868 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



great difficulty the peasant finds in 

 procuring, witli tolerable advan- 

 tage, even the humble necessaries 

 to which his earnings are equiva- 

 lent. In many instances a town is 

 at several miles distance. A fre- 

 quent journey to this mart would 

 evidently occupy too much of the 

 husband's time to be practicable ; 

 and the wife, surrounded in all 

 probability by a numerous family, 

 is equally incapable of the under- 

 taking. Very small shops, are con- 

 sequently, opened in the scattered 

 liamlet, and thither the scanty sti- 

 pend of the peasant family uni- 

 formly goes. As these shops are 

 supplied with the various articles 

 in which they deal from no better 

 a source than the largest retailer of 

 the neighbouring country town, 

 and as nothing bordering on com- 

 petition can be supposed to exist 

 in the seclusion of a confined vil- 

 lage, it naturally occurs that the 

 peasant pays nearly fifty per cent 

 more for his homely commodities 

 than the mechanic, who possesses 

 the advantage of purchasing of 

 more extensive dealers at a market, 

 rendered advantageous by a spirit 

 of rivalry. The countryman's lOs 

 a week, therefore, undergo a most 

 afflictive reduction, in point of ab- 

 solute value: — an evil tliat requires 

 little illustration, and which falls 

 with particular severity on the man 

 whose nominal remuneration for 

 labour has not kept pace with the 

 actual decrease evident in the value 

 of money.* In consequence of this 

 locrJ deterioration of the labour- 

 er's income, he gradually incurs a 



debt which binds hino more firmly 

 to the necessity of expending his 

 earnings with the village trader, 

 and compels him to purchase, with- 

 out a murmur, indifferent articles 

 at a price still more exorbitant than 

 before. The situation of a hopeless 

 debtor is evidently unfavourable to 

 the exercise of industry. Whether 

 a debt, which there is no rational 

 prospect of discharging, be, five 

 pounds or five shillings, is a matter 

 of small moment among those who 

 have not learned honour through 

 the mean of education. The pea- 

 sant flies to drinking, and his fami- 

 ly experience the severe misery of 

 receiving the necessaries procured 

 by daily labour from the hands of a 

 man who never transmits the adul- 

 terated pittance without alarming 

 and degrading taunts. 



It appears that this grievance, 

 really formidable to the most useful 

 class of men possessed by the em- 

 pire, might be totally remedied 

 without any great exertion or in- 

 convenience. I would propose a 

 shop to be opened by the parish- 

 officers of every country neigh- 

 bourhood, at which the poor might 

 be served with unadulterated ar- 

 ticles, at a profit just sufficient to 

 defray the expences of the under- 

 taking. The comparatively ex- 

 tensive capital arising from the 

 rates of a parish at large, would 

 enable the proprietors to purchase 

 goods at a desirable market. The 

 chaige of the establishment would 

 be trivial. Some minor officer of 

 the parish would be willing and 

 able, for a small salaj-y, to super- 

 intend 



• Th» village labourer's pay has not experienced an increase of above one-third 

 within the last fifty years. The price of tlie common articles of life has more than 

 doubled in the same "period. The increase of the poor-rates is a sufficient voucher 

 tor the inadequacy of the peasant's remuneration. 



