When the first election under the new franchise came on, we had a candidate of the very highest qualifications in Sir John Dorington, M.P. for Stroud, whose knowledge of local government questions was incom¬ parable ; and whose time and energy and talents had for many years been freely given to the county of which he was Chairman of Quarter Sessions. He was opposed in the Radical interest by the late Mr. James Winter- botham, who combined a good deal of eloquence of the type best calculated to attract an unlearned audience with undoubted belief in the principles which he professed. Though I had always been on good terms with my own men I did not expect that they would be able to see the fallacy of the arguments which were addressed to them, and I thought it would be only natural if they went for what every one told them were their own interests, I refrained from personally canvassing or trying to induce them to vote for the Conservative candidate, but did what I could to support him at public meetings.
My farm manager, a Scotsman, who had been brought up a strong Radical in his native country of Aberdeenshire, where the higher education of the people gives them a much clearer insight into politics than our people have, had modified his political views since he came south, where he said Liberals were liberal in name but not in practice. He visited with me a meeting in a neighbouring village at which Sir John Dorington, by an unwise allusion to Gladstone, who was then looked upon as a sort of god by the Radicals, brought out a strong opposition which led to blows and very nearly ended in a free fight between the rival parties. My manager was very indignant and anxious to join in chucking out the interrupters, but I restrained him. As we drove home he said to me in the accent of the North which always comes back to Scotsmen when excited, “Yon fellows may caal themselves Leeberals in this country, but I caal them saavages.” After this he became a strong supporter of our side, and was one of the few on whom I could really rely when things became warm as they did later.
In the end, however, Sir John Dorington was beaten by a considerable majority, the labourers voting almost solid for the Radical candidate. Though much disgusted we were not dismayed, as it seemed only natural that men as yet quite devoid of political knowledge, assured by people whom they had not yet recognised as false friends of the personal benefit they would receive if the Liberals got in, should have believed some if not all of what they heard. However well you may think you know the ideas and wants of agricultural labourers, you will seldom find one who, on matters like this, will really open his heart to his employer, and the less you talk politics to them the better. Some of them have found out by this time who are their best friends, and others have lost interest in politics which they cannot understand. How little they often know, and how easily their vote is turned by some notion which you would never dream of, is shown by the case of two servants of my own. One of them refused to vote for the Conservatives because they had not hung Cetewayo after the Zulu War; the other because he did not see why Ministers should receive £5,000 a year as he heard they did.
Employers felt that a barrier was raised between them and their men
