(in Political Economy), constitute the reward or compensation paid to labourers by those who employ them, in return for their services.

Taken in its widest sense, the term labourers is very comprehensive. In addition to the myriads who are engaged in agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing pursuits, it comprises all sorts of public functionaries, from the prime minister downwards, with those who crowd the ranks of what are called the learned and liberal professions. These parties, how widely soever they may differ in everything else, agree in this, that they exchange their services for valuable considerations of one sort or other. Their entire subsistence, in so far at least as they depend on their employment, is derived from wages; and they are as evidently labourers as if they handled a shuttle or a spade, or held a plough. Even those to whom ample fortunes have descended are not exempted from the necessity of exertion. The duties and obligations which property brings along with it are not a little onerous. The judicious management of a large estate, or other property, requires much care and circumspection. Without this, it may probably be wasted or dissipated; and, at all events, it cannot be applied to its legitimate ends, that is, to advance the interests and the honour of its possessors, and the well-being of their tenants, dependants, and neighbours. Though the contrary be sometimes affirmed, the rich have little in common with the gods of Epicurus. Idleness is hardly less injurious to them than to the poor. Notwithstanding the influence which justly belongs to rank and wealth, everyone is aware that "It is the hand of the diligent which bears rule." We may therefore say with Paley, that "Every man has his work. The kind of work varies, and that is all the difference there is. A great deal of labour exists besides that of the hands; many species of industry beside bodily operation, requiring equal assiduity, more attention, more anxiety. It is not true, therefore, that men of elevated stations are exempted from work; it is only true that there is assigned to them work of a different kind; whether more easy or more pleasant may be questioned; but certainly not less wanted, not less essential to the common good."

In this article the term labourers is taken in its popular Wages, and more confined sense; that is, we refer to those only who labour with the hand, as contradistinguished from those who labour with the head. Manual labourers form, however, by far the most numerous class in all nations, and though ranking lower in public estimation than the others, their functions are of paramount importance. Our fleets and armies depend on them for recruits; their expenditure furnishes the largest portion of the public revenue; and their industry and ingenuity supply most part of the conveniences and enjoyments which raise civilized man above the savage. An inquiry into the circumstances which determine the wages and condition of those to whom the other classes are so deeply indebted, and who, at the same time, form so large a portion of all societies, must possess a superior degree of interest.

Like everything else which is bought and sold, the labour or service of man may vary in its price. Those who at one time exchange the labour of a day, a week, a month, or other period, for a given sum of money, or a given quantity of necessaries and conveniences, may, at another time, exchange it for a different sum or quantity. Our first object will therefore be, to appreciate the circumstances on which these fluctuations depend, and the limits within which they are confined.

1. Wages depend on the Magnitude of the Capital or Fund appropriated to their payment, compared to the number of Labourers.—The different articles or products belonging to a country that either are or may be employed to support its inhabitants, or to facilitate production, have been termed its capital. It consequently comprises, in advanced countries like England, an all but infinite variety of articles, including buildings, ships, and machinery of all sorts, the lower animals in a state of domestication, with food, clothes, &c. But it is unnecessary, in an inquiry of this sort, to refer to capital in general; for we have only to deal with that portion of it which embraces the various articles intended for "the use and accommodation of the labouring class." This portion forms the fund out of which their wages are wholly paid. We should err if we supposed that the capacity of a country to feed and employ labourers, is to be measured by the advantageousness of its situation, the richness of its soil, or the extent of its territory. These, undoubtedly, are circumstances of very great importance, and have a powerful influence over the rate at which a people advance, or may advance, in numbers and civilisation. But it is obviously not by them, but by the amount of the capital applicable to the payment of wages belonging to a country, that its power of supporting and employing labourers is to be measured. Holland is less fertile than Poland or Hungary, and Lancashire is less fertile than Kent; but, owing to their greater command of capital, the population of the former is comparatively dense. A fertile soil may be made a means of rapidly increasing capital; but that is all. Before it can be cultivated, capital must be provided for the support of the labourers employed upon it, in like manner as it must be provided for the support of those engaged in manufactures, or other branches of industry.

