They

this they lost the right to support from him. had to rely solely upon the wages of such work as they could obtain, generally low and never certain. In place of mere physical oppression, they now felt the burden in other and cunninger forms, legal impositions. continuing to exact what had before been extorted by the strong hand of power. The art of taxation, in its present perfected form, is one of the most remarkable phenomena of modern times, and is a legitimate offspring of the means adopted by feudal lords to procure supplies from their vassals. The royal prerogative in this respect was always exercised to its full extent, especially in England, which has in all ages been taxed beyond example. In the reign of William Rufus it was carried so far that husbandmen abandoned tillage and fled to the forests or towns, the produce of their farms being insufficient to pay the imposts and afford them a subsistence. In France also, about 1400, it became intolerable when joined to other exactions, and an eloquent preacher, Maillard, was found bold enough to denounce the purple of the rich, as dyed in the blood of the poor. After general enfranchisement and the decline of feudalism had cut off many sources of revenue, it was carried still farther, so that not only France, but all Europe presented the scene so graphically described by Carlyle ;*-"the widow picking nettles for her children's dinner, and the perfumed seigneur delicately lounging in the Eil-du-Boeuf, who has an alchemy, whereby he will extract from her the third nettle, and name it rent and law!" The most oppressive monopolies were also erected, the king taking upon himself the regulation of all trade, and selling the privilege of exercising it. In the reign of Henry the Third, the records of the exchequer show that numerous towns had to pay for the liberty of dealing in dyed cloths. There are also entries of sums paid for the most ordinary purposes, as for leave to salt fish after a certain fashion. There appears indeed to have

* Chartism, p. 18.

been no limit to the royal rapacity. Justice was sold openly, the king even stipulating in prosecutions for debt, for a per-centage in case of recovery. The prerogative of purveyance was also a heavy burden, the king and after him the nobility in their order exercising a preemption right in all markets, and paying generally their own prices. Worst of all, this privilege was extended from men's goods to their labor. By the tyrannical statute of Edward the Third, before referred to, mechanics required for the king's use might be impressed any where in the realm, were obliged to work at what wages the purveyors pleased, and, if refractory, were thrown into prison. Windsor castle and other great edifices were built in this manner. Added to all these things were the uncertainty of labor and the variable price of the necessaries of life. In agricultural districts employment was readily found during harvest, but for the rest of the year it was precarious. From the want of a regular commerce and the prevailing habits of thriftlessness, the supply of one year was often exhausted before the next year's produce could be gathered. Hence, during the earlier part of the season, when work was scarce, provisions were high, and even famine prevailed. Wheat in England was known to fall from £4 to 6s. 8d. the quarter between the beginning and end of harvest. Such an uncertain livelihood, with its alternations of abundance and want, and its irregular excitement and depression, is inconsistent with steady habits or any general well-being.

It is almost impossible to determine the precise value of wages to the laborer at any remote period, so many elements necessarily entering into the calculation. The most accurate method is, doubtless, by a comparison of the rate with the price of the ordinary means of subsistence; but this is insufficient, as all cannot be taken into the account, and much will depend upon the artificial wants of the individual. By the statute of Laborers, 11 H. 7, the diet appears to have been considered equivalent to one third of the income of an artificer, which would indicate a rather better state of

things than now generally obtains in Great Britain. But before drawing any conclusion from this fact, we should take into consideration the domestic economy of the time, of which we know but little. It is certain that the mode of life of laborers was wretched in the extreme. Even as late as the reign of Mary, their dwellings were clay-built hovels, without flooring or chimney, their beds consisting of straw, with a hard block of wood for a pillow. Nor was their fare of the character we commonly suppose. "The roast beef of Old England," so famous in song and story, doubtless did smoke upon the table of the castle, but it was a rare sight in the cottage. Antiquarians have preserved an order of Henry the Eighth, upon the steward of his household for the rations of a Lady Lucye, probably a maid of honor in waiting on the queen, from which it appears that she took five meals daily, at three of which she ate meat, and at all of which she drank ale, finishthe day with a liberal allowance of wine. At the same time, however, the ordinary diet of a ploughman was barley-bread and water-gruel. It may somewhat diminish the poetic interest we are disposed to attach to the old English harvest-home, to know that it owed its importance to the presence of cheese and mutton, articles of luxury which made its annual recurrence a holiday.

