Page:The English Peasant.djvu/66

 Some labourers at Weston asked for an increase of wages; one or two of the Wellesbourne men noticed the fact in a local paper, and, talking about it to a labourer who had been in the Black country, he suggested that the Wellesbourne people should combine for the same end. They were willing, but wanted a leader. They knew a man at Barford who they thought would do: he was a day labourer, but his soul was lifted above the clods. To Barford they accordingly went. The good wife was at the cottage door. "We want," said they, "to talk to Joe about forming a Union; other trades have a Union, and we don't see why we should not have one."

"You form a Union!" she replied; "why, you ain't got spirit to form a Union."

"Yes, we have," they replied; "only Arch must lead us."

"Very well," she answered, "you must tell him so yourselves, and he will do it."

They did as she said, and Arch threw himself heart and soul into the work. The first thing done was to hold a meeting at Wellesbourne. From farm to farm, by word of mouth, the tidings spread, and on the 14th day of February 1872, beneath a noble chestnut, which adorns the village green, the agricultural labourers of England shook off the fetters of ages. A thousand persons or more were present, and adhesions poured in so fast to the new Union then formed that the Secretary could hardly write the names. Notices were served on the farmers asking a rise of wages to sixteen shillings a week; the demand was refused, and the labourers struck.

But their faith and courage were not severely tried, for the agricultural labourers throughout the country took up the move ment, until the Agricultural Labourers' Union became a National organisation. The labourer had boldly marched into the social citadel; he was henceforth a citizen de facto, and to-morrow will be so de jure.

What had given the labourer courage to claim his rights? I will answer that question by the following narrative:—

It was a cold winter's day, and the snow lay on the ground hard and crisp, when an old man might have been seen trudging, staff in hand, to his "appointment" at a village in the depths of the country. Ben was a working bricklayer by trade, but he had