PUBLISHED BY FOWLERS & WELLS, NO. 129 & 131 NASSAU STREET.

And the dead Past comes forth and reigns-like Death alone. The mighty Angels of delivering Fate,

Angels of Strength! majestic in their union,
With Infinite Will: thus mighty evermore.
Poet and Saint, and Sage, who patient bore
The cross, and drank the cup of deadly pain;
Who left their words and works upon the shore
Of Earth when they ascended ;-like a rain

Of lightnings, like an earthquake,--like a strain

Of seraph music, like a prophecy,

Man's fettered mind and heart to thrill, inspire, and free.
There wait they, consecrate, serene, divine,
The dawning of the New Earth's Eden time,

In mild omnipotence of virtue strong,

With silent prayer up lift, "How long, O, Lord! how long!"

CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES.*

James. One thing we know, for certain, that, in his calculation of the price of wheat, Mr. Macaulay is decidedly wrong-wrong in this way, that the average which he quotes is the highest that he could possibly select during two reigns. Our authority is Adam Smith, and it will be seen that his statement differs most materially from that of the accomplished historian.

"In 1688, Mr. Gregory King, a man famous for his knowledge of matters of this kind, estimated the average price of wheat, in years of moderate plenty, to be to the grower 3s. 6d. the bushel, or eight-and-twenty shillings the quarter. The grower's price I understand to be the same with what is sometimes called the contract price, or the price at which a farmer contracts for a certain number of years to deliver a certain quantity of corn to a dealer. As a contract of this kind saves the farmer the expense and trouble of marketing, the contract price is generally lower than what is supposed to be the average market price. Mr. King had judged eight-and-twenty shillings the quarter to be, at that time, the ordinary contract price in years of moderate plenty." -SMITH's Wealth of Nations.

Mr. Macaulay has devoted the most interesting chapter of his history to an investigation of the social state of England under the Stuarts. Many of his assertions have, as In corroboration of this view, if so eminent an authority we observe, been challenged; but there is one which, so as Adam Smith requires any corroboration, we subjoin the far as we are aware, has not yet been touched. That is, market price of wheat at Oxford for the four years of James's his picture of the condition of the laboring man. We do reign. The averages are struck from the highest and lowest not think it necessary to combat his theory, as to the de- prices calculated at Lady-day and Michaelmas.

lusion which he maintains to be so common, when we con

1685,

1686,

1687,

1688,

Average, per quarter,

43.8 per qr.

26.8

27.6

23.2

4)121.1

30.31

But the Oxford returns are always higher than those of

template the times which have gone by, and compare them with our own. There are many kinds of delusion, and we suspect that Mr. Macaulay himself is by no means free from the practice of using colored glasses to assist his natural vision. But there are certain facts which cannot, or ought not, to be perverted, and from those facts we may draw inferences which are almost next to certainty. Mr Macaulay, in estimating the condition of the laboring man in the reign of King James, very properly selects the rate of Mark Lane, which latter again are above the average of wages as a sound criterion. Founding upon data which the whole country. So that, in forming an estimate from are neither numerous nor distinct, he arrives at the conclu- such data, of the general price over England, we may be sion, that the wages of the agricultural laborer of that time, fairly entitled to deduct two shillings a quarter, which will or rather of the time of Charles II., were about half the give a result closely approximating to that of Gregory amount of the present ordinary rates. At least so we un- King. We may add, that this calculation was approved derstand him, though he admits that, in some parts of the of and repeated by Dr. Davenant, who is admitted even kingdom, wages were as high as six, or even seven shillings. by Mr. Macaulay to be a competent authority. The value, however, of these shillings-that is, the amount Keeping the above facts in view, let us attend to Mr. of commodities which they could purchase--must, as Mr. Doubleday's statement of the condition of the working Macaulay well knows, be taken into consideration; and men, in those despotic days, when national debts were unhere we apprehend that he is utterly wrong in his facts. known. It is diametrically opposed in every respect to The following is his summary:

