Variations in Rural Labour--Fluctuations in Manufacturing Employments---the Commercial Cycle---Changes of Fashion and the Site of Manufactories---Effects of Machinery--- Not lessened aggregate Employment of Society, but dis- placed particular Branches of Industry--- Shearmen, Flax- dressers, and Hand-loom Weavers---Enormous Increase of the Manufacturing, compared with the Agricultural Population---Specific Advantages of Machinery stated--- Suggestions for Mitigating the Effects of Fluctuations of Employment---Tailors, Brushmakers, and Carpet- manufacturers---Methods adopted by Masters to meet tem- porary Stagnation of Trade---Novelty and Importance of the Classes of the Industrious confederated either for an increase of Profit or Wages---Origin and Downfal of the Trading Guilds and Fraternities---First notice of Combinations of Workmen---National Association for the Protection of La- bour--Principles and Constitution of Trades' Unions---How far they are defensible.--Examples of Combinations hurtful to Operatives---Better Wages should be high than Profits--- Comparative Treatment of Factory Children now and Thirty Years ago---Proof that Wages are not always regu- lated by Profit, and that Industry sometimes needs legis- lative Protection---Foreign Trade not injured by Unions nomy of the Industrious Orders, but is more particularly intended to be a popular exposition of the principles which influence the relations and conditions of the agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing classes. My object here in particular was to be practical, and avoid, both in matter and language, what may be termed the metaphysics of economical science. The chapters, however, on Wages, Population, Capital and the Middle Classes, Money, Trades' Unions, Poor-laws, Rent of Land, &c., will show that the elucidation of no important truth has been omitted nor compromised, but that all the great maxims on which the wellbeing of the several orders is mutually dependent, have been unshrinkingly, and, I hope, intelligibly, though briefly unfolded. Since the days of Dr. SMITH, political economy has become in some respects a new science, not so much from the acquisition of new truths, as by the new questions forced upon its consideration by the exigencies of society. Fluctuations in employments -over-population-the apportionment of wages and profits the instrument of exchange-and the voluntary and compulsory relief of indigence, form the engrossing subjects of attention, and on which we find little to guide us in the Wealth of Nations. The treatment of some of these matters will be found peculiar to this publication. The Unions of Trades form a novel feature in our industrial situation. Formerly we had to struggle for freedom in the employment of capital against the ignorance of rulers, and the selfishness of individuals; now, it seems industry aspires to establish its monopolies of labour on the exploded errors of the mercantile system. The ostensible object of the trade associations in the equitable conservation of their own interests is laudable; but one always views with apprehension the exercise of secret and irresponsible powers, and I have endeavoured to ascertain the limits within which their operations may be beneficial or injurious to themselves and the community. On the important subject of the POOR-LAWS, I have differed from some of the more intrepid, but not, perhaps, best informed of my contemporaries. They always appeared to me an institution of police, no less than of humanity, inseparable from a civilized community. Under their operation, the working classes of England may be advantageously compared with those of any European country, and under an improved administration, they may, I doubt not, be made more conducive to the diminution of indigence, than any system that could be substituted in their place. It is a sad mistake to consider the poor an aggregation of vice and imposture, to consider every man in want a suspected, if not convicted, delinquent; or to think that any considerable proportion of them would not prefer -were they attainable the independent wages of industry, to parish or charitable allowance. I who have had abundant opportunities for observing the poor, know such conclusions to be erroneous ; they are the deductions of selfishness or misanthropy, derived from the exceptions not the rule of life. The origin of some prevalent errors on the poorlaws, as well as their more prominent abuses, I have endeavoured to explain. While I concede the necessity of their institution, I know well they are only an imperfect substitute for individual prudence, but till that prudence is formed, we must submit to their provisional establishment, as the least of a choice of evils, and the most effective instrument of its creation. The Third Part is Political Philosophy-a term, which in its more extensive application, also includes political economy, but in this case is retricted to an exposition of the Principles of Government, Civil Liberty, Laws, Property, Morals, the English Constitution, and Popular Education. These are all important themes, and in the estimation of some, of delicate import; but it appears to me as unwise as impracticable, in times like these, to shun their investigation, and it is much better their real foundation should be stated, than that the crude ideas which are constantly being promulgated, should gain a transient-for it could never be permanentascendancy. In lieu of social institutions being endangered, I feel assured they will be improved and strengthened by popular inquiry and reflection. The above affords, I think, a tolerable outline of the scope and plan of the publication. The design is a popular compendium of useful knowledge, to state principles briefly and clearly on public topics of great interest, illustrate and support them by facts, and keep both relevant and applicable to the existing state and wants of society. In the APPENDIX will be found valuable statements elucidatory and corroborative of different portions of the work; especially the Tables of Prices, of Rates of Wages in different branches of industry formerly and at present, the Progress of Population and Poor-rates, Returns of Mortality, Diseases, Marriages, Crimes, Schools, Education, Friendly Societies, Occupations, and other documentary evidence, illustrative of the past and present state of society, and of the industrious classes. Also several articles, such as those on the Poor-law Commission, Increase of Crime, Maxims of Conduct, &c., which could not without inconvenient digression be incorporated into the body of the work. Now, Sir, allow me in conclusion to congratulate you on the favourable aspect of human affairs. The temple of Janus is shut; in the new and in the old world there is peace, with hardly a rumour of war, and what is more, there is the spirit of peace, and an aversion in both people and their rulers, to resort to violence, as the arbiter of national rights. Every state in Europe is advancing in wealth and intelli |