It is a necessary consequence of what is now stated, that the average amount of subsistence falling to each labourer, or the rate of wages, wholly depends on the proportion between capital and population. On the one hand is a quantity of necessaries and conveniences, and, on the other, the work-people among whom these are to be divided. If, therefore, the amount of the former be increased, without an equal increase taking place in the number of the latter, the share of each, or his wages, will be increased; while, if the number of work-people be increased more than the mass of necessaries and conveniences to be distributed amongst them, each will get a smaller share, or a reduced rate of wages.

This principle is so very plain as hardly to require or admit of illustration. Suppose, however, that a country with two millions of labourers, has a capital of £30,000,000 sterling, annually appropriated to the payment of wages, it is evident that the wages of each, reducing them all to the same common standard, will be £15; and it is further evident that no addition can be made to this rate unless capital be increased in a greater degree than the number of labourers, or the number of labourers be diminished in a greater degree than the amount of capital. Now this case is not peculiar to this or that country, but is of universal application. Labourers are everywhere the divisor, capital the dividend. And hence the fundamental principle, that there are no means by which wages can be raised, other than by accelerating the increase of capital as compared with population, or by retarding the increase of population as compared with capital. And every scheme for raising wages, which is not bottomed on this principle, or which has not an increase of the ratio of capital to population for its object, must be completely nugatory and ineffectual.

Wages being most commonly paid and estimated in money, it may perhaps be thought that their amount will, in consequence, depend more on the supply of money in circulation, than on the magnitude of capital. But a little reflection will serve to show that the amount of money paid to the labourers is immaterial. They always receive such a sum as is equivalent to the portion of the national capital falling to their share. Men do not live on coin or paper. Work-people carry the money paid them direct to the retail dealers, and expend it on necessaries and conveniences. And it is by the amount of these which comes into their possession that their wages are really to be measured. Were the money in Great Britain suddenly doubled, money wages would, in no long time, be also doubled. But if no corresponding change took place in the supplies of food, clothes, and such like articles, their price would equally rise, and the condition of the labourers be precisely the same as before. They would carry twice the number of sovereigns and shillings to market that they did previously to the increase in the quantity of money; but for these they would obtain only the same quantity of commodities.

Whatever, therefore, be the changes in the rate of money wages—whether they vary from 2s. to 3s., or 5s. a-day—if the capital applicable to the support of labourers, and their number continue the same, or increase or diminish in the same proportion, no variation will take place in the rate of real wages. These do not rise, except when the proportion of capital to population is enlarged; and they do not fall, except when that proportion is diminished.

But, though the principle now stated admits of no dispute, several unfounded inferences have been deduced from it. And, to prevent misconception, it may be right to state at the outset, that the condition or well-being of the labouring classes cannot in any case be correctly measured by, or inferred from, the wages they receive. It depends to a great extent on their conduct and habits, more especially on the description and cost of the articles used by them, and on their frugality and forethought. The same amount of wages that would suffice to maintain a workman who lived principally on corn and butcher meat, would probably maintain two or more if they lived principally on potatoes. And, whatever may be the articles of subsistence used by a people, they will, it is obvious, be powerfully affected by variations in their supply and price; by the skill with which they are applied to their respective purposes, and the eco-

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1 A rise in their price being in most cases nearly equivalent to a corresponding fall of wages, and a fall in their price to a corresponding rise of wages. Wages.

The expenditure even of the poorest individuals is spread, in a country like this, over a great variety of articles, some of which conduct but little, while others are not unfrequently adverse, to their comfort and respectability. And, therefore, though the rate of wages, whether estimated in money or in commodities, depends on the proportion between capital and labour, the condition of the labourers is not determined by that rate only, but partly by it, and partly also, and perhaps principally, by the mode in which they expend their wages; that is, by their peculiar tastes and habits in regard to necessaries, conveniences, and amusements. Every one, indeed, is aware that workpeople with 18s., 20s., and 24s. a-week, are frequently much better off than others with 28s., 30s., and 36s. per do., though the families of the former be quite as large as those of the latter.

