Western empire on their own
hardy natures.

A condition of things differing alike both inwardly and outwardly from
that into which a happier fortune has introduced ourselves, is
necessarily obscure to us. In the alteration of our own characters we
have lost the key which would interpret the characters of our fathers.
But some broad conclusions as to what they were are, however, at least
possible to us. A rough census taken at the time of the Armada shows
that it was something under five millions.

The feudal system, though practically modified, was still the organising
principle of the nation, and the owner of land was bound to military
service at home whenever occasion required. All land was held upon a
strictly military principle. The state of the working classes can best
be determined by a comparison of their wages with the price of food.
Both were as far as possible regulated by Act of Parliament. Wheat in
the fourteenth century averaged 10d. the bushel; beef and pork were
1/2d. a pound; mutton was 3/4d. The best pig or goose could be bought
for 4d.; a good capon for 3d.; a chicken for 1d.; a hen for 2d.
Strong-beer, which now costs 1s. 6d. a gallon, was then a 1d. a gallon,
and table beer was less than 1/2d.

A penny at the time of which we write must have been nearly equal in the
reign of Henry VIII. to the present shilling. For a penny the labourer
could buy as much bread, beef, beer, and wine as the labourer of to-day
can for a shilling. Turning then to the question of wages, by the 3d of
the 6th of Henry VIII., it was enacted that the master, carpenters,
masons, bricklayers, tilers, plumbers, glaziers, joiners, and others,
employers of skilled workmen should give to each of their journeymen, if
no meat and drink was allowed, sixpence a day for the half year,
fivepence a day for the other half; or fivepence-half penny for the
yearly average. The common labourers were to receive fourpence a day for
the half year; for the remaining half, threepence.

The day labourer received what was equivalent to something near twenty
shillings a week, the wages at present paid in English colonies; and
this is far from being a full account of his advantages. The
agricultural labourer held land in connection with his house, while in
most parishes there were large ranges of common and unenclosed forest
land, which furnished fuel to him gratis, where pigs might range, and
ducks and geese, and where, if he could afford a cow, h