This is quite an unusual novel for James. Firstly, he has eschewed his usual, expansive three-decker approach for a much shorter and tighter two volumes. Secondly, it comes across as one of his most deeply felt stories, 'modern' and quite political. In his Advertisement (or Preface/Introduction), he writes that the short tale's general construction and the details are exceedingly simple. Moreover, it can hardly be called a fiction; for though two histories have been blended into one, each is more than founded upon fac (as his sub title proclaims). The author also informs the reader that both the gentleman, Captain F, who related to me the story of my hero, and Mrs. S, to whom I am indebted for that of my heroine, are persons of undoubted veracity, and vouched for the truth of the narrative. The tale initially appeared serially in The New Monthly Magazine during 1847, and was published in book form the following year.
After the usual authorial paeon to the splendours of nature, James finally tells the reader that the story is set in Cumberland, in a small town which I shall call Brownswick, and in a neighbouring village. The time can be pinpointed to the early 1830s, although a date is never mentioned. The whole of Volume I is more showers than sunshine and depicts a rural society with deep divisions between the poor and the affluent (wasn't it ever thus?). James divides his account into two Parts: The Days of Prosperity and The Days of Adversity and if I had stopped reading at the end of this Volume, it would have been a very gloomy tale indeed. It is the [usual] James story of love winning out, but this time through several vicissitudes, with, additionally, a background of severe hardships for the rural labourers who form an important part of the plot.
I have looked up again my copy of Captain Swing by Eric Hobsbawn and George Rudé (1969), where they say they have tried to describe and analyse the most impressive episode in the English farm-labourer's long and doomed struggle against poverty and degradation...he became not merely a full proletarian, but an underemployed, pauperised one. His situation was such as to make some sort of rebellion inevitable. The object was not revolutionary but a desire for a return to a stable social order and improved economic means. The most incendiary (although marginal) aspect was the burning of ricks and destruction of farm machinery. This occurred all over the East and South of England in 1830 and again in 1834-5 and 1843-4. 'Captain Swing' was the fictitious name used to sign threatening letters during the riots in 1830. The New Poor Law of 1834 knocked the last nails into the coffin of the ancient belief that social inequality could be combined with a recognition of human rights. For the next two decades the farm labourer waged a silent, embittered, vengeful campaign of poaching, burning and rural terror...which erupted into epidemics of incendiarism and cattle-maiming at moments of acute distress, notably in 1843-4. Such behaviour spread north - to Cumberland, he county in which James' novel is placed.
From the outset, it is clear that the author admires the agricultural labourer. In point of plain common sense, and natural strength of intellect, they are generally very far superior to parallel classes in the manufacturing districts...their notions are sounder, firmer, more precise, as their bodies are more vigorous, healthy, and enduring. Two such stout middle-aged fellows, cousins Ben and Jacob Halliday, are homeward bound, in deep discussion about the iniquities of the New Poor Law. The gentlemen pretended, when they got up this new law, that the poor's-rates were eating up all the property of the country. That was a lie, Ben, in the first place; but even if it were true, I wonder whose fault that was if not the magistrates who suffered it? Moreover, the two complain about the cost of building new Workhouses (all the contracts went amongst themselves), while I tell you what, Ben, I have often thought that the old poor-law was a very a very safe thing in times of famine or want of work...now if one can get only five shillings a week...he must give up his cottage, sell his goods, put himself out of the way of all work, and go a a pauper to the Union, where he is separated from his wife and children, and few and treated worse than one of the prisoners in the gaol. This goes on for several more pages - it is more of a tract than a novel at this stage. No wonder the story includes poaching and one instance of rick burning.
Although still on the Moor, the scene shifts to two more characters - one the village idiot, an increasingly unpleasant and dangerous Tommy Hicks; the other, the book's young hero, Allan Fairfax. Both are to play major parts in the tale. The rascal misdirects the traveller into a miry part of the moor and gets whacked for his pains; then Fairfax finds shelter with Ben Halliday and soon makes friends with the labourer's little family. Fairfax is actually making his way to the local 'big house', having been invited there by its owner Mr. Graham, a wealthy man who ran the only Bank in Brownswick. Graham loved to do good to all around him, to see happy faces, and to know there were happy hearts...his principal object was to give employment to the peasantry of the district, which he does. He spends his money on building a fine house, improving the land around it and entertaining his friends. It is at one such party that Allan Fairfax now finds himself part of. And it is here that he meets Margaret Graham, the banker's daughter. He was remarkably handsome - that was the first thing apparent; he was remarkably well-dress (he had changed!); he had all the ease, grace and self- possession, of a man of high station; she had her mother's beauty and many of the finer qualities of her father. True to form (at least, James'), they go wandering together and they fall in love. All appears bright and fair: a successful banker, a beautiful house and daughter, happy, well-paid and fed peasants and a very handsome stranger. What could possibly go wrong?
Everything. No wonder Part the Second is labelled The Days of Adversity. Both Halliday families have suffered greatly from a downturn in their fortunes. Their homes are lacking in the basic amenities, their food minimal, their children emaciated. Why? Instead of the kind Mr. Graham they now have over them Farmer Stamps, a believer in the New Poor Law, denying Ben a penny of outdoor relief; as cousin Jacob says: they've given the sheep to be taken care of by the wolf... Adversity struck at the same time apoplexy struck Mr. Graham. The latter had lent a great merchant in Liverpool money for an extensive speculation, not knowing the merchant had actually been insolvent at the time. He lost £50,000 and, struck down by his stroke, he never recovered health nor wealth. Bankruptcy occurred; he lost his property and moved to a small house in Brunswick. Further misfortune followed. His dearest contemporary and friend, Doctor Kenmore, who had already loaned Graham a cottage and furniture, now suggests he marries Margaret so that her father won't feel beholden! Unlikely? Yes, but she agrees and they marry. To cap it, Fairfax returns from India, travels to Cumberland, learns of the marriage and despairs.
The first volume ends on an even lower note. Doctor Kenmore is struck down whilst return from a call out and is found dead on the moor. Her father, having never really recovered, also dies. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Or does he? Fairfax re-establishes contact; widowed Margaret agrees to marry him and a brighter future appears possible. However, on going through his desk for some papers he had requested, she finds the very old-fashioned silver shoe-buckles Doctor Kenmore was wearing when he was killed. Had Fairfax murdered her husband to claim her? I must not give any more of the story away, safe to say the truth eventually comes out. The real murderer is caught and Fairfax purchases the old home of Margaret's father - Allerdale House. The estate is put in good order and the Hallidays' fortunes are also revived.
It is a rather unlikely tale, but it is really a vehicle for an attack on the plight of rural labourers in the first half of the 19th century and, in particular, the venom all the working class (and, it seems, James) felt for the provisions of the New Poor Law and its Workhouses. Farmer Stamps and others represent this cold new approach; Graham, Kenmore and Fairfax, the kinder, older way of treating their social and economic inferiors. Thanks to Fairfax, Ben Halliday thrives and prospers, as does his family. Jacob, of a more unsettled disposition, betook himself to the Land of Liberty and Repudiation, where he is now a wealthy and prosperous man.
A moving story, all the better for being tautly written and much shorter than a typical James novel.
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