DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 35) of wheat was then 50s. a-quarter; I need not tell you what it is now. Ordinary vegetables were very expensive. Cauliflowers cost 1s. 6d. each, they now cost a penny ; and potatoes were rarely grown. The wages of a day labourer were at the utmost 1s. a-day. These wages were settled by the , justices of the peace ; and it was a punishable offence for a labourer to accept more than the sum so fixed. Two hundred years ago the labourer was in every respect worse off than he is at present. By the landlord he was simply looked upon as an instru- ment for the increase of his wealth. Mor had the labourer the means of improving his own condition. He earned less and had to spend more on the neces- saries of life. Distressed as may be the times in which we live, and great as are the privations of the unemployed labourer, still there is generally an opening for such as are intelligent, active, and thrifty. Many charitable institutions have sprung up for the relief of the aged, the infirm, or the helpless. In former days the working classes had no means of redress, no voice in legislation, no means of communication ; they had no instruction or education, no comfort ; in fact, none of the material or intellectual facilities they now possess. Who at this moment can blind himself to the fact that, be he landlord or employer of labour, it is to his personal interest to improve the moral and physical condition