ABSTRACT
Labourers in many instances have struck work. Agriculturists have been obliged to advance wages in order to get work done, but discord prevails between masters and men. A spirit of discontent has sprung up among the labourers respecting their cottage accommodation and small pay. They demand higher wages and shorter hours of work. For the average farm worker in rural England there was little economic freedom. It is true, restrictions on the activity of farmers were contained in their tenancy agreements and conventions certainly restricted their social behaviour in the tightly knit hierarchical structure of Victorian rural England, but the full weight of social, economic and legal strictures fell on the agricultural workers. If wage agreements and harvest contracts were broken by agricultural workers, farmers were no less guilty in attempting to avoid paying for harvest work. And contrary to general opinion, labourers in their turn charged farmers before the magistrates if payment was withheld.
