not by the cost of learning them, or the absence of the natural genius they require. Any occupation that is unhealthy, or dangerous, or disagreeable, is paid for higher on that account, because people would not otherwise engage in it. There is this kind of limitation in the supply of house-painters, miners, gunpowder-makers, and workers in several other trades.

Some people fancy that it is unjust for one man to earn more than another, who works as hard as himself; and there certainly would be a hardship, if an employer could force a man to work for him at whatever wages he chose to give. This is the case with those slaves who are compelled to work, and are supplied by their masters with nothing more than food and other necessaries, like horses. So, also, it would be a hardship, if I were to force any one to sell me anything— whether his labour, his cloth, his cattle, or his corn-at any price I might choose to fix. There can be no hardship in leaving all buyers and sellers free-the one to ask whatever price he may think fit, the other to offer what he thinks the article is worth. A labourer is a seller of labour-his employer is a buyer of labour; and both must be left free.

If a man choose to ask ever so high a price for his potatoes or his cows, he is free to do so; but then it would be very hard that he should be allowed to force others to buy them at that price, whether they would or not. In the same manner, an ordinary labourer may ask as high wages as he likes; but it would be very hard to oblige others to employ him at that rate, whether they would or not. So the labourer himself would think, if the same rule were applied to him; that is, if a tailor, and a carpenter, and a shoemaker, could oblige him to buy their goods, whether he wanted them or not, at whatever price they chose to fix.

In former times, laws were frequently made to fix

the wages of labour. It was forbidden, under a penalty, that higher or lower wages should be asked or offered, for each kind of labour, than the rate fixed by the law. Laws of this kind, however, were found never to do any good; for when the rate fixed by law for farm-labourers, for instance, happened to be higher than it was worth a farmer's while to give for ordinary labourers, he turned off all his workmen, except a few of the best hands, and employed those on his best land only; so that less corn was raised, and many persons were out of work who would have been glad to have had it at a lower rate, rather than earn nothing. Then, again, when the fixed rate was so low that a farmer could afford to give more to the best workmen, some farmers would naturally try to get these into their service, by paying them privately at a higher rate. And this they could easily do and escape the law, by supplying them with corn at a reduced price, or in some such way; and then the other farmers were driven to do the same thing, that they might not lose all their best workmen-so that laws of this kind come to nothing.

The right way, and therefore the best way, is to leave all labourers and employers as well as all other sellers and buyers free to ask and to offer what they think fit; and to make their own bargain together if they can agree, or to break it off if they cannot.

Labourers often suffer great hardships, from which they might save themselves by looking forward beyond the present day. They are apt to complain of others, when they ought rather to blame their own imprudence. If, when a man is earning good pay, he spends it as fast as he gets it, in thoughtless intemperance, instead of laying by something against hard times, he must expect to suffer want when he is out of work, or when wages are low: but then he must blame his own improvidence. So thought the bees in the following fable:

"A grasshopper, half-starved with cold and hunger at the approach of winter, came to a well-stored beehive, and humbly begged the bees to relieve his wants with a few drops of honey. One of the bees asked him how he had spent his time all the summer, and why he had not laid up a store of food as they had done? Truly,' said he, 'I spent my time very merrily, in drinking, dancing, and singing, and never once thought of winter.' Our plan is very different,' said the bee; we work hard in the summer, and lay by a store of food against the season when we shall want it, but cannot procure it; those who do nothing but drink, and dance, and sing in the summer, must make up their minds to starve in the winter.'

CHAPTER XI.

THE THREE SQUIRES.-PART I.

IN a village called Banton there stood an old Manor House. The village itself was not a very large one, and the inhabitants looked upon this mansion as their chief source of employment. It was not merely that the various tradesmen had a direct profit in supplying the great house, but the money which each earned gave to him the means of employing one or other of his neighbours. The carpenter had almost constant work at the old Hall, or some of its out-buildings; he therefore lived very comfortably, and was a good customer to the butcher, the baker, and the grocer. They all, in their turn, being prosperous in their trades, found jobs for the carpenter and the bricklayer, and the still poorer inhabitants had their share in the general prosperity. Many of the poor were employed at the Hall, and by the gamekeeper and other servants, who lived in cottages in the Park. Besides this, the tradesmen, being

well-off, kept their cow or their pony, or took pride in their garden; and all this brought work in various ways into the village, so that it was a common saying, that at Banton none need be idle except those who were too lazy to work.

This was the state of the village when the old Squire died. As he had no children, the property passed into the hands of one who was a stranger to the place. Unfortunately he was a very thoughtless and extravagant man. He gave himself entirely up to his own pleasures, and thought nothing about the village or its inhabitants, except so far as they were necessary to his amusements. He kept a large number of horses and dogs, and saw a great deal of wild company. This at first produced an increase of business in the village. There were extensive alterations in the stables, which supplied plenty of work to carpenters and bricklayers; and the number of guests and servants continually at the Hall, kept up a pretty brisk trade at the various shops in the village.

All this made the new Squire very popular, especially as it was soon seen that he was not at all particular as to the quantity of things he ordered or the price he paid for them. Some of the wiser among the village folk however, said that this was not for the advantage of honest tradesmen; the bad would take advantage, and the good would get nothing by fair-dealing; and it soon began to be seen that at least as many people of bad character as of good were employed at the hall. The ways of the new servants and company did much harm also, for there was a great deal of drunkenness and rioting; and several of the younger men of the village learned to follow the bad example set them, and Banton was far from being the quiet place which it had been in olden times.

It was observed too, that notwithstanding all the waste of money, the poor did not get much relief at

the Hall. The servants would neither give their own money nor trouble their master with applications; and the Squire himself, though he would readily throw a shilling to a wayside beggar, took no trouble to find out and relieve real cases of distress. Still, for some time the village appeared to flourish. There was more vice and misery, but the respectable portion of the inhabitants having plenty of work, continued to thrive; and though they could have no respect for the Squire, they had little personally to complain of.

After things had been going on in this way for rather more than two years, the tradesmen began to find it difficult to get their money. They applied again and again without success, and at last some of the more independent among them declined to serve the Hall. There were, however, many who dared not risk offending the Squire, and were obliged to content themselves with receiving occasional sums upon account. But as all in this way had less money at command than before, they were obliged to contract their own expenses. The grocer never employed the carpenter, unless it was absolutely necessary for him to do so; and the carpenter's wife, by strict economy, considerably lessened her account with the grocer. This soon began to tell throughout the village; and it was no uncommon thing in Banton for a poor man to be obliged to seek parish relief, though he was able and willing to work. Things went on from bad to worse, till at last it was known in the village that the Squire had left the country on account of his debts.

The Hall was shut up, the creditors were paid in part, and the village left to get on as it best might. All the inhabitants of Banton felt the loss of a resident family at the Hall. The carpenter and bricklayer found their work so much diminished that they left the village, and established themselves in a more favourable spot. The old shopkeeper had, fortunately for himself,