412

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CI | I * P - therefore conclude that, in the generation which precededthe Revolution, a workman employed in the great staplemanufacture of England thought himself fairly paid if hegained six shillings a week.

Labour of It may here be noticed that the practice of setting children

children J , f °

in facto- prematurely to work, a practice which the state, the legitimate

protector of those who cannot protect themselves, has, in ourtime, wisely and humanely interdicted, prevailed in the seven-teenth century to an extent which, when compared with theextent of the manufacturing system, seems almost incredible.At Norwich, the chief seat of the clothing trade, a littlecreature of six years old was thought fit for labour. Severalwriters of that time, and among them some who were con-sidered as eminently benevolent, mention, with exultation,the fact that in that single city boys and girls of very tenderage created wealth exceeding what was necessary for theirown subsistence by twelve thousand pounds a year. * Themore carefully we examine the history of the past, the morereason shall we find to dissent from those who imagine thatour age has been fruitful of new social evils. The truth is thatthe evils are, with scarcely an exception, old. That which isnew is the intelligence which discerns and the humanity whichremedies them.

Wages of When we pass from the weavers of cloth to a differentclasses of class of artisans, our inquiries will still lead us to nearly theartisans. same conclusions. During several generations, the Com-missioners of Greenwich Hospital have kept a register of the

And thus we do gain all our wealth and estate,

By many poor men that work early and late.

Then hey for the clothing trade! It goes on brave;

We scorn for to toyl and moyi, nor yet to slave.

Our workmen do work hard, but we live at ease.

We go when we will, and we come when we please.”

' Chamberlayne’s State of England; Petty’s Political Arithmetic,chapter viii.; Dunning’s Plain and Easy Method; Firmin’s Propositionfor the Employing of the Poor. It ought to be observed that Firmin wasan eminent philanthropist.