Numerous examples of the truth of what is now stated must at once occur to every individual, however limited his acquaintance with the poor. It is a curious fact, as showing how provident habits may be conjoined with low wages, that at present (1860) the average deposits in the savings banks of Dorsetshire amount to about £2, 12s. per head of the population; whereas they do not amount in Lancashire to above £1, 12s. per head of the population, though wages in the latter, owing to the greater demand for skilled labour, are more than double their amount in the former. This singular result is mainly, we believe, ascribable to the greater aggregation of the population of Lancashire into towns and villages, and the greater influx of Irish. But in whatever way anomalies of this sort may be explained, it is at all events certain that provident and economical habits are of the utmost importance to all classes. To the poor in particular they are altogether indispensable. If they want these habits, nothing else can avail them.

2. Comparative Increase of Capital and Population.—It would be necessary, were we to attempt to enter fully into a description of the many interesting questions connected with the demand for labour and the rate of wages, that we should inquire into the comparative increase of capital and population. But the very narrow limits within which this article must be confined, preclude our engaging in such inquiries; and, after all, they are important in a theoretical rather than a practical point of view. The increase or diminution of national capital depends on so many varying conditions and circumstances, which can neither be foreseen nor appreciated beforehand, that no certain conclusions can ever be drawn as to its amount, or the ratio of its progress at any future period. But how favourably or unfavourablysoever a country may be situated, and whatever may be its increase in wealth, the condition of the bulk of the people will always depend much more upon their own conduct than on that of their rulers or of anyone else. Not that we mean to insinuate that the influence of governments over their subjects is not great and powerful, or that the latter should not be governed in the best possible manner. A people who have the misfortune to be subjected to arbitrary and intolerant rulers, though otherwise possessed of all the powers and capacities necessary for the production of wealth, will, from the want of security and freedom, be most probably sunk in poverty and wretchedness. But wherever property is secure, industry free, and the public burdens moderate, the happiness or misery of the labouring classes depends almost wholly on themselves. Government has there done for them all that it should, and all in truth that it can do. It has given them security and freedom. But the use or abuse of these inestimable advantages is their own affair. They may be either provident or improvident, industrious or idle; and being free to choose, they are alone responsible for the consequences of their choice.

It is indeed foolish to expect, as some theorists have done, that the progress of population should ever be exactly adjusted to the increase or diminution of capital, or that the conduct of the mass of any people should be perceptibly influenced by public and remote considerations. The theories of philosophers, and the measures of statesmen and legislators, have reference to the interests and well-being of nations; but those of ordinary men embrace a comparatively narrow range. Their views seldom, indeed, extend even to the class to which they belong. They include only themselves, their families, and near connexions; and they are satisfied if they succeed in promoting their interests, without thinking or caring about those of others. Luckily, however, the two coincide. The industry, the frugality, and the forethought, without which no individual can either hope to improve his condition if he have little or nothing, or to keep his own, and avoid falling a sacrifice to poverty, if he have anything, are virtues indispensable to the well-being of individuals, and consequently of the community. And it is so ordered, that no sort of combination or co-operation is required to secure these advantages. They are realized in the fullest extent by every one by whom they are practised; and they can be realized by none else.

It is fortunate that those principles, a knowledge of which is of most importance to the interests of mankind, lie on the surface, and are easily understood, and may be practised by all. Every man, if he have any reflection, who proposes entering into a matrimonial engagement, must feel that he is about to undertake a serious responsibility. The wages or resources which may be able to support himself comfortably, may be insufficient for the support of two, or three, or four individuals, and if he have no provision made beforehand, and cannot increase his means by greater economy or greater exertion, what can he expect from his marriage but that he should be reduced to comparative poverty, and be forced, perhaps, to take refuge in a workhouse? There is no denying this conclusion; and a conviction of its truth will not tend to obstruct any really desirable union. It will only tend to lessen the number of those that are improvidently made, and which seldom fail to be ruinous alike to the parties and the public.

