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Particular acts of parliament, however, still attempt sometimes

to regulate wages in particular trades, and in particular places.

Thus the 8th of George III. prohibits, under heavy penalties, all

master tailors in London, and five miles round it, from giving,

and their workmen from accepting, more than two shillings and

sevenpence halfpenny a-day, except in the case of a general

mourning. Whenever the legislature attempts to regulate the

differences between masters and their workmen, its counsellors

are always the masters. When the regulation, therefore, is in

favour of the workmen, it is always just and equitable; but it is

sometimes otherwise when in favour of the masters. Thus the law

which obliges the masters in several different trades to pay

their workmen in money, and not in goods, is quite just and

equitable. It imposes no real hardship upon the masters. It only

obliges them to pay that value in money, which they pretended to

pay, but did not always really pay, in goods.