SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



1792 and 183 I, poor law expenditure had increased 214 per cent., expenses 

 for prosecutions of crime 2,135 per cent., whilst the population had only 

 increased 40 per cent.**" Of course the increase in crime might partially be 

 attributed to the depreciation of property, the distressed state of agriculture, 

 and the injudicious repeal of several penal statutes relating to beer-houses, but 

 mainly it was contemporaneous with the adoption of the 'Speenhamland Act.' 

 The increase in pauperism was remarkable : in one parish, for instance, where 

 families above two children were supported, the number of paupers, which had 

 been not more than sixty in 1 767, had increased to 320 in 1 824.^*^ Expenditure 

 on able-bodied labourers soon far exceeded that on the aged and infirm poor. 

 At Haselbury Bryan, one of the worst parishes, the monthly payment in 

 1822 when the system began was ^8 is. to the aged and £y 6s. Sd. to the 

 labourers, but the next monthly payment to the able-bodied amounted to 

 ^'13 lOJ. 7^.^°' Farmers in this village would not employ the best labour, but 

 preferred the inferior hands at low wages, which were supplemented by the rates. 

 It was, therefore, scarcely surprising that there were riots in Haselbury Bryan 

 in 1830, though the chief result appears to have been an order given to the 

 overseers to relieve ten more able-bodied families.*™ 



On the other hand. More Crichel escaped from the trammels of this 

 system : none but old and infirm people were on the parish books."^ Many 

 labourers possessed cottages and lived in comparative comfort, and all could 

 find at least a livelihood by road work. In 1834 the parish was upheld as a 

 proof of what good management could do, the climax of excellence being the 

 fact of only one appeal to the magistrates in five years. 



In other districts, too, there was improvement before 1834. In 

 Beaminster, where wages were higher than in any other part of Dorset,"** 

 inquiries were made as to the character of the applicants for relief. This 

 was also the case in Cranborne ; no allowance was made for children, and 

 finally, after the death of the vicar, apparently an incubus on improvement, 

 the scale system was abolished."^ But as long as the rate in aid of wages was 

 allowed no improvement could be regarded as permanent ; the position of 

 the agricultural labourer was practically that of a pauper. 



The year 1834 was marked by another event of which Dorset was the 

 centre, but whose importance in the history of labour became rather national 

 than local. This was the trial and transportation of six Dorset labourers in 

 connexion with an oath administered to members of an agricultural union. 

 Similar unions in Hampshire had succeeded in raising the rate of wages not 

 only in that county, but also in the neighbouring districts. At Tolpuddle, 

 in Dorset, an agreement was made between the farmers and the men that the 

 wages should be those paid in other districts — namely, ioj. a week. Subse- 

 quently, however, a reduction to ys. was effected by the employers, in 

 consequence of which the men made inquiries about the Grand National 

 Consolidated Trades Union, and formed a society of their own upon similar 

 lines."* The farmers were alarmed, and in February, 1834, placards were 

 issued threatening anyone who joined the union with seven years' transporta- 



'" Yeatman, Existing County Rate, 62. ™ Pari. Accounts and Papers, 1824, vi, 432. 



"^' Ibid. 443. "^ Ibid. 1834, xxviii, App. A. (i), p. 20,7. 



'" Ibid. z\a. '" Ibid. \\a and \za. 



'■' Ibid. 12a and \%a. "' Webb, Hist, of Trade Unionism, 128-30. 



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