FROM 1583 TO 1702. 85 



the visitors to the hotels of the nobles, where the past had 

 been abandoned and the future was to be reconstructed by 

 the wisdom of the aristocracy, and in the interests of humanity 

 or of the social contract, must either wade through filth to 

 their knees, or call a coach. It is possible that London in 

 1689 was not so squalid as Paris in 1789. 



The contrast between labour and poverty had become so 

 marked in the seventeenth century that the discussion of its 

 details must be postponed till I deal with the condition of 

 the former in my chapter on wages. But the condition in 

 which the property of the smaller class of owners was placed 

 by custom or by law was marked by such signal changes, that 



I must needs say something about the laws of the Restoration 

 and the action of Parliament. Parliament was now dominant, 

 for the first revolution had disabled the prerogative, and made 

 the restored monarchy a mere political superstition, harm- 

 less to institutions, and except for a time to corporations, but 

 full of danger to private liberty, and even to the property of 

 the weak. 



The great landowners of the Restoration were determined to 

 lose no opportunity which the situation gave them of strength- 

 ening and improving their position. They emancipated their 

 estates from feudal dues at the expense of the general public. 



II icy tied the labourer to the soil by the law of parochial 

 settlement, making the annual occupation of so high an 

 amount as to effectually curtail migration. They first per- 

 mitted the export of corn when its price did not exceed in wheat 

 48^., barley or malt 28s., oats \y. 4*/., rye 32^., beans and 

 peas 32.T., with the avowed object of encouraging tillage ; and 

 while they were at or under these prices, they fixed the import 

 duties of wheat at $$. 4^., rye 4?., barley and malt 2s. 8</., oats 

 i j. 4</., beans and peas 4*. (15 Car. II. cap. 7). They devised 

 ( i 7 Car. II. cap. 7) new and speedy remedies for the recovery of 

 rent. They prohibited (18 & 19 Car. II. cap. 2) the importation 

 of cattle from Ireland, with the avowed object of keeping up 



s declaring that such a trade is a public and common 



