Great Britain -- Description and travel; Great Britain -- Rural conditions
At about four miles from Petersfield we passed through a village called
Rogate. Just before we came to it I asked a man who was hedging on the
side of the road how much he got a day. He said, 1_s._ 6_d._: and he
told me that the _allowed_ wages was 7_d._ a day for the man _and a
gallon loaf a week for the rest of his family_; that is to say, one
pound and two and a quarter ounces of bread for each of them; and
nothing more! And this, observe, is one-third short of the bread
allowance of gaols, to say nothing of the meat and clothing and lodging
of the inhabitants of gaols. If the man have full work; if he get his
eighteen-pence a day, the whole nine shillings does not purchase a
gallon loaf each for a wife and three children, and two gallon loaves
for himself. In the gaols the convicted felons have a pound and a half
each of bread a day to begin with: they have some meat generally, and it
has been found absolutely necessary to allow them meat when they work at
the tread-mill. It is impossible to make them work at the tread-mill
without it. However, let us take the bare allowance of bread allowed in
the gaols. This allowance is, for five people, fifty-two pounds and a
half in the week; whereas the man's nine shillings will buy but
fifty-two pounds of bread; and this, observe, is a vast deal better than
the state of things in the north of Hampshire, where the day-labourer
gets but eight shillings a week. I asked this man how much a day they
gave to a young able man who had no family, and who was compelled to
come to the parish-officers for work. Observe that there are a great
many young men in this situation, because the farmers will not employ
single men _at full wages_, these full wages being wanted for the
married man's family, just to keep them alive according to the
calculation that we have just seen. About the borders of the north of
Hampshire they give to these single men two gallon loaves a week, or, in
money, two shillings and eight-pence, and nothing more. Here, in this
part of Sussex, they give the single man seven-pence a day, that is to
say, enough to buy two pounds and a quarter of bread for six days in the
week, and as he does not work on the Sunday there is no seven-pence
allowed for the Sunday, and of course nothing to eat: and this is the
allowance, settled by the magistrates, for a young, hearty, labouring
man; and that, too, in the part of England where, I believe, they live
better than in any other part of it. The poor creature here has
seven-pence a day for six days in the week to find him food, clothes,
washing, and lodging! It is just seven-pence, less than one half of what
the meanest foot soldier in the standing army receives; besides that the
latter has clothing, candle, fire, and lodging into the bargain! Well
may we call our happy state of things the "envy of surrounding nations,
and the admiration of the world!" We hear of the efforts of Mrs. Fry,
Mr. Buxton, and numerous other persons, to improve the situation of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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