a universal expression. But, unfortunately, both this pleasure and this pain are each incapable of definite estimation: they must be different in different individuals, depending on their respective tastes, inclinations, and wants, and can be appreciated only by the person himself who experiences them. Bad, however, as an estimate of the result of labour formed on these grounds must seem, there does not appear to be any other mode by which an exact estimate can be had, and which can be safely relied on as a universal expression, and without danger of being thereby led into error.

From the impracticability, then, of forming an estimate on such grounds, we are led to look for an indication of the consequences of measures affecting national industry in another way. We know that a saving or easing of labour is, unquestionably, a positive good. We know, likewise, that the grand object of an examination of the laws of social industry must be to facilitate and abridge the labour of the community; and thus, by lessening the difficulty of the acquisition of the products which industry creates for the satisfaction of our wants and wishes, to give the means of obtaining them in larger quantity, and of better quality. Now, in every instance in which the labour of the community is facilitated and abridged, the fact is evident by the observation of the circumstances immediately connected with it, and without reference to those which are more distant. We do not the less value the services to humanity at large, and the riches to our country in particular, which the improvements in the cotton manufacture have conferred, because we are unable to make a definite appreciation of their amount. As every saving or easing of labour must be beneficial, so likewise must, what is equivalent to it, an increase in the quantity or an improvement in the quality of the products of industry effected without additional labour. Whilst, on the other hand, every thing which diminishes the quantity or quality of the products of labour, or increases either the toil or the privation of the people, must, plainly, be to their injury.

No certain conclusion can be drawn from a computation of the national revenue; that is, the sum of the separate revenues of the several individuals of a nation, or the whole products

arising from the land, capital, and labour of a people during a given time, as for example, a year. There are many difficulties that would attend the forming of such an estimate, in consequence of which no reliance could be placed on its accuracy, nor any thing certain inferred from the observation of an increase or diminution of the amount, as to whether the nation has become by so much the richer or poorer during the period observed.

In the first place, some of the products of industry are not of a lasting or substantial kind, so as to be capable of estimation; as, for instance, the services performed by domestic servants. If we attempt to estimate these by the money wages that are paid for them, this will often fall considerably short of their actual expense; for this expense consists sometimes in their food, clothing, and lodging, as well as their money wages.

Secondly, while these services ought to be accounted part of the revenue of the individual to whom they are rendered, as their payment, unquestionably, forms part of his expense, and while their amount is incapable of estimation except by their expense, there are a multitude of instances in which precisely similar services are rendered for which no payment is made, and which, as they form no part of a man's expense, are left entirely out of a computation both of his revenue and of his expenditure. All the services that a man either performs for himself, or which are performed for him by the members of his own family, as they are not paid for, are left out of the estimate of his expense. In industrious families, the wife and children perform those household duties that, amongst the superior ranks, are performed by domestic servants. Sometimes there is no wife. or child, and some one must be hired and paid to do that work which the wife or child, if there were either, would do. The wife and children receive no specific payment, while the hired servant does. But the duties performed in both instances constitute part of the immaterial products of industry, they form part of the supply of the family, and as much so in one. case as in the other; although in one, their payment forms an apparent item in the family expenditure, which it does not in the other.

Thirdly, there are also instances in which objects of material

wealth that are susceptible of definite appreciation, are acquired and consumed without ever appearing in the market, and without any payment being made for them. In the same way that an individual sometimes performs household duties for himself, so likewise does he often consume or retain for use the material products of the industry of himself and family. When he cultivates his garden and consumes its produce at home, or works up wrought goods and retains them for domestic use, these products of industry are left out of the computation of his revenue, and the cost of their acquisition left out of that of his expense. In this way, the apparent revenue of an individual often falls much short of that real revenue which it would be necessary to look to, in an exact computation of all the products of national industry.

Fourthly, property of different kinds is, in some instances, let out by its owner for a rent or hire, and, in others, is retained by him for his own use or occupation. A nobleman or gentleman lets his farms to tenants, but retains the mansion, with its park, and grounds, in his own possession. The rent of the farms only is taken to constitute his revenue, while the mansion is left out. But, in estimating the national revenue, we ought to take, not only the rent of that property which is let, but the value of the rent or hire of that which is not let. There are many different kinds of property that are let to hire; as furniture, horses, carriages. If we take the hire as constituting the revenue of an individual when these are let, we ought, in computing the amount of national revenue, to estimate the value of the use or hire of all that is not let; which would lead the computation much further than might at first be thought requisite. Thus it is evident, that the sum of the separate monied revenues of the individuals of a nation cannot give a correct estimate of the whole national revenue.

Lastly, however exactly all the various circumstances might be computed which ought to be comprised in an estimate of national revenue, this estimate must, after all, proceed on the quality of value, and all the imperfections already noticed as belonging to an estimate of value must attach to it.

In the language used by political economists, the original acquisition of the necessaries, conveniences, and superfluities of life is expressed by the term production; and the instruments and operations by which that acquisition is effected are called productive. The common signification of the term production might lead to the expectation that its operations were restricted to those by which things are produced; such as the labours of agriculture or of pasturage. But this is not the case. The term is used to comprise, besides these, all the various operations performed in the acquisition of wealth; whether appropriative, manufacturing, or commercial. Thus hunting, fishing, and mining, are termed productive occupations; though neither the game, the fish, nor the minerals are really produced, but only acquired thereby. So likewise are the manipulations by which raw materials are wrought into finished goods; as well as those operations which seem less appropriately expressed by the term, and which consist in nothing but buying and selling articles already produced or acquired, collecting them in the places where they are produced or acquired, conveying them to the places where they are in request, holding them in store until wanted, and vending them in proper quantities and at proper times to the parties who require them.

The original acquisition of the necessaries and conveniences

of life is effected by labour, and the source from which labour draws these things is nature.

It is only through the intervention of labour that our subsistence can be procured, and those objects acquired which gratify our desires. This "catholic law" of animated nature, as it has been called, has prevailed in every nation, and been observed in every state of society. "By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," has been uttered in language intelligible to every people. It applies not only to all our race, but to almost every article by which our wants and wishes are supplied and gratified. 66 Though the woods abound with fruits, with vegetable productions, and with game; though the waters abound with fish, and the bowels of the earth with minerals; the fruits and vegetables must be gathered before they can be of use to us, the game and the fish must be caught, the earth opened, and the metal separated from the ore and prepared, before it can be used." The fruits, the vegetables, the game, and the fish, are procurable only at certain times or seasons of the year; and it is therefore necessary that they be preserved, and a store formed to supply us in those seasons when they are not otherwise to be had. Besides, almost all the productions of nature are presented to us in a rude state, and if it were not for the application of labour to the preparation of them, they would be without utility, while the supply of our wants would be limited to that scanty measure of necessaries which nature presents in a state fit for immediate consumption. This exertion, too, is unremitting. The means of subsistence are always of a perishable nature, and cannot be long anticipated or greatly accumulated, and man can live only so long as he continues to labour. The continued exertion of labour is necessary even in the most fer tile soils, and in the most favoured climates. Either from the prolific qualities of those plants and animals which are useless or noxious to man, or from the intervention of deep swamps, impenetrable forests, and the like, even such soils present only the barrenness of the desert, and mostly require persevering labour before they become highly productive. The objects that minister to the wants and wishes of the inhabitants * Col. Torrens.