Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/206



INCE Wat Tyler perished by the hand of the assassin Mayor of London, Walworth, the agricultural laborers of England have had no more sincere and capable leader than Joseph Arch. To sketch his career is in a great measure to depict the condition and characteristics of his class,—a numerous and important section of Englishmen,—of whom, until quite recently, less, perhaps, was known for certain than of Afghans, Zulus, or the Ten Lost Tribes. For centuries they had been forgotten helots,—mute bearers of other men's burdens,—the starved, unlettered, hereditary bondsmen of "merry England." Their misery gave the lie direct to our boasted prosperity and freedom. The statue might be imposing; but the feet were obviously of clay. "And behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of the oppressors there was power." Yea, very great power and very terrible oppression. On the agricultural laborer of England rests to this day the curse of the Roman Conquest,—the economic damnation of 192