a-year, or could give such security for the dis.. the whole parish, who are too well aware of charge of the parish where he was then liv- the consequences to adopt any new-comer, ing, as those justices should judge sufficient. who has nothing but his labour to support Some frauds, it is said, were committed in him, either by taxing him to parish rates, or consequence of this statute; parish officers by electing him into a parish office. sometimes bribing their own poor to go clandestinely to another parish, and, by keeping themselves concealed for forty days, to gain a settlement there, to the discharge of that to which they properly belonged. It was enacted, therefore, by the 1st of James II. that the forty days undisturbed residence of any person necessary to gain a settlement, should be accounted only from the time of his delivering notice, in writing, of the place of his a- land, that even at this day, if no particular bode and the number of his family, to one of term is agreed upon, the law intends that the church-wardens or overseers of the parish where he came to dwell. But parish officers, it seems, were not always more honest with regard to their own than they had been with regard to other parishes, and sometimes connived at such intrusions, receiving the notice, and taking no proper steps in consequence of it. As every person in a parish, therefore, was supposed to have an interest to prevent as much as possible their being burdened by such intruders, it was further enacted by the 3d of William III. that the forty days residence should be accounted only from the publication of such notice in writing on Sunday in the church, immediately after divine service. "After all," says Doctor Burn, "this kind of settlement, by continuing forty days after publication of notice in writing, is very seldom obtained; and the design of the acts is not so much for gaining of settlements, as for the avoiding of them by persons coming into a parish clandestinely, for the giving of notice is only putting a force upon the parish to remove. But if a person's situation is such, that it is doubtful whether he is actually removable or not, he shall, by giving of notice, compel the parish either to allow him a settlement uncontested, by suffering him to continue forty days, or by removing him to try the right." No married man can well gain any settlement in either of the two last ways. An apprentice is scarce ever married; and it is expressly enacted, that no married servant shall gain any settlement by being hired for a year The principal effect of introducing settlement by service, has been to put out in a great measure the old fashion of hiring for a year; which before had been so customary in Eng every servant is hired for a year. But masters are not always willing to give their servants a settlement by hiring them in this man ner; and servants are not always willing to b so hired, because, as every last settlement discharges all the foregoing, they might thereby lose their original settlement in the places of their nativity, the habitation of their parents and relations. No independent workman, it is evident, whether labourer or artificer, is likely to gain any new settlement, either by apprenticeship or by service. When such a person, therefore, carried his industry to a new parish, he was liable to be removed, how healthy and industrious soever, at the caprice of any churchwarden or overseer, unless he either rented a tenement of ten pounds a-year, a thing im possible for one who has nothing but his la bour to live by, or could give such security for the discharge of the parish as two justices of the peace should judge sufficient. What security they shall require, indeed, is left altogether to their discretion; but they cannot well require less than thirty pounds, it having been enacted, that the purchase even of a freehold estate of less than thirty pounds value, shall not gain any person a settlement, as not being sufficient for the discharge of the parish. But this is a security which scarce any man who lives by labour can give; and This statute, therefore, rendered it almost much greater security is frequently demanded. impractical for a poor man to gain a new In order to restore, in some measure, that settlement in the old way, by forty days inha- free circulation of labour which those differbitancy. But that it might not appear to pre-ent statutes had almost entirely taken away, clude altogether the common people of one the invention of certificates was fallen upon. parish from ever establishing themselves with By the 8th and 9th of William II1. it was en security in another, it appointed four other acted that if any person should bring a certiways by which a settlement might be gained ficate from the parish where he was last legalwithout any notice delivered or published. ly settled, subscribed by the church-wardens The first was, by being taxed to parish rates and overseers of the poor, and allowed by two and paying them; the second, by being elect- justices of the peace, that every other parish ed into an annual parish office, and serving in should be obliged to receive him; that he it a year; the third, by serving an apprentice. should not be removable merely upon account ship in the parish; the fourth, by being hired of his being likely to become chargeable, but into service there for a year, and continuing only upon his becoming actually chargeable; in the same service during the whole of it. and that then