_the quarter_;
and let us see how these _wages are now_, compared with the price of food.
I have no _parliamentary_ authority since the year 1821, when a report was
printed by order of the House of Commons, containing the evidence of Mr.
ELLMAN, of Sussex, as to wages, and of Mr. GEORGE, of Norfolk, as to price
of wheat. The report was dated 18th June, 1821. The accounts are for 20
years, on an average, from 1800 inclusive. We will now proceed to see how
the "popish, priest-ridden" Englishman stands in comparison with the "_No
Popery_" Englishman.

POPISH MAN. NO POPERY MAN.

_s._ _d._ _s._ _d._

Mowing an acre of grass 0 6 3 7-3/4
Thrashing a quarter of Wheat 0 4 4 0

Here are "_waust_ improvements, Mau'm!" But, now let us look at the
relative _price of the wheat_, which the labourer had to purchase with his
wages. We have seen, that the "popish _superstition slave_" had to give
_fivepence_ a bushel for his wheat, and the evidence of Mr. GEORGE states,
that the "_enlightened_ Protestant" had to give 10 _shillings_ a bushel
for his wheat; that is 24 _times_ as much as the "popish _fool_," who
suffered himself to be "priest-ridden." So that the "_enlightened_" man,
in order to make him as well off as the "_dark_-ages" man was, ought to
receive _twelve shillings_, instead of 3_s._ 7-3/4_d._ for mowing an acre
of grass; and he, in like manner, ought to receive, for thrashing a
quarter of wheat, _eight shillings_, instead of the _four shillings_ which
he does receive. If we had the _records_, we should doubtless find, that
IRELAND was in the same state.

56. There! That settles the matter as to _ancient_ good living. Now, as to
the progress of poverty and misery, amongst the working people, during the
last half century, take these facts; in the year 1771, that is, 55 years
ago, ARTHUR YOUNG, who was afterwards Secretary to the Board of
Agriculture, published a work on the state of the agriculture of the
country, in which he gave the allowance for the keeping of _a
farm-labourer, his wife and three children_, which allowance, reckoning
according to the present money-price of the articles which he allows
amounted to 13_s._ 1_d._ He put the sum, at what he deemed the _lowest
possible sum_, on which the people could _exist_. Alas! we shall find,
that they can be made to exist upon little more t