Il8 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND, 



enacted. But a much more serious blow was struck by 

 3 Hen. VI, cap. i, which, reciting that the yearly congrega- 

 tions and confederacies of masons in general chapters and 

 assemblies lead to breaches of the Statute of Labourers, makes 

 the creation of such chapters a felony. Whether these institu- 

 tions are the origin of masonic gatherings, I do not know, but 

 it is clear that they were looked on with the gravest suspicion, 

 when so formidable a penalty was denounced against them. 



In 6 Hen. VI, cap. 3, after reciting the statutes of 

 Richard II, which have been mentioned above, the penalties 

 inflicted on masters who give higher wages than the statute 

 allows are remitted, experimentally it seems (for the duration 

 of the statute is defined to be till the next Parliament, when it 

 is renewed, 8 Hen. VI, cap. 8), on the ground that masters can 

 get no servants unless they make themselves liable to the 

 penalty, and also because there is no penalty contained in the 

 act of 13 Ric. II. We must, it appears, interpret this plea 

 to mean either that the labourers, by an understanding among 

 each other, declined to serve unless on higher wages, and then 

 silenced employers by pointing out the risk they ran of a 

 common punishment, or that the employers designed to trap 

 the men by a new statute which would leave them, when they 

 demanded extra wages, alone to the severity of the law. 

 But the act must have been inoperative, since Chichele's own 

 accounts of the building of All Souls', which was commenced 

 in 1437, bear testimony to the payment of wages which were 

 far in excess of customary rates. 



The 23 Hen. VI, cap. 13, is the first statute which defines 

 the rate of wages in all callings. Farm servants were com- 

 monly boarded and clothed. Their wages are as follows: a 

 bailiff in husbandry 23*. 4^., and clothing to the value of 5^. ; 

 a hind, carter, or shepherd zos. and 4s. ; a common servant 15$-. 

 and 3.?. 4^. ; a woman servant los. and 43. ; a child under 

 fourteen years of age 6s. and 3.$-. ' Such as deserve less shall 

 take less, and when less is given less shall be given hence- 

 forth.' But at Hornchurch the bailiff receives double these 



