p I 
P I E 
404 
moneyer’s name ; thefe are commonly called pillar-dol- 
l.irs ; but thofe coined in Europe have no pillars ; and the 
legend is only, hispaniarum rex. The initials are not 
at the end of the legend, but by the fide of the efcutcheon 
in place of the pillars. 
Piece is alfo a kind of money of account, or rather a 
manner of accounting, ufed among the negroes on the 
conft of Angola, in Africa. The price of (laves, and 
other commodities here negotiated, as alfo the duties 
paid the petty kings,are elti mated ou both tides in pieces. 
Thus thofe barbarians requiring ten pieces for a (lave, the 
Europeans, in like manner, value the money, or merchan¬ 
dize, to be given in exchange, in pieces. 
Pieces, in the military art, include all forts of great 
guns and mortars. Thefe are alfo called pieces of ord¬ 
nance or artillery, or a field-piece. 
Piece-work, that fort which is done by the great, or 
piece. It is (ometitnes called tajk-worh ; that is, a man is 
talked to perform a certain piece or portion of work in a 
day or a week for a certain furn. A fkilful or quick work¬ 
man will then have time to (’pare in each day or week, 
while a (low workman will fcarceiy be able to complete 
his talk ; and a man inclined to be lazy may be hereby 
incited to diligence, in order to avoid reproach or lofs of 
profit. Upon that molt interetting queftion, the abolition 
of (lavery, it has been urged, that the negroes never 
would work at all unlefs forced to it, but would diemi- 
ferably, or fubfift by plunder. In anfwer to this, the ex¬ 
periment of piece-work was tried upon fome negroes be¬ 
longing to Mr. Joflnia Steele, of Barbadoes. The molt 
laborious operation in Weft-Indian hufbandry is that of 
holing cane-pieces ; and it is the one always pitched upon 
hy thofe who are fond of maintaining the neceffary con¬ 
nexion between negro-fiavery and that great end and aim 
of their toil, the production of fugar. Accordingly, Mr. 
Steele began by offering, on a certain day, a reward in 
money, ("about three-halfpence each perfon per day) 
with the ufual allowance of provilions, to any twenty- 
five negroes who would undertake to hole a certain ex¬ 
tent in a day. The whole gang volunteered, but only 
fifty were accepted; and among them there were feveral 
who had ufually pretended inability to work upon much 
lighter occafions. The work was done cheerfully and 
effectually, and fo expeditioufly, that the labourers had 
an hour every evening to fpare. Other kinds of work 
were then done in like manner; and, a comparative trial 
of labour being made without reward, it w\as found to be, 
in fimdar circumftances, only one-third in amount, during 
an equal time, by the fame labourers. He repeated the ex¬ 
periment the year after with fimiiar fuccefs; and from 
that time the cultivation of the eftate was carried on hy 
talk-work, or by negroes, (laves no doubt, but working 
for hire by the piece. See Clarkfon on Negro Improve¬ 
ment and Emancipation, 1823. 
But the common meaning of piece-icork is extremely 
different from this; and is applied to thofe kinds of 
trades where the workmen, inftead of being paid hy the 
day, are conlfantly paid according to the quantity of 
work they perform, calf up or reckoned by a rule or fcale. 
Thus printers, for inftance, are paid, the compofitors by 
the number of letters they pick up, the prefl'men hy the 
number of flieers they print. When this kind of fcale or 
reckoning is applied occafionally to trades w herein it is 
not of general tile, as to bricklayers and others, it ex¬ 
cites, from its novelty, an extraordinary degree of dili¬ 
gence and activity; but, when it is the.uniform culfom, 
as with printers, it rather inclines them to fupinenefs or 
negledl at the beginning of the week, and to hurry at 
the end ; yet, to an indultrious and (kilful workman, 
this muft be by far the molt agreeable way of getting re¬ 
muneration (or his labour. To the employer, either 
mode has its inconvenience : day-workmen are apt to 
trifle away the matter's time, as is lamentably obfervable 
in bricklayers and carpenters; while thofe who work by 
the piece do not always finilh their work iu a proper 
manner. 
