foreign communication. Such favourable condition of things must lighten the labours of the people in some countries, and render their productive energies more successful than in other countries not possessed of the same advantages; and this wholly irrespective of their own exertions. But since these circumstances lie beyond human control it is unnecessary to do more than allude to them here.

The other class of circumstances which form the subject of our inquiries, since they lie within the control of mankind, may be thus enumerated;—the knowledge possessed by the people of the laws of nature, and the consequent skill and judgment with which they apply their labour; the quantity of labour called into exertion; the improved fruitfulness of the soil; the quantity of capital employed in aid of labour; the extent to which the separation of employments is carried; the freedom allowed to the exertions of industry; the freedom and facility with which commodities may be exchanged one for another, both through the internal and external commerce of the country. The quantity of labour exerted depends in part on the employment that can be procured by the workman, and on the measure in which occasional gluts of particular commodities and kinds of labour can be averted. The exchange of commodities and labour is facilitated by the use of a circulating medium, the establishment of a post, the construction of roads, canals, and other facilities of communication. Again, the distribution of property, and the degree of density of population, have decided effects on the exertions of industry. Such are the circumstances that mainly contribute to the riches of a nation, and by an augmentation or diminution of which its supply of the necessaries and conveniences of life is rendered greater or less in quantity, quality, and adaptation to its wants, while the labours of its people will be in like measure rendered easy or toilsome. Thus all these circumstances form either the immediate subject of our inquiries, or are collaterally connected with them.

Looking to the history of the world, we cannot fail to observe, that the progress of nations in civilization and opulence has resulted less from the favourableness of the natural circumstances in which they have been placed, than from their

own exertions. Countries with equal natural capabilities have made very different degrees of progress, and often those that had to contend against the greatest difficulties, have outstripped in their career others possessed of great original advantages. Of those which seem to have possessed the fewest natural advantages, we may notice Tyre, Athens, Rhodes, Genoa, Venice, Holland. Some of these are striking examples of this position. From such instances it has been often concluded, with what justice however we shall not now inquire, that some imperious necessities, or some natural disadvantages, are even favourable to industry, by stimulating it to exertions which it would not otherwise undertake-thereby strengthening its powers.

Amongst the primary and original causes through which these successful results have been obtained, those that are of a political and moral character hold a prominent place. The laws according to which riches and poverty, suffering and enjoyment, are dispensed amongst mankind, have been framed by the great Author of our being with the same regard to our happiness, and in their ultimate consequences operate with the same uniform certainty, as the laws which govern the material universe. All the causes that render any source of wealth fruitful originate in wisdom or virtue, while all the causes which diminish its productiveness originate in vice or folly-in a course of conduct of which our higher faculties disapprove. Amongst the causes of a political character which conduce to the opulence of nations, may be mentioned, the institution of private property in lands and goods, in place of a community more or less restricted in their possession; the character of the government, the wisdom and rectitude of its public measures; the freedom and security of person, and property of the people, resulting from just and equal laws, with an efficient administration of them. These contribute largely to the advancement of nations in wealth and refinement. Nor does this advancement less depend on the character of the people, on the prevalence of general rectitude of principle, and those intellectual and moral acquirements, with those habits of industry, persevering application, enterprise, and prudence, on which the success in life of

individuals depends. That private probity tends to public opulence, and, on the other hand, that private profligacy leads to national poverty, is sufficiently obvious. As much as men are exposed to danger and loss from the dishonesty of their fellowsubjects, by so much must their attention be called off, and their exertions hindered or frustrated in the direct creation of wealth; while, when not so exposed, all their thoughts and energies may be uninterruptedly devoted to this one object. It is not, however, intended to enter at large into these causes of a political and moral character that influence public wealth or poverty, but to confine our observations to those more proximate causes from which that wealth results.

