r 
 
 Ex Libris 
 
 ', C. K. OGDEN 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 i*v*wys\ 
 
 . 
 
 
 roSKW 
 
 Mu\ 
 
 'YLttUMUJ
 
 Vi.S.HllTZ B1NGER
 
 r/'-'/t 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 i,, * i
 
 Yi.SJUIXZ BINDER
 
 THE 
 
 POPULATION AND RICHES 
 
 OF NATIONS, 
 CONSIDERED TOGETHER, 
 
 NOT ONLY WITH REGARD TO THEIR POSITIVE 
 AND RELATIVE INCREASE, 
 
 BUT 
 
 WITH REGARD TO THEIR TENDENCY TO MORALS 
 PROSPERITY, AND HAPPINESS. 
 
 By SIR EGERTON BRYDGES , Bart. K.. J. 
 
 GENEVA, 
 
 PRINTED BY LURE SESTIE, 
 
 August, 1 3 19.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface, Page ix, 
 
 CHAPT. I. Division of the Population of a Nation, 
 
 relatively to Riches, .... i. 
 II. Of Agricultural Producers , ... 8. 
 
 III. Of Manufacturing Producers , . . 12. 
 
 IV. Of Wages, 17. 
 
 V. Of Cost, 20. 
 
 YI. Of Price, 21. 
 
 VII. Of Profit, 2J. 
 
 VIII. Of Currency, 26. 
 
 IX. Of Non-Producers , 5 1 . 
 
 X. Of Usefulness, as applied to Riches, 54 
 
 XI. Of Non-Producers , employed intertner 
 diately between the Producer , and 
 Consumer , 55, 
 
 XII. Of the different Classes of intermediate 
 
 Non-Producers, ,..,.. 56. 
 
 XIII. Of the Consequences of a Dispropor- 
 
 tionate Increase, either of Agricul* 
 tural or Manufacturing Riches , . 67, 
 
 XIV. Of the first Class of those who live by 
 
 Bodily Labour, applied to Non-Pro- 
 ductive Services : Domestic Servants, 5g. 
 XV. Of another Class of the same : Soldiers 
 
 and Sailors , 62. 
 
 XVI. Of the Civil Servants of Government, 
 
 living by Be dily Labour, . . . 65. 
 XVII. Of Non-Producers , who live by Intel- 
 lectual Labour, ...... 64'>
 
 (vi. ) 
 
 XVIII. Of the Civil Servants of Government, 
 
 living by Intellectual Labour , . 65. 
 XIX. Of Paupets and the Poor Laws , . 66. 
 XX. Of the Employment of the Poor, . 78. 
 XXI. Of the Consequences of extending the 
 Provisions of the Poor-Rates beyond 
 the Old and Impotent Poor, . . 84. 
 
 XXII. Miscellaneous Observations on the 
 
 Poor Laws , 99. 
 
 XXIII. Of Poor Laws confined to the Old 
 
 and Impotent, n4 
 
 XXIV. Of Persons living on Property, or 
 
 Capital, 118. 
 
 XXV. Of Capital, 121. 
 
 XXVI. Of Capital in Land , ia5. 
 
 XXVII. Of Rent , 1 2.4. 
 
 XXVIII. Of the general increase of Prices con- 
 current with the rise of Rents , . J02. 
 XXIX. How far an increase of Rents is at- 
 tended by a diminution of Profits , 1 55. 
 XXX. Further Observations on the conse- 
 quences of the Concurrence men- 
 tioned in the last Chapter, . . ifa, 
 
 XXXI. Of the Con --Laws , 145. 
 
 XXXII. Of Personal Capital, 174. 
 
 XXXIII. Of PciMJiidl Property IcnL on Mort- 
 
 gage of Land , 177. 
 
 XXXIV. Of Personal Property vested in the 
 
 Public Funds, iOo' 
 
 XXXV. Of Money, or Capital, lent on the 
 
 Security of Pledged. Goods, . . iCj.
 
 ( vii. ) 
 
 XXXVI. Of Money , or Capital , lent on thr Se- 
 
 curity of Personal Responsibility , 1 84 
 
 XXXVII. Of the Usury-Laws , . . . . 186. 
 XXXVIII. Of Tythes , 188. 
 
 XXXIX. Oi State Revenue j and Loans , with the 
 
 Public Debt resulting from them, 192. 
 XL. Of Tuxes, ........ 204. 
 
 XL1. Of Foreign Commerce, .... 220. 
 
 XLI1. General Conclusions, ..... 223*
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 J_ HE first idea of writing the present 
 slender Volume was prompted by some 
 passages in Jean-Baptiste Say's Traite 
 d'Economie Politique , which , while rea- 
 ding the Work at Paris , in Aug. 1 8 1 8 , 
 
 C5 * O * 
 
 struck me as not only erroneous , but as 
 full of perplexing or mischievous conse- 
 quences. On referring to Ricardo's very 
 able Treatise 9 I did not perceive that he 
 liad detected some of these errors ; but I 
 perceived with extreme regret, that he 
 completely coincided with others of them. 
 My subsequent travels ; the sight of 
 new countries; the intercourse with new 
 manners , displaced and dissipated for 
 many months all this train of ideas. In 
 the month of April last, I know not by 
 what impulse, I resumed the subject,
 
 amid a multitude of other discordant 
 literary occupations. 
 
 A life , to which books and intellectual 
 employment have become from early ai d 
 unbroken habit necessary , would be 
 burdensome to me, if 1 should endea- 
 vour to spend the largest portion of my 
 leisure in any other way. Having from, 
 native disposition of mind cherished a 
 curiosity , perhaps far more extensive 
 than was consistent either with my in- 
 dolence, or those numerous avocations 
 and distractions caused by a most un- 
 prosperous course of days, I never couid 
 confine myself to a single track ot studk-c, ; 
 and have always perhaps been viidy 
 reaching at an expanse, which, like sha- 
 dows, has mocked my grasp. 
 
 Whatever advantages may be derived 
 from the disinterested ardour, with w
 
 (xi. ) 
 
 I have sought for truth , and the freedom 
 and frankness of movement generated by 
 long experience in mental labour, I am 
 deeply sensible of the imperfections , the 
 want of compression and arrangement, 
 the obscurities , and perhaps apparent 
 inconsistencies , that these excursive ha- 
 bits of mind may have caused in the present 
 Tract. 
 
 In the multitude of crude or trite pub- 
 lications , with which the press daily 
 tetcis, there are clear rules by which we 
 can decide what are superfluous ; and 
 what are praise-worthy : what are unne- 
 cessary , because the subject has been 
 already well executed j and what are to 
 be condemned, because they are badly 
 done. Novelty of opinion, or novelty of 
 illustration , are primary recommenda- 
 tions, so long as they approximate to
 
 truth, or fitness : and these in a scale of 
 interest rising with the importance of the 
 subject. But merit is not confined to ori- 
 ginal writers. Even compilations may I e 
 highly useful, where the matter wants a 
 new arrangement ; or if the facts or opi- 
 nions are scattered where only long in- 
 dustry can find them , or rare opportunity 
 have access to them. 
 
 It seems to me , that no writer on Po- 
 litical Economy with whom I am ac- 
 quainted , has taken exactly the same 
 view* of results , or used exactly the same 
 arguments or method on the vital points 
 I have undertaken to discuss , as 1 have 
 done. Where we have arrived at the 
 same conclusions, each by the original 
 processes of his own mind, they amount 
 to a concurring testimony of their recti- 
 tude on topics so important and so ab~
 
 ( xiii. ) 
 
 struse, that whatever tends to confirm 
 and settle opinion upon them ought not to 
 be deemed supererogatory. Perhaps the 
 i r ery errors of a writer on this subject, 
 when put into some new form , may tend 
 to elicit the truth. 
 
 The Public with reason suspects and 
 withholds its assent lo these Discussions , 
 when it is believed that they are intended 
 to answer Party purposes. Whoever has 
 the patience to read these pages will feel 
 assured , that I have indulged no political 
 bias in my opinions or reasonings It is 
 probable that each side of the great Par- 
 liamentary Division will find doctrines 
 strongly opposed to those which he daily 
 advocates. My opinions on Currency will 
 not please the Bullionists : my opinions 
 on Taxation will not please the Ministe- 
 rialists : and if iny opinions on the Corn-
 
 Laws are correct ; and as clear and de- 
 cisive as I hope they are , the vacillation 
 of Government in 1814 on the subject 
 of the Corn-Bill will not appear very ex- 
 cusable ! 
 
 There are other large Classes, to whose 
 disfavour I shall expose myself. The 
 great Body of Trade will not easily forgive 
 me for the heterodoxy of my sentiments 
 on the Mercantile system : the Country- 
 Gentlemen will not suffer the earnestness 
 with which I have pleaded their cause , 
 to erase their resentment for the freedom 
 with which I have spoken of the surface 
 of their manners : and the Clergy will , I 
 fear, keenly resent the frankness with 
 which 1 have spoken of Tythes : though 
 myself the Lay Tythe-holder of a large 
 parish ! 
 
 If there be a Party, who will find no- 
 thing discordant to the views of Political
 
 Economy most , congenial to their rank 
 and property, it is the Party with whom 
 I have never acted , the great Leaders of 
 the Whigs ; the Russels, the Cavendishes, 
 the Fit/williams , the Lansdownes , etc. 
 whose vast landed stake is , according to 
 my principles, the legitimate source of 
 power, and anchor of National Riches. 
 
 AFTER all, it is but an idle sort of 
 dream of vain self-importance, to think 
 that these pages will ever reach much 
 more , that they will ever claim the no- 
 tice , or excite the displeasure of, any of 
 these Parties. 1 have lived long enough 
 to learn that no man can make his way 
 into popularity or distinction or notice , 
 by the force of individual strength. It 
 must be Party political, or religious, 
 or national , or fashionable !
 
 In Parliament I experienced too sen- 
 sibly , that where it was not a Party 
 Question , absolutely nothing could be 
 done. No man in this country, very 
 truly says the Edinburgh Reviewer, ever 
 rose to a high political station ; or even 
 obtained any great power and influence , 
 merely by originating in Parliament mea- 
 sures of internal regulation ; or conducting 
 with judgment and success, improvements 
 however extensive , that did not affect tha 
 interests of one or other of the two great 
 parties in the state. Mr. Wilberforce may 
 perhaps be mentioned as an exception , 
 etc. (i) 
 
 Of one attempt , however yet unsuc- 
 cessful , I shall always feel proud , the 
 
 attempt to alleviate the cruel and unjust 
 
 oppression 
 
 (i)Edinb. Rev. N.LX. Sept. i8i8,p.4G5. See thi* 
 subject more at large in the preceding and following 
 pages of the Ldinb. Rev.
 
 ( xvii. ) 
 
 oppression upon Literature, inflicted by 
 the extraordinary provisions of the Copy- 
 right Act of 1814! I should not be for- 
 given for usurping the space of this Pre- 
 face to give the history of it. Yet I will 
 hazard the imputation of impertinence by 
 seizing the opportunity to say a few words. 
 I hope that the Promoter of the Bill, 
 which in its original state might perhaps 
 have been endured , will forgive me for 
 saying that I was left almost alone to op- 
 pose the alterations which from a Bill of 
 relief turned it into an Act of the most 
 glaringly-unjust inflictions. I had to fight 
 against the universities of the three king- 
 doms 5 against their members ; against 
 talent, erudition, experience, station! I 
 gained a single boon, to appease me ! The 
 extension of the Copyright to the Author's 
 life 3 if he should survive the twenty- 
 
 11
 
 ( xviii ) 
 
 ei^Kt years ! The merit of obtaining even 
 this little boon has been usurped by the 
 great out-doors advocate of the Libraries, 
 (the Professor (i ) who prompted the new 
 construction of the Act of Q. Anne,) in 
 consequence of some little verbal altera- 
 tions , made in the Lords at/z/f su^estion ! 
 I claim of future authors some littie kind- 
 ness for this service ! 
 
 But what I then did was nothing com- 
 pared with the task 1 afterwards took 
 upon me. During 1 8 i 5 and 1 8 1 6 , 1 found 
 that all the evils I .had predicted from the 
 Act, were fulfilled more than twofold. 
 The Libraries claimed eleven copies of 
 every publication , from the most ex- 
 pensive down to children's penny books ! 
 They went farther; they claimed Preprints 
 of every work, even of those first printed 
 
 (i) Mr. Christian,
 
 ( xix. ) 
 
 prior to the Act of Q. Anne : and this 
 in consequence of words introduced by 
 themselves in a Committee in the last 
 stage of the Bill , when those interested 
 on the other side had not a suspicion of 
 the object they had in view. 
 
 The Booksellers were despondent : 
 they were angry; but murmured in secret. 
 They had experienced the enormous 
 power, and influence, and intrigue of the 
 Public Bodies, interested in the support 
 of the claims ; and they feared farther 
 struggle might be vain. My spirit was 
 roused; I appealed to them: they were 
 ready to follow ; but not to lead. 
 
 I did all that the zeal and industry of a 
 feeble individual like myself, conscious 
 of the justice of his cause , could do , 
 through the Sessions of 1817 and 1818. 
 In the outset the uncxamined prejudices
 
 of the House were against me. But 
 magna est veritas, et pre valebil I (i) By 
 degrees > I am persuaded , that a large 
 majority were on my side- The Commit- 
 tee had scarcely closed their sittings, 
 when a Dissolution of Parliament took 
 place. Till within three days of the Poll, 
 1 thought myself sure of my re-election 
 for iVlaidstone, alter a successful canvas, 
 in which I had a positive majority of 
 promises. By one of those under- intrigues 
 in the conflict of local Parties, which, in 
 the Lottery of Elections, it is impossible 
 always to guard against , il became useless 
 to go to the Poll : and the mtri^umo- 
 Party was punished Ly the return of a 
 Member , still more opposed to their 
 own interest, than to mine ! 
 
 fi) Sec IV Arhr'- on ih; s subject in Quarterly 
 Zi-.' vie if t Syri, i g , t cl i j ,
 
 ( xxi. ) 
 
 Further details of tliis transaction 
 \vould only interest those concerned. L 
 lost my seat 9 and the Copyright Ques- 
 tion lost the feeble advocate ., whose 
 volunteer-exertions had first brought it 
 again into discussion. 1 have speeded it 
 on its way, and luckier men will conduct 
 it to success. The favour I have received 
 from. Booksellers , it is not for me to 
 speak of! The favour which both they 
 and authors owe me , is something ! 
 
 Complaint , it is said , never yet suc- 
 ceeded. A querulous temper is , on the 
 contrary , apt to produce neglect , if not 
 scorn. The world sides with the pros- 
 perous : the best proof of merit with 
 them is the happy event. 
 
 But to return to the subject of the 
 present Tract : T hough the outset of this 
 Work was suggested by the supposed
 
 ( xxii. ) 
 
 perception of a perplexing error in the 
 writings of others , yet the superstructure 
 I have raised has entirely proceeded from 
 pursuing the track of my own ideas : for 
 I strongly felt that which a modern Eco- 
 nomist, M. Sismondi , has expressed in 
 his Preface , much better than I can do : 
 Un ^crivain ne peut se flatter d'arriver 
 a ces deux qualites, (tre clair et court ,) 
 qu'en suivant la marche propre de ses 
 idees , au lieu de se soumettre a celle 
 d'aucun autre. Je remontai aux principes, 
 j'en tirai les consequences a ma mamere, 
 et je recommengai la th^orie , comme si 
 rien n'etait encore etabli. Je ne recourus 
 a aucun livre, sur un sujet quietaitdepuis 
 si long-temps 1'objet de mes meditations ; 
 je marchai seui, distioguant a peine ce 
 que je trouvais dans ma memoire , de ce 
 qui etait le resultat d'un raisonnement
 
 ( xxiii. ) 
 
 nouveau De cette maniere , sans en avoir* 
 seuienient la pretention , je demeurai ab- 
 soiumerit degage de toute autonte syst6- 
 matique (i). 
 
 Since I have finished, I have turned 
 my eyes wuh some anxiety to the works 
 within my reach especially to Malthus's 
 Supplement as tests to assist in detec- 
 ting any gross errors , into which , on so 
 abstract a subject, without constant and 
 exclusive addiction to it, one might be 
 liable to fall. I perceive that on many 
 great points , I have come nearer to Mal- 
 thus's opinions than I could have ventured 
 to have hoped. 
 
 I am confident that Memory is not 
 the faculty I have employed on this oc- 
 casion. Memory is like a granary , which 
 
 (i) Nouveaux Principes cTEconomie PolitiqueH 
 Pans 1819. Averlissement, p. ii. iii.
 
 ( xxiv. ) 
 
 receives corn to return it in the same 
 state. Genius, and even Talent, is like a 
 fertile soil, that receives the] seeds into 
 its bosom , to return them in a state of 
 fructification. I would not willingly be 
 the mere reservoir, through which the 
 ideas of others are imparted; and in the 
 very shape and size , in which they were 
 received. I am willing even to hope that 
 the seeds are of indigenous growth; and 
 not borrowed from another soil. 
 
 But though I would willingly produce 
 seeds of indigenous growth , I would en- 
 rich them by the variety and contrast, 
 gathered by extensive researches over 
 other territories. He , who asserts or insi- 
 nuates that he is rich and strong enough 
 to do any thing important, or valuable to 
 human knowledge or human wisdom, 
 without extensive reading , is very vain ,
 
 ( XXV. ) 
 
 presumptuous , and , I may add , very 
 ignorant. The strictest and most incessant 
 analyser of his own mind knows not how 
 much of the fruit of his intellectual ope- 
 rations is exclusively his own; and how 
 mnch has been directly , or indirectly 
 suggested by others. But it is only iden- 
 tity of thought, or ornament, that proves 
 the unproductive borrower. To draw from 
 others materials for the purpose of new 
 combinations, or new deductions, is an 
 act , which ought not to degrade an author 
 to the class of intellectual Non-producers. 
 
 Geneva > Sept. 6th, 1819.
 
 ( xx vi. ) 
 
 The following is a LIST of the Pub* 
 li cations on Politic at Economy \vithin 
 my reach at the time of composing 
 this Volume. 
 
 i. Recherches sur la Nature et IPS Causes 
 de la Richesse des JNaUons; par Adam Smivh. 
 Traduction Nouvelle , avec des Notes f-t Ob- 
 servations; par Germain Gamier, de I Institut 
 National. 5 Tomes, 8vo. Paris. 1802. 
 
 2 Economie Politique de Comte de Verri, 
 de 1'Institut des Sciences de Boulogne. 7 ra- 
 duite de 1'ltalien sur la sr-pHeme Fdition, ou 
 Considerations sur la valeur de 1'argent et 
 les moyens d'en baisser les inte'rets, sur les 
 Banques, la Balance du Commerce, i Agri- 
 culture, la Population, les Impots, etc. etc. 
 Paris , 1799, 8vo. pp. 207. 
 
 5. Analyse Raisonnee des Principes Fonda- 
 mentaux de 1'Economie Politique. Par J. Du- 
 tens, Ingenieur des Ponts-et-Chaussees , et 
 Mernbre de plusieurs Societes savantes. Paris, 
 1804, 8vo. pp. 207. 
 
 4. De 1'Economie Politique et Morale de 
 1'Espece Humaine. Par Herrenschwand, 2 
 tora. 8vo. Londres , 1796.
 
 ( xxvii. ) 
 
 5. L'Economie Politique Moderne. Discours 
 Fondamentai sur la Population. Par Herren- 
 schwand. Paris, 179$, Svo. pp. 289. 
 
 6. Essai sur le Principe de Population , par 
 T. R. Malthus. Traduit de 1'Anglais par 
 Pierre Prevost , Pr. de Ph. a Geneve , etc. 
 5 torn. 8vo. Paris et Geneve, 1809. 
 
 7. Additions to the Fourth and Former 
 Editions of an Essay on the Principle of Po- 
 pulation , etc. etc. By T. R. Malthus, A. M. 
 etc. London, 1817. 8vo. pp. 027. 
 
 8 An Enquiry into the Extent and Stabi- 
 lity of National Resources. By the Rev. Tho- 
 mas Chalmers, Kilmany. Edinburgh, 1808, 
 Svo pp. 565. 
 
 9 De la Richesse Commerciale , ou Prin- 
 cipes d'Economie Politique, appliques ^ la 
 Legislation du Commerce. Par J. C. L. Si- 
 monde, Membre du Conseil de Commerce, 
 Arts , et Agriculture du Leman , de 1'Acade- 
 mie Royale des Georgonles de Florence, et 
 de la Societe d'Agriculture de Geneve. 2 torn. 
 8vo. Geneve, i8o3. 
 
 10. Nouveaux Principes de 1'Economie Po- 
 litique , ou de la Richesse dans ses rapports 
 avec la Population ; par J. C. L. Simonde de
 
 ( xxviii. ) 
 
 de Sismondi, Correspondent de 1'Institut de 
 France, etc. etc. 2 lorn. 8vo Paris, 1819. 
 
 1 1. Traite d'Economie Politique, on Simple 
 Exposition de la maniere dont se forment , se 
 dislribuent, et se consomment les Richesses. 
 Troisie'rne Edition , a Jaquelle se trouve joint 
 tin Epitome des Principes Fondamentaux de 
 I'Cconomie Politique : Par Jean-Baptiste Say, 
 Chevalier de Saint Wolodiniir, Membre de 
 I'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de Sairit- 
 Pe'tersbourg, de celle de Zurich, etc. Profes- 
 seur d'Economie Politique a 1'Athenee a Paris, 
 a torn. 8vo. Paris, 1817. 
 
 12. De 1'Angleterre et des Anglais. Par 
 Jean-Bapliste Say. Paris, 1816, 8vo. pp. 65. 
 
 1 5. Principales Causes de la Ricbesses; ou 
 de la Misere des Peuples et des Particuiiers. 
 Par Louis Say, (de Nantes,) IVegociant, etc. 
 Paris, 1818, 8vo. pp. i56. 
 
 1 4. On the Principles of Political Economy 
 and Taxation. By David Ricardo, Esq Lon- 
 don , 1817 , 8vo. 
 
 1 5. Dos Principes de 1'Economie Politique, 
 etde I'Impot. Par M. D. Ricardo. Traduit de 
 1'Anglais , par F. S. Constancio , D. M. etc, 
 avec des JN'otcs Explicatives et Critiques, par
 
 XXIX. 
 
 2V1. Jean-Baptiste Say, etc. 2. torn. 3vo. Paris, 
 1819. 
 
 1 6. Rechercbes sur la Nature et les Effets 
 du Papier dans la Grande-Brefagne, par Henri 
 Thornton, M. P. Traduit de 1'Anglais. Geneve, 
 i8o3 , 8vo. pp. 27. 
 
 17. Examen de quelques Questions d'Eco- 
 nomie Polirique, sur les Cles, la Population^ 
 le Credit Public, et IPS Impositions ; par M de 
 Candolle Boissier , Depute au Conseil F-\epiv- 
 sentalifdu Canton de Geneve. Geneve, 1818. 
 8vo. pp. a55. 
 
 1 8. De I'lndustrie Frangoise. Par M. le 
 Comte Chaptal. 2 torn. 8vo. Paris , 1819.
 
 THE 
 
 POPULATION AND RICHES 
 
 OF NATIONS, 
 CONSIDERED TOGETHER, 
 
 NOT ONLY WITH REGARD TO THEIR POSITIVE 
 AND RELATIVE INCREASE, 
 
 BUT 
 
 WITH REGVRD TO THEIR TENDENCY TO MORALS, 
 PROSPERITY, AND HAPPINESS. 
 
 By SIR EGCRTON BRYDGES, Bait. K. J. 
 
 PARTS, J. J. PASCHOUD, Lib., rue Mazarine, 
 
 22. 
 
 GENEVE, merne Maison cle Commerce. 
 LONDON, ROB. TfliPiiooK, Old Bond Slreeti 
 
 1819.
 
 THE POPULATION AND RICHES 
 OF NATIONS 
 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Division of the Population of a Nation relatively 
 to Riches. 
 
 JLliciiES are such material (i) things as 
 have a value in exchange either with other 
 
 (i) It seems to me that Ad<im Smillfs omission of 
 this word material has led Gamier , Say , and 
 others, into inextricable confusion and error aSuut 
 immaterial Riches , and Productive and Non-pro- 
 ductive Labour. 
 
 I contend that to entitle that which is produced to 
 belong to the class of Riches , it must have sonic- 
 thing of substance, of which the producer, when he 
 transfers it, loses the property; and which is of a 
 nature to be capable of being re-exchanged or re- 
 transferred. It may be consumed as so. n a> produced, 
 either by the Producer, or by him who takes it iu 
 exchange ; but it must have the rapacity of some Du- 
 ration , and of being exchangeable aud r^-exchiin- 
 sreable.
 
 (a) 
 
 material things, or such immaterial tilings 
 as gratify the wants , conveniences , or 
 amusements of man. 1 he degree or 
 measure of value will be the subject of a 
 future chapter. 
 
 In a division of the population of a 
 Kingdom , according to their different 
 relations to its Riches, the distinction of 
 Producers and Consumers seems very inac- 
 curate , because all are Consumers. The 
 simple and obvious division is into Pro 
 ducers and Non-producers. 
 
 Each part of this division has its sub- 
 divisions. 
 
 DIVISION I. Producers , 
 Consists of two subdivisions , viz : 
 
 1. Agricultural Producers. 
 
 2. Manufacturing Producers. 
 
 DIVISION II. Non-Producers , 
 Consists of six subdivisions, viz: 
 
 I. Those who live on profit from skill 
 and Capital applied either, first, to
 
 (3) 
 
 Land , as Farmers ; or secondly to 
 Manufactures and Commerce ; OR 
 thirdly to Money arising from both 9 
 as Bankers. 
 
 2. Those who live by bodily Labour 
 applied to non-productive services, 
 as soldiers, sailors, and domestic 
 servants. 
 
 5. Paupers , either making no return > 
 or not an adequate return in pro- 
 duction , or personal services for 
 their cost. 
 
 4. Those who live by intellectual La- 
 bours , as Members of the liberal 
 Professions , Placemen , Literati , 
 Artists. 
 
 5. Persons of independence, living sole- 
 ly on property , who are threefold : 
 
 1. Those who derive their income 
 from Land in the shape of RENT : 
 
 2. Those who derive their income 
 from the interest of personal pro- 
 perty , secured either on Laua , or
 
 ( 4) 
 
 State-revenue; or by personal obliga- 
 tion : or, Lastly, Mired, being deri- 
 ved from both of the other sources. 
 6. Possessors of State-revenue. 
 I shall have regard to this order in the 
 observations which I shall have to make 
 on each of these heads. It seems to me , 
 after long consideration, and many changes 
 of arrangement , the simplest and the best. 
 To my mind, it appears to have a tendency 
 to clear up many difficulties and confusions 
 which have been introduced into this ab- 
 struse and important subject, especially by 
 some late writers on political economy , 
 foreign and domestic (i) , who enjoy con- 
 siderable celebrity. Admirable as the work 
 of ADAAI SMITH on the H 7 eaith of Nations 
 is, and well founded as I believe him to be 
 in most of the points , on which some of 
 his most renowned successors have assu- 
 
 (i) Gamier, Say, Sismorxli, Kirurdo, etc. I o\ve 
 i\. to truth to tirri-re tins carlj' my coi.victiun of the 
 ynoral solidit \ ;i:id ;;; -di^und and temperate invesliga- 
 (iuj'.v of MaU!;ii';.
 
 ( 5) 
 
 med a triumph in contradicting or cor- 
 recting him , I agree with his French 
 translator and commentator, Comte Gar- 
 nier, (i), that his method is exceedingly 
 faulty from a want of simplicity and clear- 
 ness : and that instead of facilitating the 
 study of a science deeply complex and 
 severe , it increases the obstacles to be 
 surmounted. The plain path seems to be 
 to trace Riches from their source in the 
 Earth through all their growth and ramifi- 
 cations, to their apex. Adam Smith begins 
 with that which is the great cause of the 
 most rapid augmentation of Riches in the 
 most advanced state of improving; society : 
 The division and. subdivision of labour (2). 
 
 (i) Preface, p. xxiv. 
 
 (?.) Gamier divides the subject more clearly and 
 naturally into three parts , thus : i. the formation, 
 of Riches. 2. The functions of Riches , which he 
 divides into such as are destined to consumption, smd 
 such as are reserved as a capital for re-production. 
 5. The multiplication or distribution and expenditure 
 of Riches. In adapting Smith's matter to this rntthud.
 
 ( 6) 
 
 It is not merely to the mode of pushing 
 Riches to their utmost height ; or po- 
 pulation to its utmost height, that my 
 inquiries are directed. I am anxious to 
 discuss the proportions to each other, 
 which most tend to morals and happiness. 
 JYlany qualifications to the good of a nu- 
 merous population may arise; in addition 
 to the overwhelming counterbalance, in 
 cases where the numbers exceed the 
 means of subsistence. 
 
 Adam Smith has undertaken to explain 
 the principles of the production of Ri- 
 ches, and the means by which they are 
 augmented to their largest amount. He 
 has professed no more : the relative effects 
 
 ho places the third Chapter of Smith's work at the com- 
 mencement ol'this third part. I think even this improved 
 arrangement is liable to great objections. &y divides his 
 I'raitd d Economic Politiyue into three parts : the 
 production, distribution, and consumption of Piiches. 
 Sismondi divides his Nouveaux Principcs <l ' L co- 
 nuinie Politioue t 1819, into six parts : the forma- 
 tion and progress of I\ichcs , Landed Riches , Com- 
 Kiercicd 1'uches , Money, Taxes, and Population.
 
 (7) 
 
 of their different decrees upon moral and 
 political welfare, if noticed at all, are 
 only matters of incidental remark. The 
 proportionate bearings of agriculture , ma- 
 nufactures, and commerce, upon health, 
 character, and human enjoyment, are ne- 
 cessary questions to be considered and 
 resolved in the lessons which the science 
 of political economy , in its widest , no- 
 blest, and truest extent, ought to teach. 
 Even though Mr. Ricardo should sue- 
 
 D 
 
 ceed in proving that a supply of corn 
 from foreign countries where it could be 
 grown cheaper , and at a much less ex- 
 pence of Labour , rather than at home 
 in less fertile soils , would contribute 
 most to the Riches of GreatBritain, whose 
 hands would be employed more benefi- 
 cially to this end by application to ma- 
 nufactures , of which they might more 
 abundantly and with better economy be 
 occupied in the production; yet, he would 
 not therefore prove, that it would contri- 
 bute more to its happiness or its strength,
 
 (3) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of Agricultural Producers. 
 
 J.N the progress of society, the PASTORAL 
 state follows that of HUNTERS and FISH- 
 ERS, and the AGRICULTURAL grows upon 
 the PASTORAL. As food is the first neces- 
 sary of existence , so these occupations 
 take place of all others. 
 
 The basis therefore of all Riches is 
 the produce of nature ; of the animal and 
 vegetable Kingdoms , of the surface, or 
 the bowels, of the earth. 
 
 But, by the bounty of Providence, the 
 labour of an individual, in agriculture, can 
 
 ' C 1 * 
 
 produce a considerable surplus beyond 
 that quantity which is necessary for the 
 support of himself, and of such of his fa- 
 mily as are too young to work. This sur- 
 plus goes in various proportions 3 first 
 among the manufacturers ; and secondly 
 among the non-producers.
 
