Strona 268 z 2651

Where common labourers earn four or five shillings a-week, masons

and bricklayers frequently earn seven and eight; where the former

earn six, the latter often earn nine and ten; and where the

former earn nine and ten, as in London, the latter commonly earn

fifteen and eighteen. No species of skilled labour, however,

seems more easy to learn than that of masons and bricklayers.

Chairmen in London, during the summer season, are said sometimes

to be employed as bricklayers. The high wages of those workmen,

therefore, are not so much the recompence of their skill, as the

compensation for the inconstancy of their employment.

A house-carpenter seems to exercise rather a nicer and a more

ingenious trade than a mason. In most places, however, for it is

not universally so, his day-wages are somewhat lower. His

employment, though it depends much, does not depend so entirely

upon the occasional calls of his customers; and it is not liable

to be interrupted by the weather.