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I shall conclude this long chapter with observing, that though

anciently it was usual to rate wages, first by general laws

extending over the whole kingdom, and afterwards by particular

orders of the justices of peace in every particular county, both

these practices have now gone entirely into disuse. "By the

experience of above four hundred years," says Doctor Burn, "it

seems time to lay aside all endeavours to bring under strict

regulations, what in its own nature seems incapable of minute

limitation; for if all persons in the same kind of work were to

receive equal wages, there would be no emulation, and no room

left for industry or ingenuity."