PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2471, 24 July 1901, Page 75

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

FROM PLOUGH-TAIL TO HOUSE OF COMMONS. (Concluded.) Arch, as I said last week, had no love for parsons and squires who were village popes, without a pope's bowels of compassion. "The squire,'' says he, "with his hand of iron, overshadowed us all. There was no velvet glove on that hard hand, as many a pooi man found to his hurt. He brought it down on my father because he would not sign for a small loaf and a dear one ; and if it had not been for my mother, that hand would have crushed him to the earth, maybe crushed the life out of him. At the sight of the squire the people trembled. He lorded it feudally over his tenants, the farmers ; the farmers in their turn tyrannised over the labourer* ; the labourers were no better than toads under a harrow. I can remember the time when wages were so low that a man with several children was alloAved parish relief. He was forced to accept this degrading kind of help, for he could not have brought up his iamily without it. Let him work as hard as he would, he could not earn the therewithal to do it. The labourer who had a big family was blamed for it, and treated accordingl}'. I know for a fact that when some of the men had a large number of children and were unable to keep them, the parish authorities used to take several of them away and put them in the workhouse. Parents were pauperised because of their children, aud children were pauperised fiom theii youth up because their fathers, however unwilling, were not able to feed and clothe them.

Several instances are given of the tyranny and petty interferences of parson and squire, or >f their wives. One vicar's wife issued a mandate that the women were to sit »v

one side of the church, the men on the other. It was the custom to get a parson's certificate before a boy was admitted to the local school, though there was nothing to warrent the procedure. Arch, however, broke that down. The labourers had to curtsey to the squire's wife before they took their seats in the church, and on no account were they allowed to take the sacrament until all the higher grades in the social scale had retired to their seats. Arch had a daughter who one day coveted a net trimmed with beads — cost ninepence. The father, with a pardonable weakness, gratified his daughter's wish and bought it for her, and she, as proud as a girl can be, wore it to school. The parson's wife happened i to visit the school that morning, and seeing the little body with a net on marched up to her and said : "I shall not allow you to ! come to school with a hair-net on — we ] don't allow poor people's children to wear , hair-nets with beads, and if you dare to come to school this afternoon with that ! trumpery on, I shall take it off and teach ' you a lesson." She didn't, however, for Arch visited the school and, through the i mistress, nformed hex ladyship that he knew the law well enough "to dare her to touch his child. These incidents show how . men and -women without strong fibre in j them really couldn't call their bodies and j souls their own. Crossing the powers that j were, meant deprivation of soup and the I delicacies which were sometimes served out, | of articles of clothing given as charity, and of many little favours and trifles that helped to make the wheels of life run a little more smoothly. By what I have written, you can &cc that Arch was anything but in favour with the local autocrats. "I knew," says he, j '"that I was as bad to their taste as a dose j of bitters or a jorum of Epsom salts, and when I thought of that I chuckled." And j again : — "The sound of my name would set i their tongues clacking, and if the lies they ! had passed on had turned into stones, all I ! can say is there wou!d have been enough for road-mending and heaps to spare. The sight of me would set them off puffing, ■ and prancing, and snorting, and crying 'Ha! ha! 1 like the war horse in Job; they would gnash their teeth and butt at me like rampaging unicorns." It is often difficult to distinguish between a genuine reformer and the agitator pure and simple. The former controls the passions of the masses instead of pandering to them ; the latter takes his cue from what he wishes to live by, and takes advantage of their weaknesses. The former has by far the more difficult work to do. He finds, too, as Arch tells us. tLat the most awkward persons to deal with, when debate is needed, are two mobs, one of uneducated, and the other of fairly educated peisons. Neither will concede to the expert unless there is danger, or till patience wearies conceit. Of the ignorant mob he says : "Ignorance is the blockhead mother of misery and more than half of the difficulties I had to contend with were due to the dreadful ignorance of my fellow-labourer*. They were obstinate, suspicious, and stupid, because tLey were ignorant ; 'their brains were ill-nourished and &o they were dull ; their uncultivated minds were like dark lanterns, with a rushlight inside. Hundreds of these brothers of mine were sunk in brutish ignorance and caused me many a headache, heartache, and throatache." But I must get on. In February, 1872, while he was busy on a carpentering job, his wife came to him and said : "Joe, here's three men come to see you. What lor, I don't know." That evening Arch held his tirst meeting. Dressed in a pair of cord trousers, a cord vest, and an old flannel jacket — he has the jacket still, he sa}^ — he set out for Wellesbourne, where, to his surprise, there were about 2000 labourers assembled. The night was pitch dark, but the men made darkness visible by hanging lanterns on bean poles, and there those white slaves of England stood, like the children of Israel, waiting for some one to lead them. Arch got on to an old pig-stool^and addiessed them. After the address tnose horny-handed sons of toil gave in their names by the hundred to form a union. They were like the old barons at Runnymede, says Arch, for they put their sign and seal as best they could to the Magna Charta of the English agricultural labourer. I am sorry I haven't time or space to go into detail about the union, so must be very brief. In six weeks the movement had spread from county to county, and the union soon included 80,000 members. The Daily News sent down Archibald Forbes, the famoiu wui correspondent, to write up the movement, and he did it so ably rbat subscriptions from £100 downwards pom 'd in so rapidly as to assure success to the labourers. On Good Friday, only six weeks after the first meeting, a monster tea meeting was held in Leamington to celebrate the inauguration of the movement. The proceedings commenced at 8.30 a.m. Aich was made organising secretary, rules were drawn up, and among them we note ihat the entrance fee was sixpence, and the

weekly subscription twopence. As a counterblast to the union, the farmers locked out the labourers ; but they had mistaken the strength of public opinion, and had not allowed for the righteousness of the cause they were fighting. The lockout had one bad effect: it caused emigration to Canada and to a less degree to New Zealand, and it is quite possible that some one who lived through that eventful year will read these notes. Arch was in favour of migration from one part of England to another, but he opposed as long as he could all emigration, for he recognised that the best emigrate and leave the inferior and the aged behind. , In December, 1885. he was returned to Parliament, polling . 4461, against Lord Henry Bentinck's 3821 ; but his triumph was i short-lived, for Parliament was dissolved ' soon after, and he was defeated in the en- ' suing election by 40. In 1892, however, he ' turned the tables by a majority of 1089, I and the High Sheriff was so annoyed when 1 he saw the figures that he refused to declare the poll. Arch, full ef the milk^of human kindness, shook hands with him, whereupon he deliberately took out his handkerchief and wiped off the contamination. Arch, then, with benign countenance and forgiving nature, shook hands with him again! I am afraid, however, that a j little bit of the old Adam and a chuckle of 1 triumph were visible in the action. j As is often the case, my subjecfc t has grown, and yet I haven't written half that is worth the telling about this great movement. Arch still lives, but tie union, having accomplished its purpose, is, I believe, practically defunct.