arranging the vestry 

 meeting so that they can attend. . . . Then again, does not 

 Hodge remember the use made in school and Confirmation class 

 of the Church Catechism ? Is not that generally used to enforce 

 on him that it is his duty to remain in the position in which he 

 was born, and to look up to and obey the parson and the squire 

 and everyone in the place who is better off than himself ? Yes, 

 he remembers well enough. I believe that that teaching is a 

 gross perversion of the words of the Catechism. The men who 

 drew up the Catechism meant ' shall ' and not ' has,' when they 

 wrote ' that state of life into which it shall please God to call 

 me ; ' they meant ' betters ' when they wrote ' betters,' and not 

 ' those who are better off than myself.' ' 



