542 A. D.I 351- 



the people, efpecially thofe of the lower clafles, were further diftrefled 

 by the nominal, and partly real, rife in the prices of all the neceflaries 

 of life. They do not feem, however, to have made any attempt to 

 obtain compenfation for the diminution of their incomes till after a 

 dreadful peftilence, which originated in the Oriental regions, and began 

 its ravages in England in the year 1348, and is laid to have carried off 

 the greateft part of the people, efpecially in the lower ranks of life *, 

 Then the furviving labourers took the advantage of the demand for 

 labour and the fcarcity of hands to raife their prices. The king, by the 

 advice of the prelates, nobles, and others, thereupon enaded the Statute 

 of labourers, which ordained, that all men and women under fixty years 

 of age, whether of free or fervile condition, having no occupation or 

 property, fhould ferve any perfon by whom they Ihould be required, 

 and Ihould receive only the wages which were ufual before the year 

 1346, or in the five or fix preceding years, on pain of imprifonment, 

 the employers being alfo punifliable for giving greater wages. Arti- 

 ficers were alio prohibited from demanding more than the old wages f ; 

 and butchers, bakers, brewers, and other dealers in provifions, were 

 ordered to fell them at reajonahh prices. \Stat. 23 % Edw. III.'\ 



The * fervants, having no regard to the faid ordinance, but to their 

 ' eafe and fingular covetife,' refufed to ferve great men and others, un- 

 lefs for higher wages than the law allowed. Therefor the parliament by 

 another ftatute fixed the yearly and dayly wages of agricultural fervants, 

 artificers, and labourers, the payment for threlhing corn by the quarter, 

 and even the price of flioes, &c. § They alfo forbad any perfon to 

 leave the town in fummer, wherein he had dwelt in the winter, or to 

 remove from one fhire to another. \^Stat. i, 25 FJuk III.} Thus were 

 the lower clafles of the people debarred by laws, which in their own na- 

 ture mufi; be inefficient, from making any effort to improve their fitua- 



era, V. "f, pp. iJQi i^>4] apparently glancing a re- fcripts, which have never been published. The 



ttedtion upon the kings of France, who had done conduft of the labourers fcenis alio to infer, that 



an incredilile injnry to their country by fneh erro- rather a greater proportion of them than of their 



ncoTis avarice, which Le Blaiic, the hiflorian of employers had been cut oft. 



French money, alTrgns as a main caui'e of the vie- -f In a fupplcment to the act, made by the king;, 



torics of the Engliih in France. the inferior clergy were alfo included. 



» Moil of the hillorians fay, that fcarccly a J By a note in the margin of the printed fta- 

 tcnth part of the people furvivcd. Perhaps we tntes, the date of this one appears to be doubt- 

 ought to make a large allowance for exaggeration ful. It was as probably in the 24.'" year of the 

 in their narratives, wherein they make attempts at king's reign. For a good account of the many 

 being poetical. The moil moderate accounts (late hmilar laws which followed this one, and of the 

 that above half of the people pt-riflicd, arid Hume jiolliical couferjncnces of them, fee Sir I'rederic 

 fuppofcs one third, a more probable ellimate. Stow iLdcn's Slate 0/ //.'/■ poor, Ki,/. 31. 

 fays that few noblemen died; and though 1 do § In the year 1355 the mayor and fliirrefs of 

 not fee his authority, unlcfs it be the words ' pan- London, with two perfons fent by the king, were 

 « cis divitibus dimtaxat exceptls' in Avclbury, defired to compcll the armourers of I^ondon to fell 

 f/). 178 fJ. //Mz-nc] he may generally be tnifted; armour at rcafonabk prices. [Faclera, K v, />. 

 as he wrote with great fidelity (though too often 817.] 

 without quoting) and had the ufe of fome manu- 



