150 



Centau* ; 



THE FREE REGISTRY SYSTEM. 



"Honesty is the best policy," 



HEN the land had become desolated 

 through the Wars of the Roses, and 

 England lay half unpeopled by the 

 feuds of York and Lancaster, labourers 

 were few, and, as a consequence, higher 

 wages were demanded ; but the Govern- 

 ment stepped in and declared the wages 

 of labourers, artificers, and others should 

 be the same as they were before the 

 Civil Wars ; and by the Act of Par- 

 liament, 5 Elizabeth, cap. 4, sec. 5, it 

 was enacted : — 



" That the justices of every shire, riding, and liberty, or the 

 more part of them, being then resident within the same, and the 

 sheriff, if he conveniently may, and every mayor and other head 

 officer within any city or town corporate ***** shall 

 yearly in Easter sessions, or within six weeks next after, assemble 

 and call unto them such discreet and grave persons as they shall 

 think meet ; and having respect to the plenty or scarcity of the 

 time, and other circumstances, shall have authority to limit and 

 appoint the wages as well of such of the said artificers, handicrafts- 

 men, or any other labourer, servant, or workman whose wages in 

 time past have been by any order or statute rated and appointed, 

 as also the wages of all other labourers, artificers, workmen, or 

 apprentices of husbandry which have not been rated, as they shall 

 think meet by their discretion to be rated, limited or appointed." 



By the 6th section of the same Act the rate of wages 

 fixed was to be proclaimed, and by the 18th section it 

 was enacted : — 



" That any person giving more wages than that fixed was 

 to be imprisoned for 10 days, and to forfeit £5, one half of the 

 penalty to go to the King, and one half to the informer. And 

 any person accepting more than the wages fi:|ed, was by the 19th 

 section to be imprisoned for 21 days." 



This, then, was the origin of the " Statutes " or hiring fairs, 

 to which all servants repaired annually to be engaged for 



