Birmingham, possess infinitely more general and extended information than is possessed by the agricultural labourers of any county in the empire. And this is really what a more unprejudiced inquiry into the subject would have led us to anticipate. The various occupations in which the husbandman is made successively to engage, their constant liability to be affected by so variable a power as the weather, and the perpetual change in the appearance of the objects which daily meet his eyes, and with which he is conversant, occupy his attention, and render him a stranger to that ennui and desire for extrinsic and adventitious excitement which must ever be felt by those who are constantly engaged in burnishing the point of a pin, or in performing the same endless routine of precisely similar operations. This want of excitement cannot, however, be so cheaply or effectually gratified in any other way as it may be by cultivating-that is, by stimulating the mental powers. The generality of workmen have no time for dissipation; and if they had, the wages of labour in all old settled and densely peopled countries are too low, and the propensity to save and accumulate too powerful, to permit any very large proportion of them seeking to divert themselves by indulging in riot and excess. They are thus driven to seek for recreation in mental excitement; and the circumstances under which they are placed afford them every possible facility for amusing and diverting themselves in this manner. By working together, they have constant

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opportunities of entering into conversation; and a small individual contribution enables them to obtain a large supply of newspapers and of the cheaper class of periodical publications. But whatever difference of opinion may exist respecting the cause, there can be no doubt of the fact, that the intelligence of the workmen employed in manufactures has increased according as their numbers have increased, and as their employments have been more and more subdivided. There is no ground for supposing that they ever were less intelligent than the agriculturists; but, whatever may have been the case formerly, no one will now venture to affirm that they are inferior to them in intellectual acquirements, or that they are mere machines without sentiment or reason. Even Mr Malthus, whose leanings are all on the side of agriculture, has justly and eloquently observed, that "Most of the effects of manufactures and commerce on the general state of society are in the highest degree beneficial. They infuse fresh life and activity into all classes of the state, afford opportunity for the inferior orders to rise by personal merit and exertion, and stimulate the higher orders to depend for distinction upon other grounds than mere rank and riches. They excite invention; encourage science and the useful arts; spread intelligence and spirit; inspire a taste for conveniences and comforts among the labouring classes; and, above all, give a new and happier structure to society, by increasing the proportion of the middle classes that body on which the

liberty, public spirit, and good government of every country must mainly depend." *

Thus, then, we arrive, by a different route, at the same result we have already endeavoured to establish. The inextinguishable passion for gain-the auri sacra fames-will always induce capitalists to employ their stocks in those branches of industry which yield, all things considered, the highest rate of profit. And it is clear to demonstration, that those employments which yield the highest profits are always those in which it is most for the public interest that capital should be invested. The profits of a particular branch of industry are rarely raised except by an increased demand for its produce. Should the demand for cottons increase, there would be an increased competition for them; and as their price would, in consequence, be augmented, the manufacturers would obtain comparatively high profits. But the rate of profit in different employments has a natural tendency to equality; and it can never, when monopolies do not interpose, continue either permanently higher or lower in one than in the rest. soon, therefore, as the rise in the price of cottons had taken place, additional capital would begin to be employed in their production. The manufacturers engaged in the cotton trade would endeavour to borrow additional capital, and the capitalists who were engaged in less lucrative employments would gradually contract their businesses, and transfer a portion of

* Observations on the Effects of the Corn Laws, p. 29.

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their stock to where it would yield them a larger return. The equilibrium of profit would thus be again restored. For the additional capital employed in the production of cottons, by proportioning their supply to the increased demand, would infallibly reduce their price to its proper level. Such is the mode in which the interests of individuals are, in every case, rendered subservient to those of the public. High profits attract capital; but high profits in particular businesses are the effect of high prices; and these are always reduced, and the commodities brought within the command of a greater number of purchasers, as soon as additional capital has been employed in their production. It is clear, therefore, that that employment of capital is the best which yields the greatest profit; and hence, if two capitals yield equal profits, it is a plain proof that the departments of industry in which they are respectively invested, however much they may differ in many respects, are equally beneficial to the country. Nothing can be more nugatory than to apprehend that the utmost freedom of industry can ever be a means of attracting capital to a comparatively disadvantageous employment. If capital flows to manufactures or commerce rather than to agriculture, it can only be because it has been found to yield larger profits to the individual, and consequently to the state.

Having thus endeavoured to unfold the circumstances most favourable for the production of wealth, the natural order of our subject would lead us, in the next place, to investigate the circumstances which

determine the increase of population. But, before entering on this inquiry, I shall endeavour to vindicate the doctrines already laid down from some objections that have been stated against them, by showing, that the extension and improvement of machinery is always advantageous to the labourer, and that it is not the cause of gluts.

SECTION IV.

Improvements in Machinery similar in their Effects to Improvements in the Skill and Dexterity of the Labourer-Do not occasion a Glut of Commodities-Sometimes force Workmen to change their Employments, but have no tendency to lessen the effective demand for Labour-Case supposed by Mr Ricardo, with respect to Machinery, possible, but exceedingly unlikely ever to occur-True Cause of Gluts.

BEFORE proceeding to examine the various bad consequences that have been supposed to result from the indefinite extension and improvement of machinery, it may be observed, that the same consequences would equally result from the continued improvement of the skill and industry of the labourer. If the construction of a machine that would manufacture two pairs of stockings for the same expence that had previously been required to manufacture one pair, be under any circumstances injurious to the labourer, the injury would be equal were the same thing accomplished by increased dexterity and skill on the part of the knitters;-if, for example, the females who have been in the habit of knitting