own private advantage. The price of bread and of provisions generally rose very high, and there was much suffering among the people. Before the harvest of 1756 had been ascertained to be materially deficient, the price of wheat in Mark Lane rose from 22s. to 26s. a quarter. In January 1757 the price rose to 49s. and 50s.; in February, to 47s. and 51s.; in March, to 46s. and 54s.; in April, to 64s.; the same in May; and in June, to 67s. and 72s.1 The harvest of 1757, although somewhat deficient, was less so than the one preceding, and the six following years were highly productive. In 1759 all sorts of grain continued to fall in price, and great plenty is described as existing in every part of the kingdom; and in that year, by 32 George II. cap. 8, the exportation of corn is again freely permitted.

wheat and

wages.

The average price of wheat during the seventeenth Prices of century is given by Arthur Young at 38s. 2d. a quarter, rates of and for the sixty-six following years at 32s. 1d., being a fall of 16 per cent.; whilst, according to the same authority, the wages of agricultural labourers, which on the average of the seventeenth century had been 101d. a day, were for the following sixty-six years a shilling, being a rise of 16 per cent. Within these periods, therefore, a rise in the rate of wages appears to have taken place coincidently with a fall in the price of corn; and the comparison of prices adduced and commented on by Mr. Malthus, in his chapter on the corn wages of labour, seems to warrant the conclusion that a labourer, during the latter half of the seventeenth century, would be able to purchase with his day's earnings three-quarters of a peck of wheat, whilst, during the first half of the eighteenth century, wages having risen and corn fallen, the labourer would be able to purchase a whole peck. These increased earnings

2

3

1 See Tooke on Prices, vol i. pp. 48 and 55.

2 Ibid.

3 See Malthus's Principles of Political Economy, pp. 240 and 252, 2nd edition.

1760. Death of

would be applied to procuring an increase of comforts and conveniences, and in establishing a generally higher standard of living; and with this elevation in the people's physical condition, there would be a corresponding improvement morally and socially. If better clothed, better fed, and better housed, they would also be better conducted, they would have more to lose and less to gain by violence and disorder, and would be therefore less prone to resort to either they would, in short, be elevated individually as well as socially.

George the Second died suddenly, and without any George II. previous illness, on the 25th of October 1760, in his seventy-seventh year. His eldest son Frederick, Prince of Wales, had died ten years before, leaving a son, who now, as George the Third, succeeded to the throne.

CHAPTER XI

A. D. 1760-1786

Summary at the close of George II.'s reign-Accession of George III.— Schemes for Poor Law reform-Poor children in London parishes-Sir Jonas Hanway's Act-Fraudulent payments to the poor-The Magdalen Asylum-The Marine Society-Lying-in hospitals-Plan for parochial annuities-Regulation of wages and labour-Scarcity-Import and export of corn-Repeal of laws against "forestallers," etc.—American war-War with France and Spain-General scare— -Results of the war -Population-Road, enclosure, and canal bills-Poor-rates-The steam-engine-Debates in parliament first published-Labourers' cottages-Parish apprenticeship-Gilbert's Act-Gipsies-Discharged soldiers and sailors-Poor law revenue and expenditure-Charitable donations.

1760-1820.

BEFORE entering on the reign of George the Third, it George III. will be well to take a brief survey of the position at which we have arrived. After the Treaty of Aix-laChapelle in 1748, peace prevailed until 1756, when war with France was again declared; but although only then openly declared, the colonial possessions of the two countries had in fact been carrying on hostilities for three years previously. The war continued throughout the remainder of George the Second's reign, Austria uniting with France, and Prussia being the ally of England. Quebec was captured and Canada conquered in 1759, and the French power in North America was nearly annihilated; whilst in India, Clive's victory at Plassey on the 23rd of June 1757, was followed by the acquisition of the province of Bengal, and the establishment of English ascendency throughout the East.

The extension of our colonies naturally led to an Increase of extension of commerce, and the official value of our

trade.

exports, which on an average of the three years 1726, 1727, and 1728, amounted to £7,891,739, in 1748 was £11,141,202, and in 1760 was £14,693,270, being thus nearly doubled in the course of the present reign, a proof of the great advance in wealth and industry Increase of within that period. There can be no doubt that the population. increase of population kept pace with the advance of

1760.

Amount of

the poor

rates.

the country in other respects. At the end of Anne's reign in 1714, without pretending to exactitude, we have estimated the population at five millions and three-quarters.1 In 1801 the first census was taken, by which the population of England and Wales, including the army and navy, was then ascertained to amount to 9,172,980. At the close of the reign of George the Second we may therefore, I think, venture to set it down at seven millions, although, in Mr. Finlaison's table before referred to, the population in 1760 is put at only 6,479,730.

The amount of expenditure for relief of the poor partakes of the same uncertainty as the amount of the population. In 1715, at the close of the reign of Queen Anne, I have estimated the poor-rates at £950,000, and the complaints of their continual increase were almost incessant throughout the two following reigns. But no definite information on the subject was obtained until 1776, when an Act was passed directing the overseers of every parish to make a return of the amount assessed and disbursed for relief of the poor, and other purposes, by which it appeared that the total amount levied in that year, in England and Wales, was £1,720,317, of which £189,517 went in payment of county-rates, leaving £1,530,800 for the relief of the poor,3 and "litigations about settlements, removals, appeals, or other disputes," the amount of

Ante, vol. i. p. 383.

3 See statement of "Local Taxation," printed by order of the House of Commons in 1839.

this latter item being £35,072, 0s. 8d. It may therefore be assumed that in 1760 the total charge for relief of the poor would fall little short of a million and a quarter.

for reform

tration.

Various plans for remedying the evil of pauperism, Schemes and preventing the growth of the charge for relief of ing the the poor, were propounded about this time, several of adminis which are described by Sir Frederic Eden, the chief of them being by Mr. Hay in 1735, by Mr. Alcock in 1752, by the Earl of Hillsborough and the celebrated Henry Fielding in 1753, and by Mr. Bailey in 1758. It is unnecessary to go into a detail of these various schemes, which were all mainly founded upon an increase in the number of workhouses, and on the employment of the inmates with a view to profit. None of these schemes were carried into effect, and they are chiefly deserving of notice, as showing the alarms and dissatisfaction which then prevailed with respect to the general operation of the law, and especially as regards settlement, the injurious consequences of which to the ratepayers and the working classes, as well as to the poor themselves, are strongly insisted upon by some of the writers. In 1759 a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to investigate the subject, and a report which it made contains many judicious observations; but nothing further was done, and the question of the Poor Laws remained as before, excepting only that these various movements served to keep public attention more alive to the subject than might otherwise have been the case.

With the increase of employment consequent upon the increase shown to have taken place in exports, and the larger amount of the necessaries of life shown to be obtainable for the same amount of labour,' we are Improved warranted in assuming that the general condition of of the the people was at this time materially improved. That people.

1 See ante, p. 44.

condition