 (9) 
 
 In its very infancy AGRICULTURE has 
 need of the aid of MANUFACTURE. 
 
 Agriculture is no doubt the first born, 
 and can never lose her precedence ; But 
 MANUFACTURE, if not a Twin, is a sister 
 by a posterior conception , removed only 
 by the least possible distance of date. 
 They must always march together , 
 though the former must always take the 
 lead. 
 
 Let us recollect that the fepade , the 
 axe , the sickle, the scythe, the hoe, the 
 ploughshare, the yoke , the tumbrel, the 
 pitch -fork, become necessary ustensils 
 in the very outset of the tillage of the 
 soil. And in this commencement of civi- 
 lization and riches , the rudest sense of 
 utility leads to some simple and unskilful 
 division of Labour. It is, from the very 
 first, found that exclusive practice gives 
 readiness and skilly that he who under- 
 takes every thing does nothing well, and 
 that by allotting separate tasks to separate
 
 people, all perform their work with mu- 
 tual gain of time, ease, and excellence. 
 
 Thus early then commences the sys- 
 tem of exchanges. He who ploughs, sows 
 and reaps, gives a portion o: the food he 
 grows, to the carpenter arid the blacksmith 
 for the ustensils of which he has need. 
 A portion of his wool and his flax goes 
 to the clothier and the weaver for his rai- 
 ment. As the surplus of food increases, 
 the wants of convenience and luxury spring 
 up accordingly. It affords the means of 
 procuring them ; and tl^,y in return af- 
 ford the means to the manufacturer bolh 
 of additional raw material and of subsis- 
 tence. 
 
 The science of agriculture ; the best 
 use of their implements and capital appli- 
 cable to it j the most beneficial division 
 of farms ; the conditions and durations of 
 tenures ; the mode of payment of rent , 
 or Landlord's portion of the produce, in- 
 volve details not necessary to the object 
 of the present Inquiry.
 
 ( II ) 
 
 Of those decreed to gel their liveli- 
 hood by the sweat of their brow , it is 
 clear that the most healthy , the most 
 innocent and the most pleasant, is the occu- 
 pation of the labourer in Husbandry. It 
 is therefore the class, in all respects, the 
 most valuable amongst the lower orders 
 of the population. It would then be desi- 
 rable if its proportion could be great- 
 ly encreased , compared with those of 
 the other labouring classes , whether pro- 
 ductive or non-productive. 
 
 But this increase in the actual state of 
 things, and in the operative principles of 
 political economy, has very narrow limits. 
 A merely or even a mainly agricultural 
 Nation cannot be rich. There are no large 
 domestic funds to take off the surplus 
 of its corn : and the surplus drawn from 
 foreign sources in return for exportation 
 is wasted among a few in barbarous 
 and useless luxuries. The stimulus to 
 production has been languid or abso- 
 lutely stifled. The people have been
 
 rude, comfortless, hardly-led, and pain- 
 fully worked ; without the least progress 
 in amelioration; stationary and stagnant 
 in mind and in body (i). 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Of Manufacturing Producers. 
 
 J. HAVE felt necessitated to anticipate the 
 origin of the MANUFACTURING PRODUCERS 
 in the former Chapter. 
 
 As a nation advances in Riches, this 
 class are multiplied and ramified into in- 
 numerable subdivisions, employed in con- 
 verting the endless raw material, which 
 nature supplies either with or without 
 the aid of the industry of man, into every 
 thine; that human convenience or luxu- 
 
 o 
 
 ry , or whim, can desire. Not only is the 
 
 (i) This does not apply to North-America, be- 
 cause there the Manufactures have been growing in 
 proportion to the population.
 
 ( '3) 
 
 variety of articles thus fabricated beyond 
 the power of enumeration ; but in very 
 many of them separate parts of the ar- 
 ticles are assigned to the exclusive opera- 
 tion of separate classes of mechanics. Even 
 the separate parts of so minute an article 
 as a pin are made by different workmen. 
 As these articles multiply their diver- 
 sity ; improve in their structure ; augment 
 in their quantity , and accumulate in their 
 capital , the Riches of a nation encrease. 
 Their progress must be preceded by the 
 addition of corn and human food , which 
 are necessary to afford support to the 
 manufacturers while occupied in the exe- 
 cution of their respective productions. 
 But when finished, they come to re-act 
 upon the corn and agricultural commo- 
 diies , which have been subsequently 
 brought forth ; and by readily taking it 
 off through the funds thus at their com- 
 mand they exert a new spur to the grower, 
 and thus by reciprocity of action and re-ac-
 
 tion mutually prosper, and spread, and 
 ramify , and fructify together. 
 
 In this last stage the whole political 
 Machine becomes highly complicated. 
 The manufacturers become a body of 
 powerful and not easily-managed Num- 
 bers , employed every day more and 
 more in the supply of artificial wants : 
 and whimsical luxuries become every 
 day more and more at the mercy of fluc- 
 tuating and changeable markets for that 
 demand of their goods, which is necessary 
 for the future call for the Labour on 
 which their subsistence depends. A scan- 
 ty harvest affects the whole ; an alte- 
 ration of fashion ; a deficiency of a par- 
 ticular raw material j a Bankruptcy, or 
 a mischance in the mercantile world ; an 
 impediment in the movements of the 
 circulating medium, effects a ] artiai, Lut 
 still perhaps a very extensive 1 low. All 
 these reverses re-act unfavorably on agri- 
 culture ; as the prosperity of thtae people 
 re-acts favorably.
 
 ( 15) 
 
 Whatever operates in strong extremes; 
 whatever works by great ebbs and flows; 
 whatever comes by floods into the mar- 
 ket, and then receding again with equal 
 force , leaves it empty and barren , has a 
 powerful tendency to encourage unthrif- 
 ty , thoughtless , dangerously - adventu- 
 rous gambling habits, in those who are 
 brought up to depend on its unequal sup- 
 port. The manufacturing classes therefore 
 strongly partake of this character. 1 hey 
 are expensive and improvident ; marry 
 without a due regard to the future ; and 
 augment their hands without a rational 
 hope of permanent employ. Population 
 thus becomes superabundant; and most 
 in the very classes 3 whom it is least easy 
 
 to manage. 
 
 Here then we have the two primary 
 and direct classes of PRODUCERS of Riches. 
 But still we have not advanced more 
 than half way in the sources and in^n\ 
 dients of production. A variety of of her 
 complex causes, acting in various ways,
 
 ( '6) 
 
 must contribute to bring about the end. 
 In the pursuit of this inquiry it will ap- 
 pear, not only \vhat is the portion of the 
 produce which falls to these two classes 
 of direct producers; but to v, horn the 
 rest falls j and the titles on which their 
 respective portions are founded. It will 
 explain, of whom the titles are well-foun- 
 ded; and of whom the titled are false; and 
 equally destructive to ihe happiness of 
 all , as to their Riches. 
 
 I shall shew how the first part of these 
 Riches belongs to these producers in the 
 name of Wages, The iie^t portion to 
 those , who supply skill and capital under 
 the name of Profits. Another to the Land- 
 owner under the name of Rent. Another 
 to the personal Capitalist under the name 
 of Interest. Another to the State , under 
 the name of Taxes. And lastly a frightful 
 and anomalous portion to the idle and un- 
 employed Pauper, under the r.nme oi Pour- 
 Rules. I tUil shew that the 'itle of all, 
 the last, to its due portion, stands 
 
 upon
 
 ( 17 ) 
 
 upon irrefragable principles arising out of 
 the nature of things , and their due share in 
 the production of that , of which they 
 claim to share proportionately in the 
 enjoyment. And of these I trust I shall 
 be able to shew that, if Rent increases in 
 proportion to the extension of cultivation 
 to poorer Land, it is not a good gained 
 by the land-holders at the expence of 
 the rest of the community : but a good , 
 in which the rest of the community , in 
 their due proportions , share. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Wages. 
 
 \V AGES are the proportion of the pro- 
 duce, or its equivalent in money, allotted to 
 the producer. The quantum is that which 
 is necessary to supply food , raiment, 
 shelter , and the conveniences which 
 the habits of the country require , for the 
 
 a
 
 ( 18 ) 
 
 workman, and thatdependent family which 
 is equal in number to the portion requi- 
 site to sustain the population. In different 
 Nations, and even in different Provinces of 
 the same Nation , this quantum varies ac- 
 cording to manners, industry, customs, 
 laws, climate, and many other influencing 
 circumstances. It ought to be sufficient 
 to afford not only subsistence, but even 
 comfort according to the station of the 
 receiver. But it ought not to go beyond 
 this. 
 
 Excessive wages are in the first place 
 an unjust intrusion upon PROFITS, In the 
 next they cause an impolitic , if not un- 
 fair, addition of price to the consumer, 
 by discouraging abundance of production ; 
 and lastly they injure the producer himself 
 by lessening the demand lor his Labour. 
 They thus act as a material cln'ck to the 
 augmentation of National Niches. 
 
 But Bicardo has sufficiently proved 
 that they do not direchy iniiance the 
 price to the consumer. 1 hey are m the
 
 ( '9) 
 
 first instance a positive subtraction froni 
 profits. When we come to consider Pro- 
 fits and Price , we shall see of what each 
 of these distinctively consists : and we shall 
 then see that the criterion of PRICE does 
 not involve the consideration of PROFITS. 
 But in England wages are , in point of 
 fact, too often an abstraction from ano- 
 ther sort of property" as well as from 
 Profits. They are very generally, if not 
 universally , partly paid from the Poor- 
 Rates. Thus profits are protected by tax- 
 ation both on consumers and non-con- 
 sumers , without any justice or sound 
 principle either in the origin or the pro- 
 portionate distribution of the Tax. At the 
 same time the only true test of the value 
 of the production to the store of Na- 
 tional Riches is removed : the due sur- 
 plus of produce above cost. It was quite 
 impossible not thus to anticipate one of 
 the absurd mischiefs of The Poor Laws , 
 which will form the subject of a future 
 chapter.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Cost. 
 
 VJOST is the wages or consumption of 
 the labourer employed in the produc- 
 tion ; the interest of the Capital ne- 
 cessary to sustain the labourer from the 
 commencement to the conclusion of his 
 commodity; the interest of the capital 
 employed in the purchase of utensils, 
 with the sum necessary to replace the 
 wear and tear ; the cost of the raw 
 material , with interest of the capital 
 employed in it ; the interest of the ca- 
 pital employed in live and dead stock , 
 building, machinery, with an equivalent 
 for the wear and tear. 
 
 Of these kinds are the prime costs to 
 the master agriculturist, or master ma- 
 nufacturer. But Cost does not end here. 
 The merchant arid the retailer intervene,
 
 (21 ) 
 
 before a large portion of these commo-* 
 dities can reach the consumer. 
 
 The additional capital employed by 
 the merchant in wages to clerks, in 
 warehouses, etc. must be replaced with 
 its interest , and wear and tear. And 
 after this, comes, in the same way, the 
 still farther addition of the cos t of the 
 retailer. 
 
 After this comes the amount of Taxes ; 
 and last of all , the Poor-Rates. Both 
 these last, if excessive and unequal, are 
 in part abstractions from profits , except 
 so far as the part payment of wages out 
 of Poor-Piates counteracts the latter loss 
 by a counter-injustice. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Price. 
 
 is the cost of producing the 
 commodity under the least favourable 
 circumstances of those to which it is
 
 ( aO 
 
 necessary to have resort, for the purpose 
 of producing the quantity in demand. 
 
 The Price of Corn is the amount of 
 that expenditure in labour and capital, 
 which is indispensibie in the least fertile 
 of the soils, which are required to be 
 brought into cultivation, to supply the 
 subsistence adequate to the calls of the 
 market. 
 
 The Price of Manufactured Commo- 
 dities is also the amount of their costs, un- 
 der the least powerful and least economical 
 kinds of labour, the least beneficial appli- 
 cation of capital, and the least quantity 
 and worst quality of skill , of all the dif- 
 ferent degrees , to which it is necessary 
 to extend the employment to make sup- 
 plies tantamount to the public demands. 
 
 But there will always be temporary 
 fluctuations in these prices, from the 
 temporary variations in the proportions 
 between supply and demand , and other 
 accidental counteractions to the principle.
 
 (23) 
 
 Profits. 
 
 JT ROFITS are the excess of produce above 
 the cost of production, under circum- 
 stances more favourable than those which 
 are the measure of Price. The principle 
 is analogous to that of Rent, as has 
 already been hinted ; and as will more 
 fully appear, when we come to the 
 chapter on that subject. In both cases , 
 the cause is , the inequality of produce 
 from the same labour or costs- But 
 the source of the inequality is different. 
 In the one case it arises from the ine- 
 quality of the VEGETATIVE power ; in the 
 other, as I conceive, from the inequality 
 
 of the INTELLECTUAL. 
 
 Every thing which in the exercise of 
 human labour saves time by skill ; every 
 thing which abridges that labour, by
 
 (24 ) 
 
 acquiring , through the lights of science y 
 the agency of nature, to work by machi- 
 nery in aid of man ; every thing which 
 by the rays of genius or the knowledge 
 of experience improves the direction of 
 the use of capital , brings forth that ine- 
 quality of produce for the same cost, 
 which constitutes Profit. 
 
 The causes of this inequality are not 
 inherent arid fixed in the things over 
 which they operate. The same powers 
 are extendible , though seldom extended , 
 over every thing else , of which the infe- 
 riority arises from the non-enjoyment of 
 them. In this respect it differs from the 
 inequality which is the source of Rent: 
 the Agnations in the fertility of the soil 
 are fixed and unalterable. 
 
 There is another characteristic of the 
 inequality whence Profit springs. It is 
 the inequality of increased power : of 
 absolute gam : of which not only indivi- 
 dual , but national, wealth, is augmented 
 in proportion to the difference.
 
 ( 25) 
 
 If we consider the operation of this 
 principle of Profits by a familiar instance, 
 it seems to me that the demonstration of 
 its correctness cannot be resisted. If we 
 suppose the costs to be paid in kind, (for 
 the reader , to whom this subject is new, 
 must recollect that the money-payments 
 only represent a certain portion of the 
 produce,) the remainder, after paying 
 away this portion , will be all that comes 
 to the share of the producer. Suppose 
 the quantity produced to be a hundred ; 
 his remainder is materially affected by 
 paying eighty instead of seventy. It will 
 perhaps be answered that the remaining 
 twenty will fetch as much in money as 
 the remaining thirty would have done. 
 Bat will the money command more than 
 the money, which he could previously 
 have got for twenty of them , would have 
 done ? I think not.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Currency. 
 
 JL HE precious metals have been adopted 
 from very early ages as a measure of 
 value and a medium of exchange. Every 
 one must be aware that exchanges in kind 
 to any extent, even in the very rudest or 
 simplest state of society, must always 
 have been impossible. It would hardly 
 ever happen that of two sellers , each 
 reciprocally wanted the commodity the 
 other had to sell; and in addition to this 
 difficulty, there could never have existed 
 the strange coincidence of an equality of 
 value in the two articles to be exchanged. 
 It became necessary, therefore, for 
 nations to sacrifice a portion of their 
 riches for the acquisition ol a commercial 
 instrument, which might facilitate the 
 exchange , or transfer , of the rest.
 
 Certain metals , having the qualities of 
 durability and divisibility ; and also the 
 nearest approximation to unvarying value, 
 from the nearly equal quantity of labour 
 requisite for their procuration, have been 
 considered the best material which the 
 ingenuity of man could adopt for this 
 purpose. The length of time they have 
 been in use, and the universality of their 
 adoption , have also given them a superio- 
 rity, with which no other device , not 
 possessing this advantage , can vie. 
 
 But it is clear that any other instrument 
 or machinery of exchange , which can 
 effect this object better , or even as well , 
 if it is at the same time procurable at a 
 much smaller expence of wealth, would 
 be highly desirable , unless it should in- 
 volve in its nature other consequences , of 
 an evil tendency greater in degree than 
 the loss of the wealth it would save. 
 
 The human mind, continuing with the 
 
 * o 
 
 progress of time and the gradual rolirier 
 ment of civilized society 5 to advance in
 
 <a8) 
 
 skill in the conduct of every occupation 
 in which the wants, conveniences, and 
 luxuries of life , require its constant 
 exticise , has long , among the vast 
 and ever- ameliorating facilities which 
 it lia given to the mercantile system , 
 brought into a certain degree of use in 
 commerce a sort of paper instrument 
 of partial circulation , by way of econo- 
 mising the demand for the precious 
 metals. 
 
 It would be only repeating a trite 
 history , to detail here the earlier steps of 
 the growth of Paper-money in England. 
 The establishment of the public Funds ; 
 the payment of the dividends by a Na- 
 tional Bank, acting under a parliamentary 
 charter ; the promissory paper notes 
 thence put into circulation by the Bank, 
 and received by the public as readily as 
 Cash, being always convertible into Cash 
 at the \\ill of the holder, are all familiar 
 to every one.
 
 It was not till some years after the 
 close of the American war (1 think 
 about 1788) (i), that Country-Banks 
 issuing their own notes were set up, and 
 rapidly after that time became general 
 through the chief provincial towns in 
 England. It was supposed that the cir- 
 culating medium was thus suddenly arid 
 very greatly augmented ; and without an 
 adequate increase in the riches which it 
 assumed to represent. 
 
 The fact of a great increase at this 
 time to the circulating medium can 
 scarcely be denied. But another fact, 
 which , while we reason upon it, must be 
 never for a moment out of our consi- 
 deration, is equally incontrovertible. 
 There was at the very same time a most 
 
 (i) It was the year, if I recollect, in which the 
 first Canterbury Bank was instituted by Messrs, 
 Gipps, Simmons, and Gipps. Messrs. Fector of 
 Dover, who had great money-transactions with the 
 Continent, had circulated their promissory notes many 
 years before.
 
 ( 3o) 
 
 extraordinary and unexampled start in 
 the additions made to our agricultural 
 and manufacturing produce , and in the 
 skill, machinery, capital, and incidental 
 facilities, by which their progress could 
 be advanced. 
 
 An addition of circulating medium 
 equal to the addition of riches (except sa 
 far as increased economy of use could 
 supply the place), will be allowed to have 
 been legitimate and necessary ; But 
 how , it will be said , justify an addi- 
 tion beyond it ? The evils of such 
 excess are positive : a depreciation; an 
 injustice to all property and income , 
 which is reserved in money , a varia- 
 tion between paper-money and cash, 
 which is a check to the foreign vent of 
 home-manufacture; and a temptation 
 to drain the country of coin , etc- 
 
 It is probable that the excess in the 
 first instance might have been large. 
 Country bankers might have been temp- 
 ted to discount uiisolid bills, as a mode
 
 of getting their own notes into circulation. 
 If so, speculation and rash adventure 
 were too much encouraged. Property was 
 thus moved from its legitimate position ; 
 given a false impulse ; and pushed through 
 false channels, where it was often in- 
 gulphed. Reverses , clouds , alarms , in 
 the commercial or political world , bring 
 on convulsions and explosions , in this 
 complex aud artificial state of the pecu- 
 niary organisation of the country, which, 
 carry with them extensive disasters. 
 These , with depreciation , injustice to 
 monied property, check to foreign vent, 
 and temptation to drain of coin, are grave 
 objections, involving considerations o 
 vast national weight. 
 
 On the other hand, it is uncandid, 
 unwise, and delusive , to shut our eyes to 
 the good which has been actually proved 
 to have accompanied this system ; and 
 can scarcely be doubted, except by the 
 most prejudiced, to have been the effect 
 of it.
 
 ( so 
 
 Though paper-notes are not Capital., 
 and therefore the augmentation of them 
 
 w 
 
 was no augmentation of Capital, yet, if 
 they were the means of drawing any 
 large part of the existing Capital , inert 
 before, into life; of employing it in more 
 vigorous functions ; putting it into more 
 industrious or skilful hands ; directing it 
 into more productive channels ; they pos- 
 sessed a large portion of the effect of a 
 new Capital ; they made the same Ca- 
 pital doubly powerful (i). 
 
 I doubt 
 
 (i) Sinco this was written, the Act for the future 
 resumption of Casli payments has passed, after long 
 debates. A i^ood deal, therefore, of ihe interest felt 
 cm this important subject has subsided. The speech 
 of Lord Liverpool appears to have been the most 
 .satisfactory, as \vell from sound and mature reasoning, 
 as from extensive and accurate knowledge. There 
 are some views of the question, which, it will be 
 seen, strike me in a different manner from that in 
 whicli the\ p\!iil>ii themselves to the Noble Lord. 
 But this difference is rather in some ofthe details, than 
 in the general result. The immensely-increased 
 power of the same quantity of circulating medium
 
 (33) 
 
 I doubt if this view of the question 
 has been sufficiently insisted on. It is 
 not the mere addition to the quantity, 
 
 to effectuate a greatly-augmented number of ex- 
 changes is forcibly explained and illustrated by this 
 enlightened statesman. But I doubt if it be sufficient, 
 should there be no positive increase, or rather a 
 positive diminution, of these instruments of circula- 
 tion, to carry to the most beneficial extent, all the 
 work, which the rapidly augmented riches of the 
 country require. I confess I have little fear that this 
 diminution will actually take place. I think it would 
 be a great evil if it should. I think so , because I do 
 not believe that the supply exceeds the demand : even 
 if it do exceed it a little , the good of the excess is 
 greater than the evil : if it exceed it much (which 
 seems to be Lord L.'s assumption , founded on the 
 greatly-economised use), the diminution would be a 
 benefit. 
 
 As long as this paper-currency commands the same 
 value, or labour, as the metallic money that it pro- 
 fesses to represent , the Bank can have no difficulty 
 to pay in Cash. So long, therefore , they can feel no 
 impediment to their issues of Notes. 
 
 It may be observed , that depreciation of value from 
 increased economy of use , would equally apply to 
 metallic, as to paper currency. 
 
 In the substitution of a paper for a metallic cur- 
 rency, there is at least one cause for a certain addi-
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
 but the peculiar nature of this sort of 
 currency 3 to which its benefits are as- 
 cribable : I mean its tendency to draw 
 Capital into the most productive direc- 
 tions. 
 
 But let it be observed , that this benefit 
 of Paper-currency does not depend on its 
 
 lion to the quantity. This is the addition , which is 
 equal to the circulating the quantum of riches saved 
 by exemption from the positive cost of the same 
 quantity of coin. 
 
 But this part of my subject would swell to an un- 
 proportionate size , if I should follow it into all the 
 particulars and copious ramifications , into which it 
 spreads. I will only therefore say generally , that it 
 on the one hand the evils of a paper-currency have 
 liecn greatly exaggerated, and all the benefits not duly 
 appreciated , the alarm at the proposed resumption 
 of Cash-payments has been almost equally excessive 
 and ill-grounded : and that , as many of the conse- 
 quences imputed to the paper-system, whether bene- 
 ficiul or injurious , did not belong to it , so the pre- 
 dicted changes , from which so much convulsion and 
 ruin is foreseen , will not take place. In truth , the 
 very arguments most strongly urged against the re- 
 sumption of Cash-payments , are exactly those , 
 which would render the necessity of the resumption 
 doubJy imperious. June st^th, 1819.
 
 (55) 
 
 non-convertibility into gold. These be- 
 nefits were felt years before the Bank- 
 restriction Act passed in 1797 ; and will 
 continue, I trust, long after its repeal. 
 
 I have supposed , that there have been 
 for some short periods excesses of issue ; 
 but I am by no means sure of it: It seems 
 to me a very undetermined question , 
 whether all the Paper-money , which is 
 put forth beyond the due demand for it , 
 will not return upon the issuers ; as it 
 may be supposed that no trader will pay 
 interest for a larger sum , when a smaller 
 will answer his purpose (i). 
 
 If we admit the excess , and the inju- 
 ries imputed to it, still they will have 
 many mitigations and counteractions* 
 The abundance in the market springing 
 from the increased stimulus to production; 
 the increase of skill , machinery , and ca- 
 pital ; the vivacity of industry ; the spirit 
 
 (i) Notes may occasionally issue in discount from 
 the Bank on unsolid security : but I strongly suspect 
 that in that case they very rapidly return upon them.
 
 ( 36 ) 
 
 of enterprise ; the diminution of the pres- 
 sure of taxation ; the financial vigour of 
 a nation calculated to resist aggression , 
 arid consolidate peace by an aspect oi 
 power and awe, are all arguments in fa- 
 vour of the benefits of this system , not, 
 easy to be overcome. 
 
 The additional quantity of circulating 
 medium , which the device of Paper- 
 money gave the facility of producing , 
 appears to have been brought into play 
 by the increased activity of exchanges, 
 that the momentary prosperity of agri- 
 culture, commerce, and finances at home 
 gave birth to- It facilitated the move- 
 ments of those exchanges , and gave 
 them a fresh impulse. Had it been want- 
 in" , the want would have checked them. 
 
 ~ ' 
 
 The supply added to the velocity, that 
 had created the demand j and re-acted 
 upon it : and thus supply and demand 
 continued to act on each other j while, 
 agriculture , manufactures , and com- 
 merce continued in a progressive state.
 
 (57) 
 
 These are facts. What then is the 
 inference? Not only that the increased 
 wealth of the country required an increase 
 of the circulating medium ; but that the. 
 quantity before in use was not adequate 
 to the most beneficial employment of the 
 wealth previously existing. An augmented 
 proportion is proved to have given an un- 
 exampled stimulus to production. 
 
 With all these advantages , it must 
 be admitted to be a great evil in Paper- 
 money, that it can equal things to each 
 other, but not to itself, it is of no value, 
 till it is put to its function of exchange : 
 unlike com , while it remains with the 
 holder, it is as nothing. Hence the temp- 
 tation to over-issue it : and , if there be 
 an over-issue , and that over- issue can 
 continue in circulation , then this will 
 follow j that it is an inaccurate expression 
 of that quantity of labour , of which it 
 assumes to be the sign. It it assumes a 
 greater quantity of labour, or cost , in an 
 article , than was really expended in it s
 
 (33) 
 
 it may justly be accused of very injurious 
 consequences. From that moment must 
 arise the endless confusion of two prices : 
 it must be depreciated , compared with 
 coin j and all those , v/hose property has 
 been reserved in money , must be great 
 sufferers , so long as the paper-currency 
 is a legal tender : when it ceases to be 
 a legal tender , the paper must , in that 
 case , be soon forced out of circulation. 
 The foreign exports will also be thus ex- 
 posed to great checks. 
 
 I say this, on the supposition of an 
 over-issue : and I admit, that there are 
 many strong arguments in favour of the 
 possibility, and even probability, of an 
 over-issue. But there are also some strong 
 reasons to doubt it The safe mode in 
 either case is the future repeal of the 
 Restriction Act : if the over-issue can 
 happen , the repeal is necessary : if it 
 cannot, it is a matter of indifference. 
 
 A starved circulation is, at any rate, 
 one of the most powerful checks to the
 
 ( 39 ) 
 
 growth of Riches. The invention there- 
 fore , and extended adoption , of a Pa- 
 per-currency, must be considered to be, 
 when not abused, a gigantic engine for 
 this purpose. In reasoning on a subject 
 so very abstruse and difficult , it is al- 
 ways dangerous to rely exclusively on 
 theories. It is necessary to appeal conti- 
 nually to the test of experience ; and look 
 there for results , in which alone we can 
 have any confidence. When was Eng- 
 land's Agricultural and Commercial pros- 
 perity at its greatest height? Was it not 
 from 1787 to 1792? In what war were 
 our powers of expenditure the greatest ? 
 And what war at the same time incal- 
 culably extended its agriculture , manu- 
 factures , and commerce , in spite of the 
 waste of such expenditure? Was it not 
 the tw T enty-two years war from 1793 to 
 1 8 1 5 ? This was the epoch of Paper- 
 money. It is possible , that this prosperity 
 arose from other causes , so powerful as 
 to surmount this alledged evil. It is pro-
 
 ( 4o) 
 
 bable ; nay almost certain ; that this al- 
 ledged evil was, itself, the grand spring 
 of the prosperity. 
 
 When with these splendid and victo- 
 rious appearances in its favour , I fre- 
 quently hear people made converts, by 
 doubtful and puzzling arguments , to the 
 condemnation of the System, on account 
 of the petty evils alledged to be attached to 
 it, I do not feel much satisfied with their 
 rationality : but rather lament their weak- 
 ness; their prejudices; or their faction ( i ). 
 
 (i) This may be illustrated by some of the allcdged 
 objections already hinted at : in which there is a 
 strange mixture of false assumptions, i'alse reasoning, 
 or inconsequences j and trilling. 
 
 It it charged against this System, 
 
 That it raises prices. 
 
 That it diminishes the powers of fixed incomes. 
 That il fosters speculators and gamblers. 
 That it causes upstart wealth. 
 That il transfers jylhcr than creates Riches. 
 That it depresses by comparison the splendor of 
 ancient families. 
 
 Some of these charges afe not true ; or are true of 
 it only jn common r.'ith Avhatover else equally aug-
 
 ADDITIONAL ARGUMENTS. 
 
 THE various considerations involved 
 in tins intricate question make it difficult 
 to avoid the fear of having passed over 
 some of them too slightly. A very few, 
 years have passed since the tide of public 
 opinion ran strongly in favour of Paper- 
 money ; and, in particular, of the ad- 
 vantages of its abundance. It has now 
 taken a contrary turn , and the power of 
 the stream sets violently the other way. 
 It is right to see all the evils of the system 
 in their undisguised colours : but it is 
 not right that this should make us blind 
 to the good. I am therefore the more 
 
 mcnls the National Riches : others are too insignificant 
 to counterbalance any great advantages. 
 
 'I'o suppress the sources of the augmentation of 
 National Riches, either in fear of the insolence of 
 the suddenly-acquired splendor of individuals ; or iu 
 fear of the diminished value of the Divide r.J< of 
 Stock-holders, is a proposition too unreasonable to 
 be endured!
 
 anxious to enlarge on this part of the 
 subject , at the present moment so much 
 decried , or neglected. 
 
 * o 
 
 The grand opposers of the Paper-sys- 
 tem found their arguments on a Truism. 
 They say: A short prosperity, obtained 
 v> at the expence of future ruin , is bought 
 too high. 
 
 It is admitted , that increase of Riches 
 arises from increase of quantity of pro- 
 duction ; or from decrease of labour in 
 producing it , which brings with it de- 
 crease of price. But this latter cannot 
 take place, where the increase of Riches 
 has its basis in the increase of corn arising 
 from the cultivation of less fertile soils. 
 
 A rapid increase therefore of price , 
 is, unless.it be nominal, a counteraction 
 to the increase of Riches j though in the 
 case of corn grown on poorer soils , it is 
 a necessary concomitant. 
 
 But increased price, caused by the 
 better pay of labour , gives at least a 
 momentary stimulus to industry.
 
 . (43 ) 
 
 Yet every pound-note which exceeds 
 the existence of the due number of ex- 
 changeable articles that it ought to repre- 
 sent , unduly increases the nominal price ; 
 and may leave the last holder in pos- 
 session of a shadow. 
 
 Still this reasoning has its difficulties. 
 From 1 787 to 1 8 1 3 price increased ; 
 quantity increased; prosperity went on : 
 it went on in defiance of a most exten- 
 sive and wasteful war; of enormous 
 loans , and taxes , and subsidies. 
 