But whatever be the magnitude or excellence of the gross amount of the supply of a nation, the condition of its industrious population will, besides this, depend on the number of persons with whom they have to share this supply; or the number of persons occupied in adding to its wealth or comforts, in proportion to the number of those who are not so occupied, but must be subsisted by the exertions of those who are. The idle as well as the industrious are equally maintained on the produce of the industry of those who work. Every idle person who does little or nothing towards his own maintenance, but lives on the fruits of the labour of others, and every person who is employed in doing what might as well be left undone, and whose labour, consequently, produces nothing affording real gratification to any one, in return for the sacrifices made for his support, or affords a less gratification than the privation which this sacrifice occasions; every such person abstracts both from individual and from public wealth. It is true, the relations of kindred and of social life frequently take off the irksomeness of labour for relatives and friends to whom we are bound by such ties. But, in other cases, the circumstances of the people must be lowered precisely according to the burthen they have to bear, in the number of persons who add nothing to the common stock, but with whom the produce of labour must be shared. The public opulence then depends, not only on the skill, industry, capital, and freedom of exertion of those who labour, but also on the relative

number of those with whom they are to share the produce of labour.

In tracing the proximate causes which practically influence the effectiveness of national industry and the progress of opulence, we shall treat in detail on the different subjects before enumerated; beginning with skill and knowledge.

CHAPTER III.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE AND SKILL.

It has often been the subject of remark, that man is distinguished from the other animals by which he is surrounded, not less by the helplessness and destitution of his original and natural condition, than by his utter ignorance, when first brought into the world, of the means by which his wants may be supplied destined to rise incomparably higher than they, he has to begin his career under circumstances even below them. "No other animal passes so large a portion of its existence in a state of absolute helplessness, or falls in old age into such protracted and lamentable imbecility. To no other warmblooded animal has nature denied that indispensable covering, without which the vicissitudes of a temperate and the rigour of a cold climate are equally insupportable; and to scarcely any has she been so sparing in external weapons, whether for attack or defence. Destitute alike of speed to avoid, and of arms to repel, the aggressions of his voracious foes; tenderly susceptible of atmospheric influences, and unfitted for the coarse aliments which the earth affords spontaneously during at least two-thirds of the year, even in temperate climates,-man, if abandoned to mere instinct, would be of all creatures most destitute and miserable." * The brute creation is furnished with instincts sufficient to answer every essential purpose, and direct

* Sir W. F. J. Herschel.

them in acquiring a provision for all their wants, whether of sustenance or security; but the intellectual faculties of man must be cultivated before they can serve to any useful purpose : his ingenuity, foresight, and perseverance must be excited and exercised. "If the food of the inferior animals is placed by the Supreme Donor at some distance, as it were, from them, so that one part of them must seek, and the other pursue it,-that of man is still more remote from him, and bestowed upon conditions more strict and multiplied; hence the exercise not merely of his bodily powers, but of his mental faculties, is rendered necessary to his very existence; nor can the terms be evaded. Every element that furnishes his food imposes seeming obstacles in the way of his obtaining it. He cannot pursue his prey into the air, or through the waters; while, on his native earth, the beasts of the chase are either too fleet for him to overtake, or too powerful for him to contend with single and unaided."*

Living in a world subject to laws that are in constant and unchanging operation, to which we are completely subjected, as to an absolute despotism, which we can neither resist nor escape from, it is manifestly of the highest importance to acquire as intimate and extensive an acquaintance with these laws as possible. Some knowledge of the qualities of the things around us, of the good or bad purposes to which they are applicable, and some acquaintance with the order and succession of events, which we call cause and effect, are obviously essential to the supply of our necessities, our preservation from injury, and the continuance of our very existence. Without this, the exertion of labour would be nothing more than the application of brute force to no useful result; and though surrounded with the rude materials suited to furnish the most abundant and admirable supply of our wants, we should be, not merely sunk in poverty, but in danger every moment of destruction. It is this natural weakness of man, coupled with the necessity of exerting his bodily and mental faculties, which leads to that association which constitutes the rudiments of civil society, and by which all his powers become developed and enlarged.

* Sadler on Population, vol. i. p. 119.