old system
was, that while it was less stringent in giving relief, and afforded
much more assistance to the able-bodied class of workmen, it
necessarily established a control over their motions, and this control
made an unpleasantly near approach to slavery. Instead of workmen
going with the eagerness of energy and hope to the employer who gave
them most wages, they too often went to the employer to whom the
parish sent them. The degrading spectacle of labourers set up to
auction in the parish pound was frequently exhibited. Apart from the
poor-law system, the actual feudal serfdom, which gave landowners
great powers over the peasantry on their estates, was not abolished
until the reign of Charles II.

We have a similar history of matters in Scotland. Thus, not to go
further back, an act passed immediately on the restoration of the
Stuarts, empowered justices of peace to fix the rate of wages to be
paid to labourers, workmen, or servants; and if they refused to work
at the legal wages so established, they might be imprisoned and
scourged. It was not an uncommon thing, at the commencement of the
last century, to see advertisements in the newspapers for the
apprehension of runaway servants. The power of the higher over the
working-classes was so great, that at one time, before the idea of a
traffic in negroes was suggested, young people were kidnapped even in
the streets of cities, and sent out as slaves to the plantations.
Instances have been given where their parents have seen them driven in
herds on board ship, yet dared not interfere. The power which the
landholders in Scotland possessed over their vassals, down to the
middle of the eighteenth century, was a condition of things necessary
to the two rebellions. The humble clansmen were not properly rebels;
they were paying obedience to their chiefs, who possessed power over
them almost unlimited. The notorious Lovat had managed to seduce an
English servant to the Highlands, and when once there, the poor fellow
found that he was a slave, and could not possibly escape. It was not
until the present century that two classes of workmen in Scotland were
emancipated from a species of slavery--colliers and saltmakers. It is
startling to read of them in the work which is still the principal law
authority in Scotland--_Erskine's Institute_. He speaks of them as
'necessary servants,' and says: 'In this class of necessary servants
may be reckoned colliers, coal-bearers, salters,