2o6 strictures on manners, Aiig.ii\. 



the inference to be drawn from the comparison of 

 prices, is still more considerable. I suppose that 

 the rates affixed by parliament were inferior to the 

 usual market prices in those years of famine and mor- 

 tality of cattle ; and that those commodities, instead 

 of a third, had really risen to a half of the present 

 value. But the famine of that time was so consu- 

 ming, that wheat was soi.jetimes sold for 4 1. los. a 

 quarter, usually for 3 1. that is considerably above 

 twice our middling prices. A certain proof of the 

 •wretched state of tillage in those ages. 



It appears that tht middling price of corn in these 

 times was, in good years, lialf of the present valuc» 

 while the middling price of cattle was only an eighth 

 part. We here find the same immense dispropoi'tion 

 in years of scarcity. It may thence be inferred 

 with certainty, that the raising of corn was a spe- 

 cies of manufactory, which few of that age could 

 practice with advantage. 



The same parliament also attemped the innpracti- 

 cable scheme of reducing the price of labour after 

 the pestilence. A reaper in the first week of Au- 

 gust was not allowed to take above two-pence a-day, 

 or near six-pence of our present money: in the se- 

 cond week a third more ; a master carpenter was li- 

 mited through the whole year to three-pence a-day ; 

 a common carj^enter to two-pence, money of that 

 a^e. It is remarkable, that, in the same age, the 

 pay of a private soldier, an archer was six-pence a- 

 day, which by the change both in denomination and 

 value, would be equivalent to four or five Ihillings^ 

 of our present money. Soldiers were then inlisted 



