supplied with potatoes, is quite as contented, and has as keen a relish of life, as a London workman, who must have bread, beef, and porter. But though this may be true, it is little to the purpose. An American Indian, who has just killed a buffalo, has less care perhaps, and a more intense feeling of enjoyment, than the richest merchant of New York. But are we, on that account, to set the savage on the same level as the civilized man? or poverty on the same level as wealth? It may be all very well so long as the Irishman has his potatoes, and the Indian his buffaloes. But what is their condition when these happen to fail? They have no resource, nothing else upon which to retreat. And the famine that, under such circumstances, sweeps off whole tribes of Indians, would make equal ravages among the Irish, were it not mitigated or warded off by contributions raised by others.

Nothing, therefore, we repeat it again, can be so disadvantageous to any people, as a permanent depression in the rate of wages, or a decline in the opinions of the labouring class, respecting the articles necessary for their subsistence. No country can be flourishing where wages are low; and none can be long depressed where they are high. The labourers are the thews and sinews of industry. Their numbers are not estimated, like those of other classes, by hundreds, by thousands, or even by hundreds of thousands, but by millions! It is by them that our machinery is constructed and kept in motion; that our agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, are successfully carried on; and that we have been enabled easily to support burdens that could hardly have been supported by any other people. Everything, then, that may have the slightest tendency to depress their condition, or sink them in the social scale, should be most particularly guarded against. Those who feed and clothe all the rest, should themselves be well fed and well clothed. They are the foundation of the social pyramid; and so long as the standard of

1

1 A great many taxes have been reduced and repealed since the peace; and several of the continental states are now more heavily taxed than this.

wages continues high, this foundation will be solid and secure; for so long will the labourers be industrious and orderly. But, if this standard were permanently reduced, if the labourers were brought to place their principal dependence on the cheapest food, and to rest satisfied with mere necessaries, the want of sufficient motives to exertion would infallibly render them idle and dissipated. The spirit of industry by which they are now so eminently distinguished, would evaporate; and with it the prosperity and tranquillity of Britain!

These statements sufficiently show, that it is as much for the interest of governments, with a view to their own security, as it is their duty with a view to the happiness of their subjects, to do all in their power to improve the condition of the labouring classes, by adopting such wise and liberal measures as may be most favourable to the increase of capital, and as may contribute most to elevate the opinions of the labourers, and the standard of wages. It will be found, too, on taking an enlarged view of the subject, that the real and permanent interests of the capitalists, or employers of labour, should point out to them the propriety of their adopting a similar course. At first sight it does indeed appear as if their interests were opposed to those of the labourers; but such is not really the case. The interests of both are at bottom identical; and it has been already seen that all the wealth of the country applicable to the payment of wages is uniformly, in all ordinary cases, divided among the labourers. It is true, that when wages are increased, profits are at the same time most commonly reduced. But it does not, therefore, follow that capitalists would be placed in a really preferable situation were wages to fall and profits to rise. The rate of profit, how important soever, is not the only thing to which they have to look. Security and tranquillity are still more indispensable than high profits to the successful prosecution of industrious undertakings. And these are rarely found where wages are low, and the mass of the people immersed in poverty and des

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titution. Wherever this is the case, the poor are deterred by nothing, save the fear of the law, from engaging in all sorts of dangerous projects; and are always ready to listen to those who tell them that their unhappy condition is a consequence of misgovernment, and of the selfishness of their employers. Under such unfortunate circumstances, industry and enterprise are paralyzed, and the condition of the capitalists is, if anything, worse than that of the labourers.

Hence, while it is impossible for the employers of labour artificially to reduce the rate of wages, it is further obvious that such reduction, could it be effected, would rarely, if ever, be for their advantage; for unless wages were previously at an unusually high elevation, it would naturally be followed by a diminution of that security which is essential to their interests. The conduct of those who pretend to wish for the improvement of the poor, and who at the same time complain of high wages, is in fact contradictory, and must be ascribed to hypocrisy or folly, or both—the former because an increase of wages is the only, or at all events the most effectual and ready means by which the condition of the poor can be really improved, and the latter because high wages are incomparably the best defence of the estates and mansions of the rich.

