Temple and his group, evincing a willingness to allow the
laboring classes of England a more comfortable subsistence
than was enjoyed by corresponding classes in foreign
countries. It had become a patriotic matter that England's 1
poor lived better and foimd the conditions of life less hard
than the laboring population of other states, and the body
of the writers of our period were content that this relatively
high standard should be maintained. This position has
already been indicated; thus we saw that Sir Walter Harris
did not propose forcing the English laborer to adopt the
"coarser and cheaper diet" of the Irish and French.^ John
Gary specifically stated that the "people of England
[could not] live on such low wages as they do in other
countries."' The opponents of the excise in Parliament
contended in 1738 that the laborer should be allowed
"some of the conveniences of life."* One of the antago-

1 Waiiam Temple, An Essay (1770), p. 64.
' Sir Walter Harris, Remarks on . . . Ireland (1691), p. 71.
» John Cary, State of England (1695), p. 144.
* Gentleman's Magazine, vii, p. 776.
