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The Country Gentkmaiis Magazine 



LORD PORT MAN ON WAGES AND UNIONS. 



IN his charge at the Dorset Quarter Ses- 

 sions on Wednesday, Lord Portman 

 dwelt largely on the agricultural labour ques- 

 tion. I think, he said, you will probably 

 feel that I ought to say a word or two about 

 that which is now occupying men's minds 

 very much — the position of the employer 

 and the employed. Some people have said 

 that the justices ought to interpose to en- 

 deavour to settle this great question of the 

 wages of those who are employed in agricul- 

 ture in particular, and in all the other occu- 

 pations of life ; but it is my duty to tell you 

 we have no power, no authority, and that it 

 is not at all within our province as magis- 

 trates to interfere in this matter at all, because 

 the power which we had was repealed in the 

 year 1813, and without troubling you with a 

 long story about the old law, I may remind 

 you for a moment what I mean by saying 

 our powers were taken away in 18 13. In 

 the fifth year of Elizabeth, chapter 4, in 1562, 

 magistrates in quarter sessions were ordered 

 every Easter to fix the standard of wages for 

 everybody, be he artizan, mechanic, agricul- 

 tural labourer, farm bailiff, or what else he 

 might have been. They were ordered by that 

 statute to fix the wages, and any man who 

 either paid or received higher wages was 

 liable to be committed to prison for fourteen 

 days. It is antiquarian law, and scarcely 

 worth looking back to, except for amusement. 

 If any of you, as an antiquarian, wish to be 

 amused, he cannot do better than read the 

 5th of Elizabeth, chapter 4. The last time 

 this Court interfered in the matter in detail 

 was in 1557. In searching the records of 

 the country I find the details of that year 

 are accurately given in what is called " Bos- 

 well's Book," in the edition of 1795. There 

 you will find — those who care to look for it 

 — that wages were then fixed for all parties 

 in this country. I happen to recollect that 

 the wages of a farm bailiff were on no ac- 



count to exceed ;^8 by the year, with his 

 meat and drink, and that the wages of a 

 carter were in no case to exceed 2s. 3^d. 

 per week, with his meat and drink. That 

 was the standard of value, which will, I 

 think, in some degree account for what are 

 called, the low wages in this part of Eng- 

 land. They were fixed in the old time, and 

 from year to year they have gone on in that 

 same sort of low standard, which perhaps 

 has tended very much to give the southern 

 and western counties a reputation in these 

 days they do not deserve. The order of the 

 Court in 1792 and 1793, at Easter, was 

 to confirm the old orders, and in one of 

 the early years of 1800 the then order 

 of the Court was a very simple one — 

 that all wages should be i bushel of wheat 

 and IS. per week. Now, then, you will see 

 in a moment the evil of that system. At 

 the adjourned sessions, held the ist of De- 

 cember, 1792, the Court of Quarter Sessions 

 resolved : — " That, having taken into con- 

 sideration the difficulties which the poor 

 labour under from the present high prices of 

 corn and other necessaries of life, the justices 

 within their respective divisions will make an 

 order on the parish officers on the complaint 

 of every industrious and peaceable poor per- 

 son, which shall appear to be well founded, 

 to reheve him or her with such sum as shall 

 make up, together with the weekly earnings 

 of him or their family, a comfortable sup- 

 port for them." Here there is the founda- 

 tion of making up wages out of the poor-rate. 

 That system went on from the year 1792 to 

 1834. In the latter year the new Poor-law 

 came into operation^ and Boards of Guard- 

 ians regulating the relief of the poor spe- 

 cially take care that they do not make up 

 wages out of the poor-rate. Well, then, 

 wages from that time — 18x3 — there being no 

 authority to fix the standard of wages, be- 

 came a matter of bargain between master and 