that of Mr. Macaulay; and, from the character and re

"It seems clear, therefore that the wages of labor, estimat- search of the writer, is well entitled to examination :ed in money, were, in 1685, not more than half of what they "The condition of the working classes was proportionably now are; and there were few articles important to the working happy. Their wages were good, and their means far above man of which the price was not, in 1685, more than half of want, where common prudence was joined to ordinary strength. what it now is. Beer was undoubtedly much cheaper in that In the towns the dwellings were cramped, by most of the age than at present. Meat was also cheaper, but was still so towns being walled; but in the country, the laborers were dear that hundreds of thousands of families scarcely knew the mostly the owners of their own cottages and gardens, which taste of it. In the cost of wheat there has been very little change. studded the edges of the common lands that were appended The average price of the quarter, during the last twelve years to every township. The working classes, as well as the richof Charles II., was fifty shillings. Bread, therefore, such as is er people, kept all the church festivals, saints' days, and holinow given to the inmates of a workhouse, was then seldom days. Good Friday, Easter and its week, Whitsuntide, Shrove

a

seen, even on the trencher of a yeoman or shopkeeper. Tuesday, Ascension-day, Christmas, &c., were all religiously The great majority of the nation lived almost entirely on rye, observed. On every festival, good fare abounded from the barley, and oats."

palace to the cottage: and the poorest wore strong broad-cloth

If this be true, there must be a vast mistake somewhere and homespun linen, compared with which the flimsy fabrics -a delusion which most assuredly ought to be dispelled, of these times are mere worthless gossamers and cobwebs, if any amount of examination can serve that purpose. No whether strength or value be looked at. At this time, all the fact, we believe, has been so rural population brewed their own beer, which, except on fastwell ascertained, or so frequent- days, was the ordinary beverage of the working man. Flesh ly commented on, as the almost total disappearance of the meat was commonly eaten by all classes. The potato was once national estate of yeoman from the face of the land. little cultivated; oatmeal was hardly used; even bread was negHow this could have happened, if Mr. Macaulay is right, lected where wheat was not ordinarily grown, though wheatwe cannot understand; neither can we account for the en bread (contrary to what is sometimes asserted) was generphenomenon presented to us, by the exceedingly small ally consumed. In 1760, a later date, when George III. began amount of the poor-rates levied during the reign of King to reign, it was computed that the whole people of England (alone) amounted to six millions. Of these, three millions sev* From a most instructive article on "The National Debt en hundred and fifty thousand were believed to eat wheaten and the Stock Exchange," in Blackwood, for December. bread; seven hundred and thirty-nine thousand were computed to use barley bread; eight hundred and eighty-eight thousand, cultural laborer was the free master of his house and garrye bread, and six hundred and thirty-three thousand oat- den, and had, moreover, rights of pasturage and commonty, meal and oat-cakes. All, however, ate bacon or mutton, and all which have long ago disappeared. The lesser freeholds, drank beer and cider; tea and coffee being then principally also, have been in a great measure absorbed. When a this full mode of living were an evidence of the state of nation- great national poet put the following lines into the mouth al comfort prevailing. Surfeit, apoplexy, scrofula, gout, piles, of one of his characters,

consumed by the middle classes. The very diseases attending

and hepatitis; agues of all sorts, from the want of drainage;

and malignant fevers in the walled towns, from want of ventilation, were the ordinary complaints. But consumption in all its forms, marasmus and atrophy, owing to the better living and clothing, were comparatively unfrequent: and the types of fever, which are caused by want, equally so."

We shall fairly confess that we have been much confounded by the dissimilarity of the two pictures; for they probably furnish the strongest instance on record of two historians flatly contradicting each other. The worst of the matter is, that we have in reality few authentic data which can enable us to decide between them. So long as Gregory King speaks to broad facts and prices, he is, we think, accurate enough; but whenever he gives way, as he

"Even therefore grieve I for those yeomen,
England's peculiar and appropriate sons,
Known in no other land. Each boasts his hearth,
And field as free, as the best lord his barony,
Owing subjection to no human vassalage,
Save to their king and law. Hence are they resolute,
Leading the van on every day of battle,
As men who know the blessings they defend;
Hence are they frank and generous in peace,
As men who have their portion in its plenty.
No other kingdom shows such worth and happiness
Veiled in such low estate therefore I mourn them,"

