borer was at liberty to hire himself or not; and, you may rest assured, that wages were oftener above the fourpence per day, than at it. Again, while the articles above mentioned were brought to market, and could not be sold, only at a certain price, beyond which they dare not be sold, yet the person selling was often compelled to sell them at a lower price. Thus the working man had a double advantage to what he has now; because, although provisions might be lower in price, and the rate of wages higher, yet wages could not be reduced lower, nor provisions higher, than the act specified.
Now in 1840 the average rate of wages was about ten shillings per week in England. This I believe is admitted by all who have wrote upon the subject. You will thus see by a little calculation that the working man was compelled to work seventy-eight weeks, for the same amount of comforts that he could purchase in 1530 for twenty weeks labor.
It must be, therefore, plainly evident, that the condition of the people, as far as plenty to eat, drink and wear, were concerned, was far preferable to what it is now, because the working classes could command four times as much of the necessaries of life then as they can now; and this fact is borne out by the evidence of Sir John Fortesque. "The people," says he, "have plenty of fish, flesh and fowl, the best furniture in their houses, they are well clad in woolen clothes; they never drink water except in Lent, or fast days, but wine or beer;" yet these are the times that are called dark and barbarous. It would be well, indeed, if the barbarous custom of having enough of the comforts of life might again be the lot of the laboring population of England.
Contrast the above statement with the speech of the Queen of England from the throne, in the early part of 1846. "I deeply lament the failure of the potato crop,
