ject well it is impossible to
doubt; for a few months later his work was reprinted, and was, by
the magistrates assembled in quarter sessions at Exeter, strongly
recommended to the attention of all parochial officers. According to
him, the wages of the Devonshire peasant were, without food, about five
shillings a week. [194]

Still better was the condition of the labourer in the neighbourhood of
Bury Saint Edmund's. The magistrates of Suffolk met there in the spring
of 1682 to fix a rate of wages, and resolved that, where the labourer
was not boarded, he should have five shillings a week in winter, and six
in summer. [195]

In 1661 the justices at Chelmsford had fixed the wages of the Essex
labourer, who was not boarded, at six shillings in winter and seven in
summer. This seems to have been the highest remuneration given in
the kingdom for agricultural labour between the Restoration and the
Revolution; and it is to be observed that, in the year in which this
order was made, the necessaries of life were immoderately dear. Wheat
was at seventy shillings the quarter, which would even now be considered
as almost a famine price. [196]

These facts are in perfect accordance with another fact which seems to
deserve consideration. It is evident that, in a country where no man can
be compelled to become a soldier, the ranks of an army cannot be filled
if the government offers much less than the wages of common rustic
labour. At present the pay and beer money of a private in a regiment of
the line amount to seven shillings and sevenpence a week. This stipend,
coupled with the hope of a pension, does not attract the English
youth in sufficient numbers; and it is found necessary to supply the
deficiency by enlisting largely from among the poorer population of
Munster and Connaught. The pay of the private foot soldier in 1685 was
only four shillings and eightpence a week; yet it is certain that the
government in that year found no difficulty in obtaining many thousands
of English recruits at very short notice. The pay of the private foot
soldier in the army of the Commonwealth had been seven shillings a
week, that is to say, as much as a corporal received under Charles the
Second; [197] and seven shillings a week had been found sufficient to fill
the ranks with men decidedly superior to the generality of the people.
On the whole, therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that, in the
reign of Charles the Second, the ordinary wa