By

suburbs, where the workmen, having no ex- of the master mason, supposing him to have clusive privilege, have nothing but their char- been without employment one-third of the acter to depend upon, and you must then year, would have fully equalled them. smuggle it into the town as well as you can. the 12th of Queen Anne, c. 12. it is declared, It is in this manner that the policy of Eu- That whereas, for want of sufficient maintenrope, by restraining the competition in some ance and encouragement to curates, the employments to a smaller number than would cures have, in several places, been meanly otherwise be disposed to enter into them, oc- supplied, the bishop is, therefore, empowercasions a very important inequality in the ed to appoint, by writing under his hand whole of the advantages and disadvantages of and seal, a sufficient certain stipend or al the different employments of labour and stock.lowance, not exceeding fifty, and not less Secondly, The policy of Europe, by increas- than twenty pounds a-year.' Forty pounds ing the competition in some employments be- a-year is reckoned at present very good pay for yond what it naturally would be, occasions a curate; and, notwithstanding this act of another inequality, of an opposite kind, in the parliament, there are many curacies under whole of the advantages and disadvantages of twenty pounds a-year. There are journeythe different employments of labour and stock. men shoemakers in London who earn forty It has been considered as of so much im- pounds a-year, and there is scarce an indusportance that a proper number of young peo- trious workman of any kind in that metropople should be educated for certain professions, lis who does not earn more than twenty. that sometimes the public, and sometimes the This last sum, indeed, does not exceed what piety of private founders, have established is frequently earned by common labourers in many pensions, scholarships, exhibitions, bur- many country parishes. Whenever the law saries, &c. for this purpose, which draw many has attempted to regulate the wages of workmore people into those trades than could men, it has always been rather to lower them otherwise pretend to follow them. In all than to raise them. But the law has, upon Christian countries, I believe, the education many occasions, attempted to raise the wages of of the greater part of churchmen is paid for curates, and, for the dignity of the church, to in this manner. Very few of them are edu-oblige the rectors of parishes to give them cated altogether at their own expense. The more than the wretched maintenance which long, tedious, and expensive education, there- they themselves might be willing to accept of. fore, of those who are, will not always pro- And, in both cases, the law seems to have cure them a suitable reward, the church being been equally ineffectual, and has never either crowded with people, who, in order to get been able to raise the wages of curates, or to employment, are willing to accept of a much sink those of labourers to the degree that was smaller recompence than what such an edu- intended; because it has never been able to cation would otherwise have entitled them to; hinder either the one from being willing to and in this manner the competition of the accept of less than the legal allowance, on acpoor takes away the reward of the rich. It count of the indigence of their situation and would be indecent, no doubt, to compare the multitude of their competitors, or the either a curate or a chaplain with a journeyman in any common trade. The pay of a curate or chaplain, however, may very properly be considered as of the same nature with the wages of a journeyman. They are all The great benefices and other ecclesiastical three paid for their work according to the dignities support the honour of the church, contract which they may happen to make notwithstanding the mean circumstances of with their respective superiors. Till after the some of its inferior members. middle of the fourteenth century, five merks, paid to the profession, too, makes some comcontaining about as much silver as ten pounds pensation even to them for the meanness of of our present money, was in England the their pecuniary recompence. In England, usual pay of a curate or a stipendiary parish and in all Roman catholic countries, the lotpriest, as we find it regulated by the decrees of tery of the church is in reality much more adseveral different national councils. At the same vantageous than is necessary. The example period, fourpence a-day, containing the same of the churches of Scotland, of Geneva, and quantity of silver as a shilling of our present of several other protestant churches, may samoney, was declared to be the pay of a mas- tisfy us, that in so creditable a profession, in ter mason; and threepence a-day, equal to which education is so easily procured, the ninepence of our present money, that of a hopes of much more moderate benefices will journeyman mason *. The wages of both draw a sufficient number of learned, decent, these labourers, therefore, supposing them to and respectable men into holy orders. have been constantly employed, were much superior to those of the curate. The wages

* See the Statute of Labourers, 25, Ed. 111.

other from receiving more, on account of the contrary competition of those who expected to derive either profit or pleasure from employing them.

