fourteen was to be "grievously whipped," and burned through the gristle of his right ear with a hot iron "of the compass of an inch," unless some "credible person" would take him into service for a year. After eighteen if he fell again into "a roguish life," he could be hanged as a felon, unless a "credible person" would take him for two years. It is evident therefore that the poor wretch was not impossible as a servant. If he were, who would have bound himself to keep him for one, or for two years? It is said that Elizabeth hanged from three to four hundred vagabonds a year. Of course many of them were criminals—the wonder is that all were not. The Poor-Law relief, such as it was, tended to keep down wages. A low wage made it certain that the labourer must come on the parish at last ; but a master must pay the wage himself, while all his neighbours shared the burden of keeping the man when he no longer was able to work.[1]
Hours of labour were very long — all fixed by statute. In summer, from "at or before" five in the morning to between seven and eight at night. In winter, "from the spring of the day " till night. Two and a half hours are allowed for "dinner and drinking"—that is, for every drinking, half-an-hour, for dinner, one hour, and for sleep "when he is allowed to sleep" (that is from mid-May to mid- August, hay and corn harvest), half-an-hour at most; and half-an-hour for breakfast. We see that sometimes a master would offer his servant more wages, to keep him. For this offence he was to be fined £5, and imprisoned ten days without bail ; and the servant for twenty days without bail.
The 35 Elizabeth c. 4 orders "all wandering persons, able in body, refusing to work for reasonable wages … to be deemed rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars." Such an one to be taken by the justice or constable—assisted by the advice of the minister and one other of the parish—stripped naked from the middle upward, and "whipped till he is bloody." Then to be sent from parish to parish till he comes where he was born. A time is set
- ↑ The 18 Elizabeth c. 3 has this odd clause: "Lands holden in Soccage may, during 20 years, be given towards the maintenance of Houses of Correction and Stocks for the Poor." This seems to have been the new form of charitable bequest.
