dition of the class. But were government to assist landlords and parishes in relieving their estates, or the funds at their disposal, of the burden of paupers, taking security that the vacuum made by their removal should not be again filled up, the country would be permanently benefited by the measure. And we would fain hope that something of this sort may be done. It might not, perhaps, have so great an effect as many anticipate; but it could hardly fail to improve in some considerable degree, the condition of the poor.

The extraordinary, and indeed unparalleled, emigration that has been going on for the last three or four years from Ireland, and which still continues, has given rise in some quarters to an apprehension of its being carried to an excess, and of the country being deprived of an adequate supply of labour. But we are disposed to regard this apprehension as being in a great degree visionary. Previously to 1846, labour in Ireland was a mere drug. Low as wages were, the peasantry were not half employed. Even at this moment (October 1851), the towns are swarming with people driven from the country for whom there is no demand; and till they have pretty generally disappeared, 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, perhaps, 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 realised, population may yet be greatly reduced, not only without any injury, but with great 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 Species of the Articles required for the Support of the Labourers. Influence of Fluctuations in 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 that portion of its capital which is appropriated to the payment of wages, compared with the number of its labourers. And it has also been seen, that in the event of the labouring population being increased more rapidly than capital, the rate of wages is inevitably reduced. But there are limits, however difficult it may be to specify them, to the extent to which a reduction of wages can be carried. The cost of producing labour, like that of producing other articles, must be paid by the purchasers. The race of labourers would become altogether extinct, did they not obtain a sufficient quantity of food, and of the other articles required for their support, and that of their families. This is the lowest amount to which the rate of wages can be permanently reduced; and it is for this reason that it has been called the natural or ne

cessary rate of wages. The market or current rate of wages may sink to the level of this rate, but it is impossible it can continue below it. The labourer's ability to maintain himself, and to rear fresh labourers, does not, as already shown, depend on the money he receives as wages, but on the supply of food and other articles required for his support for which that money will exchange. The natural or necessary rate of wages must, therefore, be determined by the cost of the food, clothes, &c., which form the maintenance of the labourers.1 It will be high where that food consists principally of expensive articles, such as butcher's-meat and wheaten bread; lower, where less animal food is consumed, and an inferior species of grain, such as oats, is used in making bread; and lower still, where animal food is wholly, or all but wholly, disused, and the place of bread is supplied with potatoes, turnips, and such like vegetables. The rate of necessary wages will also, it is evident, depend a good deal on other circumstances, on the superior and inferior lodging and clothing, and generally on the habits and customs of the poor. But, how high soever the price of necessary articles may rise, the labourers must always receive a supply of these equivalent for their support. If they did not obtain this much, they would be left destitute; and disease and death would continue to thin the population, until the reduced numbers bore such a proportion to the national capital as enabled them to obtain the means of subsistence.

The opinion of those who contend, that the rate of wages is in no degree influenced by the cost of the articles consumed by the labourers, has obviously originated in their confounding the principles which determine the current or market rate of wages, with those which determine their natural or necessary rate. Nothing can be more true, than

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

that the market rate of wages, at any given moment, is exclusively determined by the proportion between capital and population. But in every inquiry of this nature, we should not only refer to particular points of time, but also to periods of average duration; and if we do this, we shall immediately perceive that the average rate of wages does not depend wholly on this proportion. The present price of shoes, to take a parallel case, is plainly dependent on the extent of their supply, compared with the demand of those who have the means of purchasing them. But were this price less than the sum required to produce them, and bring them to market, they would cease to be supplied. And such is the case with labourers. They neither will, nor in fact can, be brought to market, unless the rate of wages be such as may suffice to bring them up and maintain them. From whatever point of the political compass we may set out, the cost of production is the grand principle to which we must always come at last. This cost determines the natural or necessary rate of wages, just as it determines the average price of shoes, hats, or anything else. However low the demand for labour may be reduced, still, if the price of the articles required for the maintenance of the labourer be increased, the natural or necessary rate of wages must be increased also. Let us suppose, in illustration of this principle, that owing to a scarcity, the price of the quartern loaf rises to 5s. In this case it is plain, inasmuch as the same number of labourers would be seeking for employment after the rise as before, and as a rise in the price of bread, occasioned by a scarcity, could not increase the demand for labour, that wages would not be increased. The labourers would, in consequence, be forced to economise, and the rise of price would have the beneficial effect of lessening the consumption of food, and of distributing the pressure equally throughout the year. But suppose that, instead of being occasioned by the accidental occurrence of a scarcity, the rise has been occasioned by an increased difficulty of production, and that it will be permanent, the question is, will the money wages of labour

continue at their former elevation, or will they rise? Now, in this case it may be easily shown, that they must rise. For it is abundantly obvious, that the comforts of all classes of labourers would be greatly impaired by the rise in the price of bread; and those who previously to its taking place had only enough to subsist upon, would now be reduced to a state of destitution, or rather of all but absolute famine. Under such circumstances, an increase of mortality could hardly fail to take place; while the greater difficulty of providing subsistence, would check the formation of matrimonial connections, and the increase of population. By these means, therefore, either the amount of the population, or the ratio of its increase, or both, would be diminished. And this diminution, by lessening the number of labourers, and increasing the proportion of capital to population, would enable them to obtain higher wages.

The statements now made are not advanced on any arbitrary or supposed grounds, but have been deduced from, and are consistent with, the most comprehensive experience. Those who examine the registers of births, marriages, and deaths, kept in all large and populous cities, will find that there is invariably a diminution of the former, and an increase of the latter, whenever the price of corn or of the principal necessaries of life, sustains any material advance. "It will be observed," says Mr Milne, in his valuable "Treatise on Annuities," in reference to the prices of wheat in England, "that any material reduction in the price of wheat is almost always accompanied by an increase both of the marriages and births, and by a decrease in the number of burials; consequently by an increase in the excess of the births above the deaths. Also, that any material rise in the price is generally attended by a corresponding decrease in the marriages and births, and by an increase in the burials; therefore, by a decrease in the excess of the births above the deaths. Thus it appears, that an increase in the quantity of food, or in the facility with which the labouring classes can obtain it, accelerates the progress of the population, both by augmenting