Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-22 00:00:00

either with the temptation which the super of
comforts and well-being of the free artizans °e
C 9
towns, held out to the rural population, to CO
and settle, but they further enacted that
villein, or rural slave, who should find his lc, °l,'
into a town, and stay there for a year and "3.e,
was to be free for ever. Every villein in toll
er
quence, who had accumulated a little capital, to
was intelligent and industrious, betook himself
the towns and cities. A great result folloisre
before the end of Edward the Third's reign. ,rPto
villeins had begun to support each other, allu to
withhold their ancient and accustomed services ,e
the law ; and even as far back as Richard tra',
Second's reign, we find combinations among
The stewards of manors complained that
could not enforce their accustomed service ; tu„4
they were often in opposition to their lords, ,e"it
had subscribed large sums of money for O°,
future defence ; that they fled to towns and Cite
where they were screened by the merchants, unit
the colour of their franchise ; and . that tint
masters were afraid to enforce their 'power, rio
they should lose it irrevocably. This is a Cle
proof of their increasing strength. In a word, tt e
labouring classes were beginning to throw off Oleo
shackles and to become • free labourers ; and
length, for the first time, in thirteen hundred
fifty, the Legislature recognised such a class;
recognised them grudgingly,r' it is tree, opPte.;s
ingly and vexatiously, but still it did recogill"(i
them ; and this forms a high interesting
important epoch in the annals ot British incriisl'e
The provisions of this statute, however, called tAte
" Statute of Labourers," summarily limiting '4
free labourer's wages, and forbidding him to Inel;e
from place to place, as long as at certain priees,'"et
could find employment, show how much 1104,41
to be done before the English Workman ""
really free.
the
Of the varied attempts to enforce the
statute ; of the opposition it met *with ; of
rte
various risings of the working classes to vindiet:
their rights, simultaneous with similar movenlq;
in other countries, and of their gradual liberstl°ol
through increased intelligence and the natl.' re
operations of trade and commerce : these ,°is
matters which I shall reserve to be treated
subsequent parts of this work. All I shall do 11'4
is to mention some of the prices offt.,red to test
various kinds of industry in those times as a
of clue to the estimate of the worth of 131';,;
remuneration in these days. The Wages per
to a master-carpenter, was sixpence ; to a jour on,
man-carpenter, threepence; to a master-freeino,ls
as they were called, one shilling per day ; 311 31
journeyman-mason, ninepence. In the-agricultnt:,
districts, the following rate of wages were paid "s.;
Weeders and haymakers, one penny a (13.-0,-,
mowers, fivepence the acre ; and reapers, durani
the first week in August, twopence a-day; co
from that time to the end of the month, threePe' $
a-day, without diet. A • man for • thrashing
quarter of wheat or rye, was allowed twoPel;
halfpenny; and for thrashing a quarter of bade`o
oats, beans and pease, three-halfpence, or a art it
number of sheaves, or bushels, in places wher,,llie
had been customary to pay in kind. (3.) Arno'
time, wheat varied in price from twos hillhelf
a-bushel to twenty-six shillings, so that t-,re
wages, if they were sometimes enough for 11'i"o
sustenance, were at other times miserj
inadequate, and the general destitution [Do
poverty of the working classes must have ',st
such as is, excepting in moments of gtai
commercial depression, utterly unknown to t,,";st
in the present day. With a variation of I"ijel,
from two shillings to twenty-six shillings a-bli'd
the usual wages of a labourer was one shilling r 4
day ; so that when corn was cheapest, his o
°r,
would only represent the forty-eighth part ty
quarter of wheat ; and when dearest, less tho te
six-hundreth part. Wheat, in fact, did not eno
into the food of the working man, excepting bie
rare occasions : nothing but the most miser°
matter did.

