If, however, it should be found that the wages earned, in excess of what is necessary for maintenance, is not spent in rational recreation, nor saved in making provision against bad times, sickness, or old age, but is squandered on mere animal gratification, such as excessive drinking or any other vice, then, so far as the question is an ethical one, no such excess of wages is really due. To show that this is so, one has only to trace the question a little further, and see what becomes of a man who thus acts, when overtaken by sickness or a time of bad trade. Having made no provision for himself, he must be maintained by others. And as the usual mode of support is by the poor-rates, his master, who contributes to these, pays twice for the same thing, first, in the wages, and second, in rates; and this is morally unjust.

It must also be remembered that bad times, sickness, and other misfortunes overtake employers as well as workers, and that it is the duty of the former to provide against such contingencies equally with the latter. In fact, it is only this reserve of capital, saved out of past profits, that can render any form of industry secure against utter ruin on the approach of bad times. Hence we see that a fair rate of wages between master and servant must not only look to the present but to the future of both.

The employer who overworks or underpays his workmen alienates their willing service, and in the long run, suffers by having prematurely to support those who become incapacitated for labour, and so forced to live upon others. On the other hand, the servant who fails to render a fair day's work for his wages, or who neglects to make due provision for the future, acts so as to reduce wages to the lowest possible limit, and even then endangers the very industry in which he is engaged.

Hence, "a just balance, a just weight, shall ye have," is as much the law of labour as it is of commerce, and ought to govern in the manufactory and the workshop as much as in the market or on the exchange.

EXERCISES.-I. Define, Foundation, diseased, communities, equivalent, penalty, phrase, honest, recreation, and alienate. 2. Show that work is necessary. 3. Apply the law of the market to labour. 4. Give some circumstances upon which the rate of wages depends.

Henry IV. of Lancaster, the only son of John of Gaunt, finding himself raised to the throne by a title from parliament, was anxious to retain the support of that body by compliance with its wishes. Hence, pro

mises were made to renew the French war, which pleased the military nobles; while the clergy were gained by promises of prompt measures for the suppression of heresy.

In pursuance of the latter, the Statute of Heretics was passed, by which power was obtained to punish any preacher, schoolmaster, or writer who taught any doctrine that the Church called heresy; and if such per

son would not abjure, he was "to be burnt on a high place before the people." William Sawtre, once a Norfolk rector, who had adopted Lollardism, was the first to suffer a martyr's death under this cruel statute. Others suffered in a like manner; but, as if in defiance of this severity, the new faith grew, and its followers multiplied.

The throne of Henry, so far from being "a bed of roses," soon proved to be "a bed of thorns;" for he had but little peace during his reign of fourteen years. First, the Earls of Huntingdon and Kent took up arms. (Shortly after this it was announced that the deposed king, Richard II., had died at Pontefract Castle, with whom, be it remembered, ended the direct line of the Plantagenets, which had occupied the throne for a period of 245 years).

This revolt suppressed, the Percys joined the Scotch, while Mortimer went over to the Welsh under Owen Glendower, so that the king had hard work to hold his own. Young Percy, Hotspur, when trying to join Glendower's forces, was defeated and slain at Shrewsbury, in 1403; while five years later, Northumberland shared a similar fate at Bramham Moor. The Welsh forces under Glendower, though oft defeated in the open field, yet maintained themselves bravely in their mountain strongholds. It may also be noted that from 1405 Henry detained in captivity the Scotch Prince, afterwards King James I., of Scotland.

After maintaining an uneasy seat on the throne for fourteen years, Henry, worn in body and mind, was promising himself a brighter future, when, in 1413, he was struck down in the forty-sixth year of his age, and shortly after died in the abbot's house at Westminster. It is

said that during his father's last illness, the Prince Henry of Monmouth took to heart his previous lawless life, and determined to amend his ways. However that may be, he now, in March, 1413, became king of England as Henry V., being in his twenty-fifth year.

The beginning of the reign of Henry V. witnessed an active renewal of the persecution of the Lollards. Their leader, the brave Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, was condemned and committed to the Tower (1414). He managed to escape, and having raised his followers sought to seize the king; however, four years later he was taken, when he was cruelly hanged as a traitor, and burned as a heretic.

But the great purpose of Henry's reign was to subdue France, and obtain the ascendancy, if not the supreme power, in that country. It happened that the reigning king, Charles VI., had lost his reason; whereupon his brother, the Duke of Orleans, and his cousin, the Duke of Burgundy, were disputing which should act as regent on his behalf. The quarrel soon passed into open war, and Burgundy asked the aid of the English, which Henry was willing enough to give.

Under these circumstances, Henry sailed from Southampton, and in September, 1415, he took Harfleur.

About a month later, the English, although greatly reduced by hardships and disease, obtained the victory of Agincourt, over an army vastly superior in numbers and appointments. Henry then marched to Calais, and sailed home, making a triumphant entry into London. The next year the warlike king was again in France; when resistance appearing hopeless, the Treaty of Troyes was concluded in May, 1420, by which Henry was to carry on the government in the name of Charles,

during this king's life, and was to succeed to the throne upon his death. In confirmation of the treaty, Henry was married to Catherine, the daughter of the French king.

The queen having been crowned, Henry for the third time went to France, to strengthen his position against the Dauphin. While there he heard of the birth of a son and heir at Windsor. However, his career was soon after this cut short by an illness that terminated fatally, in August, 1422, in the thirty-fifth year of his age and tenth of his reign. The warrior king was buried with great pomp in the chapel of the Confessor, at Westminster Abbey, leaving the crown to an infant of only nine months. Henry VI. of Windsor, now became King of England, and within about a month, on the death of Charles VI., he was also proclaimed King of France at Paris, while the Dauphin was crowned at Poictiers as Charles VII.

During the minority of the king the government was placed in the hands of his uncles, the Duke of Bedford and "the good" Duke of Gloucester, while Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, had charge of the king's person.

Bedford was in France, and for some time maintained the English supremacy in its northern provinces. At last, however, the tide turned against England, the chief agent being the unlettered daughter of a poor labourer of Domremy, on the borders of Lorraine. Jeanette d'Arc or Joan of Arc, known merely as a good simple peasant girl, given, it is true, to dreaming by the haunted well, as well as spinning by her mother's side, is brought into contact with the storm of war. And now to her the church bell, the defeats of her countrymen, the