It is not unusual, indeed, for those who have brought themselves into difficulties by their improvidence or misconduct, to throw the blame on the government or the institutions of the country in which they live. But a pretence of this sort cannot impose on anyone possessed of the smallest discernment. It is the merest delusion to imagine that it is in the power of any administration to protect those from suffering and degradation who do not exercise a reasonable degree of industry and forethought. And though it were in its power, its interference in their behalf would be inconsistent with the most obvious dictates of justice and common sense. The lazy, the unskilful, and the improvident workman, whether he belong to Australia or China, England or Russia, will always be poor and miserable. No man can devolve on government, or on others, any portion of that self-responsibility which at once dignifies and constitutes an essential part of human nature. They are not the friends, but the worst enemies of the poor, who seek to conceal or disguise this great truth; and who endeavour to make it be believed that it is possible, by dint of legislation, to provide for the welfare of those who will not use the means which Providence has given them of maintaining themselves in their present position, or of rising to a higher. Such persons are to the poor what a treacherous guide is to a traveller in a strange country. They

1 Quarterly Review, p. 93, No. 215. lead them from the only path that can conduct to comfort and respectability, to one which is sure to terminate in disappointment and disgrace.

It will, we presume, be universally admitted, that practically it is impossible to increase the supplies of food and other articles necessary for the support of a family, so rapidly in Great Britain and France as they may be, and in fact are, increased in the United States and Australia. But how can those who admit this proposition deny its inevitable consequence, that were our people to marry as early and universally as the Americans and Australians, we should have, first a great increase of poverty, and then of mortality? Capital, indeed, or the means of supporting and employing labour, will, supposing other things to be equal, increase most under a just and liberal government. But experience sufficiently proves, that the power which men possess of increasing their numbers is sufficiently strong to make population keep pace with the progress of capital, in nations possessed of boundless tracts of fertile and unoccupied land, and of the most liberal institutions. And as this power does not fluctuate with the fluctuating circumstances of society, but remains constant, it evidently follows, if it be not controlled by their good sense and prudence, that it will necessarily in the end sink the inhabitants of densely peopled countries into the most abject poverty.

3. Inefficiency of Government Interference to increase Capital; Encouragement of Emigration.—It is needless to dwell, after what has been previously stated, on the paramount importance, with a view to the public well-being of capital increasing faster than population. But when such is the case, it may probably be inquired whether government may not assist in bringing about this wished-for result. In truth and reality, however, this is a matter in which legislation can do comparatively little. When government has secured the property and the rights of individuals, and has given that freedom to industry which is essential, it has done nearly all it can do to promote the increase of capital. If it interfere in industrial undertakings, its proceedings will be productive only of injury. The reliance of individuals on their own efforts, and their desire to advance themselves, are the only principles on which any dependence can be safely placed. When government engages in any department of industry, it is obliged, inasmuch as it has no means of its own, to obtain the necessary funds from its subjects, either by loans or taxes. It is obvious, therefore, that its interference adds nothing to the capital of the country. At best it merely substitutes one sort of superintendence for another: a salaried officer, with but little if any interest in the success of the undertaking, for the unrewarded vigilance of an individual trading on his own account, and dependent, perhaps, for his subsistence on the issue of his labours. To suppose that undertakings carried on by such different agencies should be equally prosperous, is to suppose what is evidently contradictory. This is a matter in regard to which there is no longer any difference of opinion. It is now universally acknowledged, that every branch of industry that may be carried on by private parties, will be more successfully and economically prosecuted by them than by the servants of government; and that any advantage that may seem to arise in any particular case, from employing the latter, will be found on examination to be altogether illusory. By interfering in production, government is sure, in so far as the influence of its measures extends, to weaken the industry and enterprise of its subjects, occasioning at one and the same time a misapplication and waste of capital, and a diminution of its produce.

It is nugatory, therefore, to expect any advantageous results from the efforts of government directly to increase capital or the demand for labour. It may, however, promote its increase indirectly, by relieving industry from oppressive burdens and shackles, negotiating with foreign powers for the removal of impediments to trade, and endeavouring, in short, to give greater facilities to production. But beyond this, the presumption is, that its interference will be productive of mischief rather than of good. And, if it attempt to set up national workshops for the employment of the poor, it will increase the poverty it seeks to relieve, disturb all the usual channels of industry, and become a potent instrument of evil.