 It will be said , that the predicted evil 
 day came at last; and that the bubble 
 burst. But it was not a bubble : it con- 
 tinued too long : it gave too decisive de- 
 monstrations of solid strength and posi- 
 tive Riches. 
 
 That , which was called the bursting 
 of the bubble, arose from a most extra- 
 ordinary coincidence of accidental cir- 
 cumstances : an abundant harvest ol 
 1 8 1 3 ; a consequent fall in the price oi 
 corn ; the reverses of Bonaparte , porten~
 
 (44) 
 
 ding immediate prace ; and the peace 
 that actually followed, to which, accor- 
 ding to a fau-e theory, the fall in the 
 price of corn was attributed ; the sudden 
 cessation of a War-establishment, and 
 proportionate Government expenditure ; 
 the scanty agricultural domestic produce 
 of the next year; the vast importation of 
 foreign corn, and the failure of the Corn- 
 bill of 1814; the loss of capital and loss 
 of credit thus caused to the farmers ; the 
 depreciation , and withdrawal of a very 
 large portion of Country Bank Notes, 
 that resulted from it, etc. etc. But all 
 these extraordinary coincidences neither 
 necessarily , nor probably attached to the 
 system.. 
 
 It will be answered , that such fluctu- 
 ations , with their attendant convulsions, 
 are inherent in its nature. 1 think not. I 
 admit it to have been proved that they 
 are possible. But what system has not its 
 evils ? And in what are we not driven to 
 be content with the balance of good and 
 ill?
 
 <45) 
 
 Whether the profuse expences of the 
 late wars were necessary , is another 
 question. But if they were necessary, 
 this System alone couid have furnished 
 us with the means, and carried us to 
 the end. 
 
 It is undoubtedly a System of adven- 
 ture and hazard. Cold prudence and cau- 
 tious wisdom perhaps more advisedly 
 dictate one , where we can more plainly 
 feel our steps , and see our way. 
 
 I repeat however , that there are phe- 
 nomena in the Financial State of Great 
 Britain , for the last thirty-two years , 
 not perfectly reconcileaLle with any of 
 the theories on Political Economy at pre- 
 sent in fashion. 
 
 WHAT were the features of the period 
 I have spoken of ? One of them was , cer- 
 tainly, a vast increase of price. Could 
 the quantum of this increase be accoun- 
 ted for by the increase of the circulating
 
 ( 46 ) 
 
 medium ? That is , by its superabundance ? 
 No. Could it be accounted for by the 
 combined effect of augmented currency , 
 exceeding augmented commodities ; of 
 the augmented labour, or cost, in grow- 
 ing corn , arising out of the necessity of 
 resorting to poorer soils ; of the release 
 that the substitution of paper-money gave 
 to a large portion of the coin , thus be- 
 come at liberty to be exchanged for 
 consumable commodities ? Perhaps these 
 combined causes may have been adequate 
 to the effect. 
 
 If so , can it be denied , that there was 
 paramount good in this effect? 
 
 Would then a repetition of the same 
 system continue to produce the same 
 good ? 
 
 In the first place , it could not be re- 
 peated in all its parts. There could no 
 longer be the vast augmentation from the 
 release of coin. The coin would not re- 
 main to be released- In other respects , 
 there are limits , beyond which the good
 
 (47) 
 
 does not surmount the ill. There may be 
 a point , beyond which it may not be 
 sound policy to resort to the cultivation 
 of unfertile lands. 
 
 These reasonings may reconcile us to 
 the conduct of the past : and at the same 
 time exonerate us from any charge of 
 inconsistency in adopting a more guarded 
 system for the future. 
 
 But for myself, I am, after long and 
 patient investigation , still inclined to 
 yield to the side of abundance in cur- 
 rency ; and to reject with scorn the petty 
 evils so perpetually ascribed to it; and 
 so strongly insisted on, as paramount 
 mischiefs. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS 
 
 On the Opinions of the EDINBURGH 
 REVIEWERS. 
 
 LONG since this article has been drawn 
 up, the article of the Edinburgh Review, 
 Dec. 1818, on the Pamphlets of Mr.
 
 (48 ) 
 
 Ricardo , and Mr. Princep , has come into 
 my hands. This article, on Paper-money 
 and Cash Payments, is written with pro- 
 found ability , and great temper. It asserts 
 not only the practicability of an over-issue 
 of paper 5 but that the fact has actually at 
 times taken place- Of the modes by which 
 it argues that this has been effected , the 
 most plausible appears to me the extent 
 of advances to Government. These must 
 rest on the faith of anticipated produce 
 of revenue. This does seem as if the 
 INotcs so issued would either represent 
 what did not yet exist j or what, being 
 yet in the hands of others , might thus 
 be represented twice over. 
 
 I have said distinctly already, that 
 if this over-issue does take place in any 
 great degree , it is pregnant with mis- 
 chievous injustice. 
 
 It is clear , that , in the use of a Paper- 
 currency , substituted for a proper me- 
 tallic currency , if the quantity exceeds 
 the quantity of metallic currency, that 
 
 would
 
 ( 49 ) 
 
 would otherwise be necessary to effect 
 tuate in the easiest manner ail the requi* 
 site exchanges of a country : that is, if 
 it exceeds in its expression of value- the 
 amount of the actual intrinsic value in 
 metal requisite for those exchanges, it 
 is too much. 
 
 But the increase must be great, to pro- 
 duce any powerful effect* i* believe that 
 the augmentation of Bank -issues, since 
 1797 , has not been equal to more than 
 half the gold coin previously circulating 
 in Great Britain, and thus released for 
 foreign use. Add to this the paper of 
 Country Banks , calculated at twenty 
 millions j and perhaps the positive sum 
 in circulation, beyond that of 1797 , may 
 be five millions. The increased riches of 
 the country would very far more than 
 absorb this , were it not for the increased 
 skill in the economical application of it. 
 For my own part , as I am strongly 
 inclined to believe that, till towards the 
 close of the Peace following the Ameri-
 
 ( So) 
 
 can War , the circulating medium was 
 not sufficient ; so this addition, combined 
 Vrith. its] more economical use, by no 
 means exceeds a liberal supply of the 
 due wants arising out of the riches and 
 commerce of the nation. 
 
 If it should exceed it, (and! admit the 
 strong temptation on the part of the is- 
 suers), the provisions contained in the 
 Act for the future resumption of Cash- 
 payments t will furnish an adequate con- 
 trouL 
 
 I conceive the alarm of the Bank to 
 have been quite fanciful. The demand 
 for cash could only take place, in case 
 
 of excess of issue; and onlvto the amount 
 
 * j 
 
 of the excess. In that crisis they might be 
 losers : but of what? Of part, (only 
 then a part ,) of their former profits- If 
 coin has gone abroad , we have had value 
 for it; and by sending value back again, 
 cannot we have bullion ? 
 
 It is pleaded, that the fluctuation of 
 these ebbs and flows brings with it serious
 
 ( 5i ) 
 
 mischiefs. But who would be the prin-. 
 cipal causers of these ebbs and flows ?, 
 The issuers themselves. Can they take 
 advantage of theii own wrong? It is 
 urged , that if the Bank have over-issued , 
 Government have drawn them into it; 
 and now impose on them the loss. But 
 have they not had the previous profit ? 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Non-Producers. 
 
 IF Piiches be material things , which 
 have a value in exchange ; and of which , 
 therefore, from the very essence of their 
 material nature , he , who transfers them., 
 himself loses the property, it follows, 
 that Adam Smith's distinction between. 
 Productive and Unproductive Labour , as 
 applied to Riches, is correct 9 and that, 
 v, i L h Say and others, to class the Pro-
 
 ( 52 ) 
 
 ducer of Immaterial benefits (which Say 
 Calls Immaterial Riches), among Produc- 
 tive Labourers , is to sow endless confu- 
 sion on this subject. 
 
 I allude to the Third Chapter of the 
 Second Book of Smith , Of the Accumu- 
 lation of Capital; or of Productive and 
 Non-productive Labour. The author's 
 reasonings and illustrations appear to me 
 to be clear, correct, and beautiful. In 
 every one of his instances v, ill , as I con- 
 ceive , be found the distinctions I have 
 pointed out. He says , that the labour of 
 a manufacturer realises itself upon some 
 object 5 upon something vendible , that 
 remains after the labour has ceased. It 
 is something put in reserve to be em- 
 ployed on another occasion. The labour 
 of a domestic leaves no trace, or value > 
 by which to procure an equal quantity of 
 services. This is true ot all immaterial 
 services 5 those of the Divine, Lawyer a 
 Physician , Musician , etc.
 
 (53) 
 
 Yet Comte Gamier, in his fifth vo- 
 lume, annexed tohis Translation of Smith, 
 has a long note (xx.) of thirty-two pages , 
 to prove this distinction erroneous. His 
 whole argument turns on the position , 
 that these immaterial labourers give some- 
 thing useful in return for the pecuniary 
 recompense that they receive j and that 
 therefore the riches of a nation are more 
 augmented by multiplying them, than 
 by multiplying many kinds of those, 
 whom Smith denominates Productive 
 Labourers. 
 
 JEAN BAPTISTE SAY, in his Traite 
 cTEconomiePolitique, forms Chapter xiii. 
 of his First Book , Des Produits imma- 
 tcriels , ou des V~aleurs , qui sont con- 
 sommees au moment de leur production. 
 He holds the same doctrine with Garnier 
 iu opposition to Smith ; but complains , 
 that Garnier has fallen into an error in 
 this respect j that he has applied the 
 position beyond its due limits ; and by 
 supposing many things useful , however
 
 ( 54) 
 
 multiplied, which are hurtful \vhen ex- 
 cessively augmented, improperly inclu- 
 des them, when so augmented, in the 
 class of Immaterial Riches. 
 
 CHAPTEFx X. 
 
 Of Usefulness , as applied to Riches. 
 
 \_ HE introduction of this word , Useful- 
 ness , into the ingredients of Riches, has 
 generated a vast degree of perplexity. 
 Not only will not mere Usefulness con- 
 stitute Riches; but Riches cannot be 
 raised in the scale , among themselves , 
 according to the degree of prevalence of 
 this ingredient. Not only therefore is not 
 Productive Labour necessarily more use- 
 ful than Unproductive Labour: but Pro- 
 ductive Labour is in many cases little 
 useful; arid in some, highly detrimental , 
 while bringing forth what comes strictly 
 within the definition of Riches ; but such,
 
 (55) 
 
 is may be injurious to morals , or health; 
 or cost an undue consumption of human 
 subsistence. 
 
 To asinine , therefore , that Produc- 
 tiveness as applied to Riches , and Use- 
 fulness , are synonymous , or intimately 
 allied , is to admit a conclusion , with 
 which a thousand facts , springing up on 
 every side , are at variance. 
 
 XL 
 
 Of Non-Producers, employed intermediately between 
 the Producer, and Consumer. 
 
 J. HIS is the class , whom it is the most 
 difficult to separate from the Producer. 
 The manual labour of some of these; 
 the superintendance of others ; the capital 
 of others, are things, without which 
 neither the operative producer could be 
 supplied with subsistence till his work 
 was done ; nor find the means of disposing 
 of it , after it was finished.
 
 ( 56) 
 
 This includes Merchants , with all 
 their establishments of Ware -houses, 
 Clerks, etc. Persons employed in the 
 Land and Water Transport of goods 5 
 Retailers , etc. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Of the different Classes of Intermediate Non-Producers, 
 
 J_ HE persons intermediately employed 
 between the strict Producer and the Con- 
 sumer, are Those who supply Capital, 
 united with skill and superintendance : 
 Those , who supply merely the labour of 
 skill and superintendance ; and Those 
 who supply mere bodily labour- 
 
 Of these, the labour of some being 
 applied to the material , and of others to 
 the immaterial part, the first are separated 
 from the Producers by a very evanescent 
 and doubtful line ; the others by a very 
 marked one.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Of the Consequences of a Disproportionate Increase, 
 either of Agricultural , or Manufacturing Riches, 
 
 IF Manufactured Production does not 
 keep some pace with the growth of food , 
 there will be no adequate demand for the 
 surplus corn; no adequate improvement 
 in the utensils of labour ; no adequate 
 stimulus for the exertion of human in- 
 dustry. All that can be looked to , is 
 the feeble and uncertain resource of a 
 Foreign Market The barbarous and des- 
 titute state of a Country , whose artificial 
 Riches depend on its Exports of Agricul- 
 tural Produce , is demonstrable by all 
 History , and all present experience. 
 
 On the contrary, if Manufactures in- 
 crease beyond Agriculture , a part of the 
 population must starve ; or food must be 
 obtained from other countries , in ex- 
 change for manufactures.
 
 ( S3) 
 
 To this state of organization , power- 
 ful , and, as it seems, insuperable, ob- 
 jections arise. 
 
 1. The kingdom thus constituted is 
 at the mercy of other countries for ab- 
 solute existence. 
 
 2. It must be exposed in an infinitely 
 greater degree to the deficiencies of sea- 
 sons : because the country growing an 
 article of primary necessity , will always , 
 in cases of famine , supply itself first. 
 
 5. The monopoly will have a ten- 
 dency to bring a ruinous price to the 
 Consumer. 
 
 4. A population thus abandons an 
 occupation , healthy , moral , orderly , 
 simple, frugal , and temperate ; for one 
 diseased , dissolute , insubordinate , facti- 
 tious , expensive , and drunl en. 
 
 5. The class of landed proprietors 
 is thus diminished, impoverished, and 
 rendered subject to the class of mer- 
 cantile capitalists; men of selfish habits, 
 and mean, calculating, groveling prin- 
 ciples.
 
 6- The whole stale of society thus 
 becomes factitious , complicated , de- 
 pendent on a thousand extraneous acci- 
 dents, and utterly without any command 
 over itself. 
 
 CHAPTER XiV. 
 
 Of the First Class of Those who live by Bodily 
 Labour applied to Non-productive Services : Do- 
 mes lie Servants. 
 
 'OMESTIC Servants are principally em- 
 ployed in services, that vanish in the very 
 act of performance ; that confer nothing 
 exchangeable on the receiver; and take 
 nothing from the giver, that he does not 
 still possess in the same degree. 
 
 Great outcries have been raised against 
 the wastefulness of consuming Riches in 
 the support of this class. It may be at 
 k-ast doubled , whether there has been 
 much sound philosophy in the extent, to 
 which this outcry has been carried.
 
 ( 6o) 
 
 In early stages of society, when the 
 abuses of this sort of expenditure are 
 carried the farthest , it may be admitted 
 that a large portion of the human subsis- 
 tence so consumed, might much more 
 beneficially be employed in infant manu- 
 factures, which would improve skill; 
 polish manners , add to the conveniences 
 and luxuries of life ; encourage Agricul- 
 ture , and augment Riches. 
 
 But w hen the Manufactures of a coun- 
 try are already arrived at a height , at 
 which it is an exceedingly nice point, 
 whether they have not actually overstep- 
 ped their due proportion to Agriculture , 
 the case, is quite altered. 
 
 Vvhether in usefulness or in luxury, 
 there are numerous manufactured articles 
 that cannot compare with the services of 
 domestic servants. It is only changing 
 the expenditure from one kind of con- 
 venience , or gratification , to another ; 
 while even the demand for manufactures, 
 though it is diminished by the amount
 
 of the food consumed by these domestic 
 servants , yet perhaps is turned to articles 
 of more use and substance. I have said , 
 diminished by the amount of the food 
 thus consumed : but perhaps not entirely 
 so, if it encourages a moie wholesome 
 and sound application of the industry of 
 Manufacturing labour : and at the same 
 
 o 
 
 time ceases to give a false and dangerous 
 impulse to its increase. 
 
 A 
 
 How incalculable is the quantity of Ma- 
 nufactured articles , which are perishable , 
 arid even hurtful ! It is true, that they are the 
 means of support to their Producers. But 
 is this the best mode of supporting them? 
 Or if no other mode of supporting them 
 can be found , is a population so augmen- 
 ted , desirable ? 
 
 If it be not for use , or for Riches , it 
 is clear, that a population exceeding in 
 manufacturers, is less healthy, less moral, 
 and less happy, than a population ex- 
 ceeding in domestic servants.
 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Of another Class of the same : Soldiers and Sailors. 
 
 F there has been an outcry against the 
 consumption of Domestic Servants, the 
 same outcry, on the same reasoning, has 
 been applied still more vociferously to 
 Soldiers and Sailors. 
 
 As far as self-defence goes , the use 
 and necessity of the services of these 
 classes , of what are called N jn-Productive 
 Labourers , is sufficiently apparent. But in 
 what points we are called on for self- 
 defence ; what are the modes of effecting 
 it, and what is the decree of Force re- 
 quisite , are subjects on which not only 
 Faction and Party may oppose each other ; 
 but the ablest and most patriotic States- 
 men may differ. 
 
 In various ages of politics , whether 
 with reference to Europe, or to the rest
 
 ( 65) 
 
 of the world, various amounts of strength 
 are called for. 
 
 And notwithstanding the clamour a- 
 gainst this sort of expenditure , the ar- 
 guments used in the former chapter in 
 fayour of domestic servants, apply stilj, 
 more strongly to the direction of revenue 
 in support of an Army and Navy. 
 
 A large portion of the expenditure 
 goes to the encouragement of the most 
 useful sorts of Manufactures : and thus, 
 indirectly, as well as directly, to the basis 
 of all prosperity in Manufactures , to the 
 promotion of Agriculture itself. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Of the Civil Servants of Government, living by- 
 Bodily Labour. 
 
 A HE Civil Servants of Government, who 
 live by Bodily Labour , and fill ail the 
 lower departments , are , like their Supe-
 
 (64 ) 
 
 riors, as necessary for the preservation 
 of internal economy , and external ma- 
 nagement, as the Army and Navy are 
 for its defence. Though not Producers 
 of Riches , they are no less indispensible 
 for the administration and distribution of 
 those Riches. 
 
 They are entitled to a fair remunera- 
 tion of their services , according to the 
 nature and rank of their employment. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Of Non -Producers, who live by Intellectual Labour* 
 
 JL EE Divine, the Lawyer, the Physician, 
 the {Military and Naval Commander, etc. 
 all entitle themselves to portions of the 
 annual income of a country, in return 
 for advice and direction given by means 
 of the application of their intellectual 
 powers to their respective vocations. 
 This produce of the Brain , thus com- 
 
 municabie
 
 (65) 
 
 municable and communicated , is what 
 SAY and others denominate IMMATERIAL 
 RICHES. 
 
 The labours of Literature are of the 
 same class , so far as they are the produc- 
 tions of the Mind. When identified with 
 matter ; with paper, and type, and ink; 
 they pass over into a different class. 
 
 The skill and labour of the Artist; the 
 Musician ; the Painter , etc. is exactly of 
 the same sort ; and liable to the same 
 qualifications as those of Literature : when 
 embodied by the graver, or colours, on 
 paper, or canvas, it changes its nature., 
 aaci belongs to the head of RICHES. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Of the Civil Servants of Government, living by 
 Intellectual Labour. 
 
 very large class, from the Prime 
 
 Minister downwards , is entitled to his 
 Salary, or Income , on precisely the same 
 
 5
 
 (66) 
 
 principles , as Those of the last chapter ; 
 in return for a due exertion of Intellectual 
 skill and labour. 
 
 The proportion paid to each may be 
 profuse , reasonable , or scanty : but it 
 oueht to be the second. 
 
 o 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Of Paupers, and the Poor Laws. 
 
 Riches are distributed , as of rif_ht, 
 between those who entitle themselves to 
 their portion by Labour, Bodily, or In- 
 tellectual; and those who are the owners 
 of Capital. The former classes \ have 
 already considered : the latter I resene 
 for a subsequent Part of this Inquiry. 
 But there is an intermediate Class, per- 
 fectly anomalous to these principles, yet 
 claiming their share, as of ri^ht also , 
 founded on peculiar provisions of the 
 Statute Laws of England. These are
 
 (6 7 ) 
 
 PAUPEKS ; and the Laws alluded to are 
 well known under the name of the POOR 
 LAWS. 
 
 It is clear , that the funds for the sup- 
 port of this class must betaken, either 
 from the shares of those , who entitle 
 themselves to them by their labour ; or of 
 those , who are the owners of Property 
 (or Capital) : or from both these classes. 
 
 Either , therefore , without having pro- 
 perty , they have the emoluments of pro- 
 perty; or, without having labour, they 
 have the emoluments of labour. 
 
 The limits to the demands of the man 
 of property , are those of his property : 
 the limits to the labourer's demands , are 
 those of his labour. What are the limits 
 of the Pauper's demands? The limits to 
 the increase of human population , even 
 while it finds a supply of subsistence ! 
 But such limits, in fact, exist not, as 
 long as such subsistence can be found. 
 There is no limit, therefore, till the 
 property of the capitalist, and the la-
 
 (63) 
 
 boiirerj is absorbed ! Such is the absurdity 
 of the principle : such is its portentous 
 danger, when it has advanced far in its 
 
 O ' 
 
 progress. 
 
 To be Consumers; and yet to be 
 neither Producers , nor Secondary Agents 
 to Production, is to trench, in a most 
 alarming manner, on the stores of pro- 
 perty ; or the regards of Labour. 
 
 1 have not at this moment (in a Foreign 
 country), the documents at hand to ioim 
 a precise calculation ; but, as tl e ica!tst 
 pressure is on the Land , the Poor-rates 
 probably take not less than a fifth of the 
 Income , derived by the Landed Propri- 
 etor from his Land (l). 
 
 If the Poor, thus living on Bates > 
 could be productively employed , they 
 would diminish , to the amount of the 
 
 (i) If the Lnmlrtl Rental of England b<? f->rfy 
 mill.ons ; allowing only 'JVn percent, for 1 awl-Tax 
 and Repairs, whirh is far 1oo lii.ir, <il !<;..'( a ihircl 
 must be tnkon fiotn the remainder , 6 litlcl en Mori- 
 gage by Persuual Capitalist.^.
 
 (69 ) 
 
 value of their Production , the expences 
 of their Consumption. Bat it is contended, 
 that they cannot be so employed : that 
 Capital is wanting : that the markets are 
 overloaded : that the waste land capable 
 of growing corn is exhausted. These 
 arguments do not , I confess , appear to 
 me well founded. If Capital is wanting, 
 whence comes the food, that the Poor- 
 Rates procure ? If the markets are over- 
 loaded , because men have not the means 
 to purchase , would they be overloaded , 
 when additional productive labour gave 
 them the means to purchase ? If the re- 
 maining waste land would , when brought 
 into cultivation , repay the labour of 
 tillage , can it be said to be exhausted? 
 
 Bat it may be admitted , that these are 
 only palliatives : that the radical evil is 
 still left : and that if these palliatives have 
 a tendency to seduce us into a temporary 
 acquiescence in the disease , the mischief 
 will be greater than the good; because 
 the evil will re-accumulate, faster than 
 the remedy.
 
 (7) 
 
 The truth also is, that labour under 
 sucli forced management is never half so 
 productive, as \\hen under the voluntary 
 impulse of self interest. 
 
 But in addition to these objections , 
 and the feebleness of these palliatives , 
 the following, among others, though not 
 foreseen, have been proved to be the 
 mischievous results of the Poor Laws. 
 
 1. They absolutely extinguish all the 
 virtuous and efficient stimuli to industry. 
 
 2. They extinguish all forethought and 
 economy. 
 
 5. They destroy the most beautiful 
 and moral influences of parental and filial 
 affection, by taking away the necessity 
 of fathers and mothers labouring for a 
 provision for their children ; and of chil- 
 dren labouring for the helpless old age of 
 their fathers and mothers. 
 
 4. They break up domestic habits ; the 
 privacy of the family fire-side; its quiet; 
 its controul , its freedom from the irrita- 
 tions oi crowded and contagious society.
 
 (71 ) 
 
 5. They root out the spirit of inde- 
 pendence, from whence spring all the 
 Lest moral energies ; and introduce in its 
 
 O * 
 
 place, hardness, despondence, reckless- 
 ness , and brutal torpor. 
 
 6. They stir up a perpetual warfare 
 and hatred between the receivers of these 
 public funds , and the dispensers of them ; 
 discontent, jealousy, rage, fraud, false- 
 hood , and idleness , on one side : suspi- 
 cion, insensibility, misanthropy, on the 
 other. 
 
 7. If these funds be considered as an 
 organized mode of dispensing Charity, 
 (the only pretence on which the payment 
 of such heavy sums can be plausibly put,) 
 then it must be objected, that they are 
 deficient in some of the most essential 
 benefits of Charity. They are no virtue 
 in the payer , because it is not voluntary > 
 it is not a Gift, but a Tax. It produces 
 no gratitude and kindness in the receiver 9 
 because he takes it as a right.
 
 (72 ) 
 
 Such have been the effects of this 
 System upon those , to whom it was in- 
 tended as the greatest of benefits : \vhcm 
 it was meant to cherish , arid protect : 
 and to whom it was proposed to secure 
 from the rich , by the force of legislative 
 enactments , the due discharge of the 
 virtues of kindness and assistance. 
 
 It is a striking proof of the short-sight- 
 edness of human wisdom. Setting aside its 
 effects on property, which, in the long run , 
 if suffered to proceed at its present rate , 
 it must inevitably swallow up ; setting 
 aside the mischief of its removal of the 
 only effectual check , that can prevent the 
 tendency of population to augment beyond 
 the means of subsistence; it is a System 
 pre-eminently calculated to loosen all the 
 moral ties ; damp and destroy all the 
 moral energies; and annihilate all the 
 moral happiness of those , for whose 
 exclusive good it was framed. 
 
 But, as if these mischiefs were not 
 sufficient, another has been grafted upon
 
 ( 73 ) 
 
 them; not indeed even intended to Lenefit 
 the Poor ; and in effect exceedingly in- 
 jurious : while those, for whom the ad- 
 vantage has been intended , have been 
 neither entitled to it, nor have gained 
 much by it. 
 
 I allude to a supply of a portion of 
 wages from the Poor -Rates. Farmers, 
 and large Occupiers, and large IVIanu- 
 fac'curers , have encouraged this , because 
 it has a tendency to draw part of the 
 payment of the Wages of their Work- 
 men from those, who keep no Workmen. 
 
 It was admitted on the part of those 
 who had authority, from the supposition, 
 that the causes of the rise of wages w r ere 
 only temporary; and that this mode might 
 prevent their permanent continuance at 
 the new point. 
 
 In every view it was wrons- If it arose 
 
 J O 
 
 from depreciation of currency, Wages 
 ought to have risen in proportion, so long 
 as Hie depreciation should last If it arose 
 i; um. scarcity oi corn , this would aggra-
 
 (74 ) 
 
 vate the scarcity. If it sprung from an in- 
 tention to disguise the burdensome effects 
 of the war-expenditure , it had the im- 
 mediate contrary consequence; and direct 
 taxation would have been far less onerous. 
 As far as concerned the Labourer, it 
 was a most gross and demoralizing in- 
 justice. The Labourer is entitled to the 
 value of his labour, as a right; and not 
 as a boon. He is made a dependent, soli- 
 citing charity, with all its degrading re- 
 sults , when he is entitled by virtuous 
 industry to that which he asks. 
 
 But these Poor Laws have now for 
 more than two centuries intertwined 
 themselves in a very complicated mariner 
 with the whole body of the English laws 
 and institutions. It is demonstrable , that 
 they cannot be separated at once : it is 
 not clear, that they can ever be utterly 
 eradicated. In the mean time, extreme 
 caution is necessary, in every step to be
 
 (75) 
 
 taken. Profound knowledge, deep sagacity, 
 extensive experience , must all concur in 
 whatever is proposed for adoption. Tem- 
 porary alleviations , and particular amend- 
 ments may be reasonably suggested j and 
 on mature consideration be enacted. 
 
 Many of their provisions are mischie- 
 vously or uselessly vexatious. The Law of 
 Settlements , in particular , I have always 
 considered to be cruel, impolitic, and 
 burdensome. I did my endeavour, when 
 in Parliament, to effect an amelioration 
 of some of its worst features ; and I am 
 happy to see a similar attempt still pursued 
 by more powerful legislators ; while my 
 own disappointment is softened by the 
 proof that , even with the countenance of 
 Government, the difficulties are such, as 
 cannot easily be surmounted. 
 
 The truth is , that the Body of the 
 Poor Laws is , for the most part , a Body 
 of conflicting particulars , without a con- 
 necting principle. Its Enactments have 
 continually been passed, to correct par-
 
 (76) 
 
 tial evils, and give partial advantages. 
 The objects of the proposers have not 
 been immediately detected; and the Lad 
 results of the proposals not immediately 
 foreseen When once carried, the very 
 mischief renders it difficult , if not im- 
 possible , to get the Act undone. It be- 
 comes the interest of some powerful 
 Body, to preserve the abuse. 
 
 Blackstone has remarked, that the Law 
 of Settlements has put every separate 
 parish in arms against all others , that it 
 may guard its own exemptions , and 
 throw the burden of the Poor elsewhere , 
 without the smallest regard to the public 
 alleviation. And thus it is, when a mea- 
 sure on this subject is agitated in Parlia- 
 ment : it is a mere contest of Particular 
 Interests. The general good is not the 
 principle, on which it is discussed; nor 
 the view, with which it is endeavoured 
 to be carried.
 
 (77) 
 
 In treating this most important topic, 
 I have rather touched , as it were by mere 
 recognition, on the different points, than 
 dwelt copiously on them. They have in 
 the last three years been so largely and 
 ably discussed, that I have merely thought 
 it necessary to allude to them in this way, 
 as already familiar to the reader who 
 pursues this class of inquiries. The able 
 and patient discussions of the Committee 
 of the House of Commons on the Poor 
 Laws, which sat during the whole Session 
 of 1817 '-, and their well-matured Report, 
 has, above all, enlightened and coiivin* . i d 
 the Public Mind , on this most perplexing 
 and long-misunderstood Branch of Legis- 
 lation. I think it was not less than fifty 
 successive sittings in this Session, that [ 
 attended this Committee , of which 1 was 
 a member. I have given here the impres- 
 sion, that remains upon me, of aii the 
 lights thus gathered (jj. 
 
 ( i) Numerous Pamphlets were -IPU nubHshed on the 
 subject : all, or most of which, it' of any cjiara-r icr,
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 On the Employment of the Poor. 
 
 J.T may be observed, that some of the 
 Employed Poor contribute towards their 
 own support , though they do not entirely 
 supply it. Others , and perhaps the major 
 part , though constantly set to work , 
 scarcely produce more than enough to 
 pay the expences of Management. 
 
 I read. In a foreign country, I have none of them to 
 refer to : and of many, I have forgot even the names. 
 The Pamphlets of Lord Sheffield j T. P. Courtenay 
 M. P. Mr. Davison of Oxford ; and Mr. Bichcno , 
 were among the most prominent. 
 
 But Mr. JVLallhus had already fully explained the 
 erroneous principle , in his immortal Work , On Po- 
 pulation ; and the late Rev. Joseph Townsend , the 
 author of the Travels in Spain, had many years 
 earlier written a singularly able and eloquent Pam- 
 phh-t , anticipating the same views. 
 