the parish which granted the Nobody can gain a settlement by either of certificate should be obliged to pay the exthe two first ways, but by the public deed of pense both of his maintenance and of his re moval. And in order to give the most per- The very unequal price of labour which we fect security to the parish where such certifi- frequently find in England, in places at no cated man should come to reside, it was fur- great distance from one another, is probably ther enacted by the same statute, that he should owing to the obstruction which the law of gain no settlement there by any means what-settlements gives to a poor man who would ever, except either by renting a tenement of carry his industry from one parish to another ten pounds a-year, or by serving apon his own without a certificate. A single man, indeed, account in an annual parish office for one who is healthy and industrious, may somewhole year; and consequently neither by no- times reside by sufferance without one, but a tice nor by service, nor by apprenticeship, nor man with a wife and family who should atby paying parish rates. By the 12th of Queen tempt to do so, would, in most parishes, be Anne, too, stat. 1, c. 18, it was further en-sure of being removed; and, if the single man acted, that neither the servants nor apprentices should afterwards marry, he would generally of such certificated man should gain any settle-be removed likewise. The scarcity of hands ment in the parish where he resided under in one parish, therefore, cannot always be resuch certificate. tries. lieved by their superabundance in another, as How far this invention has restored that free it is constantly in Scotlan-1, and, I believe, in circulation of labour, which the preceding sta- all other countries where there is no difficulty tutes had almost entirely taken away, we may of settlement. In such countries, though learn from the following very judicious obser- wages may sometimes rise a little in the neighvation of Doctor Burn. "It is obvious," bourhood of a great town, or wherever else says he, "that there are divers good reasons there is an extraordinary demand for labour, and for requiring certificates with persons coming sink gradually as the distance from such places to settle in any place; namely, that persons increases, till they fall back to the common residing under them can gain no settlement, rate of the country, yet we never meet with neither by apprenticeship, nor by service, nor those sudden and unaccountable differences in by giving notice, nor by paying parish rates; the wages of neighbouring places which we that they can settle neither apprentices nor sometimes find in England, where it is often servants; that if they become chargeable, it is more difficult for a poor man to pass the articertainly known whither to remove them, and ficial boundary of a parish, than an arm of the the parish shall be paid for the removal, and sea, or a ridge of high mountains, natural for their maintenance in the mean time; and boundaries which sometimes separate very disthat, if they fall sick, and cannot be removed, tinctly different rates of wages in other counthe parish which gave the certificate must maintain them; none of all which can be with- To remove a man who has committed no misout a certificate. Which reasons will hold demeanour, from the parish where he chooses proportionably for parishes not granting cer- to reside, is an evident violation of natural tificates in ordinary cases; for it is far more liberty and justice. The common people of than an equal chance, but that they will have England, however, so jealous of their liberty, the certificated persons again, and in a worse but like the common people of most other condition." The moral of this observation countries, never rightly understanding whereseems to be, that certificates ought always to in it consists, have now, for more than a cenbe required by the parish where any poor man tury together, suffered themselves to be excomes to reside, and that they ought very sel-posed to this oppression without a remedy. dom to be granted by that which he purposes Though men of reflection, too, have someto leave. "There is somewhat of hardship times complained of the law of settlements as in this matter of certificates," says the same a public grievance; yet it has never been the very intelligent author, in his History of the object of any general popular clamour, such Poor Laws, "by putting it in the power of a as that against general warrants, an abusive parish officer to imprison a man as it were for practice undoubtedly, but such a one as was life, however inconvenient it may be for him not likely to occasion any general oppression. to continue at that place where he has had the There is scarce a poor man in England, of misfortune to acquire what is called a settle- forty years of age, I will venture to say, who ment, or whatever advantage he may propose has not, in some part of his life, felt himself to himself by living elsewhere." most cruelly oppressed by this ill-contrived law of settlements. Though a certificate carries along with it no testimonial of good behaviour, and certifies I shall conclude this long chapter with obnothing but that the person belongs to the pa-serving, that though anciently it was usual to rish to which he really does belong, it is alto-rate wages, first by general laws extending gether discretionary in the parish officers either over the whole kingdom, and afterwards by to