It may, perhaps, farther be asked, Though government be thus incapable of contributing to increase wages by increasing capital, may it not effect the same end by promoting emigration, and relieving the market of the surplus hands thrown upon it? This question should, we think, be answered in the affirmative. An extensive voluntary emigration has been going on for a lengthened period from Great Britain, to which, as everybody knows, an extraordinary stimulus was given by the discovery of the gold-fields of California and Australia. And no one can doubt, that this emigration has been signally advantageous not only to the emigrants themselves, but to all classes of the community. Wages have been raised, and the condition of the labourers materially improved. And at the same time that this was being done, the shipping interest was enriched by the demand for vessels to carry away the emigrants; and a new and rapidly increasing demand was created for all sorts of manufactured products. Hence the unprecedented increase of manufactures and commerce; and the unexpected success that has latterly attended most sorts of industrial undertakings.

But in ordinary times, and in some degree even at present, voluntary emigrants do not always consist of those that might be most advantageously spared. They are in most cases active, enterprising, and industrious; and sometimes their emigration rather serves to make room for an inferior class, than to improve the condition of the labouring class in general. The poorest classes, however desirous they may be, are unable to emigrate; and these are the very parties who might be advantageously assisted by the public. It is difficult, indeed, to see how the money of the latter could be more profitably laid out than in helping forward emigration. Poor families in towns, or poor cottiers on estates in Britain or Ireland, for whose services there is little or no demand, were they conveyed to America or Australia, would most likely become industrious and thriving. And they might be conveyed to either of these continents, and some provision made for their temporary subsistence in them, for less than a year's cost of their miserable maintenance in England. And though, as a general rule, it might be wrong for a state to undertake the charge of emigration, still a great deal might be done by assisting parishes or landlords in removing paupers and other poor parties wishing to emigrate. So long as there is an extraordinary demand for labour in Australia and America, and anything like a surplus supply in any part of Britain or Ireland, so long will it be for the interest of all classes, but especially the poor, that labour should, like other things, be carried to the best market.

We shall be told, perhaps, that emigration may be carried to excess, and that the country may be deprived of an adequate supply of labour. But there is no real foundation for any such apprehension. That rise of wages which is the necessary consequence of every considerable emigration, progressively lessens the temptation to emigrate, and is an insuperable obstacle to its being carried to anything like an injurious extent. Previously to 1846, labour in Ireland was a mere drug; and, low as wages were, the peasantry were not half employed. Even at present (1860), the towns are crowded, with people driven from the country, for whom there is no effectual demand; and till they have pretty generally disappeared, there can be nothing like an excess of emigration. Ireland is not, in fact, a country which, were its social economy in a sound state, would have a large population. The want of coal renders her unsuitable to most descriptions of manufactures. And the humidity of her climate, while it makes her ill suited for the growth of most varieties of corn, renders her admirably well fitted for pastoral purposes. Her herbage is the finest and most luxuriant in Europe. And under the free commercial system which is now established, the presumption is, that the land of Ireland will be found to be much more productively employed in grazing than in tillage. This, at all events, is the conviction of some of those best acquainted with the circumstances, and best qualified to form a sound opinion upon them. And supposing it to be realized, population may yet be very greatly reduced, not only without any injury, but with much advantage to her future well-being.

But without farther speculating on such contingent and uncertain events, it is true, and should never be forgotten, that legislation, when most successful, merely improves, to a greater or less extent, the condition of the labourers generally. It does nothing peculiar for individuals. It leaves them where they should and must always be left, to depend on their own conduct and exertions: to be comfortable, if they practise thrift and industry; and wretched, if they indulge in waste and idleness.

The improved condition of the labouring classes of this country during the last twenty years, arising partly out of the gold-discoveries already alluded to, and partly, also, and in a still greater degree, from the liberal economical policy introduced by Sir Robert Peel, is evident to every one at all familiar with the subject. Money-wages have been considerably increased; and owing to the fall that has taken place in the prices of most articles used by the labourers, the same amount of money goes much farther now than formerly in the purchase of necessaries and conveniences. But notwithstanding the improvement in the condition of the mass, it must be admitted that many individuals and families continue in a very depressed condition. Except, however, in a few peculiar cases, that is owing far more to their own improvidence and misconduct than to anything else; and there is really no reason to think that their condition will be materially improved unless their habits be previously amended.