 Sir Fred. Eden's Three Quarto Volumes ON THE 
 POOR, contain a complete collection of facts and 
 do< uments, on this large and grave department of 
 Political Economy,
 
 (79) 
 
 Many are able, and willing to furnish 
 labour, adequate to their own support, 
 if they could find employment. The dif- 
 ficulty in this respect is always greatly 
 exaggerated, and almost always caused 
 by the absurd, impolitic, and cruel Law 
 of Settlements, which confines men to 
 spots, where w r ork is not to be had. If 
 the laws forbid a man to go where he 
 might get employment, they are bound 
 in common justice to procure employment 
 for him. 
 
 But this is a point that involves many 
 difficulties. The very circumstance of the 
 individual being unable to obtain work in 
 his parish, is a proof, that it is a spot, 
 where labour cannot be as beneficially 
 employed , as in many other places. 
 \\ hat would be unproductive to the 
 individual stimulated by personal interest, 
 will be far more unproducti\ r e under the 
 management of a public concern. 
 
 But still the question here is, not 
 between the most and the least productive
 
 (So) 
 
 application of labour ; but between pro- 
 duction and non-production. W hen this 
 question was long and industriously ar- 
 gued in the Poor-Coin inittee, I could not 
 perceive the force of the reasonings a- 
 gainst the facility or policy of employing 
 the able-bodied Poor, as long as the Law- 
 put on the Public the obligation of sup- 
 porting them. I cannot e^en yet compre- 
 hend it ! 
 
 It was said, there was a want of Ca- 
 pital- This is to me utterly uninleiiigible; 
 as long as a Capital exists, to furnish 
 these unemployed Poor with subsistence. 
 It was said , that the markets were already 
 overstocked, bolh with Agricultural and 
 Manufactured produce. Vv hy add fo the 
 glut?* But why were they overstocked? 
 For want of demanders, And why Avere 
 demariders wanting? Because they had 
 not wherewith to give in exchange. Let 
 the unemployed Poor grc\\ the corn they 
 consume , arid ihe innmitaclures they 
 require , in their due proportions ! It will 
 
 Lc
 
 ( 81 ) 
 
 be said , that tins either diminishes the 
 demanders in the market, or increases 
 the supply to that amount. True. But it 
 releases the same quantity to be retained 
 by the payers of the Poor-Rates, who 
 would thus be enabled to be new deman- 
 ders to an equal amount (i). 
 
 That a period may arrive , when all the 
 land in England, Avhich can beneficially 
 repay tillage, may have been already 
 taken into cultivation , I will not dispute. 
 That that period has not yet arrived j and 
 does not even approximate to its com- 
 pletion , I must yet strongly contend. 
 
 It seemed to me as if among the ob- 
 jections, (felt, rather than clearly ex- 
 pressed,) to the employment of the Poor 
 
 (i) This is the view I took of the Question at 
 that time, as appears more at large by my Pamphlet, 
 entitled : ARGUMENTS in favour of the prac- 
 iicabilitT of relieving the able-bodied Poor, by 
 finding Employment fur them ; and of the Beneficial 
 Consequences of such Employment:, both to the 
 Morals of the Poor, and the National Riches. 
 Loud. Longmatij 101-, pp. 5$. 
 
 ,6
 
 (82 ) 
 
 on waste lands, was the fear to hasten 
 the over-stepping these limits : a most 
 extraordinary fear; surely very fanciful : 
 and not even liable to the evils, such as 
 they are , that may arise from the culti- 
 vation of unfertile soils. The principal of 
 these evils is the increased price of corn 
 but in this case the augmented supply 
 would counteract such an effect. On the 
 other hand, it might have a tendency to 
 lower the price of corn ; but yet not inju- 
 riously to the farmer , because the cost of 
 production is lessened at least as much as 
 the price of corn is reduced , by the ex- 
 oneration from an equivalent in Poor 
 I\ at.es. 
 
 The mischiefs of the idleness of those 
 Poor, who are subsisted at the public 
 expence, are so numerous, glaring, and 
 complicated , that the comparatively petty 
 difficulties, or comparatively trifling' un- 
 favourable consequences, of employing 
 them, astonish me, when urged against 
 the employment.
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 Public establishments may be not easy 
 to be managed : the public application of 
 labour may not be the most economical* 
 Bat these difficulties are softened, if riot 
 overcome, in other cases. 
 
 It is hinted, that all these expedients 
 tend to reconcile us to the system ; which 
 had better appear in all its ugliness, that 
 
 it may be the sooner extirpated. What- 
 
 > j. 
 
 ever , (it is urged ,) helps forward this sys- 
 tem from its present height, may acce- 
 lerate its progress to the point, where 
 it will explode with the most ruinous 
 
 violence. 
 
 All this would be wise, if this large 
 branch of our political institutions could 
 at once be cut off, and eradicated to the 
 rery roots. But there exists not the person 
 hardy enough to assert, that this is prac- 
 ticable. 
 
 To endure, therefore, on this account, 
 the full tide of grievous mischiefs, that 
 might be greatly alleviated , seems but a 
 rali and ill-poised sort oi vasdoni.
 
 ( 84 ) 
 
 TLe admission of the error of the 
 principle of these laws need not at all 
 be weakened by the adoption of an in- 
 termediate remedy, even though final 
 excision be the only perfect cure. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Of the Consequences of extending the Provisions 
 of the Poor Hate.s Jbej-ond the Old uiul Impotent 
 Poor. 
 
 IT has been said, that the Poor Laws 
 were originally intended only as a provi- 
 sion for such of the Poor, as Age, Sick- 
 ness, Bodily Defect, or Orphan Infancy, 
 rendered incapable of gaining their sub- 
 sistence by labour. So far the principle 
 of a legal arrangement for support can 
 scarcely be opposed. Ikit even here the 
 provisions require great caution, skill, 
 arid experience. Above all, fhe obi i pa !. ion 
 on the ties of blood ought not to be 
 lessened.
 
 (85) 
 
 The Statute, 43 Eliz. however, which 
 is called the foundation of the Poor-Laws , 
 goes much farther. It provides > that the 
 parish officers shall set to work the Idle , 
 and those , who cannot find employment : 
 and shall raise funds of stock and mate- 
 rials , for them to be employed upon , etc- 
 
 For more than a century and a half, 
 it does not appear that this provision of 
 the Act was carried to anv excessive or 
 
 J 
 
 inconvenient extent. It was at the com- 
 mencement of the War with Revolution- 
 ary France, in 179^^ that it came into 
 full play, in all its abuses , and inconside- 
 rate extensions. 
 
 It was no doubt meant as a correction 
 to idleness and vagrancy; and to secure 
 industrious habits to children , who had 
 lost their parents ; or whose parents were 
 dissolute or neglectful. Nothing could 
 have been less in the contemplation of 
 the Framers of this Law, than that it was 
 to make good deficient wages, find work 
 for every able-bodied parishioner , who
 
 ( 86) 
 
 asked for it, and secure the recompense 
 of a day's labour to a man equally, whe- 
 ther he did a day's work , or half a day's, 
 or a quarter of a day's. 
 
 At the commencement of this War, 
 every thing was in motion ; and almost 
 every thing heaved from its basis. Corn 
 rose ; prices rose ; occupations were 
 forced into new channels; manufactures 
 were convulsed before they resumed their 
 activity in new directions ; men were 
 called to the Army, Navy, and Militia ; 
 and their wives and children were left 
 upon the parish. Wages, of course, did 
 not instantly follow closely the start in the 
 price of corn. IMeantime , the unlucky 
 habit of making all easy by resorting to 
 the Poor Rates sprung up , and spread. It 
 pleased the Farmers , on whom so much 
 of the payment fell, in preference to the 
 augmentation of Wages; because they 
 persuaded themselves that they should 
 thus draw in others to pay for them part 
 of the hire of their Labourers. Perhaps
 
 it might please the political adherents of 
 Government, in the hope that it might 
 disguise, under another name, part of the 
 burden of Taxation. 
 
 But the most candid view of the whole 
 subject is this : that in the multitude of 
 conflicting circumstances of this extra- 
 ordinary crisis, the tide of human affairs 
 rolled things without design or forethought 
 into those courses , of which scarcely any, 
 if any, at first saw the dangerous conse- 
 quences , which the coolness of philoso- 
 phical investigation, aided by experience, 
 now proves to be the necessary results of 
 them. 
 
 The incredibly absurd idea of keeping 
 down the price of our manufactures, by 
 thus keeping down the price of Wages , 
 to secure the Foreign vent of those ma- 
 nufactures , (which would be giving a 
 bonus to the Foreign purchaser, at the 
 expence of our Poor Fiates,) was certainly 
 a favourite recommendation of this sys- 
 tem , with many , especially with the
 
 (83 ) 
 
 Manufacturer for the Foreign Market, 
 who, like all oilier merchants, sees Na- 
 tional Interest in Individual Profit. 
 
 The inconveniences and mischiefs of 
 the plan soon became so many and so 
 complex , that it is difficult to state them 
 distinctly , either separately , or in com- 
 bination. 
 
 Scarcely any poor man could any 
 longer live independent of the parish rate: 
 and therefore the shame of resorting to 
 
 C? 
 
 it soon utterly ceased. He received with 
 suspicion, murmurs, hatred, and curses, 
 what he deemed to be less than his right : 
 while the overseer called it a charity, 
 more than he deserved I He worked as 
 little as, by any evasion, he could con- 
 trive; and demanded by cunning, false- 
 hood, or fraud, as much as the just reward 
 of the hardest labour could amount to. In 
 the Bad, hardihood, and thoughtless dis- 
 
 ' ' C 1 
 
 regard of all but a mere sensual existence , 
 grew still more inveterate. In the Doubt- 
 ful, and ven in the Good, despondence
 
 C 8) ) 
 
 took place of moral energy : they were 
 degraded , and became heartless. 
 
 Half the time of the managers of the 
 parish , and of the adjoining magistrates 
 was employed in this warfare between 
 demand, and resistance. Monthly Meet- 
 ings would no longer suffice : Weekly 
 ones became necessary : and half the 
 days were consumed at the ale-house. 
 Magistrates and Parish- officers striving 
 to allay the wants and discontents , above 
 stairs! Mobs, in irritated concert, or 
 jealous suspicion, confabulating, or lis- 
 tening , below ! 
 
 While such were the expences , which 
 a pauper family entailed on a parish, it 
 became the interest of parishes to fight 
 with each other every inch of ground. 
 First came stratagems', and intrigues : 
 then resorts to magistrates for Orders of 
 Removal : then wretched families in age, 
 or sickness, or helpless infancy, torn from 
 their habitual homes , and Carted in broad 
 disgrace , even at the most inclement
 
 (90) 
 
 seasons, (yet without regard to the parish 
 purse,) from one end of the kingdom to 
 the other. Then an Appeal , at a vast cost , 
 to the Quarter Sessions : and lastly, per- 
 haps , a Reversal of the Order , and a 
 Carting back again in the same way ! 
 
 The imperfections in the Settlement- 
 Laws were now more glaringly felt. 
 Every Session of Parliament produced 
 some attempt to amend them. Scarcely 
 any succeeded. The only material ame- 
 lioration was , to prohibit the Removal, 
 till the Pauper should become actually 
 chargeable. 
 
 In truth, the Law of Settlement, as 
 it has stood since the reijm of Charles II. 
 
 O 
 
 has been radically , and ab iniiio , most 
 imperfect. A proper Settlement is, where 
 there has been sufficient permanence of 
 abode, to prove the intention of station- 
 ariness. The old laws, at any rate, gave 
 a Settlement, by a reside nee of one, two , 
 or three years. The Act of Charles II. 
 made it very much shorter still, if unre-
 
 (9' ) 
 
 moved within the time. Bat it was so 
 badly contrived, that qualifications and 
 counteractions to it soon became neces- 
 sary. It had better far have been framed 
 anew : for it soon became in this way 
 only a law of doubtful inference from 
 conflicting guards, in fact, the very pre- 
 amble of this Act of K. Charles is nei- 
 ther very consistent with this subject, 
 nor w T ilh its own provisions. It is more 
 strictly applicable to a mere Vagrant Law : 
 and might have been better followed by 
 the proper corrections for VAGRANCY. 
 
 But in the present construction of the 
 Statute of Q. Elizabeth, by which the 
 provisions are extended to the finding 
 employment for every able-bodied pa- 
 rishioner, and guaranteeing to him the 
 due amount of wages , or hire , for his 
 labour , it certainly would be unjust to 
 give him too much facility to throw the 
 burden where he chooses. 
 
 But , unfortunately , the Laws do not 
 take away this facility in many cases.
 
 where it ought not to exist; while they 
 make the acquirement of a Settlement, 
 not only difficult, but almost impossible, 
 in cases , where it ought to be given. For 
 instance, fort y days' residence in a Lodg- 
 ing of five Shillings a week will give a 
 Settlement ; while forty years' residence 
 as a housekeeper, in a Cottage of pine 
 Pounds a year, will not give one. Again, 
 the accumulating the hiring of a number 
 of small tenements in different parishes , 
 to the amount, when added together, of 
 ten pounds a year , will give a Settlement 
 in such of those parishes , as the pauper 
 has resided in for the last forty days. 
 And what, in the construction of the Law, 
 is included within this word, Tenement? 
 A palch of growing potatoes ! part of the 
 * milking of a cow! the cutting of a stripe 
 of green dovcr! a few square feet of 
 cabbage garden! etc. etc. of each of 
 which, separately, the rent may not 
 exceed half-a-crown a year ! What is the 
 professed principle of this Law ? To
 
 (93 ) 
 
 prevent the improper intrusion of s Gran- 
 gers ! Does this prevent it ? It refuses the 
 right to the industrious villager ? of forty 
 years abode in the parish. It confers it on 
 the wandering journeyman mechanic , of 
 forty days' abode , who takes advantage of a 
 momentary high price of wages, by an acci- 
 dental excess of demand for labour ! Simi- 
 lar anomalies and inconsistencies occur in 
 every part of the Law of Settlement 
 
 Formerly, when, according to the or- 
 ganization of the due proportion between 
 labour and wages, the mode and fashion 
 of putting the provisions of the Poor 
 Laws into execution, and the accordant 
 habits and opinions of the labouring po- 
 pulation, a relief from the parochial funds 
 was not contemplated , except in cases of 
 great misfortune, extreme poverty, help- 
 less Age, or destitute Infancy; neither 
 the Poor, nor the Parishes were equailv 
 nice; nor equally liable to unjust attrac- 
 tion, or unjust repression. It was then a 
 mark upon a man to be a Pauper. r [ he
 
 ( 94 ) 
 
 word , if applicable any longer , has lost 
 its degrading sense; because the parish 
 pay may be only a part of his duly-earned 
 wages- 
 
 Bat the effects of this, the more we 
 think of them , appear more and more 
 decidediy pregnant with ruin. We can- 
 not wonder, if from this confusion , there 
 has grown up among the poor an univer- 
 sal conviction, that the Poor Rates are 
 their property ; and that they have a right 
 to employ and full pay : or, at any rate, 
 to full pay , whether there be employ, or 
 not ! As far as the adequate amount of 
 wages is made up from the Rates, it is 
 true. A due recompense for work done 
 is a labourer's right; his property ! Can 
 we therefore be astonished , that , if out of 
 the Parochial Fund comes that which is 
 really the property of this class, they 
 assert and believe the whole Fund to be 
 their property? 1 here is no part, there- 
 fore , of the existing practice, which 
 more cries out for amendment , than
 
 ( 95) 
 
 The belief, on the part of the Poor, 
 that they are entitled to full support, does 
 certainly lead , as Malthus has so ably 
 shewn , to a rapid increase of the Popu- 
 lation , beyond the means of subsistence. 
 As long as our Poor Laws, in their 
 present application, are in force, no food, 
 it is true, will be wanting, till the Rich 
 are brought down to a level with the 
 Poor, and the whole stock is equally 
 shared. But at the present rate of pro- 
 gression, this epoch is not very far dis- 
 tant. From the moment of that arrival, 
 the whole fabric of political society would 
 fall together; if it could have lasted solong: 
 but, in fact, it would be dissolved long 
 before : for it is not in the nature of 
 things that it can exist at all, except in 
 unequal proportions. 
 
 Nothing less than strict and absolute 
 self-dependence can be an adequate check 
 to the undue increase of Population. 
 While mankind think that others must, 
 arid will, provide for them, thsy will
 
 ( 96 ) 
 
 marry without means ; they will spend 
 without thought, they will be idle without 
 compunction , and beyond the reach of 
 being stimulated to due woik. 
 
 It is privation; the pressure of famine; 
 the impossibility of gaining a due return 
 for the full exertion of bodily strength , 
 that can teach the only convincing and 
 operative lesson. 
 
 SISMOKDI, in his New Principles of 
 Political Economy, controverts these 
 doctrines. He denies this rapid tendency 
 to increase, as long as food can be pro- 
 vided : and he instances this from the 
 families of the higher ranks; who, he 
 says, do not increase, though they cannot 
 be suspected of dreading a want oi sub- 
 sistence. He names the Moulmorenci's , 
 who, he says , at Malthus's rate of pro- 
 gression , would be sixteen millions. 
 (This, by the bye, is a strange miscal- 
 culation : the Mate Monttnorenci's , the 
 only ones who would bear the name , 
 would not be sixteen thousand !)
 
 ( 97 ) 
 
 But the instance , instead of disproving 
 
 i 
 
 JVlalthus's doctrine , confirms it. The 
 check, probably, was the very one, which 
 Malthas contends to be aione effective. 
 The fear of a want of subsistence; the 
 fear of inadequate support; at least with- 
 out the unendurable disgrace of descen- 
 ding to the lowest ranks! In countries, 
 where property descends according to 
 primogeniture , is it not notorious that a 
 large proportion of younger brothers, 
 when ill-provided for , live single ? 
 
 Sismondi insists on the comparative 
 fertility of nature , in the increase of 
 vegetable and animal food. But he omits, 
 that this sort of increase can only take 
 place, under favourable circumstances, 
 with the aid of human labour and care! 
 
 THE necessity of some check to the 
 resort to parochial support, has long been 
 generally felt But the sort of checks, that 
 have been in fashion, appear to me grie-.
 
 ( 93 ) 
 
 vously objectionable. ! lundred - house* , } 
 or Buildings (or the reception of the Poor 
 of several united parishes, have been 
 defended and justified on account of their 
 very hardships, because those hardships 
 have a tendency to repel the Poor from 
 entry into them : in the same way as the 
 sufferings and cruellies oi Removals have 
 
 O 
 
 been considered, for this very reason ? 
 beneficial ! 
 
 li a svolem is so bad , as to require such 
 fundamental counteractions , is it not in- 
 sane to continue it? But how do those 
 counteractions operate? On the Good, 
 who would only apply under absolute ne- 
 cessity, and who therefore are in least wan! 
 of a check! The heartless, immoral., 
 ferocious idler cares not tor his family 
 fireside; the privacyol domes! ic alieciion ;, 
 ur ihe irank and unconlron-ed praltie and 
 caresses oi his children ! 1 le likes the 
 congregated mass of putrid society, where 
 his daring raillery may IHM! food : and his 
 dominion over the v/ea];cr tempers and
 
 ( 99 ) 
 
 consciences of his fellow-creatures may 
 allow him to lord it with impunity. What 
 is the worth of the offered boon , of which 
 the condition is the forfeiture of moral 
 independence , and the blight of all those 
 moral sensibilities , that raise us in the 
 scale of Beings ? Does not the Law thus 
 say : K.eep your virtue , and starve : 
 or take food 9 and be demoralized ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXfl. 
 
 Miscellaneous Observations on the Poor Laws." 
 
 JL HE precarious nature of Charity would 
 have seemed to justify some legal regula- 
 tions in the distribution of its favours. 
 And it would Le eoinii much too far, to 
 
 C 1 vJ 
 
 conclude , from the experience of the 
 erroneous principles of our Poor Laws, 
 that there ought to be no legal interference 
 with the objects of Charity.
 
 It is true , that , as far as the virtue of the 
 Giver is concerned , the act must be vo- 
 luntary : and this point is, if I recollect, 
 the main purpose of Mr. Bicheno's pam- 
 phlet : nor is it less true, that the Re- 
 ceiver should only be able lo acquire the 
 gift , as a gift; and consequently, on 
 terms that render him humble, grateful, 
 and dependent. 
 
 It is the very precariousness of the re- 
 liance on this source , that, where there is 
 no other provision , renders it necessary 
 for the Poor i\lan to do his utmost for 
 his own subsistence. \\ e have learned 
 by the infallible testimony of practice , 
 that too anxious legislative arrangement 
 on this subject augments, and even ori- 
 ginates, the evil it has been intended to 
 cure. 
 
 The best thina, that Government can 
 do, is, by unperceived , raiher than by 
 legislative interference, to direct labour 
 into productive channels 5 to encourage 
 useful and profitable employment , to
 
 ( '01 ) 
 
 study the natural capabilites of tlie nation $ 
 and if the time should arrive, when they 
 are approaching too near the limits of 
 those capabilities , to seek out the means 
 and places of emigration and colonization. 
 
 J. o 
 
 In other countries besides England , 
 (as Scotland and Holland,) some legal 
 provision for the Poor has been made. 
 But the fatal excess of the principle, and 
 still more of putting it into execution, has 
 never been adopted. Where there is no 
 such provision , there may seem to be 
 more temptation to violence , robbery , 
 and brigandage. But this supposes, that, 
 in such a case, the Poor have not the 
 power to obtain food and clothing, in 
 return for work : and where this occurs, 
 the country can still less supply food witk- 
 out labour : and therefore have not the 
 means to supply a Poor Fund. 
 
 How work can be wanting , so long as 
 such of the heaths and commons are left 
 untilled , as remain uncultivated rather 
 from want of division and inciosnre, tha
 
 ( 102 ) 
 
 irom sterility e{ soil; or as long as ^reat pub- 
 lic undertakings , like Canals , mi Jit \ ct Le 
 profitably designed and executed, is in- 
 comprehcnsible tome r l liere are indeed 
 difficulties attending the due application 
 of this work to the Poor, fixed to the 
 limitsofparlicularparisn.es, and paid by 
 {lie separate funds of those parishes. But 
 diiiiculties attend cverv part oi this sub- 
 ject; and surely these are difficulties, 
 that are not insurmountable. 
 
 In every possible case, the relief meted 
 cut cuqht to be according to the quantity 
 
 O O * / 
 
 oi labour performed. And surely this is 
 extendible to innumerable matters , in 
 which it is now neglected. It would be a 
 isSTons; corrective to the idleness of those, 
 vvho live on the Poor Rates. 
 
 Ii. has been said, that to encourage a 
 population with the prospect of no other 
 subsistence, than the most raw and bare 
 food, like shat. of I he Po La toe-Population 
 oi Ireland , is miserable and dangerous 
 o)ic\ . It inav be so. But I cannot see
 
 that llie plan . of carrying Agricultural 
 cultivation a little farther than it has yet 
 been carried , has much similarity to that 
 of this decried population. If land will not 
 repay in its produce, not only the food 
 consumed by the labourer in the tillage, 
 but the purchase, and wear and tear, of 
 the husbandry utensils , clothing , and 
 other necessary conveniences according 
 to the labourer's station, it will not justify 
 the cultivation, But I contend, that im- 
 mense tracts of this kind yet remain ne- 
 glected in England. 
 
 When Mr. Pitt undertook to legislate 
 on the Poor Laws , he entirely failed , 
 great as his talents were. It is clear, that 
 his drift was the extension of those very 
 principles , whence all the evil springs. 
 He had in view a bonus to the increase 
 of population. But lie did not reflect, 
 that a population is only good , according 
 to the facility of supporting it, in a state 
 of health, and good morals. Mere num- 
 bers, ill-fed and ill-mannered, aie weak-
 
 ( 104 ) 
 
 ness : an unmanageable crowd , ripe only 
 
 i j 
 
 in disease arid mischief. A IVlinister of 
 
 State lias, in truth, so many calls upon 
 his time and his attention, that it would 
 have required super-human powers to 
 have digested such a subject, and have 
 penetrated into the real nature and con- 
 sequences of it , at a tim'e , when neither 
 the theory was understood by others, nor 
 the facts had so far developed themselves, 
 as to shew the real tendeno- of the system. 
 A Minister must have a profound, com- 
 prehensive , accurate , and ready judge- 
 ment, to be exercised on the data hourly 
 presented to him j and he ought to have 
 a clear and commanding elocution , a la- 
 cultv of luminous reasoning j and a felicity 
 of illustration , to present and explain such 
 of them to Parliament as come within its 
 controul. But it is beyond his range , to 
 do that, which must be the result of so- 
 litary reflexion , of long and calm leisure ; 
 and that individual and original exercise 
 of thinking, that belongs to the closet.
 
 and the walks of retirement. It would be- 
 quite out of place to attempt to analyse 
 or appreciate here the brilliant qualities , 
 menial or moral , of Mr. Pitt It may be 
 admitted, that his eloquence sometimes 
 surpassed his matter. He came too young 
 into the supreme seat of Power, to have 
 furnished himself with the fullness of all 
 those stores requisite to nourish and 
 crown the highest wisdom of a States- 
 
 o 
 
 man : he had not even had time to mature 
 and ripen, what he had acquired. But, 
 added to his vast gifts of nature , to the 
 rapidity and expanse of his perceptions , 
 to the dexterity of his use of them, to the 
 transparency , rotundity , and fervor of 
 his language , was his noble and disinte- 
 rested ambition ; his energy j his self- 
 conhdence, arid his courage. 
 
 He judged ill in taking on himself the 
 subject of the Poor Laws. It was out of 
 the tracks of his mind. He had too much 
 else to do : and it would have been belter
 
 for him to have given it rather Ins sup- 
 port, than his origination. 
 
 Mr. Whitbread afterwards laboured 
 on this great subject , with more enlight- 
 ened views, and more particular oppor- 
 tunities of study and knowledge, lie dis- 
 played great tulent , great industry ; en- 
 larged, and altogether, just principles; 
 and acute and deep capacity for legislation. 
 But he also was unsuccessful- Alter the 
 discussions , which the last three years 
 have produced, a reference to the De- 
 bates of that epoch will shew, that much 
 
 vet remained to be brought into notice ; 
 
 j ~ y 
 
 and that the symptoms and results of the 
 disease had not vet been thoroughly sifted. 
 
 w O J 
 
 I\L\ Whitbread strove to ameliorate 
 the Law of Settlements, that disastrous 
 feature OL the system, oi which the re- 
 moval ought to take p-larc among the first, 
 lie struggled m y.iui : and every subse- 
 quent altempt lins been equally defeated. 
 '1 lie recommendation of the Committee 
 Iris been useless. It has, even with the
 
 countenance of Government, failed in 
 the last Session of the last , and tlie first 
 of tlie present Parliament (i). This arises 
 from the predominance of the Manufac- 
 turing Interest , over the Agricultural. As 
 the Law now stands , the Manufacturing 
 Labourers are , in great part , drawn 
 from the country parishes; their strength 
 is exhausted ; the profits of their labour 
 are acquired; disease is superinduced; 
 and in age, imbeciliity , and impotence, 
 they are thrown back to be supported by 
 the parishes from which they came. 1 his 
 is a bonus given in favour of Manufac- 
 tures which they will forego no exertions 
 nor intrigues to retain : while the supine- 
 ness of the Agricultural classes in support 
 of their own interest is proverbial. 
 
 There is, in certain cases, it cannot 
 be denied, a very great impediment in 
 the way of amendment. Where a JYiaim- 
 factory is built in a small parish, ilia 
 
 (i) In i Oi 3 and iOi<j.
 
 workmen of that Manufactory, if they 
 could easily procure a settlement, by a 
 short residence, might soon bring a bur- 
 den on that parish, v.hicli would anni- 
 hilate its property. As iar as lull wages 
 will go, every Manufacturer ought to 
 support Ills own Poor, it the Law imposes 
 a burden beyond this : if it says , you 
 shall support them and their children in 
 future want, whether from idleness, or 
 loss of employment, or sickness, or 
 accident, or old age, it imposes condi- 
 tions too hazardous to admit any one to 
 employ manufacturing workmen. 
 
 'When the late Mr. Gilbert of Staf- 
 fordshire occupied so many years of his 
 Parliamentary life in legislating tor the 
 establishment of Poor Houses tor Incor- 
 porated Parishes, he seems to have had 
 a very narrow insight into Political or 
 Moral Economy. 'I wo reasons only seem 
 to present; themselves for this unlucky 
 plan : saving of expcncc ; and a check to 
 ar demand for relief. 1 he ex-
 
 .( io 9 ) 
 
 pectation of the first of these effects , is , 
 I believe, quite erroneous : of the other 
 I have already spoken : it is no check , 
 where it ought to be a check; and , where 
 it checks, checks most unjustly, injuri- 
 ously, and cruelly. Any thing so madly 
 and stupidly contrary to ail the virtues 
 of society, as these Houses generate, 
 never before came into the heads of the 
 
 most Derverse Ic.eal institutors ! The mere 
 
 i 
 
 cost of the buildings probably turns the 
 question of expenditure iar on the side of 
 loss : then come the leakings of manage- 
 ment, peculation, and waste. And as to 
 Government, either Despotism, or Ne- 
 glect and Anarchy, almost universally 
 preside over them. Then will the objects 
 of this provision be content with the same 
 supplies, as in their own cottages, at 
 their own expence ? If they refrain, who 
 is the gainer? If they waste , who is the 
 loser? But suppose it was a gamut pounds, 
 shillings, and pence; is it a mere question 
 of pounds , shillings , and pence , when
 
 ( no) 
 
 it regards the character, and happiness , 
 and strength, of the largest portion of the 
 community ? Mechanical-headed persons 
 arc exceedingly fond of this measure : 
 there is something oi hard arrangement, 
 and petty arithmetic, and interference, 
 and mastery, and dominion, and forcing 
 of all humours into one mould , which 
 pleases litllc minds , and gratifies their 
 self-consequence ! 
 
 How much mankind will endure for 
 liberty, for privacv, tor the mastery of 
 their own amusements arid thoughts, is 
 well known to the deep and enlightened 
 moralist But in a common society, where 
 all characters and connexions are mixed, 
 w here die contronl and authority of family 
 affection or interest is gone, where the 
 most audacious and hardest character 
 takes the lead, and sets the example, 
 there the mere desires of sensual exist- 
 ence grow every dav more predominant, 
 and cmbriite (he better parts of our 
 nature. How many , tliL-l: would be good
 
 ( I" ) 
 
 in solitude, are bad, because they cannot 
 resist the contagion of example : because 
 they have not the firmness to abide the 
 raillery, by which Vice always makes a 
 large portion of its proselytes. Within 
 the lone wails of the cottage , in which 
 the family circle are sheltered from prying 
 observance , the gentle virtues of humble 
 industry, self-denial, attachment, paren- 
 tal and filial scruples, bloom in secret, 
 safe from the blight of sneering scorn, 
 or noisy blasphemy. To have designed 
 arid brought into use the system of Poor 
 Houses, was to have sought out a seed- 
 plot , as it were , of every weed and 
 poison of the human heart. 
 
