第29章 THE VOYAGE(17)

But,indeed,however largely we extend,or however moderately we confine,the sense of the word,no politician will,I presume,contend that it is to pervade in an equal degree,and be,with the same extent,enjoyed by,every member of society;no such polity having been ever found,unless among those vile people just before commemorated.Among the Greeks and Romans the servile and free conditions were opposed to each other;and no man who had the misfortune to be enrolled under the former could lay any claim to liberty till the right was conveyed to him by that master whose slave he was,either by the means of conquest,of purchase,or of birth.

This was the state of all the free nations in the world;and this,till very lately,was understood to be the case of our own.

I will not indeed say this is the case at present,the lowest class of our people having shaken off all the shackles of their superiors,and become not only as free,but even freer,than most of their superiors.I believe it cannot be doubted,though perhaps we have no recent instance of it,that the personal attendance of every man who hath three hundred pounds per annum,in parliament,is indispensably his duty;and that,if the citizens and burgesses of any city or borough shall choose such a one,however reluctant he appear,he may be obliged to attend,and be forcibly brought to his duty by the sergeant-at-arms.

Again,there are numbers of subordinate offices,some of which are of burden,and others of expense,in the civil government--all of which persons who are qualified are liable to have imposed on them,may be obliged to undertake and properly execute,notwithstanding any bodily labor,or even danger,to which they may subject themselves,under the penalty of fines and imprisonment;nay,and what may appear somewhat hard,may be compelled to satisfy the losses which are eventually incident,to that of sheriff in particular,out of their own private fortunes;and though this should prove the ruin of a family,yet the public,to whom the price is due,incurs no debt or obligation to preserve its officer harmless,let his innocence appear ever so clearly.I purposely omit the mention of those military or military duties which our old constitution laid upon its greatest members.These might,indeed,supply their posts with some other able-bodied men;but if no such could have been found,the obligation nevertheless remained,and they were compellable to serve in their own proper persons.The only one,therefore,who is possessed of absolute liberty is the lowest member of the society,who,if he prefers hunger,or the wild product of the fields,hedges,lanes,and rivers,with the indulgence of ease and laziness,to a food a little more delicate,but purchased at the expense of labor,may lay himself under a shade;nor can be forced to take the other alternative from that which he hath,Iwill not affirm whether wisely or foolishly,chosen.

Here I may,perhaps,be reminded of the last Vagrant Act,where all such persons are compellable to work for the usual and accustomed wages allowed in the place;but this is a clause little known to the justices of the peace,and least likely to be executed by those who do know it,as they know likewise that it is formed on the ancient power of the justices to fix and settle these wages every year,making proper allowances for the scarcity and plenty of the times,the cheapness and dearness of the place;and that THE USUAL AND ACCUSTOMED WAGES are words without any force or meaning,when there are no such;but every man spunges and raps whatever he can get;and will haggle as long and struggle as hard to cheat his employer of twopence in a day's labor as an honest tradesman will to cheat his customers of the same sum in a yard of cloth or silk.

It is a great pity then that this power,or rather this practice,was not revived;but,this having been so long omitted that it is become obsolete,will be best done by a new law,in which this power,as well as the consequent power of forcing the poor to labor at a moderate and reasonable rate,should be well considered and their execution facilitated;for gentlemen who give their time and labor gratis,and even voluntarily,to the public,have a right to expect that all their business be made as easy as possible;and to enact laws without doing this is to fill our statute-books,much too full already,still fuller with dead letter,of no use but to the printer of the acts of parliament.