[ 3 12 1 

 price was raifed to 4^/.? They would com- 

 plain; riot; burn down all the mills; and 

 hang up all the bakers around. But might 

 they not be told, that they earned more than 

 other counties that already paid \d. ? 



The rates of labour admit of prodigious 

 variations that are totally unaccountable. I 

 apprehend that chance has been the mother 

 of three fourths : Famine, before the ex- 

 portation of corn was encouraged, and ex- 

 treme high prices, locally heightened the 

 prices of labour, as the richer inhabitants 

 were more or lefs willing to aflift the poor: 

 The rates fo raifed, in fome places continued 

 after the occalion ; in others were reduced : 

 Kence undoubtedly arofe a part of thofe va- 

 riations which we are fo much puzzled to ac- 

 count for ; and fuch accidents could fcarcely 

 fail of throwing a great variety over th« 

 whole kingdom. 



In one refpedl the refult of thefe tables is 

 particularly ufeful : They prove, that moll: 

 of the complaints ariling from what have 

 been called the high prices of provifions, are 

 fallacious, and ought never to be confidered 

 as marks, that the labouring poor of the 

 kingdom is oppreffed by them. The labouring 

 poor is a term that none but the mod: fuper- 

 ficial of reafoners can ufe ; it is a term that 

 means nothing. When it is afTerted fo and 

 fo of the labouring poor, which are to be 



under- 