 UNFORTUNATELY, while the Poor Laws 
 are supposed to afford a provision of a 
 new and unnatural kind, they, in a great 
 number of cases, exclude <<!;: provision 
 thai industry would otherwise carve out 
 for itself. Employers are necessitated to
 
 select tlielr own parishioners , though 
 less (it for their work than others , who 
 would else oiler themselves. The man 
 habituated to thresh in a barn is sent into 
 the woods, and the woodman is shut up 
 in a barn* 
 
 Among the evils, is the difficulty and 
 complexity of the machinery, by "which 
 it too generally happens that the relief 
 is advanced. This difficulty and com- 
 plexity does not deter the needy from 
 nicking the demand : but it wastes his 
 time; it irritates his temper $ it tries his 
 patience 5 it makes him murmur, and. 
 despair. To be buffeted about from parish 
 officer to parish officer; to run over the 
 
 country from one liou.se to another, m 
 
 j 
 
 search of Magistrates, while children are 
 crvirj^ at hr me for bread ; lo be mingled , 
 vhen honest and laborious, in the sus- 
 picjons created by King, hypocritical, 
 and reckless Idleness; to be taunted , and 
 doubled, and unpitied , and reproached! 
 liuw caji it leave ihc. wretch good, if it. 
 
 finds
 
 finds him so? Mast he not tear every 
 emotion of virtuous manliness from his 
 heart , before he can reconcile himself to 
 this state of endurance ? 
 
 \et neilher magistrates, nor, in ge- 
 neral, even paristi officers are to blame! 
 The former, and, for the most part, the 
 latter, lean too much to the side of in- 
 dulgence. But the system so inevitably 
 tends to abuse j it so powerfully encourages 
 fraud and deceit in the dissolute ; that 
 the utmost exercise of caution is insuffi- 
 cient to guard against abuses of demand. 
 It follows , that , from the very essence of 
 the institution, the deserving are involved 
 in the suspicions caused by the undeser- 
 ving. Grievous state of things, that will 
 not let the hard and painful labourer en joy 
 the reward of the sweat of his own brow, 
 but at the price of so many degradations 
 arid obstacles ! 
 
 In these observations, I may be deemed 
 to have gone beyond the subject that I 
 have proposed; and to have entered on 
 
 8
 
 some of tile topics, that rather belong to 
 a general Treatise on the Poor Laws. 
 But I trust it will be found that my ar- 
 guments and remarks have a strict refe- 
 rence to Riches , or to Population 5 or 
 rather to both, operating either together 
 or in contrast. 
 
 But there is one short Chapter, which 
 I must still add, before 1 quit this part 
 of my subject. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Of Poor Laws , confined to the Old and Impotent. 
 
 _/Y IEGAL provision for the Old and 
 Impotent, if made with caul ion, and due 
 checks , is founded on principles not ex- 
 posed to the objections, that have hitherto 
 been insisted on. 
 
 When the power of self-support is 
 removed by the hr.nd of IXature , when 
 labour becomes an impossibility, a pro-
 
 ( "5 ) 
 
 vision from the funds of Charity is not 
 only honourable to the moral character 
 of a nation, but a matter of urgent policy. 
 In the lower ranks , it can scarcely be 
 expected , that the majority should be able 
 to have saved sufficient for the support 
 of their old age : nor can children , who 
 have themselves large families , do much, 
 if any thing, for the support of their help- 
 less parents. But still the call upon 
 children , wherever they have , or ought 
 to have , the means , should not be aban- 
 doned. 
 
 In the arrangement of these funds of 
 relief, due regard should be had to the 
 mode in which they are distributed, and 
 the conditions attached to them. Wher- 
 ever it is possible , the support ought to 
 be given at their own homes j and in the 
 bosom of their ow T n families- 
 
 Orphan children, whose impotence 
 of self-support arises from their infancy, 
 are within the range of most of these 
 observations.
 
 ( "6 ) 
 
 Not work-houses, but perhaps puLlie 
 schools may in such cases be necessary. 
 But to withdraw the children of the 
 living from their parents , when they are 
 more numerous than themselves can sup- 
 port, is a much more doubtful question. 
 To support children at all by public funds, 
 who exceed the number which the pa- 
 rents' labour can subsist, is admitted to 
 tend rapidly to an undue increase of po- 
 pulation. But this evil has now so loni; 
 gone on , that it is universally acknow- 
 ledged to be impossible to put an end to 
 it at once. In the mean time , in what 
 manner is the relief to be applied ? The 
 arguments are plausible, if not strong, 
 on both sides- 
 
 It is urged, that the relief afforded to 
 the Y jareilts n this account , at home ? 
 is improperly expended : and that the 
 certainty of the child , for whom it was 
 intended, having the use of it, is a para- 
 munt reason in ils favour : and that, 
 moreover, the benefits of education and
 
 ( "7 ) 
 
 order speak for themselves; while the 
 objection founded on supposed domestic 
 estrangement would equally apply to all 
 public education, even among the Rich, 
 w r ith whom it has never been made a 
 reason for foregoing it. 
 
 On the other hand, it is said, that 
 Public Establishments for the support of 
 superabundant children are an open and 
 glaring declaration of a bonus for excess 
 of population, at the very moment that 
 the nation is affecting to legislate on prin- 
 ciples directly the reverse : that they are 
 also in defiance of the admitted ill policy of 
 that part of the existing laws , which tends 
 
 i w * 
 
 to loosen and dissolve all the ties of do- 
 mestic affection and privacy : and that 
 they either trench on the freedom of do- 
 mestic opinions and habits of education ; 
 or breed confusion and perplexity not 
 to be surmounted ! 
 
 On the whole, I confess that I lean, 
 and always have leaned, to the latter of 
 these opinions.
 
 C 118 ) 
 
 As to the misuse , which the parents 
 may make of the relief granted , the in- 
 spection and controul of the parish of- 
 ficers might materially alleviate that ob- 
 jection. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Of Persons living on Property, or Capital. 
 
 [ HAVE now gone through those , whose 
 livelihood depends on labour, Productive, 
 and IN on-Productive , Bodily, or Intel- 
 lectual : and also through the anomalous 
 Class , whoe subsistence is derived from 
 the Poor-Rates. Two Divisions only re- 
 main : Those , who live on Capital , (or 
 Property,) Real, or Personal : and the 
 Possessors of State-Revenue. 
 
 I have next to treat the first of these 
 Divisions , which will of course require 
 several subdivisions , inasmuch as it 
 comprehends matter of very distinct
 
 essences, in various respects : and dif- 
 fers widely in its durability , its produo* 
 tiveness , and the natural or artificial 
 agency , by which it is created. 
 
 In what various ways the title to these 
 various kinds of property is acquired, 
 the developement of the various ingre- 
 dients by which they are distinguished 
 will most easily and clearly involve. 
 It is demonstrable , that exclusive pro- 
 perty in land must always have existed in 
 cultivated countries, from the time of 
 their cultivation ; or the cultivation could 
 not have taken place. No one will cul- 
 tivate for the common benefit of all who 
 ehoose to share the produce with him. 
 Priority of occupation , conquests, grants, 
 services, will ail have given legitimate titles. 
 
 Personal capital is the surplus ac- .. 
 cumulation of the labour of a man , or of 
 his ancestors. 
 
 So far is it from being true , that this 
 Class are drones in society , that, without 
 them, neither the ornaments, nor the
 
 elevation of society could exist. It is the 
 moral firmness, the exemption from the 
 leanings ot individual pressure , the w*41- 
 employed leisure aftorded by indepen- 
 dence > that polish, enlighten, grace , and 
 ameliorate human manners. Where else 
 could be found the encouragements arid 
 rewards of intellectual pre-eminence? 
 Without it, (to borrow rVlr. Ricardc's 
 expressions , as applied by him to the 
 Poor Laws,) wealth and power would 
 be changed into misery and weakness ' 
 the exertions of labour would be called 
 away from every object except that of 
 providing mere subsistence, all intellec- 
 tual distinction would be confounded ; 
 and the mind would be continually busied 
 in supplying the body's wants , until at 
 last all classes would be infected with the 
 plague of universal poverty (i). 
 
 The true interest of the Capitalist, 
 and the Labourer, Bodily or intellectual , 
 is the same. The former cannot lon 
 
 o 
 
 (0 Principles of Political Economy, p. 114.
 
 C 
 
 continue to flourish and augment at the 
 expencc of the others. 
 
 What are the most beneficial propor- 
 tions of the distribution of Capital, is a 
 nice question. But the supposed mischiefs 
 of a distribution of a part of it into large 
 masses are always exaggerated, and in ge- 
 neral utterly unfounded. In many cases it 
 is the necessary consequence of its exis- 
 tence : it must exist in that way , or not 
 at all. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 Of Caital. 
 
 VJAPITAL is either LANDED , which, with 
 its incidents attached to it and inseparable 
 in use from it, the Law of England calls 
 
 ' O 
 
 REAL Property : or PERSONAL , which 
 consists of a degree of accumulation of 
 things of any of the numerous other 
 commodities included under the definition 
 of iuciiES.
 
 ( 122 ) 
 
 The first of these kinds is , with the 
 exception of its incidents, INDESTRUC- 
 TIBLE. 
 
 T. he second , together with all that is 
 a mere incident of the first , is DESTRUC- 
 TIBLE. 
 
 But this last divides itself into several 
 degrees of destrnctibility : as, 
 
 Capital capable of permanent dura- 
 bility^ but destructible at will, as Castles, 
 Churches , Bridges , etc. 
 
 Capable of some durability; but subject 
 to decay with any length of time. 
 
 Capital also is either Productive; as 
 not only land , but all animal and vege- 
 table property : or Barren ; viz. incapa- 
 ble of increase by the mere agency of 
 nature. 
 
 Capital is also Fixed : or Circulating; 
 viz- surrendered up to nature , for the 
 purposes of reproduction. 
 
 It may also be distinguished into Na- 
 tural, and Artificial : and this last may 
 be eilher by the operation of human
 
 ( 123 ) 
 
 labour on the'raw material, taken singly; 
 or by giving it a new form , by means of 
 combination with something extraneous 
 to it. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Of Capita] in Land. 
 
 JLjAND is a Capital, which possesses all 
 the most valuable characteristics of Ca- 
 pital : indestructibility ; productiveness, 
 the agency of nature. 
 
 It is the primary source of National 
 Riches ; and it continues to increase in 
 value at least as fast as they increase ; 
 and in the last stages, as some persons 
 pretend to argue , still faster. 
 
 But , though it derives its first and most 
 intrinsic value from Nature , Art , and 
 Personal Capital derived from the ac- 
 cumulation of the labours of Art, in 
 fivery highly cultivated and highly civi-
 
 ( '=4) 
 
 lized country , have very greatly aug- 
 mented this value. Buildings, inclosures, 
 drains, manures, Drubbings, weedings, 
 the pulverization of the soil by the plough 
 and the harrow , have all contributed to 
 ameliorate, in a manifold degree , its state 
 and condition. 
 
 We have already seen that all the 
 former Classes , Labourers , Productive 
 and Unproductive , Agricultural and 
 Manufacturing, have derived their in- 
 come , directly or indirectly , from this 
 source. 
 
 C H A P T E R XXVII. 
 
 Of Rent. 
 
 J\ENT is the surplus annual produce of 
 land , after deducting the expences ot cul- 
 tivation , including in this last the recom- 
 pense to the farmer for the labour, skill, 
 and capital employed by him.
 
 Bat the quantum of this surplus de- 
 pends upon the market price of this 
 produce. And it has already been shewn , 
 (in chap. vii. ON PRICE, p. 21,) that, as 
 Price is the cost of producing the com- 
 modity under the least favourable cir- 
 cumstances of those to which it is neces- 
 sary to have resort , for the purpose of 
 producing the. quantity in demand; so 
 the Price of Corn is the amount of that 
 expenditure in labour and capital, which 
 is indispensible in the least fertile of the 
 soils, that are required to be brought 
 into cultivation , to supply the subsistence 
 adequate to the calls of the market. 
 
 Such is the source of RENT, as it ap- 
 plies to the landlord's share of all land, 
 except of the least fertile of those which 
 are cultivated. But this last must pay 
 some Rent - though small, as an interest 
 for the Capital which it constitutes. 
 And this rent of the poorest lands must 
 necessarily form an ingredient in Price.
 
 ( 126) 
 
 It is then the surplus Rent , after d~ 
 ducting from it so much as is equal to 
 the amount of Rent of the poorest soils , 
 to which the definition at the commence- 
 ment of this Chapter is strictly appli- 
 cable. 
 
 The reason why corn and other agri- 
 cultural produce must bear the price of 
 growing it in the poorest soils , is suffi- 
 ciently obvious. There cannot be two 
 prices for corn of the same quality at 
 the same time. 1 he buyer will pay no 
 regard to what a grower may assure him 
 a particular load of corn cost in growing 
 it, if he can have another load of the 
 same quality for less money , which may 
 have cost less in the growlh. But if the 
 former grower in less auspicious land 
 cannot have a price equivalent to his 
 cost of growth, he will oi course cease 
 to cultivate. The consumer theiefore 
 must pay according to the price of the 
 worst soil necessary to be tilled^ to meet 
 the demand-
 
 C 
 
 Bat it is notorious that the difference 
 in the expence of the cultivation of the 
 best and the worst is exceedingly great. 
 The cost of the latter is often double , 
 and triple; the produce not a third, or a 
 fourth j while the quality of what is grown 
 is so far inferior, as on that account to 
 fetch in the market a third less. The 
 ploughing , harrowing , manuring , weed- 
 ing , wear and tear ; all the most ex- 
 pensive parts of husbandry , are , in par- 
 ticular in these poor soils, most incon- 
 cievably augmented. 
 
 The surplus, therefore, above cost, is, 
 in the best lands, very great. The ques- 
 tion with the inconsiderate public seems 
 to have been , to whom it ought to belong ? 
 
 It cannot belong to the consumer. If 
 the consumer took it in reduction of 
 price , the poor lands would be thrown 
 out of cultivation. It must therefore fail 
 either to the Farmer 3 or the Land- 
 owner.
 
 In point of fact , wherever there is a 
 rise in the price of corn , etc. during a 
 lease , it does for that term fall to the 
 Farmer. 
 
 But the Farmer's share in it docs not, 
 as I suspect, end here. The amount of 
 this surplus is never very nicely calcu- 
 lated by landlords : and no inconsiderable 
 portion still , on new tattings , is left in 
 the hands of the cultivator. 
 
 Wherever this cultivator uses these 
 gains in augmenting the energy and labour 
 of his tillage , when he expends the capital 
 thus acquired in the land from which he 
 draws it, it is well. When he wastes it, 
 as he too often does , in coarse gratifica- 
 tions, tasteless show, or sensual intempe- 
 rance , these abstractions from die rights 
 of another class have not the same apo- 
 logy. 
 
 In the hands of the Landlord this aug- 
 mented surplus feeds the demands in the 
 market for that sort of manufactured 
 produce 5 which perhaps is most propi- 
 tious
 
 ilous to the artificial Riches of a Nation : 
 for the embellishments of life ; for what- 
 ever improves its elegance , for its efforts 
 of genius, its paintings , prints, buildings, 
 furniture ; for whatever elevates us in the 
 scale of intellectual refinement , and ge- 
 nerous splendor. 
 
 But there are other yet more impor- 
 tant points of view, in which the rich 
 Landed Proprietors form the most bene- 
 ficial class of Capitalists to a great nation. 
 They are thus nearly and intimately con- 
 nected not only with the grand springs , 
 but almost all the considerable ramifica- 
 tions of the National prosperity. The 
 income they draw from the Land in the 
 shape of Rent, though nominally fixed 
 and unvarying, during the leases tliey 
 grant, yet in fact is liable to numerous 
 draw -backs, affected by the oo4 or ill 
 state of public affairs. They have largo 
 classes of people immediately, or medi- 
 ately , dependent on them : they are 
 themselves the receivers but of a small
 
 ( i3o ) 
 
 part of the income of the soil , which is 
 their property : farmers , labourers , me- 
 chanics , artificers , manufacturers , live 
 also upon it. Then comes the Steward , 
 the Surveyor , the Law-Agent, etc. etc. 
 
 This incessant connection of interest 
 with so many people > in such various 
 walks , keeps alive the incessant regard 
 to the political well-being of all. It exer- 
 cises and improves the moral capacities 
 of the understanding ; calls forth into 
 practice the moral judgment ; and nur- 
 tures a body of legislators and magistrates, 
 the most adapted to the happiness and 
 permanence of a wise and well-regulated 
 Government. 
 
 In England, more than in any other 
 kingdom , the man of large landed pro- 
 perty , living chiefly in the country a~ 
 mon^his tenants, has followed the custom 
 
 c * 
 
 of ages, and is not yet extinguished. Too 
 much indeed has been done of late years 
 to drive him from this mode of life. The 
 Window Tax and other Assessed Taxes ,
 
 in particular , have operated lamentably 
 to this end. 
 
 A Body of intelligent men , connected 
 most closely and feelingly with most of 
 the essential interests of Political Eco- 
 nomy, provincial and even national , hav- 
 ing the influence of wealth , as well as of 
 birth and education, have a tendency to 
 keep in order, satisfy, and render con- 
 tented and happy, a peasantry, beyond 
 any other system of political organization. 
 Let any one examine candidly the 
 state of a parish where some rich and 
 overgrown Farmer has taken the place 
 of an ancient and respectable family of 
 Country Gentlemen, whom he remem- 
 bers in the same situation. The character 
 of all the lower classes there , and per- 
 haps for miles round a will have been 
 deteriorated by the change. 
 
 I must not anticipate in this place the 
 remarks that may arise from the consi- 
 deration of the owners of Personal Ca- 
 pital. But for the sake of the contrast ,
 
 I may be permitted here to hint, that 
 the income, in general, derived from 
 this last , does not involve in it the same 
 moral and political good. It is for the 
 most part tixed , as dividends of the 
 Funds , or interests from Private Secu- 
 rities. It is not therefore immediately 
 intertwined -with collateral prosperity; 
 and still less possesses any dominion over 
 the happiness of others. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Of the General Increase of Prices , concurrent with 
 the Rise of Heals. 
 
 J.F the price of corn imply an additional 
 quantity of labour in producing it, \\hich 
 is the case in proportion as poorer soils 
 are taken into cultivation, the article of 
 every manufacturer must cost more, ccc- 
 teris parihus , because his subsistence > 
 Mhiic producing it, costs more. Butjhi*
 
 is not caused by the rise of rent : the 
 rise of rent , and of these other articles , 
 flows from a common cause : the neces- 
 sity of resort to these poorer soils, to 
 raise the supply equal to the demand. 
 
 The evils of this rise have been 
 tleemed , by popular opinion , and even 
 by some ingenious political economists, 
 so great, as to induce a clamour against 
 the extension of our domestic agriculture, 
 and a tendency to recommend a reliance 
 on foreign corn. 
 
 They , who entertain such conclusions , 
 do not admit much favour for augmented 
 rents , even if they consider ihem only 
 as concomitants , or symptoms , of these 
 augmented prices. But in tlieir ill kamour 
 they choose , sometimes wilfully , and not 
 in perfect good faith, to confound cause 
 and effect , and to represer* the rise of 
 rents to be the first of ilie two. 
 
 The augmentation of prices is , in 
 truth, in some respects an evil : but the 
 
 ii is, sometimes by design, and
 
 ( 134 ) 
 
 times by ignorance or stupidity , greatly 
 exaggerated. All the producers, and traf- 
 fickers in articles of exchange raise their 
 prices accordingly. The persons of fixed 
 incomes, reserved in money, alone suffer. 
 I am far from saying, that these are not 
 a large class ". nor do I deny, that this 
 extent of evil is very much to be regretted. 
 Nor is the evil , as far as affects the vent 
 of our manufactures in foreign countries , 
 a slight one ; though I shall hereafter 
 endeavour to shew that this last may be 
 in some measure counteracted. 
 
 But the real and plain case is , that 
 this , like a thousand other political ques- 
 tions, is a question of balances! Are the 
 evils insisted on , equal to the evils of a 
 reliance on the supply of Foreign Corn; 
 and of a neglect of Domestic Agriculture ? 
 To which side the reasonings on this 
 question seem to me to tend, has been 
 already anticipated in Chap, xiii, (p. 5/, 
 58.)
 
 ( 135 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 How far an Augmentation of RENTS is attended by a 
 Diminution of PROFITS. 
 
 IF the adoption of the measures, which 
 cause the augmentation of Rents , should 
 be proved to effect the fall of Profits , 
 they may yet be necessary, even when 
 attended by such consequences. And the 
 reasons hinted at in the last page, and 
 more particularly expressed in p. 58, 
 speak strongly in favour of this necessity* 
 If it be true , that whatever increases 
 the price of labour decreases Profits , 
 it follows that the rise of rent , which is 
 the concomitant of an extension of tillage 
 to poorer soils, is attended by a diminu- 
 tion of Profits , in all cases , where the 
 same quantity of labour is required ; be- 
 cause such extended tillage necessarily 
 increases the price of labour.
 
 ( iS6 ) 
 
 T3ut still 9 if my definition Lo right, the 
 grand source of Profit remains : the dif- 
 ference in the cost of produce between 
 the most favoured and the least favoured 
 manufacturer. The causes of inequality 
 appear to me to remain unlessened. The 
 variation in dexterity ; the difference in 
 the powers of machinery, skill, capital, 
 local conveniences , partial command of 
 natural agency, etc. are not altered by 
 an augmentation in the wages of labour. 
 
 But it does not follow , that the same 
 quantity of labour will be required in 
 manufactures, as wages rise. Machinery, 
 science, skill, and capital may materially 
 abridge this quantity. 1 hey may thus not 
 only counteract the diminution of Profits; 
 ljut. increase the inequality whence they 
 mainly spring. In such a case, the aug- 
 mentation of wages may itself actually 
 tend to increase Profits , just as the aug- 
 mentation of labour applied to the soil 
 increases rents; because the demand for 
 \vorkrnen at these augmented wages may 
 
 c
 
 be only partial. The facilities of produ- 
 cing the same quantity arid quality of 
 manufactured goods from the same quan- 
 tity of labour, may differ; as of corn 
 from land. These may arise from the 
 causes already suggested; partly natural, 
 and partly artificial : situation , fuel , 
 roads , canals , machinery. The quantity 
 of these facilities is , in some degree , 
 limited , as the quantity of fertile land is 
 limited. Suppose the demand in the mar- 
 ket to exceed the quantity which can 
 enjoy such facility in the production , a 
 resort must be had to such produce , as 
 will cost more labour. The price of the 
 whole will be according to the price of 
 that proportion , which costs most : and 
 hence come Profits ; as from the less cost 
 of corn , in more fertile lands , comes 
 Rent. 
 
 If then, when Rents increase, Profits 
 diminish , why is it ? 
 
 Because , while the principle on which. 
 Rents increase is in full force , the prin-
 
 ( 1 58 ) 
 
 ciple on which Profits increase is not 
 merely quiescent, but counteracted and 
 diminished. Take advantage of the supe- 
 riority of the Intellectual power exerted 
 in machinery, and Profits will augment; 
 as Rents augment from the superiority of 
 the Vegetative power in the best over 
 the worst soils. 
 
 It seems therefore to be an invidious 
 and unjust insinuation, that Rents in- 
 crease at the expence of Profits. 
 
 If it were so , it would not be so for 
 the purpose of favouring Rents; but be- 
 cause the amount of the population re- 
 quiring a resort to the poorer soils, to 
 supply a sufficiency of subsistence , would 
 bring with it this necessary concomitant, 
 which, if an evil, must be endured for 
 the sake of the paramount good. 
 
 It would appear, however, as if the jea- 
 lousy with which the prosperity of the lan- 
 ded interest was viewed, would grudge, and 
 almost refuse the measures which neces- 
 sity requires for an adequate production
 
 of food , if the land-owner's addition to 
 liis Riches should happen to result from 
 them ! 
 
 A Book has been written with consi- 
 derable ability , within these two or 
 three years , ( a Book of considerable 
 success and celebrity ,) of which I fancy 
 I discover this to be the main drift. 
 Hitherto it had been supposed , that the 
 prosperity of Agriculture, the increased 
 value of land, and the additions made 
 by labour and skill to the produce of 
 the earth, had been accompanied by a 
 proportionate prosperity in all the other 
 industrious classes of a Country. This 
 author attempts to shew the direct con- 
 trary : to prove, that if prices of all 
 other commodities rise at the same time, 
 they are merely nominal : and that all, 
 which the landlord gains, is so much 
 taken from these others. 
 
 It would be so , as I have admitted , if 
 the analogous principle were not in equal 
 activity in both : and if the instruments
 
 by which this principle acts , could nof 
 diminish the quantity of labour in demand 
 fasi'er tiian ihe price of it rises. But why 
 take only part of a case? Why suppress 
 these iatter counteractions ? Why argue 
 upon half the facts , even though upon 
 that the argument be just? 
 
 Suppose for a moment, that Rents 
 should thus rise at the expcncc of Profits ; 
 a great part of them would, in their mode 
 of expenditure , soon come back again to 
 fertilize land , feed manufactures, and to 
 accumulate capital applicable to the most 
 productive purposes. What then will be 
 the effect of this surplus, if it should 
 not in the first instance be an abstraction 
 of Profits? 
 
 It is assumed that those, \viio are oc- 
 cupied in employing capital for Profit, 
 as intermediate C A secondary Producers, 
 are those in wl- ce hands UicLcs arc: most 
 beneficially k-ft to acc % jmi::L.<3. This as- 
 sumption seems to be admitted too widely 
 and with too little quaiiiicaticn.
 
 Wliat is spent by these classes in lux- 
 ury, and personal consumption, and not 
 with a view to re-production , is at least 
 not better spent than by the great land- 
 owner. In many political and moral re- 
 spects , it is certainly worse spent. 
 
 But these Profits need not be lost 
 but by man's own supineness. He is now 
 called on to task his faculties, and econo- 
 mize his strength. Providence perhaps 
 ordered it thus, as a necessary stimulus 
 upou his ingenuity; decreeing, that when 
 in an advanced state of society, old modes 
 of production should become easy, new 
 efforts of thought and toil should still be 
 requisite to afford due means of sub- 
 sistence. 
 
 What art and science may yet devise 
 as substitutes for part of the service of 
 the human hand , is beyond our present 
 guess. The operation and extensive use 
 of the Steam Engine, which is generally 
 known 5 is of very late date.
 
 ( '42 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Farther Observations on the Consequences of the 
 Concurrence mentioned in the late Chapter. 
 
 N the last Chapter I have endeavoured 
 to shew : i. That a general rise of prices is 
 not caused by the rise of Pients , but a 
 concurrent effect of a cause common to 
 both. 2. That the first of these two effects 
 does not necessarily , and in all cases , 
 accompany the other. 3- That, where it 
 is counteracted , it may bring into play 
 the very principle, that increases Profits. 
 4. That in no case it can strictly and 
 justly be said , that Rents augment at the 
 expence of Profits , because the loss of Pro- 
 fits follows from the supineness of not 
 calling the analogous principle into ope- 
 ration. 5. That not only this altered dis- 
 tribution of Riches might thus be pre- 
 vented, but when it does take place, its
 
 ( 143 ) 
 
 evils are much exaggerated, if not alto- 
 gether fanciful. 
 
 Let us dwell a moment longer on this 
 last position. It is said, that, while the. 
 Landed Capitalist is enriched, theMonied 
 Capitalist is deteriorated. 
 
 And what is the consequence ? 
 
 The Landed Capitalist in this case 
 would return a large part of his gains 
 upon the earth- He would apply them 
 productively, by improving his farm-buil- 
 dings , draining 5 fencing , lending money 
 to his tenants , etc. 
 
 Admit the Monied Capitalist to apply 
 his gains to Trade, or Manufacture; still > 
 whatever value there may be in the pros- 
 perity of these? it cannot be more im- 
 portant than those of Agriculture. 
 
 But there is one large class of Monied 
 Proprietors , on whose account, though the 
 greatest clamours are made about it, the 
 evils of this deterioration are insisted on 
 with little comparative soundness of rea- 
 son. I refer to the large Stockholder. He,
 
 at least, spends liitle in re-productive 
 channels. 
 
 Nor can lie Lave a right to complain 
 of these consequences on account of llie 
 loss tLcy bring on Lim, if they are justi- 
 fied, by State-policy. Tliey are contingent 
 evils involved in the very nature of the 
 security he has chosen j and the condition 
 on which he receives a higher , more 
 certain, and more punctually -paid in- 
 terest, than his capital, if vested inland, 
 would have paid him. 
 
 A fluctuation in the value of property 
 is expatiated on, as an evil of frightful 
 magnitude. 
 
 But is land exempt from this? Can 
 any property ever be exempt from it? It 
 is an immutable evil , inherent in human 
 affairs. 
 
 The good is certain, and important, 
 in the impetus given to Agricultural im- 
 provement , the basis of Riches ; and the 
 surest mode of benelitiii" manufactures; 
 
 O ' 
 
 and finding both a market , a capital , and 
 
 an
 
 ( '45) 
 
 an advance of skill in machinery, by 
 which last the addition to the price of 
 labour may be more than counterbalanced 
 in the labour saved. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 On the Corn-Laws. 
 
 J.T has been my endeavour to shew that 
 the evils of a high price of Corn have 
 been either imaginary, or grossly over- 
 stated. 
 
 I am now to argue, that, on the other 
 hand , the benefits of the proposed re- 
 medy have been equally overstated , while 
 its serious evils have been kept out of 
 sight. 
 
 The proposed remedy is a free impor- 
 tation of Corn of Foreign growth. The 
 principle on which such a measure is 
 supported , is this : that it is for the mu- 
 tual benefit of all countries, that every 
 
 lo
 
 ( 146 ) 
 
 commodity should be produced in the 
 country , where the production costs least 
 labour. It is riot only laid down as the 
 principle of the source of Riches ; but 
 taken, as if that principle was liable to 
 no exceptions. 
 
 It is said , that if England be a country 
 not supplying sufficient land adapted to 
 grow the due quantity of corn at an eco- 
 nomical rate , it is the soundest and best po- 
 licy to procure the deficiency from cheap- 
 er and more fertile countries, by exchange 
 for manufactures, to which its labour 
 may be more beneficially applied ! 
 
 In this case, a large portion of the 
 labourers in husbandry would become 
 manufacturers; and as their subsistence 
 would cost them less, the manufactured 
 article would be sold at a proportionally 
 lower price. 
 
 The landed rental of the nation would 
 indeed, be thus diminished, riot only to 
 the amount of the labour abstracted from, 
 Agriculture, but to the amount of the
 
 depreciation of the rents of the lands 
 
 still remaining in cultivation : but another 
 
 ~ 
 
 class of proprietors would acquire riches 
 more than equal to those , which these 
 land-owners would otherwise derive from 
 the earth. 
 
 The nation, as they argue, would thus 
 augment , instead of diminishing , its 
 wealth, while prices would be kept down, 
 and the Foreign vent of our Home ma- 
 nufactures not endangered. The princely 
 Merchant would rise over the fallen glory 
 of the princely Land-holder; and instead 
 of a Duke of Devonshire, a Duke of 
 Bedford, a Duke of Northumberland, 
 we should have a great Ship-owner, a 
 great Corn-factor, a great Clothier, a 
 great Spinner , etc. etc. Could not these 
 support the same, splendor ; purchase the 
 same luxuries 5 keep the same domestics ; 
 build the same palaces ? Riches are 
 Riches : what gives the most, is the best ! 
 
 If these be not their arguments, I 
 know not what arc I
 
 ( 143 ) 
 
 But I must venture to assert , that this , 
 however triumphantly urged , is a very 
 narrow view of the question! It takes 
 seriously the ironical axiom, of Horace : 
 
 Quoerenda Pecunia primum cst : 
 
 4 Virtus post nummos. 
 
 It assumes that it matters not how the 
 mass of a population is employed , so a& 
 it is most effectually employed in making 
 money! Health , morals , subordination, 
 peacefulness , happiness, are put of the 
 consideration. 
 