4. Equality of Wages in different Employments.—We have shown in the article Political Economy in this work, that though the rate of wages differs very widely in different employments, yet, when the circumstances peculiar to each are taken into consideration, and when labour may be moved freely from one employment to another, it is nearly the same in them all. The intensity of the labour in different occupations, the degree of skill and training required to carry them on, their healthiness, continuity, and the estimation in which they are held by the public, differ exceedingly. And wages are equal, not when each workman receives the same number of shillings or of pence by the hour, day, or week, but when they are adjusted so as to compensate, or counterbalance the above and other varying circumstances peculiar to the businesses in which they engage. Wherever, indeed, the principle of competition is allowed to operate without restraint, and individuals may employ themselves as they please, we may be assured that the higgling of the market will always adjust the rate of wages in different employments, on the principle now stated, and that they will be, all things considered, nearly equal. If wages in one employment be depressed below the common level, labourers will leave it to go to others; and if they be raised above that level, labourers will be attracted to it from the departments in which wages are lower, until their increased competition has sunk them to their average standard. We do not, however, mean to affirm, that this equalisation is in all cases immediately or speedily brought about. On the contrary, it often happens that, owing to an attachment to the trade, or the locality in which they have been bred, or the difficulty of learning other trades, individuals will continue, for a lengthened period, to practise their peculiar trades, or will remain in the same district, when other trades in that district, and the same trades in other districts, yield better wages to those engaged in them. But, how slowly soever, wages, taking everything into account, are sure to be equalized in the end. And the extraordinary facilities that are now afforded for becoming minutely acquainted with the various branches of industry carried on in all parts of the country, and of travelling from one point to another, will no doubt hasten the adjustment of wages, according to the advantages and disadvantages incident to different businesses and localities. Without, however, insisting on these considerations, it is enough to state, that all inquiries, like those in which we are now engaged, that have the establishment of genera, principles for their object, should be founded on periods of average duration; and whenever such is the case, it may always, without occasioning any material error, be assumed that the wages earned in different employments are, all things taken into account, about equal.

It may farther be observed, in reference to these principles, that wherever industry is unfettered, and knowledge generally diffused, the talents of all are turned to the best account. Indeed, it may be safely affirmed, that of the myriads of individuals engaged in industrial undertakings in Great Britain, as conductors, overseers, or workmen, the situation occupied by each is, in the vast majority of cases, that which is best suited to his capacity, and his salary or wages such as he is fairly entitled to by his services. Agriculturists, manufacturers, and merchants, whether their businesses be large or small, are always most anxious to give the greatest efficacy to their establishments, to adapt their means properly to their ends, and to select the parties that are, all things considered, the most suitable for their purposes. The prosperity of all industrial undertakings principally depends on the skill with which this selection is made, on the proper parties being placed in the proper situations, and their wages adjusted according to their merits and the confidence reposed in them. Mistakes in a matter of such primary importance as the proper distribution of the labour employed, in any considerable undertaking, would be so very fatal to its success, that we may be sure they will be carefully guarded against. The principle of detur digniori is the only one on which their managers can act with safety or advantage to themselves. And it is quite as much for the interest of the employed as of the employers that this distribution should be fairly made; for otherwise trickery, ignorance, and sloth, might carry off the rewards due to integrity, skill, and diligence. The society in which we live has its disadvantages and drawbacks; but, at all events, it must be said of masters and capitalists engaged in business, that they never willingly fail duly to appreciate and reward the superior talents and industry of the lower classes; and never suffer, or, if ever, only through error and for a moment, that the fund which should feed and support labour should be misemployed to support idleness.

5. Hiring by Time and by Piece Work—Advantages of the latter, &c.—Wages are sometimes paid by the day, week, month, year, or other term, and sometimes by the piece or job, that is, by the quantity of work done. Domestic servants are usually hired in the former mode or by Wages.

