their children.

on it prematurely to depress their own condition and that of But if the number of labourers cannot suddenly increase when wages rise, neither can it suddenly diminish when they fall. A fall of wages has therefore a precisely opposite effect, and is, in most cases, as injurious to the labourer as their rise is beneficial. In whatever way wages may be restored to their former level after they have fallen, whether it be by a decrease in the number of marriages, or an increase in the number of deaths, or both, it is never, except in the rare cases already mentioned, suddenly effected. Generally speaking, it requires a considerable time before it can be brought about; and hence an extreme risk arises lest the tastes and habits of the labourers, and their opinion respecting what is necessary for their subsistence, should be lowered in the interval. When wages are considerably reduced, the poor are obliged to economize, or to submit to live on a smaller quantity of nccessaries and conveniences, and those probably, too, of an inferior species than they had previously been accustomed to. And the danger is, that the coarse and scanty fare which is thus, in the first instance, forced on them by necessity, should eventually become congenial from habit. Should this unfortunately be the case, their condition would be permanently depressed: and no principle would be left in operation, that could elevate wages to their former level. Under the circumstances supposed, the cost of raising and supporting workpeople would be reduced; and it is by this cost that the current rate of wages must in the end be determined. A people, for example, who have been accustomed to live chiefly on wheat, may, from a scarcity of that grain, or a fall of wages, be forced to have recourse to oats or even potatoes; and in the event of their becoming satisfied with either, the standard of wages among them will be permanently reduced; and instead of being, as formerly, mainly determined by the price of wheat, it will, in time to come, be mainly determined by the price of oats or potatoes. This lowering of the opinions of the labouring class with respect to the mode in which they ought to live, is perhaps the most serious of all the evils that can befall

auper population would thus increase with frightful rapid et a population once become contented with a lower ription of food, and an inferior standard of comfort, and hay bid a long adieu to anything better. And every redu f wages, which is not of a transient description, contri o bring about this undesirable result, unless its debasin uence be defeated by greater industry and economy, a ncreased prevalence of moral restraint.

CHAPTER IV.

Disadvantage of Low Wages, and of having the Lab habitually fed on the cheapest species of food. Advant High Wages.

They a

THE opinion, that a low rate of wages is advantageous requently been advocated; but we are firmly persuaded here is none more completely destitute of foundation he condition of the labourers be depressed, the prosper he other classes can rest on no solid foundation. orm the great bulk of every society; and wherever their re low, they must, of necessity, live on coarse and scanty Men placed under such circumstances are without any suf notive to be industrious, and, instead of activity and enter we have sloth, ignorance, and improvidence. The examp such individuals or bodies of individuals, as submit quie

Travels in Norway, cap. 1.

have their wages reduced, and who are content if they get only mere necessaries, should never be held up for public imitation. On the contrary, everything should be done to make such apathy be esteemed discreditable. The best interests of society require that the rate of wages should be elevated as high as possible that a taste for comforts and enjoyments should be widely diffused, and, if possible, engrafted into the national character. Low wages, by rendering it impossible for inereased exertions to obtain any considerable increase of comforts and enjoyments, effectually hinders such exertions from being made; and is of all others the most powerful cause of that idleness and apathy that contents itself with what can barely continue animal existence.

Ireland furnishes a striking example of the disastrous consequences resulting from the depressed condition of the labouring classes. There the natural or necessary rate of wages is determined by the lowest standard. Having no taste for conveniences or luxuries, the Irish peasantry have been satisfied if they have had turf hovels for their habitations, rags for their raiment, and potatoes for their food. But as the potato is raised at less expense than any other variety of food hitherto cultivated in Europe, and as wages, where it forms nearly the sole subsistence of the labourers, are chiefly determined by its cost, it is evident that those who depend on it must be reduced to a state of almost irremediable distress, whenever it happens to be deficient. When the standard of wages is high-when wheat and beef, for example, form the principal food of the labourer, and porter and beer the prin cipal part of his drink, he can bear to retrench. Such a man has room to fall. In a period of scarcity he can resort to cheaper varieties of food-to barley, oats, rice, maize, and potatoes. But he who is habitually and constantly fed on the cheapest species of food, has nothing to resort to when deprived of it. You may take from an Englishman, but you cannot take from an Irishman. The latter is already so low that he can fall no lower. He is placed on the very verge of

ADVANTAGE OF HIGH WAGES.

existence. His wages, being regulated by the cost of toes, will not buy him wheat, or barley, or oats. When therefore, potatoes fail, it is next to impossible he sh escape falling a sacrifice to famine.

The history of the scarcities that so frequently occ Ireland, affords many illustrations of the accuracy of the s ments now made. Owing, for example, to the failure o potato crop of 1821, the bulk of the peasantry of Clare, I rick, and other counties bordering on the Shannon, we duced to a state of almost absolute destitution, and had no but a miserable mixture consisting of a little oatmeal, ne and water-cresses to subsist upon. In some instances potatoes, after being planted, were dug up and eaten; an consequence of the insufficiency and bad quality of food ease became exceedingly prevalent, and typhus fever, most malignant form, carried its destructive ravages every corner of the country. The price of potatoes ro Limerick, in the course of a few weeks, from about 2d. t and 7d. per stone, while the price of corn sustained no rial elevation, none, at least, to prevent its being sent t then overloaded markets of England.

But it is unnecessary to go back to 1821 for an exam] this sort. Notwithstanding the all but total failure o potato crop of 1846 in all parts of Ireland, and the c quent destitution of the peasantry, there was no very derable falling off in the exports of corn, and other articl provision, to England, till the contributions of govern and of the British public were applied to purchase sup for the Irish poor. And it is indeed obvious, that to ever extremity a potato-feeding peasantry may be red they cannot relieve themselves by purchasing corn. wheat, barley, or oats form the principal part of the fo the people of Ireland, corn would be poured into it i same way that it is poured into England, as soon as known that the crop is materially deficient. But a po tion which is habitually dependent on the potato, having wages regulated accordingly, cannot buy corn, or any h

priced article. In periods of scarcity men cannot go from a low to a high level; they must always go from a higher to a lower. But to the Irish this is impossible. For having already reached the lowest point in the descending scale, dearth is to them attended with all the horrors of famine.

It is, therefore, quite essential to the protection of every people from famine, in seasons when the crops happen to be deficient, that they should not subsist principally on the cheapest species of food. They may use it in limited quantities as a subsidiary and subordinate article; but if they once adopt it for the principal part of their diet, their wages will be proportionally reduced; and whenever a period of deficient supply occurs, they will be left without any re

source.

Besides its influence in depressing wages, the potato, considered as an article of subsistence, has sundry defects peculiar to itself, which deserve the most careful attention.

In the first place, owing to the greater quantity of food which is raised on a given extent of land under potatoes than if it were under corn or in pasture, the population of potatofeeding countries is, cæteris paribus, comparatively dense, and they have, consequently, on a scarcity occurring, a proportionally greater amount of destitution. In the second place, it is a defect peculiar to the potato, or affecting it in a much greater degree than most other articles, that the surplus produce of plentiful years cannot be stored up, or kept in reserve to meet the deficiencies of bad years, but that practically the subsistence of each year is measured by the produce of that year. Probably, however, the uncertainty of its produce and its bulk, and the consequent cost and difficulty of its conveyance, are the principal drawbacks on the use of the potato. Its yield varies extremely in different years, being very large in some, while in others it is next to nothing; and owing to the bulkiness of the article, it is practically impossible materially to alleviate the suffering occa sioned by a failure of the crop in one country by importations