Centenary of Tolpuddle Unionist Martyrs

Centenary of Tolpuddle Unionist Martyrs

STORY OF HEROIC IDEALISM

INSPIRATION FOR CENTURY FAMOUS SIX

LED forth in clanking fetters a hundred years ago, the Tolpuddle Martyrs,

whose centenary will be celebrated In England this month, present a story of heroic idealism and

selfless courage which has proved an inspiration to the Labor Movement for a century, and has solidified the ranks of three generations of trade unionists in the cause for which the six Dorchester laborers endured a form of martyrdom akin to death. How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed ! — the first

English Agricultural Laborers'' Union was formed at Tolpuddle in 1833 ; it was a time of great agricultural distress, and workmen were being paid 7/ a week.

Mr. E. G. Wakefield, M.P., described the lot of the laborer as follows : "His wretched existence is brief : rheumatism and asthma bring him to the workhouse, where he will draw his last breath without a single pleasant recollection and will make room for another luckless wretch to live and die as he has done."

There is ample evidence that the laborer lived merely on sufferance ; he might exist and be treated the same as a brute, but It was dangerous for him to play the part of a human being for he would be turned adrift, probably to starve.

The shrieks of an hysterical woman in 1834 in the quaint village of Tolpuddle have echoed down through

the corridors of time ; the woman was Mrs. Hammett, and her husband, James Hammett, and her brothers,

George and James Loveless, had just been arrested.

Unlawful Oaths

Subsequently the men named, together with Thomas Stanfield, Jim Brine and James Stanfield, who had

been organising a branch of a laborers' union, were charged with administering "unlawful oaths."

The laborers in Tolpuddle had been reduced to despair by repeated reductions in their wages. 

The Tolpuddle men expected to receive 10/ a week, but they were offered only 9/, later reduced to 8/ and then to 7/. When they protested they were told that they would get no more, and that presently their wages would be reduced to 6/- a week.

In October, 1833, the first union was formed, and George Loveless instituted the organisation with an

oath of secrecy, regalia, rites of initiation, doorkeeper and password. One by-law will sound very quaintly to the modern rank and file of trade unionism, for it read, "No member shall be allowed to eat, read, sleep, swear, bet, or use absurd language during union hours."

The authorities replied by posting placards warning laborers that mem- bership of the union would be an

offence punishable by seven years' transportation to Australia or Van Diemen's Land. Three days later

the woman's shrieks rang out when her relatives were thrown into gaol as "evilly disposed persons."

Judge's Comment

Proceedings were launched under a hastily quoted Act of George III., which aimed at the supression of

Naval mutiny following the Napoleonic Wars. At the trial, the fount of justice was polluted at its very

source when the judge, Baron Williams, said to the special jury, "If you do not find the six men guilty you will forfeit the good will and confidence of the grand jury."

Sentenced to be torn away from their humble families for seven years, Loveless and his five fellow

martyrs had fetters riveted on their legs and were thrown on board the coffin ship, William Metcalf, on May 25, 1834. The six martyrs were forced to remain standing during a great part of the voyage to 

Australia. They were supplied with blankets, but unfortunately there were 234 convicts on the little hulk and there was no room for all of them to lie down.

Lord Melbourne said, "The law has been most properly applied," and Lord Howick in the House of 

Commons, uttered the following arrant

nonsense : "The Tolpuddle laborers knew they were doing wrong ; did not they hold their meetings at

night ?" After sentence was passed, James Loveless scribbled some verses on a

piece of paper and threw it to the crowd :

God is our guide, no sword we draw,

We kindle not War's battle fires ;

By reason, union, justice, law,

We claim the birthright of our sires,

We raise the watchword liberty,

We will, we will, we will be free !

Torture Their Lot

George Loveless was thrown to the gaoler wolves of Van Diemen's Land, while his five stout-hearted companions were landed at Sydney Cove and taken to Hyde Park barracks at Queens Square at the top of King Street, Sydney. Mental and physical torture was the lot of all these union- ist heroes before the full-throated voice of trade unio ism successfully demanded their pardon.

This month Australian unionists will join with their brothers and sis- ters the wide world over, in paying

homage to the memory of the selfless idealists of a hundred years ago, who first raised the standard of unionism. All will be seized with the truth of the lines

"When the union's inspiration, through the workers' blood shall run,

There can be no greater power any

where beneath the sun ; But what force on earth is weaker

than the feeble strength of one " But the union makes us strog."

... —Max Marten.