ZEAL FOR LIBERTY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 1 (Supplement)

ZEAL FOR LIBERTY

BY IIATANG A

THE SIX MEN OF DORSET

From the Homeland comes news of a centenary celebration of interest to British folk in every part of the realm, not least to those in the British countries " down under," where national institutions have taken deep root. The news has particular interest by reason of the zeal for individual liberty that persists to-day under the Union Jack, in spite of much sacrifice of freedom elsewhere. Not. lightly will British lands let their ideals be smothered in the mad murk of dictatorship. They would rather be ill-governed than give ud the right to a say in the making and administering of law. In the little bit of history now being recalled is something to be cherished —in the face of much craven falling back to codes of force and terror.

A hundred years ago six Dorset men, known in old story as the Tolpuddle Martyrs, were under sentence because of a brave stand for their own and others' right to influence conditions of labour. The right would seem to have been legally indisputable. It had been clearly conferred. In some English counties it had been exercised without lot or hindrance. There was a " Grand National not a horse race, but a combination of agricultural labourers—which had been allowed to do much, considering the times, in improving the lot of such labourers, especially in raising thenwages to a more equitable level. Its full name was the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union, and its registered headquaiters were in London. Tiado unionism had statutory recognition, and had passed from its "-friendly society ' status to one of lawful combination for bettering conditions of work This particular organisation had succeeded in raising the weekly wages of farm workers to ten shillings in many counties. But in Dorsetshire no success had been won; instead, wages had been reduced from nine shillings to eight, then to seven, and there was a threat of reduction to six. So these Tolpuddle men put their heads together and formed, in November of 1833, an agricultural labourers' union. They were quite innocent of seditious purpose, and knew of nothing to hinder their movement. So far, well. However, they made a slip in tactics. In their little union the members were bound to secrecy by an oath of initiation, and they adopted a private ritual. Thus they played into the hands of unscrupulous employers anxious to keep wages down. The sequel was disastrous for their project, as they were soon to find. Trial and Sentence Seizing their opportunity, these employers invoked an Unlawful Oaths Act of 1797, and had placards posted in February notifying the terms of this old law and calling attention to the possible penalty of transportation for a- breach of it. Three days after these placards appeared the six men were arrested, to be put on trial for the oath of secrecy that had been administered. Their trial is duly recorded. It turned 1 on this matter of the oath. A jury was empanelled. The jurymen were directed by the judge to find the accused guilty if they were satisfied that an oath had been administered, and they were nothing loth to do so. Then the judge passed the maximum sentence' of transportation,' in words xhat to-day make strange reading: Not for anything you have clone, or that I can prove you intend to, do, but as an example to others, 1 consider it my duty to pass sentence of seven years' transportation upon each and every one of you."

Afterwards he must hare realised that he had taken a leading part in a shameful travesty of justice. But, to return to that shocking day, it is memorable that the men declared guilty were not abashed by the sentence. Hearing it, one of them (George Loveless) made a solemn statement: My lord, if we have violated any law. it was not done intentionally. We have injured no man's reputation, character, prison, or property. We were uniting •together to preserve ourselves, our wives and our children from utter degradation anc' starvation. We challenge any man or number of men to prove that we have acted or intended to act different from the above statement. A Free Pardon This man Loveless, by the way, had a turn for verse-making, and as he was taken from the court he tossed to a friend a sheet of paper on which he had written some time before — From field, from wave, from plough, from anvil and from loom We come our country's right to save, and speak a tyrant faction's doom. We raise the watchword "Liberty!" We will, we will, we will be free! Not much as poetry, perhaps, and certainly more than a trifle grandiloquent and bitter; yet its stalwart refusal to be cowed was splendid. That was on March 18. By the end of the month the prisoners were aboard the dreaded hulks awaiting transportation. On April 15 questions about tintrial were asked in Parliament, and Lord Howick said in his reply that the convict ship conveying them to Botany Bay had sailed. Lord Melbourne, as Piime Minister, defended the sentence; " the law in this case," he said, " has been most properly applied." Others were not so sure. Outside Parliament an agitation for review of the case was soon afoot. A monster procession, thirty thousand strong, marched to the Home Office with a petition bearing more than a quarter of a million signatures. Lord Melbourne refused the petitioners a hearing, but the agitation went on. In March of ] 836 a free pardon was the outcome. The tardiness of its granting was deplorable. Eventual Honour All the " martyrs " found their way back to Lngland. one in 1837 and the others in 1838. One resumed his work in Tolpuddle; small farms were bought for the others—out ol funds raised for fighting their case and assisting their return to secure positions, the sale of a pamphlet by George Loveless having helped considerably. These five emigrated to Canada in 1844 to try their farming fortunes oversea. They agreed among themselves to be silent there about the episode, and it was not until 1912 that this Canadian part of the story became generally known. In that year a memorial arch was unveiled in front of the Tolpuddle Methodist place of worship, where George Loveless used to preach. Others of the six were lay preachers. This year further recognition of their stand for legal liberty will be paid. The Trades Union Congress will be held at Weymouth, in Dorsetshire, as a mark of honour to them, and among projects of memorial is the erection : six cottages as free homes for aired farm labourers. It goes without saying J that national interest will be keen and general. Only one thing can check it—misuse of the occasion as an unthonghtful assault upon the bulwarks of British ideals that proved so stout a defence of the " martyrs." Times have changed. The courage and endurance of these Dorset men helped to change them. Remembrance of that is part of the tribute to be paid; the rest is acknowledgment of the aid from all classes in winning redress of the wrong tbey suffered.