Strona 196 z 2651

In the last century, accordingly, as well as in the present, the

wages of labour were higher in England than in Scotland. They

have risen, too, considerably since that time, though, on account

of the greater variety of wages paid there in different places,

it is more difficult to ascertain how much. In 1614, the pay of a

foot soldier was the same as in the present times, eightpence

a-day. When it was first established, it would naturally be

regulated by the usual wages of common labourers, the rank of

people from which foot soldiers are commonly drawn.

Lord-chief-justice Hales, who wrote in the time of Charles II.

computes the necessary expense of a labourer's family, consisting

of six persons, the father and mother, two children able to do

something, and two not able, at ten shillings a-week, or

twenty-six pounds a-year. If they cannot earn this by their

labour, they must make it up, he supposes, either by begging or

stealing.