Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/17

 at the truth from the imperfect machinery we had for examining witnesses, there was getting up, in an unusually severe winter, at 4, or even sometimes 3, to catch a coach; and the farmers, who thought their interests identical with those of their landlords, threatened to shoot us if we came upon their ground. I remember in particular a room in an inn at Cranbourne, the door of which would not close though the frost was intense; and I remember my colleague, after taking great pains for some hours in examining a witness, saying, at the conclusion of his labour, "It's hard work!"

Some time after my return to London I made a report to Mr. Cobden of the result of my inquiries. I first made a somewhat short report in order that Mr. Cobden might have it in his hands before making a speech on a certain day in the House of Commons. Some months after I made a longer and more elaborate report, in which I compared the condition of the agricultural labourers at that time in England with their condition at other times. I showed, on the best evidence I could obtain, that in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries the wages of the agricultural labourer in England were such as to