 Of ah 1 classes of population , Manufac- 
 turers lead a life the most unwholesome , 
 the most dissolute , the most turbulent , 
 and the most thoughtless. The misery, 
 the beggary, the disease, the disaffection., 
 which reigns among them, whenever 
 they become very numerous , is indescri- 
 bable ! 
 
 On the other hand , they who are 
 employed in tilling the earth , by passing 
 their days ior the most part in the open
 
 C 149 ) 
 
 air , by inhaling the freshness of the up- 
 turned soil , by the more natural exercise 
 of all the muscles of the body , by the 
 dispersion of their work over extended 
 surfaces , by which the frightful contagion 
 of the conflict of congregated masses is 
 avoided ; by the separation of their dwel- 
 lings ; and by the simplicity , though 
 perhaps , hardness , of their food , form 
 a population more sound, more vigorous, 
 more virtuous, more sane in body, less 
 corrupted in mind and heart, of man- 
 ners , which , if rude , are neither offensive 
 nor dangerous ; of political submission , 
 such as have scarcely ever been so roused 
 as to disturb the quiet of a government 5 
 and if ever , only as the ignorant instru- 
 ments of the factious poison of Town- 
 Mobs. 
 
 It is true, that thfi fields and woods 
 have not been found practically to en- 
 courage all the pure and simple virtues , 
 that poetical theory is fond of imagining. 
 In the peasant who digs the earth and
 
 i5o 
 
 fells the tree , we too often find a brutal 
 
 insensibility , that moves among the 
 
 scenes of nature, untouched by its fra- 
 
 grance , its harmonies , and the softness 
 
 and contentedriess of the lessons , which 
 
 it inculcates. But this only proves the 
 
 imperfection of our Being : it shews , 
 
 that knowledge is still wanting to take 
 
 advantage of the blessings among which 
 
 we are placed, and that our fallen scale 
 
 of existence requires us to work out our 
 
 well- being, and obtain the advantage of 
 
 the enjoyments among which we are 
 
 placed, by a painful labour of the head, 
 
 and discipline of the heart. 
 
 The Agricultural population then , are , 
 it may be admitted, not in all respects, 
 such in morals and conduct as we would 
 wish them to be. Never will Human 
 Nature , under any political system , be 
 such as the fond refinement of Specu- 
 lation aspires to ! 
 
 But the reader must recollect that it' 
 is here set in comparison with an over'
 
 grown Manitfactiiring population. If the 
 relative superiority of the Agricultural 
 population be denied, all the principles of 
 bodily , moral , and political happiness 
 must be changed. Is enjoyment consistent 
 with a diseased body , inhaling putridity 
 in a close and squalid room ? Is content 
 consistent with repining self-sufficiency > 
 exasperated by hourly harangues of blind, 
 intriguing, rash, infuriated Faction? Is 
 rectitude of conduct, domestic affection, 
 unassailable patriotism, consistent with, 
 a mind thus prepared ; spending half the 
 week in degrading debauch , and the other 
 half in grinding, despondent, and em- 
 bittered poverty? When a country is 
 called on to put forth its physical strength, 
 to defend itself from Foreign aggression , 
 and to support its glory , what is the 
 strength to be derived from such a popu- 
 lation ? Can the body thus enfeebled and 
 diseased stand climates and campaigns? 
 Can a mind thus misled, and poisoned 
 feei the spirit of heroism ?
 
 ( iso 
 
 The superiority in political effects is 
 not confined to these traits , though these 
 alone are surely important enough to leave 
 no doubt in any sound judgment. The due 
 dispersion of the people over the whole 
 surface of the nation ; and the consequent 
 dispersion of its wealth , are very bene- 
 ficial. The salubrity of the air, always 
 improved in proportion as wastes are 
 cultivated, woods broken, and marshes 
 drained , is not a slight good. 
 
 But the healthier and happier charac- 
 ter of the occupation of the Agricultural 
 labourers does not end with themselves. 
 It extends itself to the Manufacturers. 
 It occupies them in those kinds of handi. 
 craft, which are least liable to the ob- 
 jections already stated. A large portion 
 of the mechanics of utensils applied to 
 husbandry partake of the Agricultural 
 cast : such as the village carpenter, the 
 village blacksmith , etc. 
 
 Then, as to the owners of the soil 
 thus proposed to be abandoned to nature ,
 
 ( 153 ) 
 
 the supporters of the Manufacturing sys- 
 tem will of course contend that no ill 
 substitution for this class of proprietors 
 takes place by the augmentation of Mer- 
 cantile Capitalists , whose added Riches 
 would iill the vacuum. 
 
 It appears to me in a very different 
 light. It is far from being of trifling con- 
 sequence , by whom, and how the money 
 is spent ; and from what sources it conies. 
 The merchant , it will be said , spends 
 his wealth as liberally as the country- 
 gentleman, and does as much good with 
 it. To make comparisons between dif- 
 ferent classes is rather an invidious task. 
 But the essence of my subject requires 
 that I should be frank on this occasion. 
 
 The British Merchant is very often 
 a well-informed, well-educated man, 
 who lives with taste , cultivates the arts 
 and sciences , possesses the powers of 
 convert-ion , and knows the world. 
 
 'I lit- Country-gentleman is not unfre- 
 ueiul a uian who has not nourished
 
 and ripened the seeds of his early edu- 
 cation; of narrow habits; stagnated in 
 the faculties of imagination , and the 
 nicer emotions of the heart; rude in his 
 language; and inexpert in the power of 
 argument. The quiet of his fields and 
 the loneliness ot his amusements lulls 
 the native energies of his mind into tor- 
 por; and at the same time invests him in 
 an uninviting exterior. 
 
 But, if the Merchant's qualities are 
 plausible , His are sterling. Beneath this 
 outside, which would not always make 
 us choose him for a companion , there 
 generally resides probity, firmness, pa- 
 triotism, a sound judgment in all provin- 
 cial affairs , a sincere regard for the inte- 
 rests of the Poor; thoughts and conduct 
 independent, and free from the sway and 
 dominion of individual interests; argu- 
 ments , if not wielded with dexterity, 
 yet consistent , sincere , and not used as 
 the momentary instruments of views veer- 
 ing wkh private purposes.
 
 ( 155 ) 
 
 In Parliament, die County Members , 
 and other Country- Gentlemen, have not 
 indeed been in common the most elo- 
 quent; but whoever has conversed pri- 
 vately with them; whoever has watched 
 their conduct in Committees, on most 
 of the questions of domestic legislature , 
 must have observed that they are tem- 
 perate, patient, and un warped, and that 
 the results at which they arrive are ge- 
 nerally just , and sometimes profound. 
 
 It is no fault of the mercantile man, 
 that the whole processes and exercises of 
 his mind are formed in a different man- 
 ner. It is the inevitable consequence of 
 lus daily occupations. The Manufacturer 
 is a Producer 5 but the Merchant, the 
 trafficker in barter , is one > whose gains , 
 for the most part, increase at the expence 
 of the loss of others. It is scarcely pos- 
 sible , therefore , that he should be free 
 from the habit of partial and individual, 
 views. His mind adopts a practice of ap- 
 plying all his ingenuity to effecting these
 
 ( '56 ) 
 
 purposes ; and he always talks and thinks 
 rather after the manner of an advocate 
 than of a judge. 
 
 That the grand source of Riches of 
 a nation should be rather in the hands 
 of this class of men , than of ancient 
 INobles, and Country- Gentlemen, inhe- 
 riting principles of independence j brought 
 up from the cradle to steady opinions; 
 having the truth for their object; and 
 formed in a sphere out of the reach of 
 the bias of selfish leanings ; may seem at 
 least a matter of indifference , if not of 
 choice, to those vho are so fondly ena- 
 moured of the all-sufficiency of commerce 
 and manufactures ! But I conceive that 
 the sound and undazzled philosopher will 
 not see it in the same lic;ht. Riches are 
 not the only desiderata of national happi- 
 ness : the sources and nature of those 
 Riches , and the character of the dispen- 
 sers of them , are scarcely less important. 
 
 It is probable then , that Mr. Rieardo's 
 argument may be correct 3 that cora
 
 grown in the more propitious soil of 
 foreign countries may be , (in common, 
 seasons ,) obtained in England by llie 
 payment of a less quantity of human 
 labour expended in the fabrication of 
 manufactured articles by our domestic 
 population; and that the vacuum of the 
 Rent lost to the Land - Proprietors may 
 be supplied by the proportionally aug- 
 mented quantity of Profits to the Manu- 
 facturer, and Merchant. 
 
 But it is not the Rent of the landlord 
 only , that the tillage of the home soil 
 supplies. The landlord does not draw 
 more than a fourth, a fifth , or a sixth of 
 the gross produce. We will admit then , 
 that the other large part of the population , 
 whose livelihood is derived from the other 
 three, four, or five parts of this gross 
 produce, might also, on being withdrawn 
 from these occupations , find employment 
 and subsistence in manufactures. 
 
 Well then, say these Anti- Agri- 
 culturists , * the question is decided. You
 
 ( 158 ) 
 
 admit the saving of labour ; and you con- 
 sequently admit the augmentation of Ri- 
 ches , by a resort to Foreign Corn ! 
 I admit both j at least for argument's sake ; 
 but I do not therefore admit, that the 
 question is decided. The reader will 
 have anticipated that I deem still more 
 important considerations to remain be- 
 hind. 
 
 If additional Riches are to be acquired 
 at the expence of not only increasing the 
 Manufacturing population, but of almost 
 entirely substituting it for the Agricul- 
 tural , what is the value of the gam ? 
 Disease for health ; insubordination and 
 disaffection for quiet and content; alter- 
 nate luxurious indulgence and starvation 
 for equable sufficiency ! 
 
 li there be a man insane enough to 
 think wealth purchased on iliese condi- 
 tions worth having) I, for erne, must 
 adjudge him unfit to be. reasoned with! 
 What is the end of Hiches? Moral 
 and Political health, strength 3 and hap- 
 piness.
 
 ( 159 ) 
 
 But perhaps it will be urged , that I 
 assume too much, by assuming, in the 
 case supposed, a substitution of Manu- 
 facturers for the major part of the Agri- 
 cultural population : inasmuch as it may 
 be said , that this substitution will only 
 affect those employed in the husbandry 
 of the poorest of the soils now in culti- 
 vation ; and , in prospect, those also, 
 who might be employed in still poorer. 
 
 If the evil were to end here , they who 
 would think it light, must partake of the 
 insanity I have pronounced. There are 
 many heavy disadvantages from a Manu- 
 facturing population , when it becomes 
 very large , even though it should not 
 exceed the due proportion to the Agri- 
 cultural : but so far the good is para- 
 mount to the evil. Every step beyond it 
 accumulates the evil beyond the good at 
 a rapid and frightful rate. 
 
 Probably it may be answered , that I 
 have exaggerated the consequences of 
 this line of policy : that all the land pro-
 
 ( 160 ) 
 
 per for cultivation might still be left in 
 tillage ; and that the resort to corn of 
 Foreign growth might only take place in 
 lieu of the supply DOW drawn, or proposed 
 hereafter to be drawn , from sterile soils. 
 I must reply by arguments already an- 
 ticipated : but which cannot be too often 
 repeated. 
 
 I. The first consequence of this policy 
 is a deadly blow to the prosperity , the 
 hope , the stimulus , the augmenting 
 wealth, of the home cultivator of such 
 land , as it is here assumed may still 
 remain in tillage- Capital and enterprize 
 will desert it. It will be impoverished and 
 starved ; and then , when it ceases to 
 make the same returns, it must, from 
 the very principle adopted, fall out of 
 cultivation. 
 
 2. As part of the cheapness of Foreign. 
 Corn arises from lighter taxation in the 
 country, where it is grown , any saving 
 to that extent is only nominal to the 
 importing nation 3 as home taxation must 
 
 fall
 
 C 161 ) 
 
 fall so much heavier elsewhere. It is Only 
 therefore shifting the burden from the 
 Manufacturing Capitalist to the Con- 
 sumer. 
 
 3. The class of Landed Capitalists 
 would be depressed, enfeebled, and many 
 of them ruined. 
 
 4. 1 he country would be dependent 
 on Foreign nations for subsistence , which 
 
 O 7 
 
 would put it at the mercy of their hos- 
 tility : and highly aggravate the depri- 
 vations of seasons of scarcity, beyond the 
 effects of such seasons in cases of home 
 growth. 
 
 5- It would augment a population cha- 
 racterized by iu.l'U.'ence , immorality , 
 improvidence, and ill health, out of all 
 proportion to the mote boLer, healthy, 
 and vigorous class , the Agriculturists ; 
 whose equality of number is necessary 
 to counterbalance them.
 
 ( 1 62 ) 
 
 IF these arguments be as incontrover- 
 tible as they appear to me to be, the 
 necessity of the Protecting Duties enacted 
 by the Corn-Laws is proved. The Home 
 Grower must of course cease to till his 
 land, where he cannot have a remunera- 
 ting price for his produce. Even where 
 the soil is equally fertile, it is impossible, 
 in a country taxed as England is , to grow 
 corn as cheap as in many other countries. 
 If therefore cheapness is the criterion of 
 choice , all domestic Agriculture must 
 first languish , and then soon die. 
 
 Admitting, then, the evils of a high 
 
 O * ' ~ 
 
 price of corn to be as great as Manufac- 
 turing and Mercantile clamourers repre- 
 sent them to be, the question is, whether 
 Vhe evils of a free or feebly-prohibited 
 Importation are not tenfold greater ? 
 
 The history of the world , perhaps , 
 cannot exhibit an empire at all like Greal: 
 Britain, in many essential features of its 
 domestic political economy. Its Debt and 
 consequent Taxation have risen to a
 
 magnitude , of which it was almost uni- 
 versally predicted, scarcely forty years 
 ago , that one fourth the size would crush 
 it. From whatever causes this may have 
 arisen, whether necessary, or unneces- 
 sary; whatever may be its final results ; 
 it must now be borne , or we must sink. 
 But let us reflect how its mischiefs must 
 be augmented, if it brings with it the 
 necessity of abandoning the tillage of our 
 own lands. 
 
 In truth , the complex benefits deri- 
 vable from Agriculture are so paramount, 
 that rhey will justify the purchase , or ra- 
 ther retention of them , at almost any price. 
 To over-state this price , therefore , will 
 not avail these advocates of the Impor- 
 tation of Foreign Corn. Let it be as 
 great as it will, the destructive conse- 
 quences of the proposed remedy must 
 more than overbalance it. 
 
 On the one hand is the inconvenience 
 of high prices, which is no further a 
 national loss, than as it relates to the
 
 produce of the lands of inferior quality : 
 On the other hand the consequence is a 
 demoralized , unhealthy , insubordinate 
 population , for which the most augmen- 
 ted and inexhaustible riches can make 
 no amends : and a precarious reliance 
 on the bounty of Foreigners in the time 
 of need , which must always endanger , 
 if it should not destroy , a Nation's in- 
 dependence. 
 
 Such an increase of people , as may 
 produce a resort to the least unfavourable 
 of these alternatives , may perhaps be the 
 subject of regret. It is not asserted that 
 no ill effects may arise from a great aug- 
 mentation of prices , though I am strongly 
 persuaded that they are exceedingly mis- 
 understood , and grossly magnified. 
 
 But it is clear , that if these ill effects 
 are considerable , they have in them- 
 selves many counterpoises. Industry is 
 thus employed in its most natural direc- 
 tion : with added industry comes added 
 ill 5 which spreads itscit to the improve-
 
 ( 165 ) 
 
 snent of the more fertile soils : wealth , 
 by being thus drawn more equally over 
 the whole surface of a country, circulates 
 more healthily; and gives vigour to the 
 whole frame of the Body Politic , instead 
 of boiling and overrunning in partial and 
 confined spots. Labour is thus applied to 
 more permanent and more solid production. 
 It is not improbable, that this course 
 may have yet more beneficial concomi- 
 tants : such as I have forborne to insist 
 on , because many will deem them fan- 
 ciful. It seems to me , that to place no 
 value, or rather price, on the produce 
 of the earth 5 beyond its cost in human 
 labour, is, if strictly taken, to assume 
 too narrow a principle. I believe that 
 something is always given for the agency 
 of nature : and something , which on the 
 large scale of thousands of acres may not 
 inconsiderably affect the National Riches, 
 This gain is entirely abandoned by a 
 country , as far as it leaves land unculti- 
 vated , that would pay for cultivation -
 
 and to tliis extent does it deliver over the 
 emolument to the Foreign Rations from 
 \vhich it imports. 
 
 This branch of legislation is, it is True, 
 exposed to some difiiculties in its enforce- 
 ment. It requires firmness , profundity of 
 views , and a due elevation above the 
 arbitrium popularis oitrce. Bread cheap 
 are catch \v ords, to which the accusation of 
 Leing hostile, draws upon a public man 
 the odium ot the mob in a manner 
 vhich often deprives him of his public 
 functions Factious and interested dema- 
 gogues know well \\hat use to make of 
 this accusation; and the misled multitude 
 suffer themselves to be the dupes of these 
 clamours. Several of the Members of the 
 last Parliament lost their seats in the 
 present, from the rigid and courageous 
 performance of their duty on this grand 
 question. It cannot be expected that the 
 lower classes should have the talent, the 
 intelligence , or the leisure to understand 
 this deep and complex subject. When
 
 C '67 ) 
 
 the manufacturer cries out for cheap 
 corn , he does not mean that his wa^es 
 
 o 
 
 should be lessened : he means that bread 
 should be cheap , and labour dear : that 
 the produce of agriculture should be di- 
 minished in price ; but that the price o 
 the manufactured produce should conti- 
 nue the same! He thinks prohibitions 
 fair and even necessary, to protect the 
 home produce of manufacture ; where , 
 in truth , the application of the principle 
 of prohibition is erroneous and harmful : 
 but he thinks it frightfully criminal to 
 protect the home produce of agriculture , 
 
 where it is necessary for its very exis- 
 tence. 
 
 The multitude is to be pitied in this 
 case : they have but imperfect means of 
 knowing better. But how deep and un- 
 speakable is the baseness arid profligacy 
 of those wretches , who knowingly thus 
 mislead them for their own private and 
 selfish ends ! 
 
 Mr. Ricardo's argument is, I believe, 
 correct as far as it goes : it is probab y
 
 ( 1 68 ) 
 
 true , that increase of wages , or price , 
 in all secondary articles following upon 
 increase of labour, or price, in the pro- 
 duction of food , is not an entire recom- 
 pense for the first increase- But he keeps 
 out of sight the alternative of a too ra- 
 pidly increasing population : the unpro- 
 portionate increase of the manufacturing 
 classes; the evil results of that increase; 
 and the mischiefs of a large quantity of 
 land thrown out of tillage ! 
 
 C 1 
 
 Nothing seems to me more unfair 
 than thus stating half a question , which 
 is true in itseii , but riot true when joined 
 to its necessary concomitants, tie argues, 
 as il it \\ere a mere question of pounds, 
 shillings, and pence ! 
 
 The evil of this diminished power of 
 moiu-y ir.iiy be admitted. J}ut in this case 
 it is (lie inevitable ellcct of the state of 
 circMinoujjices at winch a nation has 
 arrived : inevitable , unless it be kept off 
 at the expence of evils a thousand-fold 
 greater! IVIr. Ilicardo tells us how, by
 
 ( '69 ) 
 
 the import of Foreign Corn, we mny 
 avoid it : bat he puts a thick veil over 
 the collateral consequences of that im- 
 port ! 
 
 I have hitherto given full credit to the 
 alledged facility of procuring Foreign 
 Corn at a cheaper rate , because the main 
 strength of my argument is not impugned 
 by this admission. But the truth of this 
 allegation may fairly be doubted. As soon 
 as Foreign Countries should find out that 
 the supply from them had become neces- 
 sary to our existence, can it be ques- 
 tioned , that they would greatly raise 
 their prices , even admitting that their 
 produce should increase equal to the in- 
 creased demand ? But is it certain , that 
 they would have the means of increasing 
 it equal to the increased demand ? 
 
 ON the whole , the arguments seem 
 greatly to preponderate in favour of 
 Agriculture , as the most certain , the
 
 ( 170) 
 
 most solid , the most healthy, and the most 
 efficacious means of augmenting our Na- 
 
 ~ o 
 
 tional Riches. That a great augmentation 
 is called for by the increase of our popu- 
 lation , and the increase of our debt , no 
 one will deny. Increase, or Ruin is the 
 alternative. Such a debt without aug- 
 menting means can never be long borne ! 
 According to the theory of price at 
 present admitted, and laid down in the 
 former Part of this Treatise, the addi- 
 tions to wealth derivable from the foreign 
 vent of our manufactures , can arise 
 solely from Profits. It must be observed 
 that the additions from the augmented 
 produce of Home Agriculture include not 
 only Profits, but all the Costs; because 
 the subsistence consumed by the labourer 
 while cultivating the soil is so much na- 
 tional gain. The augmented Riches there- 
 fore derivable from this species of expor- 
 tation cannot exceed those of Domestic 
 Husbandry, till they more than surpass 
 the amount of these Costs added tp the
 
 Profits of Agriculture. But it seems to me, 
 at best , very doubtful, whether a result, 
 amounting to such excess , is possible ! 
 
 Webcast of England as having carried 
 Agriculture to its limits : But we can 
 scarcely traverse a county, where we do 
 not behold large extents of Waste , Mich 
 as France in its whole length from Calais 
 to the Jura does not exhibit a single in- 
 stance of. 
 
 1 doubt, if there be one of these Wastes 
 that would not pay for cultivation. With 
 food oi home growth insufficient for the 
 people 5 with thousands of unemployed 
 labourers ; is it possible that this can be 
 sound policy ? 
 
 But it has been the misfortune of 
 England to have been always too much 
 under the influence of the mercantile 
 Classes. This has been more especially 
 the case, since the establishment of the 
 Public Funds , and the practice of Loans. 
 Government has been beset and misled 
 by their representations , arid Parliament
 
 has been too much under tlie effect of 
 their persuasions or intrigues. 
 
 Mr Pi 1 "! , with a grand arid domineer- 
 ing intellect , ye" through his whole admi- 
 nistration bent too much to this predo- 
 minance. The native energies of his 
 comprehensive and luminous talents ; the 
 soaring and unassailable boldness of his 
 ambition, bore him forward in a career 
 of over-awing glory : his master-mind , 
 that pervaded every part of Administra- 
 tion, gave an unity and force to the sys- 
 tem , from which resulted paramount 
 success. But in many particulars his view s 
 were surely imperfect and erroneous : 
 he fell into many partial snares and minor 
 difficulties. His mighty spirit,indeed,broke 
 through them all : the firmness and vigor 
 of his movements was never shaken , or 
 delayed ; and the force and steadiness of 
 his progress surmounted mistakes , inter- 
 ruptions, and obstacles! 
 
 \ et it must be frankly owned that the 
 ill consequences of some of his measures
 
 ( '73) 
 
 remain upon succeeding times , after lie 
 himself had enjoyed all the advantages of 
 their temporary expediency. 
 
 The undue preference that he shewed 
 on almost all occasions to the Commercial 
 Classes over the Landed, is yet felt in its 
 effects. I presume to think that this arose 
 from a superficial insight into political 
 organization. No Class, it is true, has a 
 right to pre-eminence for the sake of its 
 own partial good. Such must ilow from a 
 state of things, that, in conformity with 
 the destinies of Providence , is best for 
 the mutual happiness of all. Mr. Pitt 
 probably deemed, that on this principle, 
 the first place was due to the Commercial 
 and Manufacturing orders , as the most 
 
 o 
 
 productive and the most useful. I have 
 assigned my reasons for judging other- 
 wise $ and the reader Las them before 
 him to appreciate as they deserve. 
 
 Unless a i\ [inistrybe found bold enough 
 to protect domestic Agriculture, J predict 
 that Great Britain cannot long survive
 
 C 1/4) 
 
 the difficulties of finance and augmenting 
 population, that it has to encounter. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Of Personal Capital. 
 
 1 ERSONAL Property consists of every 
 tiling coming under the denomination of 
 Riches, except Land; and such of its 
 incidents as come under the legal deno- 
 mination of Realties : and Personal Ca- 
 pital is an accumulation of one or more 
 of these various kinds of material com- 
 modities. (See Chapter xxv. p. 122.) 
 
 The possessor of any property of this 
 description either enjoys the prolonged 
 use of it himself; or lends it on condi- 
 tion of receiving a certain fixed annual 
 portion of it, or its vaiue , in payment 
 for the transfer ot the use of it. This 
 annual portion is known under the 
 name of Jintei est : and in England arid
 
 ( 175) 
 
 many other countries is , in conformity 
 with the example of the ancients, limited 
 to a fixed maximum : excessive demands 
 being branded with the name of Usury. 
 
 It matters not whether these commo- 
 dities , thus amounting in quantity to a 
 Capital, are of a quickly -perishable na- 
 ture ; for in that case they are converted 
 into the more durable form of money : 
 and are always so converted , before they 
 are lent at interest, 
 
 Persons living on the interest of thia 
 Personal Capital , form the second class 
 of Persons of independence , living solely 
 on Property , mentioned in Chapt. i p. 3. 
 
 The quantum of this interest is various 
 according to the various conditions , on 
 which the Capital is transferred. When 
 the Capital is resumabie , it is less : when 
 the Capital is absolutely parted with and 
 abandoned, and the interest to be paid is 
 not in perpetuity , but terminable either 
 at a period fixed , or at a close of a cer- 
 tain life or certain lives named, which
 
 ( 176 ) 
 
 interest is well-known under the deno- 
 mination of AKKUITY, it is much greater. 
 
 But as it is clear that the borrower of 
 a Capital has occasion to expend it , when 
 borrowed , either unproductively or pro- 
 ductively, the lender in common caution 
 must require a due security for the an- 
 nual payments for which he stipulates, 
 and also, where it is not an Annuity, 
 for a return of the Principal , when 
 called on. 
 
 1 he Securities, which the nature of 
 Biches has called into practice, are i. 
 Conditional Assignments of I and, called 
 Mortgages. 2. \\hen money is lent to 
 the State , Assignments oi interest , pay- 
 able out of the State-Revenue; or rather 
 an Assignment of transferable lummal 
 Capital, carrying interest, inscribed on 
 the Registers of the Public Fur.ds : 
 so lhat it is rather a purchase Ironi 
 Government, than a loan to it. 3. Per- 
 sonal Obligation $ \\here no specific pro- 
 perty is^assigued j but the >\hole depends 
 
 Oil
 
 ( 177) 
 
 on the responsibility of the borrower, 
 and of any olher, or others, who may 
 be bound with him* 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Of Personal Property , lent on Mortgage of Land, 
 
 XT cannot be questioned , that the Se- 
 curity of Land is more solid than any 
 other. \\ herever the clear Rent at the 
 time of the loan is more i-han adequate 
 to the amount of the Interest of the Sum 
 lent, a subsequent tail r >f R jut, or failure 
 of Tenants , can only endanger the punc- 
 tual payment of that I ^ re rest. There 
 hive been times unquestionably, when 
 these contingencies have taken place. But 
 upon a great scale, and where the, place 
 an 1 condition or the security has been 
 chosen w> h common -ience, they 
 have been very infrequent, lu short, this 
 
 12
 
 can only generally happen , when there 
 is an universal decline of national pros- 
 perity, so that it is no more than a. 
 common ill. It is true , that for a time 
 the dividends of the Public Funds may 
 continue to be paid without defalcation : 
 but they cannot long survive the national 
 declension, that causes the fall of Rents, 
 There are other inconveniences, com- 
 pared with the Public Funds, to which 
 loans on IVlortgage are exposed. The 
 Principal is not always resumable at the 
 moment it is w r anted. In times of war , 
 for instance , money is scarce ; and 
 scarcely to be obtained on mortgage : if 
 the mortgagee then demands payment 
 of his debt , the mortgager can with 
 difficulty obtain the money elsewhere , to 
 enable him to perform his engagement : 
 nor in many cases can he sell , unless at 
 a ruinous loss. He seeks therefore the 
 delay, which the protection of Courts of 
 Equity can give him. But against this 
 inconvenience must be set that, which
 
 would occur if his property should be 
 vested in the Public Funds. He might in 
 that case , it is true , turn his capital into 
 money in a few hours : but at what a di- 
 minution of its amount! If he had bought 
 into the Z per cent, consols, in 1792 , he 
 must have paid for every lool. stock, 
 from 92!. to 97!. If he had occasion to 
 sell it out in J/9/5 each lool. would 
 only have sold for 4?!. ' 
 
 I have assumed the title of the mort- 
 gaged lands to be good. There have been 
 occasions on which they have turned out 
 to be otherwise : but this is so rare, 
 where ordinary prudence and skill are 
 used, that it hardly merits to be taken 
 into the account. 
 
 The proprietors of Land are subject 
 to great deductions from the clear pro- 
 duce of their property in the heavy ex- 
 pences of management ; in the outgoings 
 for repairs , in the discussion of titles j m 
 the costs of convevances and leases ; in 
 
 J 
 
 the improper donate share thrown on them
 
 ( i8o ) 
 
 of the burdens of the Poor Rates. None 
 ot these fall on the Mortgagee. He has 
 all the solidity without any of the coun- 
 terbalances. Two advantages, indeed, 
 possessed by the Landed Proprietor, he 
 does not command. He has neither the 
 benefit of the rise of Rents j nor of the 
 territorial power. 
 
 It is commonly reported to have been 
 said by the celebrated Lord Mansfield , 
 that Property in Land is Capital without 
 Income : Property in the Funds , is Income 
 without Capital : that Property in Mort- 
 gages, is both Capital and Income. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Of Personal Property , vested in the Public Funds 
 
 iVS.ONEY lent to the State on terms settled 
 v r ith the contractors at the time of each 
 separate loan, according to the circum- 
 of Uie country , and the propor
 
 tion between the demand and supply, is 
 secured in perpetual annuities to the 
 lenders , their successors , or assigns, 
 payable out of the Public Revenue. The 
 Capital cannot be reclaimed from the 
 State : but the State has the option of re- 
 deeming the annuity by repayment of the 
 principal at par : viz. at the nominal debt 
 inscribed in the books for each loan,, 
 whatever may be the actual sum in money 
 received by the State for that loan. 
 
 The conveniences of this mode of in- 
 Vesting money at interest are numerous ; 
 the punctuality of payment; the trifling 
 costs of receipt and management; the 
 clearness of title ; the facility of transfer^ 
 the instantaneous command of the prin. 
 cipal; are all advantages, which, in nu- 
 merous circumstances, and among nu- 
 merous classes of society $ cannot be 
 equalled. 
 
 But there are also disadvantages, afc 
 which these unreasonable aspirers alter 
 a monopoly of good , the holders of this
 
 property, are exceedingly angry. Their 
 dividends do not vary with the variation 
 in the value of money : they are fixed. 
 The value of money has been in a pro- 
 gressive state of deterioration for centu- 
 ries : it has greatly declined since the 
 establishment of the Public Funds , in 
 the reign of FL. W liiiam , I So years ago : 
 so that the dividend of a thousand pounds 
 stock, purchased in those days, will now 
 command far less commodities than it 
 would then command. But this is not 
 peculiar to money vested in the Funds : 
 it is incident to all Monied Capital , and 
 its interest : to other sorts of Monied 
 Capital , where there are not the game 
 advantages to counterbalance it. 
 