To PIECE, v. a. To patch.—What ufe was there of 
thole delegates for the piecing vp of thefe domelfick brea¬ 
ches betwixt hufband and wife, if the imperious hufband 
had power to right himfelf by turning the fcold out of 
doors ? Bp. Hall's Cafes of Conf. 
Ah, Percy, it is all-to weak and wan, 
So high to foar, and make fo large a flight; 
Her peered py neons bene not fo in plight. Spenfer. 
To enlarge by the addition of a piece.—Plant it with 
women as well as men, that it may fpread into genera¬ 
tions, and not be pieced from without. Bacon. 
I fpeak too long, but ’tis to piece the time, 
To draw it out in length. Shakefpeare's Merck. ofVen. 
To join ; to unite. 
To Piece out. To encreafe by addition.—H c pieces out 
his wife’s inclination; he gives her folly motion and advan¬ 
tage. Skakefpeare's Mer . W. of Windfor. —Whether the 
piecing-out of an old man’s life is worth the pains I can¬ 
not tell. Temple. 
To PIECE, v. n. Tojoin; to coalefce; to be compar¬ 
ed.—The cunning priett chofe Plantagenet to be the fub- 
je£t his pupil fliould perfonate; becaufe he was more in 
the prefent fpeech of the people, and it pieced better, and 
followed more clofe upon the bruit of Piantagenet’s 
efcape. Bacon. 
PIE'CER, f. One that pieces; a patcher. Sherwood. 
PIE'CELESS, adj. Whole; compact; not made of 
feparate pieces: 
In thofe poor types of God, round circles; fo 
Religion’s types, the piecelefs centers flow, 
And are in all the lines which always go. Donne. 
PIE'CELY, adv. I11 pieces. Not in ufe. Huloet. 
PIE'CEMEAL, adv. In pieces ; in fragments.—Nei¬ 
ther was the body then fubjeft to diftempers, to die by 
piecemeal, and languifh under coughs or confumptions. 
South. 
I’ll be torn piecemeal by a horfe, 
E’er I’ll take you for better or worfe. Hudibras. 
PIE'CEMEAL, adj. Single; feparate; divided.— 
Stage editors printed from the common piecemeal written 
parts in the playhoufe. Pope. 
PIE'CEMEAL, ./. A fragment; a fcrap; a morfel.—■ 
My countrymen, in the revolution of 1000 years almoft, 
afford but only Caradoc Llancarvan, and the continuance 
thereof, to regifler any thing to the purpofe of the acts 
of rhe princes of Wales, that I could come by, or hear 
of, fome few piecemeals excepted. 22 . Vaughan to Abp. 
Vjher. 
PIE'CEMEALED, adj. Divided into fmall morfels or 
pieces. 
PIE'CER, f One that pieces, or mends. 
PIED, adj. [from pie.~\ Variegated; parti-coloured.— 
Pied cattle are (potted in their tongues. Bacon. 
Meadows trim with daifies pied, 
Shallow brooks and rivers wide. Milton's Allegro. 
PIE'DE, or Piete (La), a town of Mexico. 
PIE'DI COR'TE, a town of the illand of Corfica : 
twelve miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Corte. 
PIE'DI OREZ'ZA, a town of the Bland of Corfica : 
twelve miles eatt-north-eaft of Corte. 
PIEDMO'NT, a country and principality of Italy, 
and part of the dominions- of the king of Sardiana ; 
bounded or: the north by the Valais, on the eaft by the 
duchies of Milan and Monferrat, on the fouth by the 
country of Nice and the territories of the Genoefe, and 
on the welt by Savoy : about 150 miles in length from 
north to fouth, but conliderably lefs from eaft to v.eft. 
The firft inhabitants of this country are fuppofed to have 
been the Umbrians, Hetrurians, Ligurians; and after¬ 
wards Gauls, when they eftablifhed themfelves in Italy, 
under Brennus, See. from whom it was called Cifalpiue 
Gaul, or “ Gaul on this fide the Alps,” with refpecr to 
Rome. It afterwards became a part of Lombardy ; and 
