JOHN BALL AND WAT TYLER.

 —— ——

Two Early English Agitators.

It is a surprising and a discreditable fact that in the education of our children in the public schools of the colony—an education which we are taxed to support — events which went far towards promoting the political and social welfare of the community at large, and the records of men who lost their lives in a whole-hearted and enthusiastic crusade against oppression, have been described in the historical text-books in a distorted and prejudiced fashion. Of such events and such men was the peasant rebellion in the year 1381, under the leadership of Wat. Tyler, a disciple of John Ball, and to-night I purpose placing their history before you in a different light to that usually accepted as gospel. To fully understand the degraded and insufferable conditions under which the great mass of the people labored at this period, it will be necessary to briefly review the social state of the English people from the time of the Saxons up to the revolt. In the days of the Saxons, popular rule was in vogue. Certainly a limited number of slaves existed, but the great majority were free men, and had a full voice in the making of laws in folk-moot, and hundred-moot assembled, and on the united " Yea " or " Nay " of the whole people, the final selection of their kings depended. But in King Alfred's bitter defence against the Danish invasion a great number of these Saxon freemen bound themselves to labor for a certain period on their more powerful neighbors' demesne in return for protection from the ravages of the Danes. Thus a system of serfage arose, and these serfs gradually drifted into a lower state in the community than even the old Saxon slaves. The Norman Conquest did not alter affairs to any great extent, except to introduce the feudal system, concentrate the holdings into large manors, and make the lords of the manor contribute to the support of the King in money or armed men. The serfs or villeins were compelled to devote so much time to the tillage of the large home farm of the lord of the manor, and their life and liberty, and that of their children, were subject to his pleasure. In process of time the necessities of the barons in their wars and riotous styles of living brought about a system of leasing, by which the landowner would forego his claim on the serf in return for money rental, thus giving rise to a class of tenant farmers. But another class was gradually being evolved. Some of the lower order of serfs were also taking advantage of the necessities of the baronage, and purchasing their redemption from serfdom.

A class of free laborers sprung up who were not bound to one landlord like the villeins, but were at liberty to wander throughout the country in search of employment. Thus the old system of villeinage was being replaced by the leasing of manor lands to tenant farmers, and the employment of free laborers in the tillage thereof. This system worked successfully for a considerable time, as long as there was an abundant and cheap supply of hired labour, but the terrible plague known as the Black Death, which devastated Britain in 1349, changed the whole current of events. The mortality occasioned by this plague was appalling ; in fact, in some cities there were not enough living to bury the dead. Farms were left uncultivated, cattle and sheep roamed at will throughout the land, ownerless and uncared for, and the scarcity of labor and dearness of food forced the rate of wages up by leaps and bounds. It is here that we witness the first galling conflict between capital and labor, for the Parliament of the country, elected and constituted as it was of the landed gentry of England, exerted itself to the utmost to repress the growing demand of the masses for bare justice. A royal edict was issued that every man or woman of whatsoever condition, free or bond, able in body and within the age of three more years, was bound to serve the employer who re quired him to do so, and take only the wages which were accustomed to be taken in the neighborhood before the plague began. Even the Ordinance failed in its desired object, and in 1351 the Parliament passed its infamous Statute of Laborers. The laborer's wages were fixed at a low rate, and he was forbidden to leave his parish for another in search of employment, the redemption of serfs was arbitrarily stopped, and the ingenuity of the lawyers exerted to the utmost to find plausible excuses for revoking the grants of liberty made in the past to villeins and tenants. The penalty set down for running away from service was to be branded with hot irons, or like an outlaw, to be killed on sight. The resentment aroused by this unjust law was terrible in the extreme, and it met with a stubborn resistance everywhere, so much so that Parliament was compelled to re-enact the Statute of Laborers over and over again. But in the time of their tribulation, lo and behold a prophet arose! John Ball, a priest, stands forth pre-eminently at this period of English history, England's first socialist. "The Mad Priest of Kent," the courtly chroniclers of the period term him, but his was the madness of loving humanity and of bitterly protesting against the oppression and injustice of the age. The Church at this period was powerful, but corrupt in the extreme, the members revelled in high-living and the corrupt practices of the period. As a supposed work of Christian love they had assisted in the emancipation of the serfs, belonging to the Caronage, but the Church resolutely refused to emancipate the serfs on their own ecclesiastical lands, and thus aroused a storm of opposition from the great mass of the people. No wonder then that the chroniclers of the time, influenced by the autocracy of the nobility of Church and State, contemptuously refer to John Ball as ''The Mad Priest." In place of the fat living bestowed by the church he chose rather the lowly fare of his followers, and on numerous occasions dined on prison-fare. In place or the sensuous luxuriousness of sculptured and lofty churches, he chose rather to follow the example of the Great Master and preach in the high ways and by-ways of the country. From under the spreading branches of the sturdy old English oak, with the open canopy of Heaven for their roof and the music of Heaven's choristers, the birds, he chose the text —

