A woman hay-making, or weeding corn, for the day 0 1 A man filling dung-cart 0 3-1/2 A reaper 0 4 Mowing an acre of grass 0 6 Thrashing a quarter of Wheat 0 4
The price of _shoes_, _cloth_, and of _provisions_, throughout the time that this law continued in force, was as follows:--
A pair of shoes 0 0 4 Russet broad-cloth the yard 0 1 1 A stall-fed ox 1 4 0 A grass-fed ox 0 16 0 A fat sheep unshorn 0 1 8 A fat sheep shorn 0 1 2 A fat hog 2 years old 0 3 4 A fat goose 0 0 2-1/2 Ale, the gallon, by proclamation 0 0 1 Wheat the quarter 0 3 4 White wine the gallon 0 0 6 Red wine 0 0 4
These prices are taken from the PRECIOSUM of BISHOP FLEETWOOD, who took them from the accounts kept by the bursers of convents. All the world knows, that FLEETWOOD'S book is of undoubted authority.--We may then easily believe, that "beef, pork, mutton, and veal," were "the food of the _poorer sort_," when a _dung-cart filler_ had more than the price of _a fat goose and a half for a day's work_, and when a woman was allowed, for _a day's weeding_, the price of a _quart of red wine_! Two yards of the cloth made a coat for the _shepherd_; and, as it cost 2_s._ 2_d._, the reaper would earn it _in 6-1/2 days_; and, the dung-cart man would earn very nearly a _pair of shoes every day_! this dung-cart filler would earn a _fat shorn sheep_ in four days; he would earn a _fat hog_, two years old, in twelve days; he would earn a _grass-fed ox_ in twenty days; so that we may easily believe, that "beef, pork, and mutton," were "the food of the _poorer sort_." And, mind, this was "a _priest-ridden people_;" a people "buried in _Popish superstition_!" In our days of "_Protestant light_" and of "_mental enjoyment_," the "poorer sort" are allowed by the Magistrates of Norfolk, 3_d._ a day for a _single man_ able to work. That is to say, a half-penny _less_ than the Catholic dung-cart man had; and that 3_d._ will get the "_No Popery_" gentleman about _six ounces_ of old ewe-mutton, while the Popish dung-cart man got, for his day, rather more than _the quarter of a fat sheep_.--But, the popish people might work _harder_ than "_enlightened_ Protestants." They might do _more work in a day_. This is contrary to all the assertions of the _feelosophers_; for they insist, that the Catholic religion made people _idle_. But, to set this matter at rest, let us look at the price of the _job-labour_; at the _mowing_ by _the acre_, and at the _thrashing_ of wheat by _the quarter_; and let us see how these _wages are now_, compared with the price of food. I have no _parliamentary_ authority since the year 1821, when a report was printed by order of the House of Commons, containing the evidence of Mr. ELLMAN, of Sussex, as to wages, and of Mr. GEORGE, of Norfolk, as to price of wheat. The report was dated 18th June, 1821. The accounts are for 20 years, on an average, from 1800 inclusive. We will now proceed to see how the "popish, priest-ridden" Englishman stands in comparison with the "_No Popery_" Englishman.