122 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



when the Guardians took fright at having to spread the 

 rate over the whole of their district instead of limiting the 

 rate to the place immediately benefited. So the building 

 of the cottages was delayed for another three years, when 

 Ix worth, in spite of the powers given to Rural District 

 Councillors, with the parishes of Penshurst, Bra dwell, 

 Bratoon, Linton, Malpas, were the only parishes for many 

 years which succeeded in putting into operation the Housing 

 of the Working Classes Act for rural districts. 



The creation of County Councils in iSSS brought little 

 grist to the labourer's mill. It is very doubtful if a single 

 labourer had ever sat on a County Council ; but it was 

 thought that when Parish Councils were created a large 

 number of these Councils would be dominated by labourers. 

 There would be no loss of labour-time, as meetings would 

 be held in the evening, and so it would be possible for almost 

 any man to attend. County Councils had for long been 

 considered the preserve of the landed aristocracy and large 

 farmers. The lesser fry, the farmer with a moderate sized 

 holding, the shopkeeper and the builder might become 

 Rural District Councillors, but surely the Parish Council 

 would be captured by the labourer ? Now would be their 

 opportunity to get land for allotments. They had long 

 resented having to pay a rent for their allotments double 

 the price that the large farmer paid for his land on the 

 other side of the hedge. Xo longer would they put up with 

 inferior land at some distance from their own homes. Now 

 they had an Act of Parliament which would entitle each 

 man to at least an acre ; and if they could not secure 

 the land they wanted voluntarily, they could insist upon 

 the County Council obtaining it by compulsion. 



So many thought ; but this is not what actually hap- 

 pened. What actually happened was when farmers, vicars, 

 and others resented the labourers sitting upon Parish Coun- 

 cils, labourers were soon made aware of the imdcsirability 

 of managing their own affairs. 



Farmers were in no mood in 1894, when wheat dropped 

 t.> the lowest price in the history of English agriculture, 

 to tolerate.- social as well as economic extinction. By 1894 