The respect

In professions in which there are no benefices, such as law and physic, if an equal proportion of people were educated at the public expense, the competition would scor be

66

great as to sink very much their pecuniary re- | with inconsistency. They make the most ward. It might then not be worth any man's magnificent promises to their scholars," says while to educate his son to either of those he, " and undertake to teach them to be wise, professions at his own expense. They would to be happy, and to be just; and, in return be entirely abandoned to such as had been for so important a service, they stipulate the educated by those public charities, whose num- paltry reward of four or five minæ." "They bers and necessities would oblige them in ge- who teach wisdom," continues he, "ought neral to content themselves with a very miser- certainly to be wise themselves; but if any man able recompence, to the entire degradation of were to sell such a bargain for such a price, the now respectable professions of law and he would be convicted of the most evident physic. folly." He certainly does not mean here to That unprosperous race of men, commonly exaggerate the reward, and we may be assured called men of letters, are pretty much in the that it was not less than he represents it. situation which lawyers and physicians proba- Four mine were equal to thirteen pounds six bly would be in, upon the foregoing supposi-shillings and eightpence; five mine to sixteen tion. In every part of Europe, the greater pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence.part of them have been educated for the Something not less than the largest of those church, but have been hindered by different reasons from entering into holy orders. They have generally, therefore, been educated at the public expense; and their numbers are everywhere so great, as commonly to reduce the price of their labour to a very paltry recompence.

two sums, therefore, must at that time have been usually paid to the most eminent teachers at Athens. Isocrates himself demanded ten minæ, or L.33.6: 8 from each scholar. When he taught at Athens, he is said to have had a hundred scholars. I understand this to be the number whom he taught at one Before the invention of the art of printing, time, or who attended what we would call one the only employment by which a man of let- course of lectures; a number which will not ters could make any thing by his talents, was appear extraordinary from so great a city to so hat of a public or private teacher, or by com- famous a teacher, who taught, too, what was municating to other people the curious and at that time the most fashionable of all sciuseful knowledge which he had acquired ences, rhetoric. He must have made, there. himself; and this is still surely a more hon-fore, by each course of lectures, a thousand ourable, a more useful, and, in general, even minæ, or L.3333 : 6 : 8. A thousand mine, a more profitable employment than that other accordingly, is said by Plutarch, in another of writing for a bookseller, to which the art | place, to have been his didactron, or usual of printing has given occasion. The time price of teaching. Many other eminent teachand study, the genius, knowledge, and appli-ers in those times appear to have acquired cation requisite to qualify an eminent teacher great fortunes. Georgias made a present to of the sciences, are at least equal to what is the temple of Delphi of his own statue in solid necessary for the greatest practitioners in law gold. We must not, I presume, suppose that and physic. But the usual reward of the it was as large as the life. His way of living, eminent teacher bears no proportion to that of as well as that of Hippias and Protagoras, two the lawyer or physician, because the trade of other eminent teachers of those times, is rethe one is crowded with indigent people, who presented by Plato as splendid, even to ostenhave been brought up to it at the public ex-tation. Plato himself is said to have lived pense; whereas those of the other two are en- with a good deal of magnificence. Aristotle, cumbered with very few who have not been after having been tutor to Alexander, and educated at their own. The usual recom- most munificently rewarded, as it is univerpence, however, of public and private teach-sally agreed, both by him and his father, ers, small as it may appear, would undoubtedly be less than it is, if the competition of those yet more indigent men of letters, who write for bread, was not taken out of the market. Before the invention of the art of printing, a scholar and a beggar seem to have been terms very nearly synonymous. The different governors of the universities, before that time, appear to have often granted licences to their scholars to beg.

Philip, thought it worth while, notwithstanding, to return to Athens, in order to resume the teaching of his school. Teachers of the sciences were probably in those times less common than they came to be in an age or two afterwards, when the competition had probably somewhat reduced both the price of their labour and the admiration for their persons. The most eminent of them, however, appear always to have enjoyed a degree of In ancient times, before any charities of this consideration much superior to any of the like kind had been established for the education of profession in the present times. The Atheindigent people to the learned professions, thenians sent Carneades the academic, and Diorewards of eminent teachers appear to have genes the stoic, upon a solemn embassy to been much more considerable. Isocrates, in Rome; and though their city had then dewhat is called his discourse against the soph-clined from its former grandeur, it was still ists, reproaches the teachers of his own times an independent and considerable republic.

Carneades, too, was a Babylonian by birth; and as there never was a people more jealous of admitting foreigners to public offices than the Athenians, their consideration for him must have been very great.

men of other decaying manufactures, who, wherever the statute of apprenticeship takes place, have no other choice, but either to come upon the parish, or to work as common labourers; for which, by their habits, they are much worse qualified than for any sort of ma

own. They generally, therefore, chuse to come upon the parish.

This inequality is, upon the whole, perhaps rather advantageous than hurtful to the pub-nufacture that bears any resemblance to their lic. It may somewhat degrade the profession of a public teacher; but the cheapness of literary education is surely an advantage which greatly overbalances this trifling inconveniency. The public, too, might derive still greater benefit from it, if the constitution of those schools and colleges, in which education is carried on, was more reasonable than it is at present through the greater part of Europe. Thirdly, the policy of Europe, by obstruct. ing the free circulation of labour and stock, both from employment to employment, and from place to place, occasions, in some cases, a very inconvenient inequality in the whole of the advantages and disadvantages of their different employments.

