X.

tract which they may happen to make with their CHA P. refpective fuperiors. Till after the middle of the fourteenth century, five merks, containing about as much filver as ten pounds of our prefent money, was in England the ufual pay of a curate or a ftipendiary parish priest, as we find it regulated by the decreès of feveral different national councils. At the fame period four pence a day, containing the fame quantity of filver as a fhilling of our prefent money, was declared to be the pay of a master mason, and three pence a day, equal to nine pence of our prefent money, that of a journeyman mafon*. The wages of both these labourers, therefore, fuppofing them to have been conftantly employed, were much fuperior to thofe of the curate. The wages of the master mafon, fuppofing him to have been without employment one third of the year, would have fully equalled them. By the 12th of Queen Anne, c. 12, it is declared, "That whereas for "want of fufficient maintenance and encourage"ment to curates, the cures have in feveral "places been meanly fupplied, the bifhop is, "therefore, empowered to appoint by writing "under his hand and feal a fufficient certain "ftipend or allowance, not exceeding fifty and "not less than twenty pounds a year." Forty pounds a year is reckoned at present very good pay for a curate, and notwithstanding this act of parliament, there are many curacies under twenty pounds a year. There are

* See the Statute of labourers, 25 Ed. III.

journeymen

BOOK journeymen fhoe-makers in London who earn I. forty pounds a year, and there is fcarce an

industrious workman of any kind in that metropolis who does not earn more than twenty. This laft fum indeed does not exceed what is frequently earned by common labourers in many country parishes. Whenever the law has attempted to regulate the wages of workmen, it has always been rather to lower them than to raise them. But the law has upon many occafions attempted to raise the wages of curates, and for the dignity of the church, to oblige the rectors of parishes to give them more than the wretched maintenance which they themfelves might be willing to accept of. And in both cafes the law feems to have been equally ineffectual, and has never either been able to raise the wages of curates, or to fink thofe of labourers to the degree that was intended; because it has never been able to hinder either the one from being willing to accept of lefs than the legal allowance, on account of the indigence of their fituation and the multitude of their competitors; or the other from receiving more, on account of the contrary competition of those who expected to derive either profit or pleasure from employing them.

The great benefices and other ecclefiaftical dignities fupport the honour of the church, notwithstanding the mean circumstances of fome of its inferior members. The refpect paid to the profeffion too makes fome compenfation even to them for the meannefs of their pecuniary

recom

X.

recompence. In England, and in all Roman CHA P. Catholic countries, the lottery of the church is in reality much more advantageous than is neceffary. The example of the churches of Scotland, of Geneva, and of feveral other proteftant churches, may fatisfy us, that in so creditable a profeffion, in which education is fo eafily procured, the hopes of much more moderate benefices will draw a fufficient number of learned, decent, and refpectable men into holy orders.

In profeffions in which there are no benefices, fuch as law and phyfic, if an equal proportion of people were educated at the public expence, the competition would foon be so great, as to fink very much their pecuniary reward.

It

might then not be worth any man's while to educate his fon to either of thofe profeffions at his own expence. They would be entirely abandoned to fuch as had been educated by those public charities, whofe numbers and neceffities would oblige them in general to content themfelves with a very miferable recompence, to the entire degradation of the now refpectable profeffions of law and phyfic.

That unprofperous race of men commonly called men of letters, are pretty much in the fituation which lawyers and phyficians probably would be in upon the foregoing fuppofition. In every part of Europe the greater part of them have been educated for the church, but have been hindered by different reafons from entering into holy orders. They have generally, therefore, been educated at the public expence, and

I.

BOOK their numbers are every-where fo great as commonly to reduce the price of their labour to a very paultry recompence.

Before the invention of the art of printing, the only employment by which a man of letters could make any thing by his talents, was that of a public or private teacher, or by communicating to other people the curious and ufeful knowledge which he had acquired himfelf: And this is still surely a more honourable, a more useful, and in general even a more profitable employment than that other of writing for a bookfeller, to which the art of printing has given occafion. The time and ftudy, the genius, knowledge, and application requifite to qualify an eminent teacher of the fciences, are at leaft equal to what is neceffary for the greatest practitioners in law and phyfic. But the ufual reward of the eminent teacher bears no proportion to that of the lawyer or phyfician; because the trade of the one is crowded with indigent people who have been brought up to it at the public expence; whereas thofe of the other two are incumbered with very few who have not been educated at their own. The ufual recompence, however, of public and private teachers, fmall as it may appear, would undoubtedly be lefs than it is, if the competition of thofe yet more indigent men of letters who write for bread was not taken out of the market. Before the invention of the art of printing, a scholar and a beggar feem to have been terms very nearly fynonymous. The different governors of the univerfities before that

time appear to have often granted licences to CHA P. their scholars to beg.

In ancient times, before any charities of this kind had been established for the education of indigent people to the learned profeffions, the rewards of eminent teachers appear to have been much more confiderable. Ifocrates, in what is called his difcourfe against the fophifts, reproaches the teachers of his own times with inconfiftency. They make the most magnificent promises to their scholars, fays he, and undertake to teach them to be wife, to be happy, and to be juft, and in return for fo important a service they stipulate the paultry reward of four or five minæ. They who teach wifdom, continues he, ought certainly to be wife themselves; but if any man were to fell fuch a bargain for fuch a price, he would be convicted of the most evident folly." He certainly does not mean here to exaggerate the reward, and we may be affured that it was not lefs than he represents it. Four minæ were equal to thirteen pounds fix fhillings and eight pence: five minæ to fixteen pounds thirteen fhillings and four pence. Something not lefs than the largest of thofe two fums, therefore, muft at that time have been usually paid to the most eminent teachers at Athens. Ifocrates himfelf demanded ten minæ, or thirtythree pounds fix fhillings and eight pence, from each scholar. When he taught at Athens, he is faid to have had an hundred fcholars. I underftand this to be the number whom he taught at one time, or who attended what we would call

one

X.