Wages, time; but large amounts of manufacturing, agricultural, and other labour are performed by the piece, and wherever it can be adopted, this is the preferable mode of hiring work-people. Their strength, skill, and assiduity are widely different. And when they are hired by time, it is often impracticable, and is always a difficult, troublesome, and invidious task, to arrange them in classes, and adjust the wages of each according to their real deserts. Hiring by the piece or job does away with these difficulties; and, by exactly apportioning the reward to the amount of labour, not only takes away all temptation to idleness, but prompts workmen to put forth all their energies. It makes their own immediate interest, and not their duty to their employers, the mainspring of their exertions. Laborious and skilful workmen are no longer underpaid, as compared with those who are slothful and ignorant. The system admits of no partiality on the part of the masters, and of no pretence or shirking on the part of the employed. It is thoroughly honest and equitable. The wages earned under it may be low or high; but whatever may be their amount, they are distributed in the exact ratio of the services that have been performed. The labourer who executes twice the work that is executed by another receives double wages, and so in proportion.

The stimulus which this plan of hiring gives to exertion is so very powerful, that in some cases it has been thought necessary, in the view of preventing the labourers from overworking themselves, to limit the sums which they could earn in a given time. But this ultra zeal is not manifested, except in the case of parties engaged for a short period only, or when they first begin to work under this system. Regular task-work labourers, though distinguished by their industry and perseverance, do not overwork themselves. They are also much more their own masters than those engaged for certain terms. They are, in truth, at once contractors and labourers. And provided they execute their work within the term stipulated (if such stipulation be made), they may choose their own time for working, and begin and leave off when they please.

Piece-work is also by far the most likely, if it be not the only means by which the mere labourer can expect to advance himself to a higher station. A man undertakes to cut down corn at so much an acre; to make roads and drains at so much a rood, to weave cloth at so much a yard, in short, to execute a certain amount of work for a certain price. Sometimes he restricts his undertaking to what he thinks he can execute himself, with perhaps the assistance of his family. But whether he do this, or employ others (sometimes in the way of sub-contractors) to assist him, it is his object to finish his task as expeditiously as possible, and to employ his profits as a means of extending his business. In this way he gradually rises in the scale of society, till, having ceased to work with his own hands, he becomes a contractor on a large scale, or engages in some other occupation. And it is plain that the training and experience he has had, and the habits he has formed, must make him at once a vigilant and a discerning master. The foundations of thousands of middling and of very many large fortunes have been laid in the way now stated. It is, in truth, the broadest, the easiest, and the safest of the various channels by which diligent, sagacious, and frugal individuals emerge from poverty, and attain to respectability and opulence. Those who thus rise to distinction may be emphatically said to be the architects of their own fortunes. They owe nothing to interest, to favour, or to any unworthy means. They stood originally on the same level with their fellow-workmen, and they owe their elevation to the judicious exercise of talents common to them all.

There cannot, therefore, as it appears to us, be any reasonable doubt that the introduction of the practice of piece-work, or of hiring by the job, has been, and that its further extension would be, a great advantage to all classes, but especially to the labourers. It appears to be the only plan by which a man's earnings are not only made to depend upon, but are exactly proportioned to, his labour, skill, and ingenuity; while it has the further advantage of enabling prudent and enterprising individuals to advance themselves, by comparatively easy steps, to a superior condition, and, in the end, to merge the character of labourer in that of employer.

It has sometimes been said, that it would be good policy to endeavour to interest labourers in the zealous prosecution of the task in which they may be engaged, by making their wages depend, in part at least, on the result of their exertions. But, except in a few limited and peculiar cases, this could not be done. The wages of sailors may be, and indeed usually are, made to depend on the successful termination of the voyage. But how could the wages of the work-people employed on a farm, in a foundry, or in a cotton mill, be made to depend on the result of such speculative undertakings? Very frequently, however, the work-people now referred to are paid by the piece; and, when such is the case, they have a plain and tangible motive, level to their capacities, and not depending on anything remote or contingent, to make every exertion.