Whatever obstructs the free circulation of labour from one employment to another, obstructs that of stock likewise; the quantity of stock which can be employed in any branch of business depending very much upon that of the labour which can be employed in it. Corporation laws, however, give less obstruction to the free circulation of stock from one place to another, than to that of labour. It is everywhere much easier for a wealthy merchant to obtain the privilege of trading in a town-corporate, than for a poor artificer to obtain that of working in it.

The obstruction which corporation laws The statute of apprenticeship obstructs the give to the free circulation of labour is comfree circulation of labour from one employ-mon, I believe, to every part of Europe. ment to another, even in the same place. That which is given to it by the poor laws is, The exclusive privileges of corporations ob so far as I know, peculiar to England. It struct it from one place to another, even in consists in the difficulty which a poor man the same employment. finds in obtaining a settlement, or even in beIt frequently happens, that while high ing allowed to exercise his industry in any wages are given to the workmen in one ma- parish but that to which he belongs. It is nufacture, those in another are obliged to con- the labour of artificers and manufacturers tent themselves with bare subsistence. The only of which the free circulation is obstructone is in an advancing state, and has there-ed by corporation laws. The difficulty of obfore a continual demand for new hands; the taining settlements obstructs even that of comother is in a declining state, and the super-mon labour. It may be worth while to give abundance of hands is continually increasing. some account of the rise, progress, and preThose two manufactures may sometimes be sent state of this disorder, the greatest, perin the same town, and sometimes in the same haps, of any in the police of England. neighbourhood, without being able to lend When, by the destruction of monasteries, the the least assistance to one another. The sta-poor had been deprived of the charity of those tute of apprenticeship may oppose it in the religious houses, after some other ineffectual one case, and both that and an exclusive cor- attempts for their relief, it was enacted, by the poration in the other. In many different ma-43d of Elizabeth, c. 2. that every parish nufactures, however, the operations are so should be bound to provide for its own poor, much alike, that the workmen could easily and that overseers of the poor should be annuchange trades with one another, if those ab-ally appointed, who, with the church-wardens, surd laws did not hinder them. The arts of should raise, by a parish rate, competent sums weaving plain linen and plain silk, for ex- for this purpose. ample, are almost entirely the same. That of By this statute, the necessity of providing weaving plain woollen is somewhat different; for their own poor was indispensably imposed but the difference is so insignificant, that upon every parish. Who were to be coneither a linen or a silk weaver might become sidered as the poor of each parish became, a tolerable workman in a very few days. If therefore, a question of some importance. any of those three capital manufactures, there- This question, after some variation, was at fore, were decaying, the workmen might find last determined by the 13th and 14th of a resource in one of the other two which was Charles II. when it was enacted, that forty in a more prosperous condition; and their days undisturbed residence should gain any wages would neither rise too high in the person a settlement in any parish; but that thriving, nor sink too low in the decaying ma- within that time it should be lawful for two nufacture. The linen manufacture, indeed, justices of the peace, upon complaint made is in England, by a particular statute, open by the church-wardens or overseers of the to every body; but as it is not much cultivat-poor, to remove any new inhabitant to the ed through the greater part of the country, it parish where he was last legally settled; uncan afford no general resource to the work-less he either rented a tenement of ten pounds

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 clan- No married man can well gain any settledestinely to another parish, and, by keeping ment in either of the two last ways. An apthemselves concealed for forty days, to gain a prentice is scarce ever married; and it is exsettlement there, to the discharge of that to pressly enacted, that no married servant shall which they properly belonged. It was enact- gain any settlement by being hired for a year. ed, therefore, by the 1st of James II. that the The principal effect of introducing settlement forty days undisturbed residence of any per- by service, has been to put out in a great meason necessary to gain a settlement, should be sure the old fashion of hiring for a year; accounted only from the time of his deliver-which before had been so customary in Enging 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 every servant is hired for a year. But maswhere he came to dwell. ters are not always willing to give their servants a settlement by hiring them in this manner; and servants are not always willing to be 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.

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 Sd 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 reBut 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 settleacnt uncontested, by suffering him to continue forty days, or by removing him to try the right."

move.

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 labour 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. impracticable 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 III. it was ensecurity 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 upon 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. lieved by their superabundance in another, as

tries.

How far this invention has restored that free it is constantly in Scotland, 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 tow, 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 in 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