passions, feelings, and principles, as other men.

And being so, it is clear they will not generally be guilty of such inconsiderate conduct. But without insisting further on considerations of this sort, the state of industry in countries where wages are low, compared with its state in those where they are high, proves 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 cxertion. They give to workmen, 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 and unfair 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 wages. Though they spend them differently, they are equally acceptable to both. Wherever they obtain, every man feels that he derives a tangible advantage from the right of property, that without it he would not be able peaceably to enjoy the fruits of his industry; and he consequently becomes interested in its support, and in the maintenance of the public tranquillity. It is not when wages are high, and provisions abundant, but when they are low, or provisions scarce

ADVANTAGE OF HIGH WAGES.

and high-priced, that the manufacturing and thickly-peo districts are disturbed by popular clamours and commoti It was said of old, Nihil lætius est populo Romano saturo. this is not the case in Rome or Britain only, but in all c tries. Dans aucune histoire, on ne rencontre un seul trait prove que l'aisance du peuple par le travail a nui à son o sance. In fact there cannot be a doubt, notwithstanding that has been said and written to the contrary, that high w are the most effectual means of promoting industry and gality among the labouring class, and of attaching them to institutions under which they live; while they have the far advantage, if properly husbanded, of insuring a comfort subsistence and good education to youth, and of preven old age and sickness from being driven to seek an asylum workhouses and hospitals.

Poverty, like vice, is never so little feared as it is by t who are already entangled in its meshes. It is a fam observation, that the lower we descend in the scale of soc the nearer we come to the haunts of vice, poverty, and wre edness, the more is recklessness found to prevail. But, the the circumstance be of much greater importance, it is no often remarked, that this very recklessness is at once the efficient cause, and the most common result, of the wretc ness so much and so justly deplored. Abstinence is us least practised by those to whom it is most essential. ignorant and impoverished population eagerly grasp, like lower animals, at immediate gratifications. And it is no some circumstance occurs to improve their condition, e by directly increasing the demand for labour, or by awake them to a sense of the folly and turpitude of their cond that they begin to look forward to the results of their act

It may perhaps be urged that these statements must be lacious; for happiness, we are told, does not depend on a m being supplied with various and costly articles, or on hi commodation being superior, but on his being on a level those around him. And it is said that an Irishman plenti

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

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 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.

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ADVANTAGE OF HIGH WAGES.

wages continues high, this foundation will be solid and s for so long will the labourers be industrious and o But, if this standard were permanently reduced, if t bourers were brought to place their principal deper on the cheapest food, and to rest satisfied with mere saries, the want of sufficient motives to exertion would libly render them idle and dissipated. The spirit of in by which they are now so eminently distinguished, evaporate; and with it the prosperity and tranquill Britain!

These statements sufficiently show, that it is as mu the interest of governments, with a view to their own se as it is their duty with a view to the happiness of thei jects, to do all in their power to improve the condition labouring classes, by adopting such wise and liberal me as may be most favourable to the increase of capital, may contribute most to elevate the opinions of the labo and the standard of wages. It will be found, too, on an enlarged view of the subject, that the real and perm interests of the capitalists, or employers of labour, s point out to them the propriety of their adopting a s course. At first sight it does indeed appear as if the terests were opposed to those of the labourers; but s not really the case. The interests of both are at b identical; and it has been already seen that all the wea the country applicable to the payment of wages is unif in all ordinary cases, divided among the labourers. It is that when wages are increased, profits are at the sam most commonly reduced. But it does not, therefore, that capitalists would be placed in a really preferable sit were wages to fall and profits to rise. The rate of profi important soever, is not the only thing to which they ha look. Security and tranquillity are still more indispe than high profits to the successful prosecution of indus undertakings. And these are rarely found where wag low, and the mass of the people immersed in poverty an

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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.