ion of their dwellings and families, their greater depo the savings' bank, &c., will not be overlooked or forgot doing this, they would contribute to raise the chara the labouring class, and to strengthen the foundation blic peace and prosperity.

Much has latterly been said, and with great justice gard to the beneficial effects that could hardly fail to fo -m an improvement in the dwellings of the poor. In to ere the iujurious influence of the over-crowded, ill ventila d filthy habitations of the lower classes is especially evid good deal might probably be effected by judicious police r ions in regard to the building and occupation of infe uses. And in the country, where cottages are often ry miserable description, the landlords might, with a 1 ention and outlay, effect the greatest improvements. les the various benefits that it would confer on the cott ere are few things that would redound so much to the cr the owners of estates, or add so much to the beauty of ter, as having them studded with neat, clean, and com le cottages.1

But though the conduct of government and of the wealt sses, as regards the poor, were all that could be desi ll its direct influence over individuals must necessarily nfined to a comparatively small number of cases, while lirect influence over the mass is usually feeble and

The Duke of Bedford, and some other noblemen and gentle ve done themselves much honour by the improvements they ected 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 ignariæ 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.)

neral. But every one is aware, that while their ordi e in some employments does not perhaps exceed 2s., 4s. a-day, it may at the same time amount to 3s., 4s., upwards in others. The consideration of the circumsta ich occasion this inequality, will form the subject of apter.

Were all employments equally agreeable and healthy, our to be performed in each of the same intensity, and ey all require the same degree of dexterity and skill on rt of the labourer, it is evident, supposing industry to ite free, that there would be no permanent or consider ference in the wages paid to those engaged in them. on the one hand, the work-people engaged in a partic siness earned more than their neighbours, the latter w adually leave their employments to engage in it, until t flux had reduced wages to their common level; and if, e other hand, those employed in a particular business ear s than their neighbours, there would be an efflux of ha om it, until, by their diminution, the wages of those mained had been raised to the common level. In poin ct, however, the intensity of the labour in different emp ents, the degree of skill and training required to c em on, their healthiness, and the estimation in which t e held, differ exceedingly; and these varying circumstan ecessarily occasion proportional differences in the wage ose engaged in them. Wages are a compensation paid he labourer for the exertion of his physical powers, s nd ingenuity. They, therefore, vary according to the seve f the labour to be performed, and to the skill and ingen

required. A jeweller or engraver, for example, must be paid higher wages than a common farm servant or day labourer. A long course of training is necessary to instruct a man in the business of a jeweller or engraver; and if the cost of this training were not made up to him by a higher rate of wages, instead of learning so difficult an art, he would addict himself, in preference, to such employments as hardly require any instruction. Hence the discrepancies that actually obtain in the rate of wages are confined within certain limits-increasing or diminishing it only in so far as may be necessary fully to equalize the unfavourable or favourable circumstances attending any employment.

The following have been stated by Smith as the principal circumstances which occasion the rate of wages in some employments, to fall below, and in others to rise above, the average rate of wages :

1st. The agreeableness or disagreeableness of the employments.

2nd. The easiness or cheapness, or the difficulty and expense, of learning them.

3rd. The constancy or inconstancy of the employments. 4th. The small or great trust that must be reposed in those who carry them on.

5th. The probability or improbability of succeeding in them.

First. The agreeableness of an employment may arise either from physical or moral causes-from the lightness of the labour, its healthiness or cleanliness, the degree of estimation in which it is held, &c.; and its disagreeableness arises from the opposite circumstances-from the severity of the labour, its unhealthiness or dirtiness, the degree of odium attached to it, &c. The rate of wages must obviously vary with the variation of circumstances exerting so powerful an influence over labourers. It is not to be supposed that any individual should be so blind to his own interest as to engage or continue in an occupation considered as mean and disreputable, or where the labour is severe, if he obtain only the same rate of

sirable occupations. The unfavourable opinion enterta specting some businesses, has a similar effect on wag the labour to be performed in them were unusually althy or severe. The trade of a butcher, for exampl nerally looked upon as low and discreditable, and this g causes such a disinclination on the part of young me ter it, as can only be overcome by the high wages w itchers are said to earn, notwithstanding the lightnes eir labour. This also is the reason why the keeper nall inn or tavern, who is never master of his own h d who is exposed to the brutality of every drunkard cises one of the most profitable of the common trades. ontrary circumstances have contrary effects. Hunting shing are, in an advanced stage of society, among the greeable amusements of the rich. But from their b eld in this degree of estimation, and from the lightne meir labour, those who practise them as a trade gene eceive very small wages, and are proverbially poor. greeableness and healthiness of their employments, rather he lightness of their labour, or the little skill which equire, seem to be the principal cause of the redun umbers, and consequent low wages, of the workmen loyed in ordinary field labour.

The grinding of knives, razors, and other cutting in nents, is a very deleterious trade. The minute particl steel thrown off from the metal in the process of grin Hoat in the atmosphere, and being taken into the lungs, sion consumptions and other diseases of the respiratory em. Various contrivances have been suggested to ob