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ment has secured the property and the rights of indiv s, and has given that freedom to industry which is essen it has done nearly all it can do to promote the increase al. If it interfere in industrious undertakings, its pr ings will be productive only of injury. The reliance iduals on their own efforts, and their desire to advand selves, are the only principles on which any dependend be safely placed. When government engages in any d ment of industry it is obliged, inasmuch as it has no mean Es own, to obtain the necessary funds from its subject er by loans or taxes. It is obvious, therefore, that its in rence adds nothing to the capital of the country. At bes erely substitutes one sort of superintendence for another aried officer, with but little, if any interest in the succes e undertaking, for the unwearied vigilance of an indiv trading on his own account, and dependent, perhaps, fo ubsistence on the issue of his labours. To suppose the rtakings carried on by such different agencies shoul qually prosperous, is to suppose what is evidently con ctory. This is a matter in regard to which there onger any difference of opinion. It is now universall owledged, that every branch of industry that may b ed on by private parties, will be more successfully an omically prosecuted by them than by the servants of go nent; and that any advantage that may seem to arise i particular case, from employing the latter, will be foun xamination to be altogether illusory. By interfering i uction government is sure, in so far as the influence o easures extend, to weaken the industry and enterprise o

its subjects, occasioning at one and the same time a misapplication and waste of capital, and a diminution of its produce.

It is nugatory, therefore, to expect any advantageous results from the efforts of government directly to increase capital or the demand of labour. It may, however, promote its increase indirectly, by relieving industry from oppressive burdens and shackles, negotiating with foreign powers for the removal of impediments to trade, and endeavouring, in short, to give greater facilities to production. But beyond this, the presumption is, that its interference will be productive of mischief rather than of good. And, if it attempt to set up national workshops for the employment of the poor, it will increase the poverty it seeks to relieve, disturb all the usual channels of industry, and become a potent instrument of evil.

It may, perhaps, be asked, though government be thus ineapable of contributing to increase wages by increasing capital, may it not effect the same end by promoting emigration, and relieving the market of the surplus hands thrown upon it? This question should, we think, be answered in the affirmative. An extensive voluntary emigration has been going on for a lengthened period from Great Britain to which, as everybody knows, an extraordinary stimulus has been given by the discovery of the gold fields in California and Australia. And no one can doubt that this emigration has been signally advantageous not only to the emigrants themselves, but to all classes of the community. Wages have been raised, and the condition of the labourers materially improved. And at the same time that this has been done, the shipping interest has been enriched by the demand for vessels to carry away the emigrants; and a new and rapidly increasing demand has been created for all sorts of manufactured products. Hence the unprecedented increase of manufactures, commerce, and shipping; and the unexampled success that has latterly attended most sorts of industrial undertakings.

But in ordinary times, and in some degree even at present, voluntary emigrants do not always consist of those that might

families in towns, or poor cottars on estates in En or Ireland, for whose services there is little or 1 and, were they conveyed to America or Australia, wou likely become industrious and thriving. And th t be conveyed to either of these continents, and son ision made for their temporary subsistence in them, f than a year's cost of their miserable maintenance land. And though, as a general rule, it might ng for a state to undertake the charge of emigration, st eat deal might be done by assisting parishes or landlor removing paupers and other poor parties wishing grate. So long as there is an extraordinary deman labour in Australia and America, and anything like plus supply in England or Ireland, so long will it be f interest of all classes, but especially the poor, that labo uld, like other things, be carried to the best market. Ve shall be told, perhaps, that emigration may be carrie excess, and that the country may be deprived of a quate supply of labour. But there is no real foundatio any such apprehension. That rise of wages which is th essary consequence of every considerable emigration, pr ssively lessens the temptation to emigrate, and is a uperable obstacle to its being carried to anything like a arious extent. Previously to 1846, labour in Ireland wa nere drug; and low as wages were, the peasantry were n If employed. Even at present (1853), the towns a arming with people driven from the country for who ere is no demand; and till they have pretty generally di

appeared, there can be nothing like an excess of emigration. Ireland is not, in fact, a country which, were its social economy in a sound state, would have a large population. The want of coal renders her unsuitable to most descriptions of manufactures. And the humidity of her climate, while it makes her ill suited for the growth of most varieties of corn, renders her admirably well fitted for pastoral purposes. Her herbage is the finest and most luxuriant in Europe. And under the free commercial system which is now being established, the presumption is, that the land of Ireland will be found to be much more productively employed in grazing than in tillage. This, at all events, is the conviction of some of those best acquainted with the circumstances, and best qualified to form a sound opinion upon them. And supposing it to be realized, population may yet be very greatly reduced, not only without any injury, but with much advantage to her future well-being.

But without farther speculating on such contingent and uncertain events, it is true, and should never be forgotten, that legislation, when most successful, merely improves, to a greater or less extent, the condition of the labourers generally. It does nothing peculiar for individuals. It leaves them where they should and must always be left, to depend on their own conduct and exertions: to be comfortable, if they practise thrift and industry; and wretched, if they indulge in waste and idleness.

CHAPTER III.

Natural or Necessary Rate of Wages, different in different Countries and Periods. Depends on the Quantity and Description of the Articles required for the Support of the Labourers. Influence of Fluctuations of the Rate of Wages over the Condition of the Labourers.

IT has been seen, in the preceding chapter, that the market. or current rate of wages in any country, at any given period, depends on the magnitude of its capital appropriated to the

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NECESSARY RATE OF WAGES.

payment of wages, compared with the number of its labou
And it has also been seen, that in the event of the labo
population being increased more rapidly than capital, the
of wages is inevitably reduced. But there are limits, hov
difficult it may be to specify them, to the extent to wh
reduction of wages can be carried. The cost of prod
labour, like that of producing other articles, must be paid b
purchaser. Work-people must, at all events, obtain a suffi
quantity of food, and of the other articles required for
support, and that of their families. This is the lowest am
to which the rate of wages can be permanently reduced;
it is for this reason that it has been called their natural o
cessary rate.
The market rate of wages may sink to the
of this necessary rate, but it is impossible it should con
below it. The labourer's ability to maintain himself, an
rear fresh labourers, does not, as already shown, depen
the money he receives as wages, but on the food and
articles required for his support for which that money
exchange. The natural or necessary rate of wages
therefore, be determined by the cost of the food, clothes,
which form the maintenance of labourers.1 It will be
where that food consists principally of expensive articles,
as butcher's-meat, and wheaten bread; lower where less a
food is consumed, and an inferior species of grain, su
oats, is used in making bread; and lower still, where a
food is wholly, or all but wholly, disused, and the pla
bread is supplied with potatoes, turnips, and such like
tables. The rate of necessary wages will also, it is ev
depend a good deal on other circumstances, on the su
and inferior lodging and clothing, and generally on the l
and customs of the poor. How high soever the price of

1 Humboldt states, that miners in Saxony are paid at the 18 sols a day; whereas those who are employed at the same work in the mines of Choco, in Peru, are paid six or seven ti much. Inasmuch, however, as the food and other articles consur the latter, exceed the price of those consumed by the former, in the same proportion as their money wages, they are not really better condition.

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