of a country may not indeed be all the immediate produce of its national industry, but they must all be, either such, or commodities which have been purchased with that produce from other nations.

But though all men are supported by labour, yet it is not all that are supported in the produce of their own personal labour. Some are privileged to do by proxy what the rest are obliged to do personally. They have perhaps acquired exclusive possession of the soil, and, instead of living on the produce of their own labour, they live idly on a share of the fruits which other men's labour draws from the land that they let out to them for hire. Others again there are who possess useful objects, which either their own labour at some previous time, or that of their ancestors, has created and accumulated; and they are supported on what other men voluntarily give them as hire for the advantage of the use of these objects. Thus, excepting the rent of land, and excepting fraud, violence, or eleemosynary sources of subsistence, all are supported on the produce of the labour which is exerted from day to day, or from season to season, either by themselves, or vicariously for them by others, or on that which previous labour has created and accumulated.

The denunciation, "By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," is not to be looked upon as a curse, but as a law of benevolence. The necessity for exertion, though it falls on the human race in a more onerous measure than on most other animated beings, is yet tempered with mercy, and freighted with richer blessings. This necessity has impelled man to cultivate and improve his powers, whereby he does not merely exist in a stationary condition, but has attained to a supremacy over creation, and has risen higher in intellect than in station; enlarging his abundance, securing his health, and administering to his enjoyments. It is not only the preceptor of the intellect, but the guardian of the morals of the human race. "As the wise God," says Lord Hale, "hath put all things in motion and action, the heavenly bodies, the elementary natures, the meteors, the animals; so it is his wisdom to preserve man also in that bodily as well as mental motion, and by a kind of necessity drive him from sloth and idleness: if he will live, he must eat;

and if he will eat, he must labour."* The denunciation, too, if it were a curse, contains in it also a promise, "shalt thou eat;" a promise which has been fulfilled in all ages and countries, and whence we confidently trust that it will be fulfilled to the end of time. This promise ought to cheer the labourer, in the endurance of his toil, from the consoling prospect which it holds out, that he will never be abandoned by his Maker. Believing in His constant sufficiency to sustain all his animated. creatures, we trust that he will always continue to be supplied with everything which is essential to him: a trust which comes home with stronger assurance to the heart, inasmuch as we find the promise fulfilled in a richer measure as man becomes better acquainted with the Giver, and His operations in nature, and conforms more strictly to His will.

While, however, the condition of man is such that nothing can be had to supply his wants without labour, yet labour is not itself sufficient for that purpose; since it cannot in general be exercised at all, unless there be something to which it may be applied, or on which it may be bestowed. There must be some land to be cultivated; some hunting or fishing grounds, where game or fish are to be found; or some raw material to be fashioned for use. Without one or more of these, it would be impossible to advance a single step towards the acquisition of the objects of our wants. The air, the waters, the exterior soil, and the bowels of the earth, afford us food, fuel, and the materials of clothing and of building; and they abound with materials of all sorts which may be adapted to our use. It is these original gifts of nature that form the subjects on which labour is bestowed.

Again, labour is of such a nature that it can create nothing; and unless it were operated with by the creative agency of nature -its productive motions or operations; the laws of attraction, repulsion, cohesion, expansion, contraction, gravity, and the like; "the process performed by the soil, the air, the rain, and the sun❞—wherein mankind bears no part, his labour would be altogether fruitless and without effect. Man contributes to the productive operation that alone which is in his power

* Origination of Mankind, p. 371.