 When Adam delved and Eve span,

 Who was then the gentleman ?

and preached stirring discourses, which appealed to the very hearts of the people. It was from this text that John Ball, socialist agitator, first declared the natural equality and rights of man." " Good people, " he said, " things will never go well in England so long as goods be not in common, and so long as there be villeins and gentlemen. By what right are they whom we call lords greater than we ? On what grounds have they deserved it ? Why do they hold us in serfage. If we all came of the same father and mother, how can they say or prove that they are better than we, if it be that they make us gain for them by our toil, what they spend in their pride. They are clothed in their velvet, and warm in their furs and their ermines, while we are covered with rags. They have wine and spices and fair bread, and we, oatcake and straw, and water to drink. They have leisure and fine houses, we have pain and labour, the rain and wind in the fields. And yet it is of us and of our toil that these men hold their state." It was the first bitter protest by the crushed out masses against the tyranny of the land monopolists. There is a quaintness, and withal genuine humanitarian feeling pervading the rhyming message with which John Ball stirred and enthused his followers, which makes us love and honor this grand old English democrat : —

 John Ball greeteth you all and doth for to understand he hath rung your bell.

 Now right and might, will and skill, God speed every dele.

 Help truth, and truth shall help you.

 Jack Carter prays you all that ye make a good end of that ye have begun.

 And do well, and, aye, better and better, for at the evening men heareth the day. 

" Falseness and guile," sang Jack Trewman, ''have reigned too long. Truth has been set under a lock, and falseness and guile reigneth in every stock. True love, is away that was so good, and clerks for wealth work them woe."

 In words such as these we see the bitter contempt of the peasantry for the immorality and sensuality of the baronage and clergy, and their intense desire for right and justice. The very fact that John Ball was so entirely different from the prevailing type of priest commanded him to their simple hearts, and when we recollect that printing was unknown at the period, that education was confined to the few, we see that John Ball, in preaching the pure doctrines of Jesus Christ, was instilling in their minds the great desire for political and religious freedom, which so leavened the future history of England. In the meantime while the propaganda work of John Ball was in progress, the excesses of Edward the Third's last days and the disastrous results of the wars with France and Spain had emptied the exchequer, and a poll tax was ordered to be levied on every person in the kingdom. The collection of the poll-tax was farmed out to Jews from Lombardy and the outrages committed by these gentry, added to the injustice of the tax, roused the whole country into rebellion. It was at this stage that Wat Tyler first emerged into prominence. Some historians assert that Wat Tyler first came into active conflict with the law through killing a taxcollector, who had ravished his daughter. History tells us that there were several Tylers, who took an active part in the revolt ; in fact, the trade craft of Tylers seem to have been an intelligent and democratic body of men, and the most prominent amongst the various crafts in their desire for a better and more just government. The consensus of opinion seems to point to John Tyler of Dartford as the father who so terribly avenged the outrage on his daughter. Our Wat Tyler was an earnest disciple of John Ball, and imbibed his democratic views during the score of years in which " The Mad Priest " was preaching his Socialistic doctrines throughout England. One hundred thousand men gathered round Wat Tyler and John Hales to march on London. Their platform was : (1) The abolition of the service of tenure ; (2) the abolition of tolls and imposts on buying and selling, and also the hated poll tax : (3) emancipation of the native or born bondsmen ; (4) the commutation of villein service for a rent of 4d per acre.

 In their march on London they released John Ball from prison in Canterbury Castle, where he was undergoing one of his many terms of imprisonment.

 The manner is significant in which they dealt with the lawyers who fell into their hands. At the time the Statute of Laborer was passed the lawyers and stewards of manors had exerted all their fiendish ingenuity in devising means by which redeemed serfs might be forced into bondage again. The peasants well remembered this, for every lawyer that fell into their hands was immediately put to death, for said they with dreadful truthfulness : "Not till all these were killed, would the land enjoy its old freedom again." The combined forces of the Essex and Kentish men took charge of London, and their proud, boast that justice and not robbery was their object was emphatically demonstrated in the execution of a plunderer found stealing a silver vessel. Wat Tyler even forced his way into the Tower itself, and boldly informed the Knights of the Household that they would soon be their equals and good comrades in the time to come.

 Young King Richard the Second by a master stroke of policy struck a death blow to the revolt. Riding out to meet the main body of the Essex men, he exclaimed, " I am your king and lord, good people, what will ye ?"

 They answered : " We will that ye free us for ever, us and our lands, and that we never more be named or held for serfs." 

