Pagina 289 di 2651

As they are continually going from port to port, the monthly pay

of those who sail from all the different ports of Great Britain,

is more nearly upon a level than that of any other workmen in

those different places; and the rate of the port to and from

which the greatest number sail, that is, the port of London,

regulates that of all the rest. At London, the wages of the

greater part of the different classes of workmen are about double

those of the same classes at Edinburgh. But the sailors who sail

from the port of London, seldom earn above three or four

shillings a month more than those who sail from the port of

Leith, and the difference is frequently not so great. In time of

peace, and in the merchant-service, the London price is from a

guinea to about seven-and-twenty shillings the calendar month. A

common labourer in London, at the rate of nine or ten shillings a

week, may earn in the calendar month from forty to five-and-forty

shillings.