The Tolpuddle Martyrs On March 19th, one hundred years ago,
six labourers of Tolpuddle, Dorset, were condemned to seven years' trans- portation for having formed a union at which an oath was taken. Their wages were seven shillings a week. They de- manded ten. They had the right to form unions, but they had neither the right, by concerted action, to demand higher wages, nor the right to bind themselves by an oath, this being construed as seditious action. The oath of the Tolpuddle labourers was childish mumbo-jumbo. The " village Hamp- den " of the case was George Loveless, a Methodist lay preacher. Each man of the six was of irreproachable character. These labourers of Dorset were described as " criminal,"
" abominable," a " dangerous union," and as exhibiting a " criminal and fearful spirit of combination." Today, a century later, it is incomprehensible that the State which had broken Napoleon should be driven by fear to savage punish- ment of six starving labourers. There had been rioting, rick- burning and machine-breaking the year before, but that had been crushed out. These six men were peaceable. At the very time of their trial, sympathy for the negro slave was at its most intense and sentimental. The English labourer, working full-time for seven shillings a week, was worse fed than any slave. He lived on bread, potatoes and turnips. The year round, in many a labourer's hovel, there was never a taste of meat. And that was only one hundred years ago. The Tolpuddle martyrs stand out from many others because they were unaggressive and peaceful, but chiefly because their trial came at the moment when the nation had had its fill of perse- cution of the defenceless. The jubilation at their conviction was mixed with a demand for their release. After two years they were pardoned. George Loveless settled in Canada, four others in Essex, one only in Tolpuddle. That is the most pitiable part of it, that the men felt guilty and ashamed, and avoided their old homes. They were not the heroes then that they are on their centenary.
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