and a day, they then became freemen of the burgh, and were declared by
law to be free.

[Footnote 1: _Henry's History of England_, Book v., chap. 4]

The last serfs in England were emancipated in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth; but the last serfs in Scotland, were not emancipated until
the reign of George III, at the end of last century. Before then, the
colliers and salters belonged to the soil. They were bought and sold
with it. They had no power to determine what their wages should be. Like
the slaves in the Southern States of America, they merely accepted such
sustenance as was sufficient to maintain their muscles and sinews in
working order.

They were never required to save for any purpose, for they had no right
to their own savings. They did not need to provide for to-morrow; their
masters provided for them. The habit of improvidence was thus formed;
and it still continues. The Scotch colliers, who were recently earning
from ten to fourteen shillings a day, are the grandsons of men who were
slaves down to the end of last century. The preamble of an Act passed in
1799 (39th Geo. III., c. 56), runs as follows: "Whereas, before the
passing of an Act of the fifteenth of his present Majesty, many
colliers, coal-bearers, and salters _were bound for life to, and
transferable with, the collieries and salt-works where they worked_, but
by the said Act their bondage was taken off and they were declared to be
free, notwithstanding which many colliers and coalbearers and salters
still continue in a state of bondage from not having complied with the
provisions, or from having become subject to the penalties of that Act,"
etc. The new Act then proceeds to declare them free from servitude. The
slaves formerly earned only enough to keep them, and laid by nothing