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45
made longer journeys of pleasure than could be covered
within one day.
Before passing to the Metropolis exclusively, a glimpse at
the state of the labouring classes may prove neither uninteresting
nor uninstructive. The cotton manufacture was in
its infancy, the cloth industry of Leeds was scarcely two
generations old, and Sheffield had made little progress in the
manufacture of steel goods since the time of Chaucer. Scarcely
half the land was brought under cultivation, and the mineral
wealth of England, which had been known in some degree to
the Phoenicians some centuries before the Christian Era, had
scarcely been drawn upon, the quantities of coal and iron
brought from the mines during the whole of the seventeenth
century probably being less than one year's consumption in
prosperous times at present. Taking also into account the
revolution since accomplished by the general introduction of
steam, and the invention of labour-saving machines by the
score, it is at once apparent that the working classes are now
living under totally different conditions to those of their progenitors
two centuries ago.
The question naturally arises, how has this change affected
them ? Comparing the wages paid then and now, it appears
that agricultural labourers generally received from 4s. to 5s.
a week, without food, although in times of scarcity as much as
7s. a week was paid in some favoured localities; weavers were
paid from 6d. to 1s. a day; bricklayers, masons, and carpenters
each 2s. 6d. a day; and plumbers 3s. a day. Speaking
broadly, these rates have much more than doubled. The
average price of wheat for the first twelve years after the
Restoration was 50s. a quarter; it is now about 30 per cent.
less. Nor has a reduction in price been confined to breadstuffs.
Sugar, salt, coals, candles, soap, and most descriptions
of clothing are much cheaper now than then. The staple
food of the labourer was rye, barley, and oats, with meat once