seated in the human breast ever to be wholly eradicated. And as soon as labour is rendered more productive, as soon as an increase of industry brings along with it a proportional increase of comforts and enjoyments, indolence gives place to exertion; a taste for conveniences and enjoyments gradually diffuses itself; increased exertions are made to obtain them; and ultimately the workman considers it discreditable to be without them.

"The liberal reward of labour," says Adam Smith, 66 as it encourages the propagation, so it increases the industry, of the common people. The wages of labour are the encouragement of industry, which, like every other human quality, improves in proportion to the encouragement it receives. A plentiful subsistence increases the bodily strength of the labourer; and the comfortable hope of bettering his condition, and of ending his days perhaps in ease and plenty, animates him to exert that strength to the utmost. Where wages are high, accordingly, we shall always find the workmen more active, diligent, and expeditious, than where they are low; in England, for example, than in Scotland; in the neighbourhood of great towns than in remote country places. Some workmen, indeed, when they can earn in four days what will maintain them through the week, will lie idle the other three. This, however, is by no means the case with the greater part. Workmen, on the contrary, when they are liberally paid by the piece, are very apt to overwork themselves, and to ruin their health and constitution in a few years. A carpenter in London, and in some other places, is not supposed to last in his utmost vigour above eight years. Something of the same kind happens in many other trades, in which the workmen are paid by the piece; as they generally are in manufactures, and even in country labour, wherever wages are higher than ordinary. Almost every class of artificers is subject to some peculiar infirmity, occasioned by excessive application to their peculiar species of work. Ramazzini, an eminent Italian physician, has written a particular book concerning such diseases. We do not reckon our soldiers

the most industrious set of people among us: Yet when soldiers have been employed in some particular sorts of work, and liberally paid by the piece, their officers have frequently been obliged to stipulate with the undertaker, that they should not be allowed to earn above a certain sum every day, according to the rate at which they were paid. Till this stipulation was made, mutual emulation, and the desire of greater gain, frequently prompted them to overwork themselves, and to hurt their health by excessive labour. Excessive application during four days of the week, is frequently the real cause of the idleness of the other three, so much and so loudly complained of. Great labour, either of mind or body, continued for several days together, is in most men naturally followed by a great desire of relaxation, which, if not restrained by force, or by some strong necessity, is almost irresistible. It is the call of nature, which requires to be relieved by some indulgence, sometimes of ease only, but sometimes too of dissipation and diversion. If it is not complied with, the consequences are often dangerous and sometimes fatal, and such as almost always sooner or later bring on the peculiar infirmity of the trade. If masters would always listen to the dictates of reason and humanity, they have frequently occasion rather to moderate than to animate the application of many of their workmen. It will be found, I believe, in every sort of trade, that the man who works so moderately as to be able to work constantly, not only preserves his health the longest, but, in the course of the year, executes the greatest quantity of work."

If an increase of wages ever discourages industry, it must be the industry of those who have previously been straining every nerve to obtain mere subsistence, or the forced industry of the indolent and the dissolute. And even to produce this effect on them, the increase must be sudden and transitory, not gradual and permanent. We are warranted in affirming, that a steadily high rate of wages never has had, and never

1 Wealth of Nations, p. 37.

will have, any such effect. It is nugatory to pretend, that if labourers be capable of earning, by an ordinary degree of application, more than is sufficient for their decent support, they alone, of all the various ranks and orders of the community, will waste the surplus in riot and debauchery. They have the same common sense, they are actuated by the same passions, feelings, and principles as other men. And being so, it is clear they will not generally be guilty of such inconsiderate conduct. But, to lay aside reasoning, and appeal to facts, does not the state of industry in countries where wages are low, compared with its state in those where they are high, prove all that has now been said? Have the low wages of the Irish, the Poles, and the Hindoos, made them industrious ? or the high wages of the Americans, the English, and the Hollanders, made them lazy, riotous, and profligate? Just the contrary. The former are notoriously and proverbially indolent, whereas the latter are laborious, active, and enterprising. The experience of all ages and nations, proves that liberal wages are the keenest spur to assiduous exertion. Wherever they are high, workmen have not only a considerable command over necessaries and conveniences, but also a considerable power of accumulation. And though the number of those who culpably neglect, partly from one cause and partly from another, to avail themselves of the means in their power to acquire something like a security against want, may in a populous country like this, be very large, still it would be most inaccurate to say that such is generally the case with the poor, or that they are insensible to, or incapable of appreciating, the blessings of independence. This, we admit, is the case with far too many; but it is not the case with the majority. And we would fain hope, that as sounder opinions on such subjects become more and more diffused, and vicious habits bring along with them a greater share of the public contempt, this majority will increase. The most inconsiderate, however, as well as the most considerate individuals, are alive to the advantage of high Though they spend them differently, they are

wages.

equally acceptable to them both. Wherever they obtain, every man feels that he derives a tangible advantage from the right of private property, and that otherwise he should not be able peaceably to enjoy the fruits of his industry; and he consequently becomes interested in its support, and in the support of the public tranquillity. It is not when wages are high and provisions abundant, but when they are low, and the harvest less productive than usual, that the manufacturing and thickly-peopled districts are disturbed by popular clamours and commotions. It was said of old, Nihil lætius est populo Romano saturo. And this is not the case in Rome or Britain only, but in all countries. Dans aucune histoire, on ne recontre une seule trait qui prouve que l'aisance du peuple par le travail a nui à son obeissance.1 In fact there cannot be a doubt, notwithstanding all that has been said and written to the contrary, that high wages are the most effectual means of promoting industry and frugality among the labouring class, and of attaching them to the institutions under which they live; while they have the farther advantage, if properly husbanded, of insuring a comfortable subsistence and good education to youth, and of preventing old age and sickness from being driven to seek an asylum in workhouses and hospitals.

Poverty, like vice, is never so little feared as it is by those who are already entangled in its meshes. It is a familiar observation, that the lower we descend in the scale of society, the nearer we come to the haunts of vice, poverty, and wretchedness, the more is recklessness found to prevail. But, though the circumstance be of much greater importance, it is not so often remarked, that this very recklessness is at once the most efficient cause, and the most common result, of the wretchedness so much and so justly deplored. Abstinence is usually least practised by those to whom it is most essential. An ignorant and an impoverished population eagerly grasp, like the lower animals, at immediate gratifications. And it is not

1 Forbonnais, Recherches sur les Finances, Tome i. p 109.

till some circumstance occurs to improve their condition, either by directly increasing the demand for labour, or by awakening them to a sense of the folly and turpitude of their conduct, that they begin to look forward to the results of their actions.

It may perhaps be urged that these statements must be fallacious; for happiness, we are told, does not depend on a man's being supplied with various and costly articles, or on his accommodation being superior, but on his being on a level with those around him. And it is said that an Irishman, plentifully 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 civilised 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 the 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