grant or to refuse it. A mandamus was particular orders of the justices of peace ir once moved for, says Doctor Burn, to compel every particular county, both these practices the church-wardens and overseers to sign a have now gone entirely into disuse "By the certificate; but the Court of King's Bench experience of above four hundred years," says rejected the motion as a very strange attempt. Doctor Burn, "it seems time to lay aside all Note 13. endeavours to bring under strict regulations, | size occasioned no sensible inconveniency; what in its own nature seems incapable of mi-and the establishment of one in the few places nute limitation; for if all persons in the same where it has yet taken place has produced no kind of work were to receive equal wages, sensible advantage. In the greater part of the there would be no emulation, and no room towns in Scotland, however, there is an inleft for industry or ingenuity.' corporation of bakers, who claim exclusive Particular acts of parliament, however, still privileges, though they are not very strictly attempt sometimes to regulate wages in parti- guarded. cular trades, and in particular places. Thus The proportion between the different rates, the 8th of George III. prohibits, under heavy both of wages and profit, in the different empenalties, all master tailors in London, and ployments of labour and stock, seems not to five miles round it, from giving, and their be much affected, as has already been ob workmen from accepting, more than two shil-served, by the riches or poverty, the advancing, lings and sevenpence halfpenny a-day, except stationary, or declining state of the society. in the case of a general mourning. When- Such revolutions in the public welfare, though ever the legislature attempts to regulate the they affect the general rates both of wages and differences between masters and their work-profit, must, in the end, affect them equally in men, its counsellors are always the masters. all different employments. The proportion When the regulation, therefore, is in favour between them, therefore, must remain the of the workmen, it is always just and equit. same, and cannot well be altered, at least for able; but it is sometimes otherwise when in any considerable time, by any such revolutions. favour of the masters. Thus the law which obliges the masters in several different trades to pay their workmen in money, and not in goods, is quite just and equitable. It imposes no real hardship upon the masters. It only obliges them to pay that value in money, which they pretended to pay, but did not always really pay, in goods. This law is in favour of the workmen; but the 8th of George III. is in favour of the masters. When masters com- RENT, considered as the price paid for the use bine together, in order to reduce the wages of of land, is naturally the highest which the their workmen, they commonly enter into a tenant can afford to pay in the actual circumprivate bond or agreement, not to give more stances of the land. In adjusting the terms than a certain wage, under a certain penalty. of the lease, the landlord endeavours to leave Were the workmen to enter into a contrary him no greater share of the produce than what combination of the same kind, not to accept is sufficient to keep up the stock from which of a certain wage, under a certain penalty, the he furnishes the seed, pays the labour, and law would punish them very severely; and, purchases and maintains the cattle and other if it dealt impartially, it would treat the mas- instruments of husbandry, together with the ters in the same manner. But the 8th of ordinary profits of farming stock in the neighGeorge III. enforces by law that very regula-bourhood. This is evidently the smallest share tion which masters sometimes attempt to establish by such combinations. The complaint of the workmen, that it puts the ablest and most industrious upon the same footing with an ordinary workman, scems perfectly well founded. CHAP. XI. OF THE RENT OF LAND. with which the tenant can content himself, without being a loser, and the landlord seldom means to leave him any more. Whatever part of the produce, or, what is the same thing, whatever part of its price, is over and above this share, he naturally endeavours to In ancient times, too, it was usual to at- reserve to himself as the rent of his land, tempt to regulate the profits of merchants and which is evidently the highest the tenant can other dealers, by regulating the price of pro- afford to pay in the actual circumstances of visions and other goods. The assize of bread the land. Sometimes, indeed, the liberality, is, so far as I know, the only remnant of this more frequently the ignorance, of the landancient usage. Where there is an exclusive lord, makes him accept of somewhat less than corporation, it may, perhaps, be proper to re- this portion; and sometimes, too, though more gulate the price of the first necessary of life; rarely, the ignorance of the tenant makes him but, where there is none, the competition will undertake to pay somewhat more, or to conregulate it much better than any assize. The tent himself with somewhat less, than the or method of fixing the assize of bread, establish- dinary profits of farming stock in the neigh ed by the 31st of George II. could not be put bourhood. This portion, however, may still in practice in Scotland, on account of a defect be considered as the natural rent of land, or in the law, its execution depending upon