III.] POOR MAN'S FRIEND. 53 



by the bursers of convents. All the world knows, 

 that FLEETWOOD'S book is of undoubted authority. 

 We may then easily believe, that " beef, pork, mutton, 

 and veal," were " the food of the poorer sort" when, 

 a dung-cart filler had more than the price of a fat 

 goose and a half for a day^s work^ and when a woman 

 was allowed, for a day's weeding, the price of a quart 

 of red wine! Two yards of the cloth made a coat 

 for the shepherd; and, as it cost 2s. 2d., the reaper 

 would earn it in 6$ days; and, the dung-cart man 

 would earn very nearly a pair of shoes every day ! 

 this dung-cart filler would earn a fat shorn sheep in 

 four days ; he would earn a fat hog, two years old, 

 in twelve days ; he would earn a grass-fed ox in 

 twenty days ; so that we may easily believe, that 

 " beef^ pork, and mutton," were " the food of the 

 poorer sort." And, mind, this was " a priest-ridden 

 people;" a people "buried in Popish superstition!" 

 In our days of " Protestant light" and of u mental 

 enjoyment," the "poorer sort" are allowed by the 

 Magistrates of Norfolk, 3d. a day for a single man- 

 able to work. That is to say, a half-penny less than 

 the Catholic dung-cart man had ; and that 3d. will 

 get the " No Popery" gentleman about six ounces of 

 old ewe-mutton, while the Popish dung-cart man got, 

 for his day, rather more than the quarter of a fat 

 sheep. But, the popish people might work harder 

 than " enlightened Protestants." They might do more 

 work in a day. This is contrary to all the assertions 

 of the feelosophers ; for they insist, that the Catholic 

 religion made people idle. But, to set this matter 

 at rest, let us look at the price of the job-labour; at 

 the mowing by the acre, and at the thrashing of wheat 

 by the quarter; and let us see how these wages are 

 now, compared with the price of food. I have no 

 parliamentary authority since the year 1821, when 

 a report was printed by order of the House of Com- 

 mons, containing the evidence of Mr. ELLMAN, of 

 Sussex, as to wages, and of Mr. GEORGE, of Norfolk, 

 as to price of wheat. The report was dated 18th 

 June, 1821. The accounts are for 20 years, on an 



