Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-06-17
The Iu.urrccnon of the Eas,ish scrt,.


Correspondence of the Cincinnati Gazettel
LONDON, Nav so.
Every movement has It's man, Alter all THAI
has been said about the rising Of the people, il
| is questionable whether one considerable in
| Suuecton, violent or pacific, can De pointed
| out which was not indebted to supreme leader
for its beginning, continuance and teTmjna-
| ton.
The strike of the English agricultural laborers
has brought TO the foreground, or rather has re-
vealed in the foreground, the st3lwart 6guN OF
| Joseph Arch. He is maa Of about forty ave
| years OF age, Of 4 marked oountenance and
| brow, and is endowed with an utterance and
effectiveness which not twenty men in the houSe
OF commons possesses. He is a Wesleyan local
| preacher sphere, by the way, 10 which many
| a man. both in this country and ours, owes his
| ability TO speak on his legs, and To think
whether on or of them The Methodist church
| system, as an educational power, can hardly be
/ oycreSumated 1t has intellcctualizcd i vast
multitude. It hsS developed many man who
/ bUt for i would have died in his doImancy, who
I knows but for this siugularlv edueativc system
/ there woHld have been no leader Arch, aud 50 no
Instruction like this of the English serlS.
The story Of Mr.. Arch'S lie is Il revelation 70
many d well informed philauthropiss in Eng
| land while it is startling TO the many ont Of
| England, who fancy that the only description Of
| her rural districts is 10 be found in Gray's
| Elegy. Two aud twenty years ago, he tells us,
nc SlIuCh On HIS wv u I1SlS AIG Ills own
| grand, simple thrilling words,
| Men, I'll tell YOU what had 10 do. Ny
master said to me Is. Sd. q day is all | shall give
you. | had wife and two children, and knew
my duty to them before God, because of the
vow had made her at the altar to do or 10 die
TO keep them. Aud knew that wouldn't keep
them Icrics of "never, neyerP'l and so struck.
knew got into bad report for that; but never
theless did it, and in consequence OF that had
to put on clothes on Monday morning, and
never took them off till Saturday night and !
went away to work where could get higher
wages. Sometimes could not get anything but
straw TO lie on, and once | slept for nights on
corded wood; but, my friends, | did 1t for this
reason | thought if any one was TO suffer il
was not my wife and children, but myself and
ever since then I've had the same opinion.
Let US ioin together to maintain the same prin-
ciple." So Joseph Arch went up and down the
hedges of her maJestys highway, doing what
he could find to do by day, and sleeping In out
houses at night TO save the cost of lodgings for
his family. Out Of the disgraceful pitance
earned out of grasping landlords he managed
not only to keep from starvation, but to give
some comfort and education to his seven chill
| dren. Meanwhile he picked up what he could
| in the way of culture for himself. He carried
| the Bible, and drank deeply Of its pages. He
found not only spiritual, but intellectual food
and stimulus in those pages. What must be
the physical endurance and brain yigor OF
man who could achieve all this? And what
must be said of a civilization loaded to the
guards with wealth, and rank, and churches,
and luxury which leaves such a man 10 strug.
gle unaided with the pillows aud storms2 While
such men as these are fighting for bare exist
ence or falling in the strife, biz belled soft
skinned bishops are lounging in the house of
lords at 100000 wear.
TO call this mans story the story of a work.
ingman is trayesty and mockery. 1t is the
story Of the life of serf. Here is another
| splendid opportunity for the master hand that
| drew Adam Bede, the English laborer, and Felix
| Holt, the radical. Let it give us-JoSeph Arch
| the English serf. In the same volume might be
| woven the story of a titled uouentity, who has
just been gathered to his fathers, who will Ger.
tainly refuse to recognize him unless he prom
iseS to be of more use in the future world than
he has been in this. What opportunities and
| advantages were the lot of the late duke of Bed
| ford; what obstacles and disadvantages were
| the fate of Joseph Arch! One reYeled in Injury,
| wealth and rank, at the top of the cast iron
| English pyramid. The one had greatness, and
| ancestry, and possessions forced upon him, the
| other was born great-great Of soul and brain,
| and a hero. The two Englishmen have lived
| over the same years on the same little island.
| How different their lives, their homes, and their
| history What commentary on the Christian
| civilization of this boastlul race would be the
faithful delineation Of these two careers the de-
| tails of these two lives-that of Joseph Arch
the English serf, working for eighteen pence per
| day, sleeping on corded wood, and supporting d
| family OF eight and that Of William Russell
| duke Of Bedford, marquis of TaYistock, earl OF
| Bedford Lord Russell of Thornbrauub and
Lord Rowland of Streatham, the owner of acres
and acres in the heart Of London and in the
heart of England, with an income sufficient to
| maintain every working mans family in Britain
in comfort, after maintaining his own in atflu
| ence.