"In these most calamitous times," says
h‘ille
Frederick Eden, in his state of the poor, fp
return of harvest must have been looketl, ye
hardly 'with less eagerness than that whicug
Egyptian farmer is said to watch the overfWille
of the Nile, and perhaps it is not to consider AT
matter too curiously to suppose that the eat
eit
siastic joy with which the rustic feast of Hai` oh
Home was celebrated, arose from a tip:01110
conviction that, on expedition and diligence' of
getting in the crops, determined the alternative
plenty or famine." se°
The latest possible period of harvest, at preio
could never produce the misery we read °f 00
ancient times, in which a late crop or a bad sew"( #
obliged the wretched cultivator to the use ° not
mean fare, and in fact to partake of a descriptl° ty
food of which we have no idea. Nor Were tbe
inhabitants of cities, notwithstanding an le'
advantages which they derived from the introottet
tion of commerce and manufactures, much be tile
provided for with the necessaries of life thall
servile tenants and cultivators of a baron's e'tell
Such a wretched calamity alone as that 11'00
occurred to Ireland some ten years sineeV
furnish us with an idea of the cruel visittife
which frequently scourged different countries
or six centuries ago.
f
I have thus, then, sought to give to thell
Classes the first part in their History. DrearY,
depressing it is, no doubt, but yet not withowo
ray of hope. At the commencement of as;
History, we found them in the condition of SIS. be
at its close we have seen them beginning t°o.ol
freemen. Froth this period it is that they bee
to feel they had rights, and to struggle for the;jg.
In my next part I will resume this interesvrof
story : and begin by noticing some of those st°
and tumultuous efforts made by them, bow 11
England and elsewhere, to escape premataeffr
from an oppression which only time and their
creasing importance to society, through ' tip
increased intelligence and improving indlls
could rescue them. I will follow the line of ttocl
progress, every stage becoming more distinct, cot
notice the mechanical inventions that have 131,01
contributed to multiply and enrich their %lot
together with the other collateral but impor`
causes of their advance. der
But the period I have thus- so far e9-tbe
voured to trace, though it may not be tiff
most brilliant, is still not the least insteallie
part of their career. For, by. indicating oe
point from which they have risen, it enables r
to estimate the amount of their rise ; and I Pete
haps may have given some of my readers reas°llo;#
be satisfied, that whatever may be the drawb3,oo
on their progress—whatever the shadows 'urn°
their prosperity=they have felt, as a class, Slit./
small degree the exalting power of time. 11°- of
as we look back on the increasing intelligeneep
the working classes, now beginning to be tri,ich
valued, because it is seeking that knowledge "sabot
fortifies and guides it - can we doubt '-ro
their progress in , the future will be far fore
rapid, far more continuous and unbroken, far 1110,
splendid than the past. In the numerous eau i 0
tional institutions and public free libraries v° the
existence in our different towns and cities—illo
mental condition which demands and sus',, ,eet
them—we see the harbingers of a great suc',;lit
the dawn of a bright day. They assure ;110t,
society is beginning to be iprofoundly aware
its columns of support, whatever the buildillb„o
their capital, or the solidity of their shafts, Est
neither be elegant nor secure, as long as they
upon an ill-constructed, infirm, and unsightly ,0e
In these attenipts to raise the intellectual the
moral condition of the working man, we have t to
best earnest of the design which is to imPafood
the foundation of the social edifice a strength tots
beauty and nobleness of proportion, and to se:ty
the stability, and enhance the grandeur,,t
magnificent structure which it is his Ow"
sustain. [END OF PART FIRST.]

(3.) In former times, agricultural servants atteir;sl
the market for hire each wearing a badge or CrlEte for
mark expressive of his or her occupation. A carteiot;
instance, exhibited a piece of whipchord tied to his,irr
a cowherd had a lock of cow-hair in his ; and the u'llet
maid had the same 'descriptive mark attached t° to
bonnet. In Scotland and in the N.Orth of England, '1;04
a very late date, the same claSs'of agricultural lab°shea
who attend the different trysts or fairs are distinguitor
from others by wearing a portion of straw
bonnets or a " pada " of flowers at their breast.