the the rent at which it is naturally meant that office of clerk of the market, which does not land should, for the most part, be let. exist there. This defect was not remedied till The rent of land, it may be thought, is fre the third of George III. The want of an as-quently no more than a reasonable profit or interest for the stock laid out by the landlord | such as to afford this greater price. The for upon its improvement. This, no doubt, may mer must always afford a rent to the landlord. be partly the case upon some occasions; for it The latter sometimes may and sometimes may can scarce ever be more than partly the case. not, according to different circumstances. The landlord demands a rent even for unim- Rent, it is to be observed, therefore, enters proved land, and the supposed interest or pro- into the composition of the price of commofit upon the expense of improvement is gene-dities in a different way from wages and prorally an addition to this original rent. Those fit. High or low wages and profit are the improvements, besides, are not always made causes of high or low price; high or low rent by the stock of the landlord, but sometimes is the effect of it. It is because high or low by that of the tenant. When the lease comes wages and profit must be paid, in order to to be renewed, however, the landlord com- bring a particular commodity to market, that monly demands the same augmentation of rent its price is high or low. But it is because its as if they had been all made by his own. price is high or low, a great deal more, or He sometimes demands rent for what is al- very little more, or no more, than what is suftogether incapable of human improvements. ficient to pay those wages and profit, that it Kelp is a species of sea-weed, which, when affords a high rent, or a low rent, or no rent burnt, yields an alkaline salt, useful for mak-at all. ing glass, soap, and for several other purposes. The particular consideration, first, of those It grows in several parts of Great Britain, parts of the produce of land which always af particularly in Scotland, upon such rocks only ford some rent; secondly, of those which someas lie within the high-water mark, which are times may and sometimes may not afford rent; twice every day covered with the sea, and of and, thirdly, of the variations which, in the which the produce, therefore, was never augmented by human industry. The landlord, however, whose estate is bounded by a kelp shore of this kind, demands a rent for it as much as for his corn-fields. different periods of improvement, naturally take place in the relative value of those two different sorts of rude produce, when com. pared both with one another and with manufactured commodities, will divide this chapter into three parts. Note 14. The sea in the neighbourhood of the islands of Shetland is more than commonly abundant in fish, which makes a great part of the subsistence of their inhabitants. But, in order PART I.-Of the Produce of Land which alto profit by the produce of the water, they ways affords Rent. must have a habitation upon the neighbouring The land. The rent of the landlord is in propor- As men, like all other animals, naturally multion, not to what the farmer can make by the tiply in proportion to the means of their subland, but to what he can make both by the sistence, food is always more or less in deland and the water. It is partly paid in sea-mand. It can always purchase or command fish; and one of the very few instances in a greater or smaller quantity of labour, and which rent makes a part of the price of that somebody can always be found who is willing commodity, is to be found in that country. to do something in order to obtain it. The rent of land, therefore, considered as quantity of labour, indeed, which it can pur. the price paid for the use of the land, is natu- chase, is not always equal to what could rally a monopoly price. It is not at all pro- maintain, if managed in the most economical portioned to what the landlord may have laid manner, on account of the high wages which cut upon the improvement of the land, or to are sometimes given to labour; but it can al what he can afford to take, but to what the ways purchase such a quantity of labour as it farmer can afford to give. can maintain, according to the rate at which that sort of labour is commonly maintained in the neighbourhood. Such parts only of the produce of land can commonly be brought to market, of which the ordinary price is sufficient to replace the stock But land, in almost any situation, produces which must be employed in bringing them a greater quantity of food than what is suffithither, together with its ordinary profits. If cient to maintain all the labour necessary for the ordinary price is more than this, the sur- bringing it to market, in the most liberal way plus part of it will naturally go to the rent of in which that labour is ever maintained. The the land. If it is not more, though the commodity may be brought to market, it can afford no rent to the landlord. Whether the price is, or is not more, depends upon the de mand. There are some parts of the produce of land, for which the demand must always be such as to afford a greater price than what is sufficient to bring them to market; and there are others for which it either may or may not be surplus, too, is always more than sufficient to replace the stock which employed that labour, together with its profits. Something, there fore, always remains for