we doubt not that he intended to refer to the virtual ex

tirpation of a race, which has long ago been compelled to part with its birthright, in order to satisfy the demands of does exceedingly often, to his speculative and calculating inexorable Mammon. Even whilst we are writing, a strong vein, we dare not trust him. For example, he has entered and unexpected corroboration of the correctness of our into an elaborate computation of the probable increase of views has appeared in the public prints. Towards the the people of England in succeeding years, and, after a commencement of the present month, November, a depushow of figures which might excite envy in the breast of tation from the agricultural laborers of Wiltshire waited the editor of the Economist, he demonstrates that the pop- upon the Hon. Sidney Herbert, to represent the misery of ulation in the year 1900 cannot exceed 7,350,000 souls. their present condition. Their wages, they said, were from With half a century to run, England has already more six to seven shillings a week, and they asked, with much than doubled the prescribed number. Now, though King reason, how, upon such a pittance, they could be expected eertainly does attempt to frame an estimate of the number to maintain their families. This is precisely the same of those who, in his time, did not indulge in butcher meat amount of nominal wages which Mr. Macaulay assigns to more than once a week, we cannot trust an assertion which the laborer of the time of King James. But, in order to was, in point of fact, neither more nor less than a wide equalize the values, we must add a third more to the latguess; but we may, with perfect safety, accept his prices ter, which is at once decisive of the question. Perhaps Mr. of provisions, which show that high living was clearly Macaulay, in a future edition, will condescend to explain how within the reach of the very poorest. Beef sold then at it is possible that the laborer of our times can be in a bet11d., and mutton at 24d. per lb.; so that the taste of those ter condition than his ancestor, seeing that the price of viands must have been tolerably well known to the hundrds wheat is nearly doubled, and that of butcher-meat fully of thousands of families whom Mr. Macaulay has condemned quadrupled? We are content to take his own authorities,

to the coarsest farinaceous diet.

King and Davenant, as to prices; and the results are now It is unfortunate that we have no clear evidence as to before the reader. the poor-rates, which can aid us in elucidating this matter. These remarks we have felt ourselves compelled to make, Mr. Macaulay, speaking of that impost, says, "It was com- because it is necessary that, before touching upon the inputed in the reign of Charles II., at near seven hundred stitution of the national debt, we should clearly understand thousand pounds a year, much more than the produce what was the true condition of the people. We believe it either of the excise or the customs, and little less than half possible to condense the leading features within the comthe entire revenue of the crown. The poor-rate went on pass of a single sentence. There were few colossal forincreasing rapidly, and appears to have risen in a short tunes, because there was no stock gambling; there was time to between eight and nine hundred thousand a year- little poverty, because taxation was extremely light, the that is to say, to one-sixth of what it now is. The popula- means of labor within the reach of all, prices moderate, tion was then less than one-third of what it now is." This and provisions plentiful: there was less luxury, but more view may be correct, but it is certainly not borne out by Mr. comfort, and that comfort far more equally distributed than Porter, who says that, "so recently as the reign of George now. It is quite true, that if a man breaks his arm at the II., the amount raised within the year for poor-rates and present day, he can have it better set; but rags and an county-rates in England and Wales was only £730,000. empty belly are worse evils than indifferent surgical treatThis was the average amount collected in the years 1748, ment.

1749, 1750." To establish anything like a rapid increase, we must assume a much lower figure than that from which Mr. Macaulay starts. A rise of £30,000 in some sixty years is no remarkable addition. Mr. Doubleday, as we have seen, estimates the amount of the rate at only £300,000.

[To be Continued.]

From the Liverpool Chronicle and European Times. FREEHOLD LAND SOCIETY.

The scheme to which we alluded a week or two back,

But even granting that the poor-rate was considered for enabling men in humble circumstances to secure the high in the days of James, it bore no proportion to the ex- county franchise by means of the Freehold Land Society, isting population such as that of the present impost. The has come prominently before the London public this week, population of England has trebled since then, and we have arising out of the meeting at the London Tavern, where seen the poor-rates rise to the enormous sum of seven mill- Mr. Cobden was the principal speaker. The scheme is ions. Surely that is no token of the superior comfort of eminently practical. One of the great drawbacks in proour people. We shall not do more than allude to another jects of this kind, is the absence of confidence in the mantopic, which, however, might well bear amplification. It agers or directors. Speculations in undertakings of this is beyond all doubt, that, before the revolution, the agri- description are rife enough, but they are generally by par