The working time was nearly the same as now, being fixed by statute at eleven hours, exclusive of mealtime. Yet even under all these adverse circumstances, the laboring community might have been in a tolerable condition, but for the unjust and absurd interference of the legislative power for their regulation. In virtue of that inherent tendency of all governments to push its operations beyond their proper limits, the English Parliament early took upon itself the control of the market of labor, specifying the rate of wages and the mode of their payment. The first famous statute of laborers, which is also the first legislative notice of the existence of a class of free workingmen, was enacted in 1350, after a dreadful plague had made great ravages

among the population, and laborers were scarce, and consequently wages high. It specifies the hire of various workmen, and fixes the price at which they shall receive grain in payment. It also commands agricultural laborers to repair to their nearest market town with their implements of husbandry in their hands, and there apply for hire in a public quarter. That of 1388 was still more oppressive, prohibiting servants from removing from one part of the country to another, and authorizing justices of the peace to fix the rate of wages every Easter and Michaelmas, by public proclamation.. The most tyrannical of all was one which, if efficient, would have reduced British society to as rigid a distinction of caste as now exists in India, and which provides that no man, who does not own land of a rental of twenty shillings, shall apprentice his child to any trade or mystery, but shall bring him up to his own occupation. Sumptuary laws of the most intrusive character were also in force, fixing the quality and price of the cloth worn by the poorer classes. In the reign of Henry the Eighth no serving man was allowed to wear a coat containing more than three yards of cloth or trimmed with fur under penalty of forfeiture; and as long peaks to shoes were then in fashion, all under the degree of a gentleman were restricted to the length of eleven inches. The curfew is another instance of this annoying legislation. Such minute and troublesome regulations kept alive a constant sense of servitude on the part of the workingman, prevented all self-respect, cramped his efforts at independence, and combined with other causes to plunge him still deeper in indigence and degradation, till he frequently lost the power of obtaining a livelihood, and was obliged to resort to the desperate alternatives of robbery or alms.

A PAUPER POPULATION.

It

Hence arose that incubus which weighs so heavily upon European communities, and is already casting its malignant shade over us, has been well remarked, that "the great mass of the English poor is nothing more than a continuation, under a mitigated form, of the race of villeins, who have

Form

exchanged baronial for parochial servitude."* ing one tenth of the entire community, they remain there, a dark body of ignorance, vice, and wretchedness, half-clad, half-fed, uncared for in soul or body, moving incessantly, like a sick giant in his agony, and consummating their misery by calling on the delirium of drunkenness to help it; an obstacle to social improvement, which might strike with despair the most sanguine philanthropist, had he no faith in the kind heavens.

Social tranquillity under these circumstances was evidently an impossibility. The people could not remain satisfied with the mere verbal admission of their freedom, when it led to no substantial amelioration of their condition, especially when notions of equality were finding their way among them. The middle class, acquiring a new interest in its wealth, lost its identity with the populace, and assumed its rank with that portion of society which is, from its position, necessarily conservative. But those below it, having as yet all to gain, made, and still are making, unceasing efforts for some more effectual improvement. Here then we may date the commencement of a new social movement; that struggle between the proletaries and richer classes which is going on around us at the present day. The earlier revolutions of Europe were, as before remarked, in favor of the middle class, as those of the Italian cities in the twelfth century. The first insurrection among, or in favor of the peasantry, was that of the serfs of Arragon, in the middle of the thirteenth century, which resulted in the establishment of a mitigated. form of villeinage. About the same time there occurred another of a mixed political and religious character, in Flanders, and the north of France, but it was led on by a visionary, and disgraced by fanaticism. A little later we see all the nations of Europe disturbed by outbreakings of popular fury, sometimes in wild desperation, sometimes with remarkably rational aims, and

* Wade. History of the Middle and Working Classes, p. 27.