Joseph Arch, the laborer, thrilling great audi
| in tho nd in
duke of Bedford, dying, in the words OF tht
Times, as poor as the poorest laborer on his
estates"
And, touching the significance of this con
trast, it is well worth while to look at the it'll
deeds OF some of the enormous landed property
of this house of the RuSsells. Some of thes
title deeds are signed by Henry vii. the ioun
der Of the frst head of the English church |
was the good fortune Of the irst Lord Russell Il
share in the spoations of this heavenly minded
monarch. Henry smashed the mouastries an(
distributed the land among his favorites a
court. He gave away abbeys as yoa woult
pltch nuts TO the monkeys in the Zoo. HI
tossed some abbeys to Lord Russell-TavistocI
abbey, for example, and hence one of the title
engraved on the silver plate Of the duke
coffn-"Marquis of Tavistock."
You might see also on the silver plate Gear
of Bedford" So much for the grant of tn
monastery of WOburn from Edward VI "fo
services received" 1t would take the late or tn
present duke several weeks to walk over all tn
land handed down TO them by the royal Fisk
and Goulds of British history, while JOSEPH
Arch can SEQ all his possessions with his eye
smut, for he has what few kings of Erie or o
England can boast of-the riches of faith az
inheritance incorruptible and an impershabl
crown.
With such facts as these before them, is it an,
wonder that the Serls of these islands have
land question" and their own way OF asking
I 1 n IL n Nl..N al.
sometimes heard in the whistle of the Irisl
agrarlan bullet, instead OF in the digniiied ant
forhearing Joseph Arch2 Nay, more, is il an
wonder, considering the impenetrahe insensi
bilty OF our race and the enormous beam o
robbery and fraud which distorts the yison O
John Bull, that he should see so clearly tn
mote in the eye OF his transatlantic cousin
1T is only those" we are told, Hwho are con
versant With church affairs who can tell tn
number of parishes from which the dukes 0
Bedford draw their great titles as representa-
tYes Of the dissolved monasteTiesP And 1t /
admitted in an extremely loyal and caution
editorial that there is nothing in the ris
of the family (court sunshine), nor 10 tn
origin OF its vast possessions (despoiled church
esq, which would be likely to recommend 1t Il
popular yeneraiion," Nevertheless, these lord
of the soil who die unmarried, and whose chill
dren are knghted, doubtless Join in the choru
(of course before they die) with which monarch
zeal England greets the rumors OF Yenality iron
republican America
But We must descend TO the base of tn
pyramid again and listen to the serf
while they tell the story of their freedom il
merry England" WAGNER works from fou
in the morning ill eight at night, except OF
Sundays, when he works doubtless oct Of del
erence to his Sabbatarian employer) only iron
Eve IN the morning till six in the evening, Her
are 100 hours in the fGS, for the sum off, I'd
Id, or about two cents per hour
wrote this far and then turned to my eve
ming paper to find that committee had re
ported TO the Free Church general assembly
now in session in Edinburgh, some, in thei
Judgment, very sacrilegious scenes. They ar
shocked TO report that in some parts ol Scot
land, walking In the fields aud along the shor
prevails to some extent on the Sabbath eve
nngs" Did the committee ever meet with
man Of the life Of orr wagner? II they die
I why not tell on the Elder" who employs him
or the other elder who rides, in the framework
OF full livery, by the fields and along the shor
on the Sabbath evenings, and afterward sit
Gown 10 smoking repast which "thy maid ser
want u the deoalogue stad at home 10 ptc
+ pare 10 the Dukes OF Bedford all the day
are oanpatns until they del undIsturbed, cy
I ccpt, perchance, by ghost with n shave
Q crown, who once worshippod where tbe dnk
. SHORES, or once starved where his grace no,
| fufl al NJ,