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Employment is much more constant in some trades than in others.

In the greater part of manufactures, a journeyman maybe pretty

sure of employment almost every day in the year that he is able

to work. A mason or bricklayer, on the contrary, can work neither

in hard frost nor in foul weather, and his employment at all

other times depends upon the occasional calls of his customers.

He is liable, in consequence, to be frequently without any. What

he earns, therefore, while he is employed, must not only maintain

him while he is idle, but make him some compensation for those

anxious and desponding moments which the thought of so precarious

a situation must sometimes occasion. Where the computed earnings

of the greater part of manufacturers, accordingly, are nearly

upon a level with the day-wages of common labourers, those of

masons and bricklayers are generally from one-half more to double

those wages.