a rent to the land lord. The most desert moors in Norway and Scotland produce some sort of pasture for cattle, of which the milk and the increase are always more than sufficient, not only to maintain all the labour necessary for tending them, and to pay the ordinary profit to the farmer or the the best pasture of equal extent. Though its owner of the herd or flock, but to afford some cultivation requires much more labour, yet the small rent to the landlord. The rent increases surplus which remains after replacing the seed in proportion to the goodness of the pasture. and maintaining all that labour, is likewise The same extent of ground not only main- much greater. If a pound of butcher's meat, tains a greater number of cattle, but as they therefore, was never supposed to be worth more are brought within a smaller compass, less la- than a pound of bread, this greater surplus bour becomes requisite to tend them, and to would everywhere be of greater value and collect their produce. The landlord gains constitute a greater fund, both for the profit both ways; by the increase of the produce, of the farmer and the rent of the landlord. It and by the diminution of the labour which seems to have done so universally in the rude must be maintained out of it. beginnings of agriculture. The rent of land not only varies with its But the relative values of those two differfertility, whatever be its produce, but with its ent species of food, bread and butcher's meat, situation, whatever be its fertility. Land in are very different in the different periods of the neighbourhood of a town gives a greater agriculture. In its rude beginnings, the ur rent than land equally fertile in a distant part improved wilds, which then occupy the far of the country. Though it may cost no more greater part of the country, are all abandoned labour to cultivate the one than the other, it to cattle. There is more butcher's meat than must always cost more to bring the produce bread; and bread, therefore, is the food for of the distant land to market. A greater which there is the greatest competition, and quantity of labour, therefore, must be main- which consequently brings the greatest price. tained out of it; and the surplus, from which At Buenos Ayres, we are told by Ulloa, four are drawn both the profit of the farmer and reals, one-and-twenty pence halfpenny sterling, the rent of the landlord, must be diminished. was, forty or fifty years ago, the ordinary price But in remote parts of the country, the rate of an ox, chosen from a herd of two or three of profit, as has already been shewn, is gene- hundred. He says nothing of the price of rally higher than in the neighbourhood of a bread, probably because he found nothing reAn ox there, he says, large town. A smaller proportion of this di-markable about it. minished surplus, therefore, must belong to costs little more than the labour of catching the landlord. him. But corn can nowhere be raised with- Good roads, canals, and navigable rivers, by diminishing the expense of carriage, put the remote parts of the country more nearly upon a level with those in the neighbourhood of the town. They are upon that account the greatest of all improvements. They encourage the cultivation of the remote, which must always be the most extensive circle of the country. They are advantageous to the town by breaking down the monopoly of the counuy in its neighbourhood. They are advan- By the extension, besides, of cultivation, tageous even to that part of the country. the unimproved wilds become insufficient to Though they introduce some rival commodi- supply the demand for butcher's meat. ties into the old market, they open many new great part of the cultivated lands must be emmarkets to its produce. Monopoly, besides, ployed in rearing and fattening cattle; of which is a great enemy to good management, which the price, therefore, must be sufficient to pay, can never be universally established, but in not only the labour necessary for tending them, consequence of that free and universal com- but the rent which the landlord, and the pro petition which forces every body to have re- fit which the farmer, could have drawn from course to it for the sake of self-defence. It such land employed in tillage. The cattle A is not more than fifty years ago, that some of bred upon the most uncultivated moors, when the counties in the neighbourhood of London brought to the same market, are, in propor petitioned the parliament against the exten- tion to their weight or goodness, sold at the sion of the turnpike roads into the remoter same price as those which are reared upon the counties. Those remoter counties, they pre- most improved land. The proprietors of those tended, from the cheapness of labour, would moors profit by it, and raise the rent of their be able to sell their grass and corn cheaper in land in proportion to the price of their cattle. the London market than themselves, and would It is not more than a century ago, that in thereby reduce their rents, and ruin their cul- many parts of the Highlands of Scotland, tivation. Their rents, however, have risen, butcher's meat was as cheap or cheaper than and their cultivation has been improved since even bread made of oatmea'. that time. A corn field of moderate fertility produces a much greater quantity of food for man, than The Union opened the market of England to the Highland cattle. Their ordinary price, at present, is about three times greater than at the begin |