The sense in which a London craftsman was a “freeman” was, happily for the growth of real freedom, extremely restricted. He must be apprenticed, and during his term of seven years he was the servant, or perhaps the adopted son of the man to whom he was bound; he must belong to a Guild; he must obey the laws of that Guild; these were minute and careful: they made a man work during stated hours and no longer; they regulated the price of his work; they would not allow him to work on Church festivals; they would not let him go to law with another of the same Guild; they sent him to church regularly; if he disgraced his moral character in any way they turned him out of his trade and sent him out of the City. In other words, he could not exercise his freedom in living idly or mischievously. The system was admirable on paper, and in fact seems to have worked well. Above all, it taught the lesson which we have since forgotten, that a workman does not belong to himself alone, but to the community. That was the meaning of fixed hours, fixed prices, fixed holidays. “As regards wages, carpenters and that class of workman mostly received, between Michaelmas and Martimas (11th Nov.) 4d. per day, or else 1½d. ‘and their table,’ at the option of the employer; between Martimas and the Purification (2nd Feb.), 3d., or 1d. and their table; between the Purification and Easter, 4d., or 1½d. and their table; and between Easter and Michaelmas, 5d., or 2d. and their table. Saturdays and Vigils were to be paid for as whole days, the men only working till the evening, and on Sundays and Feast-days they were ‘to take nothing,’ the meaning being, no doubt, that on those days they did not work at all. Their servants, or under-workmen, and the makers of clay walls, were to receive, between Michaelmas and Easter, 2d., and between Easter and Michaelmas, 3d., for all demands. Should any person pay a workman beyond these rates, he was to pay to the City a fine of 40s., and the workman to be subjected to forty days’ imprisonment. About seventy years later, the wages of certain of these artisans had apparently increased, Masons, Carpenters, Plasterers, and Sawyers receiving sixpence during the long days, and fivepence in winter, but without being permitted to charge for the repair of their implements. The wages of Tilers, however, had not made so great an advance, being at the rate of 5½d. and 4½d. according to the length of the days, and the wages of their boys (_garsons_) 3½d. and 3d. ‘Master Daubers’ also were to be content with fivepence and fourpence, according to the length of the days, their boys receiving at the same rate as those of Tilers.”—Riley, _Liber Albus_, pp. xxxvi.-xxxvii.