 The variation in the quantum of Ca- 
 pital, which does not take place where 
 money is lent on condition of repayment 
 of the Capital when required, (except 
 when Stock is lent 5 and then it follows 
 the nature of Stock,) arises from its 
 quality of irredeemability from the bor-
 
 ( 183 ) 
 
 rower; so- that its reconvertibility into 
 Capital depends upon a sale in the mar- 
 ket , and is consequently liable to the 
 fluctuating price of that market. 
 
 This is sometimes a serious inconve- 
 nience ; and may occasionally lead to the 
 verge of ruin. Engagements entered into 
 by a large Stock - Proprietor when the 
 Stocks are very high , may , when those 
 Stocks are reduced one third, or nearly 
 one half, as happened during the late 
 war, render the performance of those 
 engagements under the latter circum- 
 stances , nearly impossible ; or at any 
 rate fatal to prosperity, and comfort. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 Of Money, or Capital, lent on the security of 
 Pledged Goods. 
 
 N my First Chapter, p. 3, I have not 
 been sufficiently precise in noticing this 
 sort of security.
 
 f iS4 ) 
 
 In a commercial country, short loans 
 areprolajiv maue to a very great extent 
 on die pledge of speciiic goods, \vhere 
 mere Personal Security ia not satisfactory. 
 
 .Ainon^ the iower classes, this is done, 
 in a:nai.l sums , by the well-known trade 
 of Pawn -Brokers , who are under the 
 regulation of particular la\vs, enacted to 
 guard against the abuses and extortions, 
 which they are too much tempted to 
 practise. 
 
 C II A P T E R XXXVI. 
 
 Of Money , or Capital , lent on the security of 
 Personal Responsibility. 
 
 i.i. Money advanced on the discount 
 of -;^o c! L.'.change and Pi-orr.i^.so] y 
 -...o, Scuiidb on ihc i ; he respon- 
 sibility of the parties to these Bills or 
 r">o.eg. '} he Amount of money so em- 
 |)ioyecl, in a Mercantile ISation like
 
 ( i85) 
 
 Great Britain , is exceedingly large. And 
 the temptation to the Capitalists, who 
 are themselves connected with commerce 
 and traffic , is powerful. 
 
 It is thus lent for very short dates ; two 
 or three months at most ; and is always 
 returning to give a choice of speculations , 
 as circumstances make them eligible. In 
 addition to this , the custom of advancing 
 the interest at the commencement of 
 the loan, gives an interest beyond what 
 would otherwise be legal. 
 
 Money lent on Bond, when it is in- 
 tended to remain for any time , seldom 
 takes place to any extent, except when 
 it is very plentiful , and Landed and other 
 more desirable securities cannot be found. 
 Yet many who have not specific pledges, 
 which they can conveniently give , may 
 be found meriting to be trusted on this 
 sort of obligation, which extends both 
 over their persons, and over ail their 
 property.
 
 ( J86 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIL 
 
 On the Usury Laws. 
 
 J_ HE Question of the policy of the 
 USURY LAWS was brought before the 
 Plouse of Commons by Serjt. Onslow; 
 and was referred to a Committee , before 
 which a laborious investigation and long 
 examination of evidence took place, at 
 the end of the last Parliament. 1 his 
 Committee delivered their Report on the 
 eve of the Dissolution. Not having had 
 an opportunity of seeing more than 
 garbled extracts of it, I am unwilling 
 to discuss this important topic. At pre- 
 sent my opinion is strongly in favour of 
 these Laws, notwithstanding the example 
 of Holland, etc. is pleaded in favour of a 
 contrary principle and practice. 
 
 It is said , that money , like every thing 
 else , will , if left to itself, find its proper
 
 value iii the market. I doubt it. I believe 
 protection to be necessary to the Bor- 
 rower : because what Adam Smith says 
 of a Seller , may be said still more 
 strongly of a Borrower. The Seller , 
 says Smith, is almost always under 
 the necessity of selling , and must therefore 
 take such a price as he can get. The 
 Buyer is scarce ever under the necessity 
 of buying , and will therefore only give 
 such a price as he Likes. 
 
 That they drive Borrowers to have re- 
 course to the ruinous interest of Annui- 
 ties , does not appear to be an irremove- 
 able objection to these laws. Is it im- 
 practicable to extend these provisions of 
 the Usury Laws to the terms of Annui- 
 ties , according to fixed Tables , like those 
 of the insurance Offices ?
 
 CHAPTER XXXV III 
 
 On Tjthes. 
 
 j AM afraid ihnt this Chapter is a little 
 out of j ;uc.e 5 . ir, truth, I have not taxen 
 i* jjuihcieiitly into consideration m the 
 distribution of my subject, oet forth in 
 my V irst Chapter. 
 
 '1 YTKF.S are in the nature of a Tax for 
 the payment of a particular Class of 
 public Functionaries. IWhaps after all , 
 therefore, they may not be iii inserted 
 here , w here they will be followed by 
 the subject of Stale-Revenue arising from 
 Taxation. 
 
 'i hey are, however, in many particu- 
 lars, essentially distinguishable from ge- 
 neral Taxes. They neither form a com- 
 mon fund with other Taxes j nor e\en 
 among themselves. They consist of sepa- 
 rate estates , or issues arising out of the
 
 ( '3?) 
 
 produce of the local districts , or parishes , 
 committed to the ecclesiastical care of the 
 individuals on whom these benefices are 
 conferred ; or when enjoyed by Laymen^ 
 they originated in these purposes. 
 
 As they form a tenth of the gross 
 produce of the land , and of the tains 
 animals sustained on it , to that amount 
 they add. to the prime cost. Where this 
 tenth part is the produce of the poorest 
 of the lands in cultivation, and is there- 
 fore sold at its prime cost , this additional 
 tenth is paid by the Consumer. Where , 
 as in the produce of richer lands , the 
 market price exceeds the prime costs, the 
 difference is a deduction from Rent. 
 
 Great clamours have been raised against 
 Tythes from the grievance of the burden; 
 their discouragement of Agriculture; and 
 their addition to the price of the neces- 
 saries of life : more especially, as they 
 are an evil that increases with the im- 
 provements of society j that is a Tax upon
 
 ( 190 ) 
 
 spirited expenditure; and falls heaviest, 
 where most encouragement is wanting. 
 It cannot be denied , that if the prin- 
 ciples of cost and market price and 
 value and rent , as here assumed , be 
 sound and true , there is great force in 
 these objections. But unfortunately, it 
 seems impossible to devise a fair and 
 adequate substitute for this mode of pro- 
 vision for the Church. A substitute for 
 the unproportionally augmented and aug- 
 menting value of this species of remune- 
 ration does not seem in justice demand- 
 able. In calling it aproperty, the advocates 
 of this system seem to mistake the na- 
 ture of property. It can be no more than, 
 a State-recompense for services instituted 
 by a State in performance of its duties* 
 The mode and quantum of the recom- 
 pense must be strictly within the pre- 
 rogatives of a State. It would be impoli- 
 tic , and w icked , to abolish this order of 
 services j it would be mean , cruel , and 
 unwise to pay them inadequately. But if.
 
 from change of circumstances, the mode 
 hitherto adopted become oppressive ; arid 
 a heavy impediment in the way of that aug- 
 mentation of Riches which is necessary to 
 a country's salvation } there seems to be no- 
 thing contrary to the true principles of po- 
 litical organization , to adopt a change , 
 whenever another reasonable mode of re- 
 muneration can be devised Property arises 
 out of thenecessity of things iTythesdonot. 
 If evils arise out of the inequality of the 
 first of these , they are evils inseparable 
 from the existence of property : if evils 
 arise out of the other , they are mere 
 evils of positive regulation , removeable 
 by a change of the laws , and proper to 
 be removed, whenever the evils become 
 paramount to the good. 
 
 It is argued that a large portion of 
 Ty the -holders are easy and lenient in 
 their demands ; and are content to take 
 a commutation in money, far below the 
 value of their Tenths. But the Public 
 gains nothing by this : the individual, 
 occupiers are the sole gainers.
 
 ( 19* ) 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Of State-Revenue : and Loans , with the Public Debt 
 resulting from them. 
 
 O TAXES may be. land-proprietors, like 
 individuals ; and like them enjoy the 
 Rents or Profits of landed property. But 
 these Rents , or Profits , in general , form 
 a very small part of their REVENUE ; or 
 Public Income. That Revenue principally 
 arises from Taxes, paid as every one's 
 proportion of his property , income , or 
 labour, contributed towards the public 
 service ; for the common defence ; for 
 the toil expended in every fund ion of 
 Government; for the splendor ar.<d pa- 
 rade of state , \vhich is deemed necessary 
 for the promotion of respect, and awe. 
 It h.s seldom happened that a nation 
 [IPS r v >r any long series of years confined 
 ilcrii io the income it cooid derive from
 
 ( 193 ) 
 
 these sources. The augmented expence 
 and waste of war, especially, has neces- 
 sitated great kingdoms to borrow , on the 
 mortgage of the existing Revenue ; or on 
 the faith of new Taxes laid on to pay the 
 interest. By degrees the Capital thus 
 borrowed rises to a very large amount; 
 and exhausts a large portion of this Re- 
 venue. 
 
 A combination of events at the time 
 of our English Revolution causing a ne- 
 cessity for vast loans , gave occasion to 
 the present form of the establishment of 
 the Public Debt, of which the FUNDS 
 were put under the management of the 
 Bank of England , and became trans- 
 ferable STOCK , carrying Dividends in the 
 manner at present practised. 
 
 State-Revenue , therefore , from this 
 period , has regularly and systematically 
 far exceeded the current costs of our 
 Government. It has become a channel, 
 through which Personal Capitalists re- 
 ceive the interest of their Capital : and 
 
 13
 
 ( 194 ) 
 
 \vhich, mixing up the income -drawer, 
 wlio receives in right of property and 
 purchase , with the Functionary who 
 receives in right of labour performed, 
 as charges upon one consolidated fund , 
 has the effect of apparently complicating 
 the simple and obvious divisions in the 
 primary distribution of Riches. 
 
 A mode of putting out Capital at in- 
 terest so convenient to the lender; the 
 security of public income , and public 
 faith i the punctuality , the facility , and 
 convenience of the whole arrangement , 
 attracted lenders , and gave Government 
 a vast command of the money-market. 
 
 If there was good in this state of things , 
 a good arising from temporary power 
 over the use of Riches, there was also 
 the danger, if not the certainty, of great 
 evii It was a strong temptation to profu- 
 sion ; to unnecessary wars ; and careless 
 management of their costs. It might be a 
 force taken in anticipation of the blood 
 and vitals of posterity j even though for
 
 present purposes it should be as effica- 
 ciously and productively applied , as if 
 the capital had not been withdrawn from 
 private borrowers ". but , if it should not 
 happen to be so beneficially applied , then 
 it would at once impoverish the present , 
 and the future. 
 
 Practically it can scarcely be conceived, 
 that any such misuse has been made of 
 this power. If Capital had been so mis- 
 applied as to have been sunk , rather than 
 have been transmitted back through re- 
 productive channels , its springs would 
 have long since ceased to play j it could 
 not have continued to have provided at 
 once for the increased and continually- 
 repeated anticipations of the future ; and 
 the stupendously-augmented cost of the 
 present. 
 
 It seems to be too lightly and incon- 
 siderately assumed, that Individuals al- 
 ways expend Capital in a productive , 
 and Government always in an unpro- 
 ductive manner. There is waste in war;
 
 C 196 ) 
 
 and perhaps the capital spent in naval 
 and military operations , not unfrequently , 
 goes to enrich Foreign Countries : but 
 the grand events of the last twenty-seven 
 years prove that there may also be much 
 beneficial encouragement to industry; 
 much stimulus to Agriculture; much aid 
 to solid production, in a war expenditure. 
 Let us consider then , what the nomi- 
 nal Capital inscribed in the Register- 
 Books of the Public Debt really is! 
 There are writers and others so foolish 
 and ignorant as to take it to be a positive 
 
 o i 
 
 and actual Personal Capital, existing in 
 the Country over and above the Personal 
 Capital in goods , stock , money , etc. 
 having a material existence, and distri- 
 buted among the population ! A moment's 
 reflection will inform thr most vulgar 
 understanding , that , though a Capital 
 was once received by Government, not 
 indeed equal to the nominal debt inscribed 
 in these books, but equal to the sum for 
 which that nominal debt was contracted ,
 
 ( '97) 
 
 yet Government instantly re -expended 
 it; and the parts which did not pass away 
 into Foreign Countries, went back again, 
 (although through new channels ,) to fer- 
 tilize the country , in different degrees , 
 according to the direction they took. It 
 is then a Record and Title of the annual 
 Dividends or Instalments, due from Go- 
 vernment to the Nominees 3 out of the 
 National Riches. The Riches exist else- 
 where : they form not the least particle 
 even of the smallest dividend : much less 
 of any Capital ! To reckon it among 
 Capital is the same as if, after a landed 
 estate of I oool. a year had been reckoned 
 as a Capital of 3o,oool. the deed of a 
 Mortgagee 9 who had a debt of 1 5,oool. 
 upon it , should be set up as another 
 Capital of 1 5, oool. ! (To own the truth , 
 errors of this glaring nature pervade the 
 Tables of Estimates of National Capital , 
 in certain Works of Political Economy s 
 that have enjoyed some reputation !)
 
 ( 198 ) 
 
 In discussing this topic , the most im- 
 portant point of view is the effect of this 
 mode of applying Capital upon the future 
 Riches of the country so applying it. 
 There is no opinion more generally re- 
 ceived, than that it is very injurious. The 
 charge is, that it is thus turned from 
 Productive to Non - Productive employ- 
 ment. Facts and reasonings concur to 
 afford strong cause to believe that this 
 charge is much exaggerated : it would 
 be too much to assert that it is utterly 
 unfounded. 
 
 The disposable Capital that is lent to 
 Government , would otherwise be lent to 
 Individuals. The Agriculturist, the Ma- 
 nufacturer , the Merchant, would, it is 
 supposed , be able to borrow more : and 
 by the mode in which they would use it, 
 would increase, and not annihilate it. 
 The support , cloathing , and equipping 
 armies and navies , is j as it is argued , the 
 maintenance of numerous Bodies , who 
 make no return. The argument proves
 
 ( 199 ) 
 
 too much. If this were the effect; if the 
 Capital expended from 179 3 to 1816 by 
 Great Britain in supporting soldiers and 
 sailors had been sunk ; if there had been 
 no counterbalance ; no return , (whether 
 direct or indirect matters not ,) the amount 
 of such annihilation would have been so 
 enormous , as long since to have nearly 
 exhausted all the Capital of the country. 
 It requires more abilities , knowledge , 
 and leisure than I possess, to develop 
 clearly, accurately, and minutely, the 
 operations of Capital directed in this 
 course. It is certain that part , if not the 
 whole , of the food consumed by these 
 large Bodies has been an addition to the 
 former growth, produced by the stimulus 
 of this expenditure. If this be admitted , 
 perhaps all the rest may follow j and the 
 stimulus and the addition may be equally 
 extended to manufactures and merchan- 
 dise. Thus Capital so expended , would 
 not, according to the favourite theory, 
 be unproductively expended,
 
 ( 200 ) 
 
 It cannot be questioned that Govern- 
 ment, being during periods of wars and 
 loans nearly the monopolizers of Capital 
 destined to be lent at use, cause many 
 partial inconveniences and mischiefs. It 
 is not so much that war accompanied by 
 these circumstances destroys Capital , as 
 that it changes its owners ! This latter 
 evil , though not so great as the former , 
 is still very serious, 
 
 The old Landed Proprietors , in the late 
 epochs of private distress arising from 
 these causes, were perhaps among the 
 principal sufferers. A vulgar opinion pre- 
 vails , on the contrary , that they were 
 gamers, because rents rose. The benefit 
 of this rise bore no proportion to the 
 counteracting losses by which they were 
 beset. 
 
 It must be recollected , that from the 
 nature of Landed Property, no one , who 
 draws his income from this source, can 
 rely upon any regularity in its amount, 
 lie is exposed to great deductions from
 
 ( 201 ) 
 
 repairs , fines , failure of tenants , etc. 
 There is , besides , on almost all large 
 inherited estates, a charge of debt, either 
 for portions of younger children , or from 
 other causes. Without any imprudence , 
 therefore , these land-owners have often 
 pressing and imperious occasions for bor- 
 rowing. The obstacles to borrowing upon 
 fair terms , are perhaps still stronger to 
 selling. 
 
 There were few considerable families 
 of landed wealth , who at the late epoch 
 were not cruel sufferers this way. Many 
 were brought to ruin ; many more will 
 never recover their prosperity. On the 
 principles which I believe to be sound, 
 this is a great political misfortune. Fluc- 
 tuation of property, and derangement of 
 classes is a deep mischief. 
 
 Such is one of the bad results of 
 Pal he f .,oans j Among others , is this : 
 thai when an individual borrows , he 
 borrows , (speaking generally,) on the 
 Ciiih of an existing private income , out
 
 ( 202 ) 
 
 of which the interest is to be paid : when 
 the Public borrows, it borrows on the 
 faith of a speculative income, hereafter 
 to arise from Taxes, of which the Lender 
 himself pays a part. In the Private case , 
 if the Capital is sunk, the Income re- 
 mains : in the Public case , the Capital 
 may be . sunk , and the Income never 
 arise ! 
 
 On the other hand , many benefits , 
 not altogether trifling , may reasonably 
 be ascribed to this mode of appropriating 
 Capital. It is riot improbable , that in 
 many cases it imposes a forced but useful 
 economy on individuals. It is the omni- 
 potent instrument of collecting a vast mass 
 of wealth at the heart , ready to be re- 
 distributed in powerful masses; quicken- 
 ing circulation; extending credit; facili- 
 tating commercial traffic ; economising 
 the instruments of exchange ; and increa- 
 sing the force and variety of its operative 
 functions in manifold degrees by its col- 
 lected strength, It is probable that this is
 
 ( 203 ) 
 
 the great virtue incident to tins sort of 
 appropriation of Capital , by which it 
 more than counterbalances all the evils 
 attendant on it. 
 
 To draw every Quarter into one mass 
 a portion of every dependent man's la- 
 bour , and every independent man's in- 
 come; and to send it back again, re-divi- 
 ded into new portions , through new 
 channels, (for such is the effect of the 
 payment of the Quarterly Dividends :) to 
 add to this in times of war a large portion 
 of the Capital that can be spared ; and 
 from the same reservoir to re-distribute 
 it under Treasury Orders, must necessa- 
 rily create a machinery of multiplied 
 moving wheels , calculated to work with 
 gigantic effect on the activity and mode 
 of employment of Capital. 
 
 It is in this sense then that the Public 
 Debt may be the instrument of Public 
 Riches , and Public Strength. Its amount, 
 while the Dividends are paid from annual 
 produce , is an evidence at least of In-
 
 20 
 
 come. And the Capital must continue to 
 bear its due proportion to the size of the 
 Income. 
 
 But this mode of allotting out Riches , 
 whether Capital or Income , has its li- 
 mits. The moment that it presses hard 
 upon production; the moment that, by 
 its new direction , it causes , on the ba- 
 lance , more Capital to be annihilated 
 than it causes to be accumulated , Na- 
 tional Riches must rapidly decline. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 On Taxes. 
 
 Ricardo's Chapter on TAXES , 
 (Chap. vii. p. 186,) is clear, short, and 
 unobjectionable. He truly says : It 
 should be the policy of Governments , 
 never to lay such TAXES, as will inevi- 
 tably fall on Capital 5 since by so doing ,
 
 ( 205 ) 
 
 they impair the Funds for the maintenance 
 of labour, and thereby diminish the future 
 production of the country. In another 
 page he says : There are no Taxes , 
 which have not a tendency to impede ac- 
 cumulation ; because there are none , 
 which may not be considered as check- 
 ing production , and as causing the same 
 effects as a bad soil or climate, a dimi- 
 nution of skill or industry, a worse dis- 
 tribution of labour , or the loss of some 
 useful machinery ; and although some 
 Taxes will produce these effects in a 
 much greater degree than others, it must 
 be confessed that the great evil of Tax- 
 ation is to be found, not so much in 
 any selection of its objects , as in the 
 general amount of its effects taken collec- 
 tively (i). 
 
 If it were possible to adhere to the 
 rule, no Tax ought to be laid on an ar- 
 ticle yet in a state of fructification. All 
 
 (i) Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy, p. 189,
 
 ( 206 ) 
 
 Taxes upon prime cost come upon the 
 Consumer in a circuitous and aggravated 
 manner. 
 
 The just principle of Taxation seems 
 to be, that all Income, above that arising 
 from the wages which constitute prime 
 cost , should contribute proportionally to 
 its amount : and of that amount the e- 
 
 o 
 
 neral test must be expenditure. 
 
 Innumerable obstacles are found to a 
 rigid execution of this principle. Various 
 exceptions and counteracting policies 
 cross a Financier at every step. Parti- 
 cular classes from political and moral 
 considerations require encouragement : 
 others have too much strength and in- 
 fluence ; and are too intriguing and cla- 
 morous to submit to the common burdens. 
 
 Of all ranks the Landed Proprietor 
 has always been loaded with an unequal 
 share. 1 he Assessed Taxes are a glaring 
 proof of this : especially the Window 
 Tax. r [ he consequences have been as 
 impolitic as unjust. If there be a position
 
 in Political Economy , which is pre-emi- 
 minently indisputable and true, it is this, 
 That the Landed Nobility, and espe- 
 cially the Landed Gentry, should live 
 as much as possible at their Country 
 Mansions (t) , and spread their expendi- 
 ture, as well as their influence, over the 
 districts whence their Revenue is drawn. 
 The Window Tax has levelled to the 
 ground thousands of ancient Castles and 
 Mansions , the relics of the splendor of 
 more hospitable and generous days. It 
 
 (i) I think it is in Rushirorth's Collection that there 
 is preserved a curious Proclamation of K. James I. 
 reciting that the Gentry have adopted an evil fashion 
 of resorting in multitudes to the Capital ; and there 
 spending their rents and corrupting their manners , 
 leaving their peasantry deserted, to their mutual injury 
 in purse , morals , and maintenance : and therefore 
 ordering them back to their Mansions : for the most 
 part by name; for the Proclamation contains a volu- 
 minous list of offenders ; of which the roll is exceed- 
 ingly interesting tt Genealogical Antiquaries. It is not 
 necessary to enquire whether this was a momentary 
 vigor beyond the law : or what yyei'e the pedantic 
 and timid Monarch's motives i
 
 ( 208 ) 
 
 has broken up hereditary and long -res- 
 pected establishments , and driven un- 
 numbered old families to Cities , and 
 Towns, and W ateririg-Places , to mingle 
 with money-getting manners , to rival the 
 luxurious plenty of manufacturing suc- 
 cess ; to lose the feudal energies , the 
 sources of heroism and enduring self- 
 privation ; to contract effeminate habits, 
 and mean calculating principles ot action. 
 
 Why are windows charged according 
 to their number? Because they are sup- 
 posed to be tests of comparative income ! 
 Bat was there ever so fallacious and ri- 
 diculous a test? If it be answered ., that 
 persons must conform themselves to this 
 test, the reply is , that these persons very 
 often have it not m their option ! A life- 
 holder of an entailed estate cannot take 
 down , or even lessen the mansion ! 
 
 But the window-duty is not the only 
 grievance. Taxes on horses, carriages, 
 and servants, all fall especially on those 
 who have country establishments. 
 
 That
 
 ( 209) 
 
 That Taxation may exceed the limits 
 which are politic, and the limits which 
 are just , cannot be questioned. No greater 
 proportion can be justly taken from a man's 
 labour , or his property , than is necessary 
 for .the due support and defence of the 
 established Government : including the 
 Debts it has incurred on the same just 
 principle. Taxes laid on to pay the interest 
 of Debts improvidently contracted, and 
 for which no adequate purchase-money 
 has been advanced , do not come within 
 this principle. 
 
 If we consider that Taxation 9 even 
 where it does not nip Riches in the 
 bud , but leaves them the same in quantity, 
 greatly alters the distribution of them, it 
 is no justification to say, that their amount 
 is not lost to the Nation. If more persons 
 are supported on them , than is consistent 
 with ease and comfort ; if one reaps the 
 greater part of the harvest , of which 
 another has been at the cost , the Coun- 
 try j where these things happen , labours 
 
 14
 
 under circumstances of serious political 
 infelicity. 
 
 To suppose 5 that when Taxation takes 
 away, generally, a portion of the fruits 
 of labour or property, any general added 
 price to the remainder can be a remune- 
 ration, is a gross delusion : a delusion 
 indeed which has been yery common ; but 
 which, when occe explained, it becomes 
 contemptible folly or stupidity not to 
 perceive. The question is : Will the 
 added price command in exchange other 
 commodities equal in number and value 
 only to the diminished number , or to the 
 whole unduninished number ? Certainly 
 only to the diminished number ! T ] hen 
 what remuneration is the augmented 
 price (i) ? 
 
 (i) When in the last Parliament I was impelled, Jry 
 a sense of public duty to the CUUSP of Literature, to 
 endeavour to obtain an Amendment of thr cruel and 
 impolitic Copyright dct of 1814, whereby eleven 
 Copies of every Work printed and published in Eng 
 land, Scotland, or Ireland, are to be delivered gra- 
 tuitously to eleven Public Libraries : (vu. four in
 
 (ill) 
 
 To partial Taxation the objections aro, 
 of another kind : but not less powerful, 
 
 England j five in Scotland j and two in Ireland ,) it 
 was attempted to disprove the operation of this bur- 
 densome Tax by the assertion , that the Cost of these 
 eleven Copies might be added to the price of the 
 remainder. Such things may take place in partial 
 Taxes j because such Taxes make a partial addition 
 to prime costs : but then they operate to discourage 
 production ; and act in defiance of the true principles 
 of Taxation. A general rise of price defeats the remu- 
 neration proposed to be derived from its increase : a 
 partial rise is a clog to the vent of the commodity in, 
 the market ; or a deduction from profit , which , by 
 driving Capital to other employ, diminishes production. 
 
 Thus is this gratuitous delivery, or rather forced 
 demand, an outrage upon the true principles of Tax- 
 ation. But this heavy burden is , in the particular case, 
 grossly aggravated by many circumstances of addi- 
 tional hardship, or inconvenience : which this is not 
 the proper opportunity to detail. A few short remarks 
 may, however, be forgiven me. 
 
 Its extreme inequality is alone a decisive objection 
 to it. Whether it operates on Profits , or Price , it 
 varies even from a half to a five-hundredth. It: takes 
 1 1 out of 22 copies : it takes no more out of 55oo 1 
 But all expensive Works are of small impressions : most 
 cheap Works are of large impressions. This very high 
 ratio, therefore, operates on Works of the greatest 
 : while the low ratio operates on Works
 
 ( 212 ) 
 
 There it falls either on Prime Cost , or 
 Profit , or Rent. Thus it nips fruit in the 
 
 smallest value. One half is taken from copies worth 
 five or ten guineas each : one Jive-hundredth part, viz. 
 less than a farthing in value , from copies worth tea 
 shillings! 
 
 liut of these expensive Works, of which the number 
 of purchasers is .small , the Libraries on whom the 
 gratuitous supply is conferred , would otherwise be 
 purchasers. Nor does the loss end here : the books , 
 by being placed in Public Repositories , supply the 
 wants of many individuals , who would themselves, 
 but for this .substitute, be necessitated to buy. 
 
 The estimated annual value of the Books so claimed 
 is not less than Soool. or Goool. This is, as I contend, 
 a sum entirely taken from the remuneration of Authors , 
 and Profits of Publishers. But if, as the advocates for 
 the Universities argue, it be an additional cost to the 
 Public,, the discouraging effects upon Literature are 
 scarcely less severe. For the Public will buy fewer 
 books by the whole amount of the sum added to the 
 Price. 
 
 If the objections to this Tax are insuperable, the 
 reasons, on the other hand, urged in justification of 
 it, are trifling and fallacious. It is pretended to be for 
 the Encouragement of Literature. To put a heavy 
 Tax on the recompense of Labour, and Profits of 
 Capital, is a neif mode of encouraging thrrn ! It is 
 set up as a payment for the protection of Copyright! 
 liut the payment is demanded, where no Copyright
 
 bad ; diminishes buyers , and drives Ca- 
 pital to other occupations. ^ 
 
 No part of Mr. Ricardo's Work ap- 
 pears to me so valuable , as what he has 
 
 is claimed ! And, where Copyright is claimed , how 
 comes the right of receiving the payment to be vested 
 in these Public Libraries ? Do thej- confer this right I 
 Is it at their expcnce that this property is confirmed I 
 But all the best authorities agree, that the right is of 
 ancient law : it is certainly founded on justice and 
 reason : why should not a man be. protected in the 
 benefit of the fruits of this the highest sort of labour? 
 What inconvenience could arise from it I Disputes as 
 to the succession? Those might easily be adjusted. 
 A due lapse of non-claim might remedy the inconve- 
 nience of a bar to new editions , where heirs could not 
 be found. 
 
 See. the Article on this subject in the Quarterly 
 Review , May 1819, N. XLI, which closes with the 
 following passage : 
 
 However slight the hope may be of obtaining any 
 speedy redress for this injustice, there is some satis- 
 faction in thus solemnly protesting against it ; and be- 
 lieving, as we do, that if society continues to advance, 
 no injustice will long be permitted to exist after it is 
 clear ij understood , we cannot but believe that a time 
 , when the wrongs of Literature will be
 
 C 214 ) 
 
 said on Taxation . w including not only 
 the General Chapter; but the Chapters 
 on Particular Taxes , from viii. to xv. 
 
 Taxation , says he, under every 
 form presents but a choice of evils; if it 
 do not act on profit, it must act on ex- 
 penditure ; and provided the burden b& 
 equally borne , and do not repress repro- 
 duction , it is indifferent on which it is 
 laid. Taxes on production , and on the 
 profits of Stock, whether applied imme- 
 diately to profits , or indirectly , by taxing 
 the land , or its produce , have this advan- 
 tage over other Taxes : no class of the, 
 community can escape them ; and each 
 contributes according to his means (i). 
 
 In another place he says : It may be 
 laid down as a principle , that w hen Taxes 
 
 acknowledged, and the literary men of other genera- 
 tions be delivered from the hardships to which their 
 predecessors have been subjected by no act or error 
 of their own. 
 
 See also tlie Article On Copyright , in the British 
 Review, i(Jig. 
 
 (;) Page 212.
 
 t>perate justly , they conform to the first 
 of Dr. Smith's maxims ; and raise from 
 the people as little as possible, beyond 
 what enters into the public Treasury of 
 the State (i). 
 
 Again : Of all commodities > none 
 are perhaps so proper for taxation , as 
 those , which either by the aid of Nature 
 or Art , are produced with peculiar fa- 
 cility (2). 
 
 To pursue the ramifications of heavy 
 Taxation into all their effects would re- 
 quire the space of a volume , or rather 
 volumes When a private borrower is 
 loaded with the interest of a loan , he 
 has first had the advantage of the bor- 
 rowed Capital , out of which to pay it. 
 When he is charged with Taxes to pay 
 the Dividends of the Public Debt , he 
 lias previously enjoyed no such benefit. 
 The Capital in one case would, with 
 common prudence, have produced its 
 
 (i)Page 5i 7 . 
 <X) Page 5a5.
 
