192 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



the enthusiastic meetings and speeches which 

 preceded the Small Holdings Act speeches 

 by Ministers of the Crown and many of their 

 followers in both Houses of Parliament the 

 rural population was most certainly entitled to 

 expect a great deal more than what has been 

 achieved by this measure. Our agricultural 

 labourers form one of the most neglected 

 classes of the community. From generation to 

 generation they have been neglected or misled 

 by empty promises. Their endurance has been 

 amazing. They have waited for the realization 

 of their simple ambitions, and preserved their 

 souls in patience, but Home Rule and Welsh 

 Disestablishment and other distant things 

 have intervened again and again between 

 these humble aspirants and the shifting 

 vision of better things to come. Then came 

 that annus mirdbilis, 1906, and the labourers 

 were roused from the political apathy which 

 had followed the enthusiasm of Joseph Arch's 

 days. " Old- Age Pensions " and " Access to 

 the Land " became the war cries of those 

 who felt their hearts touched by the pathetic 

 history of a Suffolk or Oxfordshire labourer, 

 and longed to see him freed from the petty 

 tyrannies and degrading patronage which too 

 often encompass his career from the cradle 

 to the grave. Old-Age Pensions, thank 