Paley says, "It is in the choice of every man of rank and property to become the benefactor or the scourge, the guardian or the tyrant, the example or the corrupter of the virtue, of his servants, his tenants, his neighbourhood; to be the author to them of peace or contention, of sobriety or dissoluteness, of comfort or distress." This statement is more applicable to parties living in the country than to those who live in towns, or who carry on large manufacturing establishments, the masters of which can know little or nothing of the workpeople in their employ, except what they may learn of their conduct in the mill or factory. But it is, notwithstanding, in a greater or less degree, applicable to all varieties of employers; their respective situations imposing on them corresponding obligations and responsibilities. Those who neglect

1 Works, v. 97 edition, 1819.

the means of benefiting their inferiors, which Providence has placed at their command, are culpable in more ways than one. It would not, indeed, be easy to overrate the good that might eventually be accomplished were masters, who have the opportunity, generally to bestow some little attention on the character and conduct of those in their service; to assist them in establishing schools and useful libraries; and to satisfy them that those who distinguish themselves by the superior condition of their dwellings and families, their greater deposits in the savings' bank, &c., will not be overlooked or forgotten. In doing this, they would contribute to raise the character of the labouring class, and to strengthen the foundations of public peace and prosperity.

Much has latterly been said, and with great justice, in regard to the beneficial effects that could hardly fail to follow from an improvement in the dwellings of the poor. In towns, where the iujurious influence of the over-crowded, ill ventilated, and filthy habitations of the lower classes is especially evident, a good deal might probably be effected by judicious police regulations in regard to the building and occupation of inferior houses. And in the country, where cottages are often of a very miserable description, the landlords might, with a little attention and outlay, effect the greatest improvements. Besides the various benefits that it would confer on the cottiers, there are few things that would redound so much to the credit of the owners of estates, or add so much to the beauty of the latter, as having them studded with neat, clean, and comfortable cottages.1

But though the conduct of government and of the wealthier classes, as regards the poor, were all that could be desired, still its direct influence over individuals must necessarily be confined to a comparatively small number of cases, while its indirect influence over the mass is usually feeble and but

1 The Duke of Bedford, and some other noblemen and gentlemen, have done themselves much honour by the improvements they have effected in the cottages on their estates.

slowly manifested. What others can do for them is, in truth, but as the small dust of the balance compared with what they may do for themselves. The situation of most men not born to affluence, is always in great measure dependent on their own exertions. And this is most especially true of the labouring classes, the great majority of whom can owe nothing to patronage or favour. Industry, frugality, and forethought, are their only friends. But, happily, they are all-powerful. And how unpromising soever their situation, those who avail themselves of their willing assistance, are never disappointed, but secure in the end their own comfort and that of their families. Those, on the contrary, who neglect their aid, though otherwise placed under the most favourable circumstances, inevitably sink into a state of misery. The contrast between a well cultivated field and one that is neglected and overrun with thorns and brambles, is not greater than the contrast between the condition of the diligent and slothful, the careful and the wasteful labourers. The cottages of the former are clean, neat, and comfortable, their children well clothed and well instructed; whereas the cottages of the latter are slatternly and uncomfortable, being often little better than pig-styes, and their children in rags and ignorant. No increase of wages can be of any permanent advantage to the one class, while the smallest increase conduces to the well-being of the other. Vigilando, agendo, bene consulendo, prospere omnia cedunt. But on the other hand, ubi socordiæ te atque ignaviæ tradideris nequicquam deos implores; irati infestique sunt. "If," says Barrow, "wit or wisdom be the head, if honesty be the heart, industry is the right hand of every vocation: without which the shrewdest insight and best attention can execute nothing." (Second Sermon on Industry.)