 C 216 ) 
 
 own means of repayment : in the other 
 case it is not generally so ; and even 
 where it is productively applied , the 
 burden is not laid on the point -where the 
 good has been received. 
 
 High Taxation is , therefore , on the 
 whole , a great political malady ; and 
 essentially interferes with the ease, riches, 
 and happiness of the Country , where it 
 has taken place. The experience of Great 
 Britain has demonstrably proved, con- 
 trary to all theory, that there may yet be 
 powerful counteractions to it, that may 
 enable a Nation to prosper and grow rich 
 iu spite of it. But superficial Economists 
 must not thertfore suppose and argue that 
 Taxation and the National Debt have 
 caused this prosperity ! And still less must 
 they persuade themselves , and endeavour 
 to persuade others, that, though we have 
 hitherto survived its evils , we may safely 
 continue the same course. There is a. 
 limit to endurance ; to strength , and to 
 counteraction 1
 
 It seems to me among the minor, yet 
 not light, evils of this immense Debt, 
 that it has accumulated London , and its 
 suburbs to such an unwieldy size! It 
 draws the blood too much about the 
 heart; and creates partial plethoric s; and 
 inanition in the extremities I It encou- 
 rages that trafficking character, to which 
 the English are too much addicted (i). 
 
 (i) Since I left England, Two Pamphlets have 
 reached me, which have been of some celebrity, en- 
 titled Letters to the lit. Hon. Rt. Peel , M. P. for 
 the University of Oxford , By one of his Constituents , 
 On the Pernicious effects of a Variable Standard 
 of Value , espesially as it regards the condition of 
 the Lower Orders , and the Poor Lairs, The second 
 Letter is On the Causes of the Increase of Pau- 
 perism ', and on the Poor Lairs. The First Letter 
 appears to me far superior in its composition, rea- 
 soning, and opinions to the other. This Note, and the 
 subject of these Letters, do not strictly belong here. 
 But as I find, when advanced thus iar, that I shall 
 not have time, before 1 quit Geneva, to append the 
 Notes I had designed for this Volume, I must embrace 
 this opportunity of adding a few more lines on a sub- 
 ject I urn unwilling to leave entirely unnoticed. 
 
 The Letter-writer is a stiong Bullionist. He argues 
 with great force, precision, and elegance. On the
 
 ( 218 ) 
 
 It is the focus of coarse luxury ; of sen- 
 suality ; disaffection ; and vice : a large 
 head , too big for the body , and filled 
 
 subject itself the opinion of the Public is at last suf- 
 ficiently settled. That which I admire most in this 
 Letter is the fine sense of the necessity of considering 
 the Moral Ingredient in discussing great questions of 
 Political Economy. I cannot refrain from citing a spe- 
 cimen, that delights me. In the intercourse of life, 
 how numerous are the transactions , into which mo- 
 ney enters as only one ingredient of the compound.' 
 The moment we quit the shop or the market, all our 
 payments are mingled up with a thousand feelings , 
 more or less foreign to the commercial principle ; 
 feelings of respect, of delicacy, of forbearance, of 
 affection , of friendship , of gratitude , of duty , which 
 abhor the language of traffic , and studiously exclude 
 it , as far as human affairs will permit , from their 
 communion. It is needless to dwell upon the well- 
 known fact , that all men of liberal and cultivated 
 minds shun this species of negociation between them- 
 selves , that they abridge and evade it if possible , 
 and throw it off upon some intermediate , or profes- 
 sional agent. etc. Letter \ , />. 26. 
 
 The Second Letter, which ascribes the present afflic- 
 ting slate of Pauperism, not to the principles and appli- 
 cation of the Poor Lavs, but to the Variability and 
 Depreciation of the Currency, does not, in my opi- 
 nion , at all make out the case, the author proposed
 
 with inflammable poison! The Fund- 
 holder at the same time is beheld by the 
 rest of the Population with an ill-disposed 
 and grudging eye : and not entirely with- 
 out reason ! Admitting the riches to be 
 the same , it cannot be a matter of indif- 
 ference by whom they are spent! Whether 
 the labourer retains all the prior propor- 
 tion of the fruits of his toil ; or pays a 
 part to the tax-gatherer! Whether the 
 man of property enjoys all his former 
 income ; or yields a part to this ungra- 
 cious demander ! But it maybe said, 
 
 to establish. Some separate parts are well argued , 
 and it could not be otherwise j because it is clear 
 that the Author is a man of genius i a scholar j and 
 a clear and original thinker. 
 
 The Author seems to entertain the opinion, that in 
 times of distress Capital will be wanting to employ 
 the Poor : which I yet believe to be a fundamental 
 error.! See Chap. xx. p. 80, and Arguments for em- 
 ploying the Poor, there cited. I am fortified in these 
 opinions by the w hole train of M;lthus's arguments : 
 though opposed , as it seems , by a passage of hi- 
 cardo, which. I will hereafter endeavour to notice.
 
 ( 220 ) 
 
 that the Dividend , which it pays, is 
 equally purchased property ! It is so. 
 But purchasers must necessarily involve 
 themselves in the fate of the title on 
 which they choose to risk their Capital ! 
 Their title is through the State , who are 
 the Receivers , but not the Payers ! 
 
 CHAPTER XLl 
 
 Of Foreign Commerce. 
 
 J_ H E Principles of Foreign Commerce 
 are , with regard to the objects of con- 
 sideration of the present Tract, mainly 
 the same as those of Domestic Trade. I 
 have not therefore entered into a separate 
 discussion of them in the place, to which, 
 if a separate discussion had been requi- 
 site , they would have properly belonged : 
 viz. after Chap. xi. p. 56- A few short 
 Observations may, however, be proper
 
 here , before I come to my General Con- 
 clusions. 
 
 With the exception of Corn, for the 
 reasons already given, it may probably 
 be admitted as a General Position, not 
 to be controverted, that every commodity 
 may be best drawn from the country, 
 where the article of equal goodness is 
 produced with the greatest facility , and 
 under the most favourable circumstances, 
 and whence it can be furnished to the 
 Consumer at the least cost. On this prin- 
 ciple , one Nation does not by the ex- 
 change enrich itself at the expence of 
 another ; but they are mutually enriched. 
 
 The Principle therefore of Prohibitory 
 Duties, is, with the exception I have 
 mentioned, if all Nations would equally 
 forego them , indefensible. But it is ne- 
 cessary that there should be a reciprocity 
 in the abolition of them. 
 
 It is by an union of Domestic Manu- 
 facture and Trade , with Foreign Com- 
 merce 5 that the highest degree of Riches
 
 ( 222 ) 
 
 can be attained. But it is possible , as it 
 seems , for a Nation to arrive at a con- 
 siderable power of Hiches and Strength, 
 with a small comparative quantity of 
 Foreign Commerce. And it is certainly 
 true , that the advantages of Foreign 
 Commerce may be bought too high. 
 
 As to the generally-received opinions 
 of the advantages of a favourable Balance 
 of Trade, which, when I commenced 
 this Tract , I intended to have discussed , 
 I find that the limits to which I have 
 approached preclude me at present from 
 entering on so important and compara- 
 tively new a topic- The arguments of 
 Say are at least well-deserving of mature 
 consideration (i). Balance implies a Ba- 
 lance In money : and this Balance and. 
 Profit are taken to be synonimous. But 
 Profits may be paid by a balance in 
 Goods : and Losers may receive a balance 
 
 (i) See Say's Traite d'conomie Politiquc, vol, i. 
 pp. 175, 222. Digression sur ce rju'on nommc a 
 balance du Commerce.
 
 ( 223 ) 
 
 in Money which may not bring up what 
 they receive to an equality in value with 
 what they part with. But the Balance of 
 Exports and Imports is liable to many 
 qualifications and exceptions , before it 
 can be admitted as a decisive test of 
 prosperity, or the reverse. It is not the 
 mere quantity : the nature of the com- 
 modities must enter into the consideration. 
 At the same time a Balance in Money 
 seems to afford a presumptive inference 
 of an excess above demands for imme- 
 diate consumption ; and therefore of an 
 accumulating Capital. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIL 
 
 General Conclusions, 
 
 .1 HE preceding Chapters ha^e , I trust , 
 sufficiently laid down the Premises . from 
 which I am to draw the conclusions , that
 
 ( 224 ) 
 
 I have thought it iny duty to endeavour 
 to establish. 
 
 In considering the Questions of Popu- 
 lation and Riches, as they were presented 
 to me by the most popular writers and 
 debaters on those most important of all 
 political topics, it seemed tome that they 
 had taken too narrow a view of these 
 subjects; and not sufficiently looked to 
 the ends, by which their value must be 
 measured. It is not sufficient to enquire 
 what is the greatest attainable quantity of 
 Population ? or what is the greatest at- 
 tainable quantity of Riches? 'J hese quan- 
 tities must be qualified at the same time 
 by the largest attainable quantity of mu- 
 rals and happiness ! 
 
 A starving , diseased , discontented po- 
 pulation is weak, not strong, in propor- 
 tion to its numbers. Riches, gained at 
 the price of miserable and sickly modes 
 of labour ; and vicious , turlmlent , and 
 improvident manners and habi h s , are 
 
 defective
 
 (225 ) 
 
 defective in the only purposes for wliich 
 Riches are valuable. 
 
 To come to dispassionate and pro- 
 found conclusions upon these vital points, 
 the plain , simple , and sure way seemed 
 to be , to trace Riches and Property to 
 their sources ; to pursue them into their 
 natural and necessary distributions in so- 
 ciety ; and to attempt to distinguish such 
 evils as are inseparable from humanity, 
 from those that arise from casual and local 
 abuses , from the stupid or vicious or 
 mistaken policy of mankind ; from the 
 avarice of particular classes; from the 
 wastefulness or tyranny or errors of Go- 
 vernments; from the false philosophy of 
 some ; from the interested misrepresen- 
 tations of others. 
 
 Till we can understand with some 
 degree of precision the separate shares 
 of the General Wealth , to which each 
 class is entitled ; and the ground of that 
 title ; and till we know how that Wealth 
 is produced ; we can neither be qualified 
 
 16
 
 ( 226 ) 
 
 to suggest, nor decide upon* tlie remedies 
 proper for the disordered political eco- 
 nomy of a Slate j nor even on the cha- 
 racter or degree of its diseases. 
 
 All the great disputed Questions of 
 Produclive and Unproductive Labour ; 
 of the comparative advantages of Agri- 
 culture, and of Manufactures and Trade; 
 of the Corn-Laws ; of Metallic and Pa- 
 per Currency; of the Poor-Laws; ot the 
 desirable extent of Population ; of the 
 nature and degree of the evil of the 
 Public Debt; which, if examined with 
 partial views, ard merely upon the sur- 
 face, are involved in inextricable diffi- 
 culties inconsistencies and contradic- 
 tions, are furnished wi'h a simple clue 
 for resoiving ihe doubts regarding them, 
 by thus unveiling ^le sources of Riches, 
 and their necessary ramifications. 
 
 Let " hen here recapitulate the 
 particular po -itions Inave seen occasion 
 to lay cowii ior this purpose.
 
 ( 227 ) 
 
 1. That Riches, according to the true 
 definition, do not include immaterial 
 things : but that they consist omatfer 9 
 exchangeable for the same value, either 
 in other matter , or in what is immaterial. 
 
 2. That the Population is divided into 
 Producers , and Non- Producers of these 
 Riches. 
 
 3. That the Non-Producers are three- 
 fold : Persons "who live on independent 
 property ; Persons who live by Non-Pro- 
 ductive labour, and Paupers, supported, 
 without labour , by the Poor-Rates. 
 
 4. That Producers are Agricultural or 
 Manufacturing. 
 
 5. What is the true definition of 
 Wages, Cost, Price, and Profit. 
 
 6. What is the true use and principle 
 of Currency, and under what limits Paper 
 may answer this end more beneficially 
 than Metal. 
 
 7. That Adam Smith's distinction of 
 Productive and Unproductive Labour is 
 right : and that Gamier and Say are
 
 wrong, by carrying over to the class of 
 Producers those whom they call Con- 
 tributors of Immaterial Riches. 
 
 8. That Usefulness is an erroneous 
 Test of Riches. 
 
 9. That among Non- Producers are 
 those, who aid production by interme- 
 diate services between the Producer , and 
 Consumer ; such as Merchants > Retail- 
 traders , etc. 
 
 10. That a due proportion should be 
 kept between Agricultural and Manu- 
 factured Production. 
 
 11. That of Non-Productive Labour- 
 ers, part live by Bodily, and part by 
 Intellectual Labour. Among the first are 
 Domestic Servants ; Soldiers and Sailors. 
 Among the latter, Members ot the Li- 
 beral Professions ; the higher ranks of 
 the Civil Servants of Government, etc. 
 
 12. That Paupers are an anomalous 
 class, deriving income neither from La-* 
 Lour, nor from Property.
 
 ( 229 ) 
 
 15. That Labour ought to be exacted 
 in return for support , where possible ; 
 and that it is an error to suppose it not 
 generally possible. 
 
 14. But that all able-bodied paupers 
 ought riot only to work for a livelihood , 
 but themselves to find out the employ- 
 ment. 
 
 i 5. That to pay part of the Wages of 
 Labour out of the Poor-Rates is one of 
 the worst and most mischievous abuses 
 of the modern misapplication of the Poor-- 
 Laws. 
 
 1 6. That Persons living on Property 
 are as useful to society as those living on 
 Labour. 
 
 17. That Capital is either Landed or 
 Personal : and that the former is inde- 
 structible : the latter, destructible; and 
 also may be distinguished into productive 
 or barren; fixed or circulating; natural 
 or artificial. 
 
 1 8. What is the definition, and true 
 source of Rent.
 
 ( 2?) 
 
 19. That the rise of Prices is concur- 
 rent with the rise of Rents , not the con- 
 sequence of it. 
 
 20. That the rise of Rents does not 
 necessarily cause a diminution of Profits. 
 
 21. That the protection of the Corn- 
 Laws is necessary , if an Agricultural po- 
 pulation is more desirable than a Manu- 
 facturing population : and that the former 
 is more desirable , because it is more 
 healthy , more moral , aud more conten- 
 ted. -That these Laws are also neces- 
 sary , if we would not be dependent on 
 other countries for food. 
 
 22. What is Personal Capital : and in 
 what modes an annual income is derived 
 from it. 
 
 23. What are the advantages from 
 lending it on the security of Land. 
 
 24. What, from vesting it in the 
 Public Funds. 
 
 26. That it is sometimes lent on the 
 pledge of Goods.
 
 C 
 
 26. Sometimes , on the security of 
 Personal Responsibility. 
 
 27. That the Usury Laws seem neces- 
 sary for the protection of Borrowers. 
 
 28. That Tythes are objectionable as 
 a Tax on the prime costs of the neces- 
 saries of life : but that it is difficult, if 
 not impossible , to find an adequate sub- 
 stitute. 
 
 29. That State -Revenue principally 
 arises from Taxes : and that the amount 
 of these Taxes is very much increased 
 by the provision for the large Debt cre- 
 ated in a series of years by anticipated 
 
 income : that the decree of mischief of 
 
 ~ 
 
 such Debt depends on the mode in which 
 the Capital so borrowed has been ex- 
 pended : that this Debt has been absurdly 
 mistaken for a Capital : that in some re- 
 spects this application of Capital has not 
 been unfavourable to the accumulation 
 of National Riches; but that in others 
 it has been very injurious.
 
 ( 232 ) 
 
 So. That Taxes ou^ht not to be so laid 
 
 ~ 
 
 as to diminish future production ; and 
 therefore ought to spare Capital : that 
 they should operate equally , according 
 to Income , except upon the lowest : but 
 that numerous obstacles in the way of the 
 Financier render this scarcely practicable : 
 that Taxation is a great evil, justifiable 
 only from strong necessity ; and that there 
 are certain limits , which it cannot exceed. 
 3i. That Foreign Commerce stands 
 mainly on the same principles as Home 
 Trade : that, with the exception of Corn, 
 it is for the mutual benefit of all Nations, 
 acting with reciprocal freedom , to draw 
 commodities from the country, where 
 they can be produced cheapest; and that 
 the. general abolition of prohibitory duties, 
 with the above exception , may be of 
 equal advantage to all ; all thus mutually 
 sharing in each other's prosperity : and 
 that the soundness of the old ideas about 
 the Balance of Trade is at least doubtful.
 
 C 2.35 ) 
 
 From these particular positions I come 
 at length to sum up my grand conclusions. 
 
 That in every country of large extent, 
 with that due proportion of natural ad- 
 vantages which can alone secure the per- 
 manent power and prosperity of ages, 
 an eminent degree of solid and durable 
 Riches can alone be acquired arid retained 
 by a Population, I, of which the numbers 
 equal, but do not exceed , the means of 
 subsistence , capable of being drawn from 
 the native growth of that Country : 2, 
 of which the productive labourers are 
 duly apportioned between Agriculture 
 and Manufactures ; and of which any 
 little excess should always lean to Agri- 
 culture. 
 
 That the distribution of Riches in 
 their various proportions between the 
 Governments , the Capitalists , and the 
 Labourers, springs up, and is concurrent 
 with the very creation of those Riches : 
 that they are artificial things , which , 
 according to the destiny of Providence ,
 
 ( 254 ) 
 
 can exist in no other way : that the Ca- 
 pitalist's property is as necessary to their 
 production as the poor man's labour : and 
 that no such accumulation could have 
 taken place but under the protection oi 
 such rights of property. 
 
 That these proportions are duly defined 
 by the principles , out of which , according 
 to the order of things , they naturally 
 spring : and that therefore to know those 
 principles is absolutely necessary to enable 
 us to decide how far the political arrange- 
 ments of a country are in a healthy state ; 
 and how far they have been disturbed by 
 unwise laws or mischievous habits. 
 
 That some mode or instrument of ex- 
 change , or transfer of these Riches , not 
 in kind, but in value, became necessary 
 even from a very early period of society : 
 that the precious metals were anciently 
 arid generally adopted : that a Paper-Cur- 
 rency , which is of modern adoption, has 
 many advantages , and some great contin- 
 gent, but not necessary, evils : that it
 
 ( 2,55 ) 
 
 ought not to exceed the quantity of me- 
 tallic currency, which, if paper were out 
 of use , would be requisite for the same 
 purposes : that, though there is inherent 
 in it a strong tendency to excess, that any 
 great excess has actually taken place , is 
 at least doubtful : that at any rate great 
 temporary good has arisen from its adop- 
 tion : and any temptation to future excess 
 will be amply controuled by the cessation 
 of the provisions of the Bank-Restriction 
 Act. 
 
 That the Poor-Laws are , on these Prin- 
 ciples of Riches , unwise ; and a dangerous 
 disturbance of the due distribution of them. 
 
 That they have an incontroverticble 
 tendency to augment the population be- 
 yond the means of subsistence : and to 
 press upon, and literally exhaust the sur- 
 plus property of the country : and that 
 so far as they pay wages out of the Poor- 
 Rales, they are an equal infringement 
 upon the rights of the Labourer. 
 
 That the mode in which the Capitalist 
 spends his Income is at least as useful to
 
 ( 336 ) 
 
 .society as the mode in which it is spent 
 by the Producer and the Labourer : and 
 that the income derived from Land is both 
 derived i'rom more productive sources ; 
 and spread through more beneficial chan- 
 nels , than that drawn from Personal 
 Capital. 
 
 That Rent adds nothing; or the merest 
 fraction to the price paid by the Consu- 
 mer for Corn : that it arises from the 
 unequal fertility of the soils in cultivation , 
 and consequent inequality of cost or la- 
 bour in the production : that such are 
 the only terms , on which Providence 
 has ordained that the same quantity of 
 Corn can be grown in a country : and 
 therefore that the sole question is , whe- 
 ther a rational people can consider the 
 enrichment of landlords so great an evil, 
 as rather to forego the production of the 
 due quantity of home-grown corn , than 
 suffer this partial enrichment of one of 
 their Classes?
 
 That it is erroneous and invidious to 
 assert or argue that rise of Pients is at the 
 expence of Profits. 
 
 That Pients and Profits spring from 
 
 A O 
 
 analogous principles : and if while one 
 augments, the other declines, it is be- 
 cause these principles are not kept in 
 equal and concurrent activity. 
 
 That Home-grown Corn adequate to 
 the subsistence of the population is ne- 
 cessary upon two great considerations, 
 decidedly paramount to all minor incon- 
 veniences : first , from the superior health 
 and morals of the labouring population 
 employed in producing it : secondly, from 
 the independence of Foreign Nations for 
 articles of prime necessity , which it se- 
 cures. 
 
 That income derived from the interest 
 of money is more certain and punctual 
 than Rent of Land : but not so intimately 
 blended with the various sources of Na- 
 tional prosperity j and therefore not so
 
 ( 238 ) 
 
 operative on the moral and political 
 character of its possessors. 
 
 That Tythes are a heavy tax, aug- 
 menting unproportionally as Agriculture 
 improves. 
 
 '] hat Taxation , for the support of 
 the necessary expences of the State , 
 stands upon the most legitimate princi- 
 ples : that the regular system of antici- 
 pating income by Loans , and throwing 
 the burden of payment on posterity , is 
 Lis with frightful effects and final ruin ; 
 that the vast Debt which this system has 
 accumulated in Great Britain, though it 
 may have been attended by some power- 
 ful counteracting benefits, has necessi- 
 tated a gigantic extent of Taxation , highly 
 impolitic , and heavily oppressive both on 
 property and industry : that, it is true, 
 the j\atioriail\iches have stili continued to 
 augment in spite of it; that (here has been 
 an elasticity; a vigour} a icrhi^y oi re- 
 source, which has borne up against the 
 weight , and produced added means
 
 against added demands : but that these 
 counteractions cannot always continue ; 
 and that there are limits to Taxation, A\ Inch 
 cannot be passed without ruin. 
 
 I CAN easily anticipate that, among 
 the readers of these pages , if any number 
 of readers shall be found for them , not a 
 few will pronounce these Conclusions to 
 be truisms , which it is superfluous to lay 
 down ' much more, to support by anxious 
 argument. Plain arid convincing as they 
 appear to me, and plain and convincing 
 as I hope they will appear to many of 
 my readers , the principal of them have 
 not hitherto been deemed so obvious and 
 indisputable , as they may Mippose. 
 
 Some have estimated the strength and 
 value of a Population by its numbers. 
 
 Some have estimated the \aiut- and 
 wisdom of the measures of political eco- 
 nomy j and of the laws enacted to eriiorce
 
 ( 240 ) 
 
 them, by the mere test of the Riches 
 they were calculated to produce. 
 
 Some have deemed the Poor Laws to 
 be beneficent , politically wise, and mo- 
 rally conscientious and necessary. 
 
 Some have thought that the Riches of 
 a country must consist in its money ; and 
 that Paper-money having no intrinsic value, 
 therefore the Iliches of Great Britain 
 were a shadow ! 
 
 Some have thought , that it was cruel 
 to prohibit the Poor from buying Corn 
 from countries , where in the first instance 
 it could be had cheapest; and cruel at the 
 same time not to protect the produce of 
 llieir Manufacturing labours from Foreign. 
 
 u D 
 
 competition ! 
 
 Some have deemed it hard and op- 
 pressive that Landlords should enjoy aug- 
 mented Rents, though the same causes 
 furnished to themselves augmented Corn. 
 
 A few have taken Debt lor Riches 5 
 and Taxes lor symptoms of Prosperity. 
 OlherSj more dangerous in their com- 
 placence
 
 placence , have lulled themselves into a 
 sort of supine optimism ; and supposed , 
 that as we have weathered the storm in 
 the past, so we shall for ever ride the 
 waves , let the storm blow, and the billows 
 rise as high as they will ! 
 
 But perhaps the most universal errors 
 on matters of political economy in Great 
 Britain are those in favour of the pre- 
 ponderance of the Mercantile System. 
 The Manufacturer is always preferred 
 to the Agriculturist : the Manufacturing 
 property to the Agricultural! A false 
 value, also, is set in the scale of society 
 on Producers over Non-Producers ; and 
 the indestructible rights of various classes 
 to their unequal proportions of property, 
 are neither enforced nor understood. 
 
 I conclude therefore with a summary 
 of my main object : 
 
 That a Large /Population is only good , 
 when it keeps its proportion both to its 
 means of subsistence ; to the due distribu- 
 
 16
 
 ( 242 ) 
 
 tion of its Riches ; and the healthiest and 
 most moral modes of employment. 
 
 That Riches, if attainable at the ex- 
 pence of virtue and salutary labour , are 
 curses to be avoided , not benefits to be 
 sought. 
 
 That therefore to argue that a Nation , 
 \vhere the best soils are insufficient to 
 grow the due subsistence , ought to adopt 
 a resort to Foreign growlh , because 
 greater Puclies may be acquired by turn- 
 ing the husbaiiJry- labourers of the poorer 
 soils to the more profitable occupation of 
 Manufacturers, is one of the most dan* 
 gerous and mischievous doctrines that 
 \vas ever si-t forlii to delude the public 
 mind. And the mode in which it ia re- 
 ceived is another glaring proof of (he 
 direction m which the prejudices of the 
 British Nation always flow. 
 
 The Philosophy of the Stock-Exchange 
 is always of a narrow character, how ever 
 acute and ingenious it may be! And a 
 hope may not irrationabiy be now in-
 
 Bulged, that tlie influence of the Bank of 
 England over Treasury conduct may here, 
 after be greatly lessened, if not anninilated! 
 
 August 2O/&, 1819.
 
 (244) 
 
 WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 /. Poetry, Romance , and J^thics. 
 
 i. Sonnets and Poems, Svo. 1786, lygS, 1807. 
 3. Mary De Clifford, a Novel, Svo. 1792, 
 
 1800. 
 3. Arthur Fitz Albini, a Novel, 3 vol. ismo. 
 
 '798, 1799- 
 l\. Le-Forester, a Novel, 3 vol. i2mo. 1802. 
 
 5. The Ruminator : Essays Moral, Senti- 
 
 mental, and Critical, 2 vol. 8vo. 181?.. 
 
 6. The Sylvan Wanderer, Essays Descriptive 
 
 and Ethical , Svo. i8i5, 1819. 
 
 7. Bertram, a Poetical Tale in four Cantos, 
 
 Svo. i8i5, i2mo. 1816. 
 
 II. Bibliography. 
 
 8. Censura Literaria , i o vol. Svo. iSo5 , 1 809 ; 
 
 3d Edition , 1817. 
 
 9. British Bibliographer, 4 v l- Svo. 1809, 
 
 i8i3. 
 
 10. Restiluta, 4 vol. 8vo. i8i5, 1816.
 
 HI. Biography and Genealogy. 
 
 11. Memoirs of Peers of K. James I. 8vo. 180^. 
 
 12. Theatrum, Poetarum Anglicanorum, ori- 
 
 ginally compiled by E. Philips, the 
 nephew of Milton, Svo, 1800. 
 
 1 5. Arthur Collins's Peerage of England , a 
 3New Edition, with continuations, and 
 large additions, 9 vol. 8vo. 1812. 
 
 14. Reflections on the late Augmentations of 
 the Peerage, Svo. 1797. 
 
 ^. Political Economy, etc. 
 
 15. Tests of the National Wealth, Svo. 1799. 
 
 16. Two Pamphlets on the Poor-Laws , i8i5 5 
 
 1817. 
 
 17. Three Pamphlets on the Bill introduced 
 
 by the Author , for amending the Co- 
 pyright Act of iSi4- 
 
 V. New Editions of Rare Pieces of Old 
 English Literature. 
 
 1 8 Poems by Nicholas Breton , 4 to - 
 ig. Poems by Sir Waller Raleigh, ^to. ad 
 Edition , Svo.
 
 ( 246 ) 
 
 20. Francis Davison's Poetical Rhapsody; 
 
 5 vol 8vo. 
 
 21. IVT. Drayton's Nymphidia , 8vo. 
 
 22. W. Percy's Sonnets, 4to. 
 
 23. Excerpta Tudoriana, Elizabethan Poetry, 
 
 2 vol 8vo. 
 
 24. W. Browne's Original Poems, 4 to - 
 
 a5. Speeches delivered to Q, Elizabeth at 
 Sudeley Castle , 4^- 
 
 26. R. Greene's Groatsworth of Wit , 4 to. 
 
 27. Lord Brook's Life of Sir Philip Sydney, 
 
 2 vol. 8vo. 
 
 28. Cha. Fitzgeffrey's Sir Fra. Drake, ismo. 
 
 29. Broughton's Life and Death of the Marq. 
 
 of Winchester , i amo. 
 
 So. Life and Select Poems of Margaret, Du- 
 chess of Newcastle. 
 
 K.B. All these t from N. 18 to I\. 3o, 
 were printed at the Private Press , at Lee 
 Priory, in Rent, and no more than 100 
 copies were in any case taken : no other 
 edition of them will be given from the 
 same press, nor by the Editor. They are 
 of course become vtry rare. 
 
 3 1. Geo. Wither'* Hymns, Svo. 1816. 
 
 3 2 . _ Shepherd's Hunting, i2mo.
 
 35. Geo. Withers Fidelia , i 
 
 34. Fair Virtue, 121110. 
 
 55. Clement Barksdale's Nympha Libethris , 
 
 ismo. (4o copies.) 
 
 56. Poems of W. Herbert , Earl of Pembroke, 
 
 R. G. 1 2 mo. 
 07. Poems of Win. Hammond. (Go copies ) 
 
 IN". B. All these from Bensley's Press The 
 Copies never exceeded 100. 
 
 38. Poems of Thomas Stanley, 8vo. 
 69. Anacreon , by the same , 8vo 
 
 40. Poems of John Hall of Durham , 8vo. 
 
 4 1. Archaica : a reprint of Rare Ol-l English 
 
 Prose Tracts , 2 vol 4^- i S 1 3 , 1 8 1 G. 
 
 N B. All these from Davison's Press; and 
 were principally confined to i5o Copies. 
 
 The other Publications from the Lee Priory 
 Press are principally, Duniuce Castli-% a P^em, 
 by Kiw. Qnillitian, es^j Sonnets from Pe- 
 trarch, by the Rev. Francis Wfanghara; and 
 a Comedy, by the Rev. Henry Card.
 
 ( 248 ) 
 
 III the Press, and nearly ready for Pub- 
 lication , by the same Author , 
 
 1, Coningsby. A Tragic Tale. i2mo. 
 
 2. Lord Erokenhurst. A Tragic Tale. i2mo. 
 
 Preparing for Publication , 
 
 A Work, Critical and Biographical , on the 
 ENGLISH POETS, principally on those who flou- 
 rished before the date at which Johnson's 
 Collection commences : but including the 
 chief of such Poets of the reign of James I. 
 and Charles I. as Johnson has omitted. It is 
 intended to treat these subjects in an entirely 
 different manner from that in which the na- 
 ture of the Author's Bibliographical Works 
 required that he should treat them in those 
 
 Works. 
 
 ALSO , 
 
 Printing at the Private Press of Lee 
 
 Priory in Kent. 
 LETTERS FROM THE CONTINENT, 
 
 written in 1819. 
 Printed for Robert Triphook, Bond-Sired, London.
 
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