Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-10-23

of England by some prominent London.
Journals. An investigation into the sub
ject was Instituted by number of large
hearted individuals, and shocking ac-
counts were published upon the subject
The degradation te which those laborers
had fallen win be readily understood,
when we reflect upon the fact that they
were themselves hardly sensible Of their
down -trodden position. The English la
borer had, from time immemorial,
scarcely the ability to bargain for wa
ges. Taxed Ike other men, he had not
even voice as to the amount and inci-
dence of taxation. Rearing fat oxen,
but never for years together tasting
beef. Watching wearily for lambs and
tending them with toll and care, but
deeming it a luxury of luXuries to set
upon the Sundays table the verriest
scrap of mutton for the nursing wife or
hungry children Little of time for
rest, none for education, and stepped in
poverty, the farm iaborer of the English
counties had come TO. lose all inanliness
he had forgotten that he was Free. and
he became so crushed, he and his, by.
helpless poverty, Ignorance and the de-
gradation of q base .serftlom that he was
little more than the animal he tended
at the plough.
Arch was himself in the ranks of
these laborers, yet he was cast on far
different mold from the rest of them !;
he was and is a man of fine intellectual
abilities he understood and was alive to
the abjectness- of his position he was
possessed of great perseverance and en-
ergy, and he resolved that he would edul
cate himself and come forth boldly as.
the champion of his fellow-laborers. He
had suffered more prosecutions; and it
would be proper to add prosecutions
also, than fall to the lot of most men,
principally from 4 certain idiosyhcrasy
which took the form of an opposition to
! the vaccination of his children, resulting
in no end of trouble and heavy fines he
also suffered much trouble and personal
inconvenience from a refusal in his
younger days to sign a petition on be-
half of the corn laws. ...-..,.
Arch carried out the resolution he had
made to educate himself persistently
and perseyeringly he worked and stud
/ led, continually storing his mind with
rich and useful knowledge, feeling sure
that the time would come when hewould
gain a ripe and luxuriant fruition as. the
result of his labors, and would accom-
! plish something toward the aleEiation
of the arduous and thanlIless duties of
the English laborer3 The time did
come, and at the proper moment Arch
stepped forth and advocated the rights
I and privileges of the laborers il. oppo-
sition to the farmers and others, lie
has considerably ame1iorated the con-
dition of the laborers, and, in behalf of
the latter and of the organization of
| which he is President, he is visiting Am
erica at present. If there ever was a
| righteous trades-union, the Agricultural
Laborers Union of England is certainly
that organization 1t means education
to begin with, a fair recompense and no
more for hard toll, and the inexpressible
blessing of citizenship. Mr.. Arch viii,
no doubt, judge for himself by and by
as to the fairest field for emigration, All
that we can do in the immediate present
is to make him welcome and assure him
of our heartiest sympathy In his work.