Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 3, 1802).djvu/73

Rh, upon an average, was (in Essex) 13d.; and corn had risen to 40s. per quarter.

Toward the latter end of the 18th century, the daily pay of a labourer was from 14d. to 18d. in the country, and from 2s. to 2s. 6d. in the metropolis; while the price of wheat was 48s. per quarter.—We forbear to state the average pay of labour during the late exorbitant prices of grain, and every other article of food; when all proportion between merit and reward appeared to have been suspended.

The payment of daily wages, however, serves but imperfectly to ascertain the real price of labour; as a considerable portion of work is performed by the piece; so that a labourer in general earns from 3d. to 6d. per day more than by the common pay. For, without this, or some similar method, the reward of labour would be inadequate to the maintenance of those numerous persons, who possess no other means of providing for their infirm wives, or hapless children. And we conceive, that if their wages could be so regulated, as to rise and fall with the price of wheat, considerable benefit would thus result to society.

The rapid increase of poor-rates throughout the kingdom, can be attributed only to the low and insufficient recompense of labour, in consequence of which, the poor are obliged to resort to the parish for relief. Indeed, when the average price of wheat for the last ten years is ccnisidered, we presume not to exceed the limits of moderation in saying, that no country labourer, in the full possession of his health and strength, ought to be paid less than the value of a half-peck loaf per day, according to the price of wheat, and a proportionable sum by piece-work. In populous towns, however, an addition of 20 percent, should be allowed, if vegetables and butchers' meat are sold at the present unreasonable prices.

The curious and philanthropic reader, who feels an interest in this popular inquiry, will be fully gratified by a perusal of Mr. 's Case of Labourers in Husbandry stated and considered, &c. (4to. pp. 200, 10s. 6d. Robinsons, 1795), and Sir F. M. 's State of the Poor, &c. (3 vols. 4to. 3l. 3s. White, 1797), in which the situation of the labouring classes is clearly developed.

By the 2d and 3d VI. c. 15, all labourers who combine or conspire together concerning their work or wages, incur a penalty of 10l. for the first offence, which sum is doubled in case of repetition; and, if the money be not paid, they are to be set in the pillory. Justices of the peace, and the stewards of courts lect, &c. are likewise empowered by the 4th IV. c. 1, to hear and determine all complaints relative to the non-payment of labourers' wages; which, by the stat. 5 c. 4, are to be annually settled for every county, by the sheriffs and justices of the peace, in every Easter session; and in corporations, by the chief magistrates, under certain penalties in case of neglect. And such assize, when made, is ordered by the 1 I. c. 6, to be proclaimed.

Beside these laws, in behalf of the labouring classes, others have been enacted, for the benefit of the employer. Thus, by the stat. 4 all persons who are fit for