contribute-motion. He can, in fact, do nothing more than this. "He can move things towards one another, and he can separate them from one another: the properties of matter perform all the rest. He moves ignited iron to a portion of gunpowder, and an explosion takes place. He moves the seed to the ground, and vegetation commences. He separates the plant from the ground, and vegetation ceases. Why, or how, these effects take place, he is ignorant. He has only ascertained by experience, that if he perform such and such motions, such and such effects will follow. In strictness of speech, it is matter itself which produces the effect. All that man can do is to place the objects of nature in a certain position. The tailor when he makes a coat, the farmer when he produces corn, do the same things exactly. Each makes motions; and the properties of matter do the rest. Human agency can create nothing: the mass of matter of which this globe consists does not appear susceptible of increase or diminution. "All the operations of nature and of art are reducible to, and really consist of, transmutations,-of change of form and place." Man can only act in conjunction with Nature. He can select, appropriate, and preserve, the spontaneous productions which she presents to his hand. He can combine, and change, or modify, the arrangement or forms of the rude materials thus presented to him, so as to adapt them to his use. The mode, the adaptation to our use, the change of form and place, we can give. We can re-produce existing materials under other forms; we can direct and regulate the creative agency of nature, prevent its powers from being wasted in the production of things noxious or useless to man; and direct them to the production of such as are desirable to him. But the creation of matter is not only beyond our power, but above our comprehension. It is the Author of nature alone that can create.

Production, then, is not the creation of new matter, but it is human agency, combining with the ever-acting operations of nature, in the production of new forms of matter, suited to the wants and desires of man. It is in this sense, that production must be understood in political economy.

Polit. Econ. by Jas. Mill, Esq. p. 6.

Once more, not only is man unable to create new matter, but he is equally unable to create force, or cause motion, beyond that limited measure of them, which the feeble power of his limbs enables him to exert. Yet, notwithstanding this, man has rendered submissive to his service animals of incomparably greater strength than his own, besides the natural agents of fire, wind, water, and steam, of tremendous force. But though these are trained by man to the performance of the gigantic labours he requires of them, yet they have been formed by other hands than his, and he can contribute nothing to their force. He merely seizes on the reins, if they may be so called, by which the exertion of their power is guided, and, by an inconsiderable effort of his own, turns them in the direction in which that force may be exerted to suit the purposes he has in view. In proportion as he thus brings nature under subjection to his will, and renders her his servant or fellow-labourer, he is enabled to dispense with his own personal exertion, and throw on her the severer portion of the task. And while he reaps all the advantage of her service, he pays nothing for it, hardly yielding even gratitude to his benefactress, in return for her share of the toil.

Lastly, the labour of the workman would be very inefficient were he not furnished with the proper tools, implements, machines, and utensils of the particular art or labour in which he occupies himself; and unless he had in store a supply of the necessaries of subsistence-food, clothing, and lodging-to support him while he is engaged in labour. These, which are the accumulated produce of previous labours, are denominated capital.

The things, then, that are essential to the acquisition of the objects of our wants and wishes are, labour assisted by capital, in conjunction with the earth, the air, the waters; and these operating together with the productive agency of nature, its creative and generative powers, and the physical laws of the universe. The exertion of these powers, and the supply of all the materials that are requisite, are the gratuitous contribution which nature furnishes to our wants, which we can neither increase nor diminish, but merely turn to our use, and direct those

powers into that course which we find most conducive to the attainment of our purposes. Nature furnishes her materials and her agency with a liberal hand, demanding no equivalent in return. In the abundance of her gifts, there is nothing which man in reason can desire that is not by persevering industry to be obtained. To us it remains to exert this industry in the various methods in which the objects that contribute to the satisfaction of our wants and wishes are to be attained. Such are the sources of our supply, and the instruments by which that supply is acquired.

The employment of the several instruments of productionlabour in conjunction with capital, or with capital and land, is expressed by the term industry. There is therefore a distinction between the import of the terms production and industry; the former signifying the acquisition or formation of the products of labour, and the latter the means employed to effect such formation.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH CONDUCE TO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NATIONAL INDUSTRY, AND THE PROGRESS OF OPULENCE.

THE productive exertions of a nation will be more or less successful in procuring an abundant and excellent supply of the necessaries and superfluities of life, and its labours in this supply will be rendered light or toilsome, according to circumstances of two kinds; one of which is beyond human control, and the other within it.

Those circumstances that are beyond the control of man are-natural and original fertility of soil, excellence of climate, abundance and variety of those original productions of nature which are most useful and desirable to him; the advantages of situation, as regards vicinity to other countries which abound in such productions, and natural facilities of domestic or