But though the practical difficulties in the way of making the wages of labourers dependent on the results of the employments in which they are engaged were less formidable than they appear to be, we should not, in the great majority of cases, anticipate any advantages from the scheme being adopted. On the contrary, the presumption is, that it would be injurious. If labourers are to participate in the advantages of successful enterprises, they must also participate in the losses resulting from those of a contrary description; and must, consequently, in cases of failure, be deprived of their accustomed and necessary means of subsistence. The hazard to which they would thus be exposed might, it is true, be lessened by making a part only of their remuneration depend on the issue of the enterprise. But if it were really an advantage to be allowed to participate in a chance of this sort, the fixed portion of their wages would be proportionally diminished, and at every failure of an enterprise, the labourers engaged in it would be thrown upon the workhouse, or on the contributions of the benevolent. It is nugatory to suppose that the condition of the poor should be improved by their engaging in such uncertain projects. Security, and a reward proportioned to their deserts, conduce most to their wellbeing. And these, we have seen, are enjoyed in the highest degree by the piece-work labourers. They are nowise dependent on the seasons, or on any one of the thousand unforeseen contingencies that may occur to defeat the most carefully conducted industrial speculation. They depend on themselves only; and being sure of a commensurate return, they invariably put forth all their energies.

It is further obvious, that if work-people are to be interested in the result of an undertaking, they must have some control over its conduct, and be authorized to inquire into the accounts and proceedings of those by whom the undertaking is managed. All the advantages of individual enterprise and responsibility would, in consequence, be lost, and the most necessary and judicious steps, in the conduct of a business, might be objected to or censured by those most incompetent to form a judgment upon such matters. At present, when a capitalist engages in any undertaking, he knows beforehand that he will reap all the advantage if it be successful; and that, if otherwise, he will have to bear all the loss. He is consequently determined, by the most powerful motives, to act discreetly, to proscribe all useless expense, and to avail himself of every means or incident that may present itself, to facilitate his projects. Except in a very few cases, all industrial undertakings are sure to be carried on most efficiently and economically by individuals. But of all sorts of interference, that of the workmen would be most objectionable. It would hardly, indeed, be more absurd for a general to take the opinion of the privates of his army on questions of strategy, than it would be for a capitalist to call his labourers to his councils, and mould them according to their opinions.

6. Influence of Taxation, &c., over Wages.—The inquiry into the influence of taxation over the rate of wages and the condition of the poor involves the consideration of sundry difficult and delicate questions, and has given rise to a great deal of discussion. Our limits will not, however, allow of our entering upon the subject; and it is, indeed, unnecessary, as we have already treated it at considerable length in the article Taxation in this volume, to which we beg to refer. Here we shall merely observe, that the influence of taxes over the labourer, provided they be judiciously selected and assessed, is by no means so injurious as is commonly supposed, and that it is frequently even beneficial. (See article referred to).

Poor-laws, savings-banks, public education, and so forth, have each their peculiar influence over the poor, depending, of course, in a considerable degree, on the way in which they are respectively organised or administered. But having been already pretty fully treated of under the heads referred to, the consideration of that influence needs not be resumed in this place.

It might in some respects have been desirable to annex to this article tables of the rate of wages in different businesses and at different periods. But these have been omitted, because to make them really useful, they would require to be accompanied with various collateral tables and discussions, exhibiting the prices of provisions, clothes, and other accommodations, the habits of the population, and so forth. These, however, would require far more space than can be allowed to them in this work; and we must therefore content ourselves with referring the reader for information on these subjects to the statements and tables embodied in or annexed to the great work of Sir F. M. Eden on the Poor, and to those in Tooke's History of Prices, and other publications. A tract has lately been published by Mr David Chadwick of Salford, which gives authentic information in regard to the rate of wages in about "200 trades and branches of labour" in Lancashire during the twenty years from 1839 to 1859. It is an instructive and a valuable publication, and does great credit to the industry and ability of the writer.

Some of the previous paragraphs have been taken from the Essay on the Circumstances which determine the Wages of Labour, &c., by the author of this article. (p. ii.)

WAIFs, are goods stolen, and waived or thrown away by the thief in his flight, for fear of being apprehended. These by the law are given to the king, as a punishment upon the owner for not himself pursuing the felon, and taking away his goods from him. And therefore if the party robbed do his diligence immediately to follow and apprehend the thief (which is called "making fresh suit"), or convict him afterwards, or procure evidence to convict him, he shall have his goods again.