" I grant it," said Richard. Under promises of charters of pardon and emancipation, they dispersed. That day thirty clerks were busily engaged writing charters of freedom and emancipation, and it was with one of these that William Grinde Cobbe returned to St. Albans and summoned the abbot to deliver up the charter which bound the town in bondage to his house. In connection with this abbey, a law existed which compelled the townsmen to pay tithing for the right to grind corn within the town limits. In the flush of victory the burghers tore the millstones from the floor and broke them in a thousand pieces to retain as souvenirs of the day on which they regained their freedom. Meanwhile 30,000 faithful followers still rallied round Wat Tyler, and on June 15, 1381, the young King with his train encountered Wat Tyler and his army at Smithfield. The democratic leader, strong in the justice of their cause, boldly rode forward alone to con fer with the king, and to demand a redress of the grievances under which they suffered. Heated words passed between them, and, in a treacherous manner, Sir William Walworth struck Wat Tyler to the ground, when he was instantly killed by the King's bodyguard. The crowd were about to fall on the Royal party, in revenge for the loss of their captain, when Richard with ready wit, seizing the opportunity, exclaimed, "I am your captain and king, follow me." Thus died Wat Tyler, a lion-hearted champion of the oppressed, who, whatever historians may say to the contrary, displayed a nobility of character in violent contrast to the treacherous conduct exhibited throughout by the King, nobility, and Parliament, for mark how the sacred promises of the King were kept. The rank and file of the rebels as soon as their leader was killed seemed like a ship without a rudder, and relying on the promises of emancipation the Kentish men dispersed to their homes. And now followed one of the most despicable deeds that have disgraced the history of England. As soon as all danger was over, the King revoked the charter of freedom and emancipation, and fully 7000 men suffered death on the gallows and in the field. Among the number was John Ball, to whose teachings we must attribute the first awakening of the masses to a sense of the part they must play in the politics of the country to ensure a just form of government. When William Grinde Cobbe, of St. Albans, was offered a pardon if he would persuade his fellow townsmen to restore the charter wrested from the abbot he answered like a king amongst men. Turning to his followers he bade them take no note of the degrading death in store for him. "If I die'' he said, " I shall die for the cause of freedom we have won, counting myself happy to end my life by such a martyrdom." These were noble words, spoken in a noble cause, and well does the memory of William Grinde Cobbe deserve to be cherished by all lovers of the cause of freedom. But the breach of trust which disgraced the king's name was rigidly upheld by the Parliament, composed as it was solely of landowners. " Release the serfs," they cried. " No, they are our property ; villeins they always were, and villeins they shall remain."

 Although the revolt seemed barren of good results at the time, yet in the immediate future it was destined to bear fruit. In spite of statutes bearing against the villein, debarring him from educating his children, or improving his position, he profited by the teachings of John Ball, and by quiet and persistent agitation worked out his own salvation. One hundred years after the peasant revolt, serfage was a rare and antiquated thing in England. It would be useless to discuss the deeds of these men were it not that a powerful moral is contained, applicable to the serfs of to-day. First and foremost, we must candidly admit that the movement, as far as the immediate redress of wrongs is concerned, was foredoomed to failure. Even had Wat Tyler triumphed, dethroned the king, killed off the lords and knights of the manor, not forgetting the lawyers, the fact remains that if we except the prime leaders, who seemed to have imbibed from John Ball genuine and far-seeing views as to what was essential to constitute an ideal state, we find that the ignorance of the great mass of the people would have prevented the consummation of their ideal. It was an ignorance from which there seemed no escape. It was before the days of William Caxton and the printing press ; books were written in manuscript, and were very costly, so much so that education was confined to the ranks of the clergy and wealthier classes. Even the Bible was a sealed book to the multitude. The question arises : What are we doing to emulate the example set us by our sturdy ancestors with all their disadvantages ? They risked the most cruel punishment, outlawry, death on the gallows, in the cause of freedom ; and in the present enlightened age of free education, cheap literature, and all the advantages of the 19th century, are we doing our duty? Most sorrowfully must I admit that we are not. Where these people risked all, we begrudge the few weekly shillings necessary to make our unions powerful and effective for good. Where they suffered death we are too apathetic to suffer a few minuter inconveniences in ensuring that the government of our country is administered on the lines of truth and justice. It has been well and truly said that " the price of liberty is eternal vigilance," and well may the path of political and social progress be likened to the climbing of a steep and slippery hill ; to pause is to retrograde, and the motto of all true reformers must be "Ever onward and upward." In West Australia, like in Egypt of old, we have had our fat years, but signs of the times point indisputably to the approach of the lean years, but have we, like Pharaoh, out of the abundance of the fat years provided for the famine of the lean ? I trow not, and we must look to it in the future that we do our duty to ourselves and posterity by leaving the world in a better condition than we found it. There are periods in our life when we must make sacrifices, when we must try and lift the old chariot, Unity, out of the rut, Selfishness, and I appeal to everyone here to-night, while we are on the threshold of a new year, and, I may add, a new century, to make an earnest resolve to do something in the realisation of those beliefs which so many sturdy heroes in the past have thought worth fighting for and worth dying for.

Kalgoorlie Miner (WA ),  1898,  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88321870