they have opportunities of drawing an interest from their small accumulations, yet that is not the chief use of their prudence; the necessity of their condition is, that their revenues are to arise from their labour; and the essential service of their savings is to preserve themselves secure in that condition, guarded against its inevitable casualties, and enabled to rear, educate, and put their children well forward in that way of life. If their numbers be not increasing too fast for the capital of the country, they will always be sure of a demand for their services; but when there are more people than the capital of the country can employ at the accustomed wages, the competition for employment will gradually reduce wages to the least that will support existence. The habits and ideas of the people become degraded, and when that fatal change has taken place, if from any cause wages should suddenly rise, it is almost certain they will be spent by the people, not in improving their condition, but in mere debauchery.

To explain to those who have not turned their attention to subjects of this nature, that low wages do not necessarily proceed from the hard-heartedness of wealthy employers, (either manufacturers or landlords,) a fact may be mentioned which illustrates that point, though otherwise it has no claim to notice. During one of the scarcities so frequent in Ireland, numbers of poor people were wandering about, begging for work on any terms. Two neighbouring gentlemen were at the same time making the relief of the people their chief object, and, each taking his own view of what was best to be done,

followed opposite systems. The one, strongly impressed with the evils of the low rate of wages customary at all times in Ireland, regarded it as a cruelty now to take advantage of the general calamity, to make the poor man work for less than usual; he therefore resisted as much as he could all reduction of wages, and put as many men to work upon his land at the usual rate, as he could afford by the most generous exertions to maintain during the pressure; but as it was impossible to maintain the same number at a shilling per day, as at sixpence or fourpence, many were of necessity sent away. The other employed every poor creature who came, at the least he would take, for he said, "anything is better than starving; they who are willing to make the greatest exertions are those whose want is greatest ; and what are they to do, who are imploring permission to earn a meal for themselves and their families, if they are refused altogether, in order to enable a smaller number to live as well as if there were no deficiency?"

Nothing could be better than the feeling on both sides; but if every one had acted on the principle of the former, many people must have perished of absolute famine. In this case, the cause of the competition for work was deficient food; but that makes no difference, the same thing will occur when there is deficient employment. This instance has been chosen, because the question of wages is here exhibited, solely in its relation to the number of labourers and the fund that was to support them, without any regard to the interests of their em

ployers. These gentlemen were men of fortune; the profit they could make of the work was of no further consideration to them, than as it diminished their loss by bringing them some small return for their money. But in the case of trade this cannot be; the capitalist must live by his profits, and the employment given must be for the interest of both parties.

When distress proceeds really from the disproportion between the numbers of the people, and the food or capital of the country, there is no effectual remedy except increasing the food or the capital, or removing the people to some place where there is a demand for labour, and where food can be raised in abundance*. No plans of relief that, instead of creating new riches for the maintenance of new numbers, only divide differently what already exist, will be permanently beneficial. Of this sort are charitable subscriptions, for however necessary these may be to meet an exigency, yet they cannot create new funds; they can only make a new distribution of the old. Neither will attempting to put the ignorant, the improvident, and the intemperate on a footing. with the frugal and moral, end in anything but failure or positive mischief.

SECTION VII.

Bodily Health.

The most important of all circumstances relating to the manufacturers' condition, is the effect of his employment upon his health. It is evident, that

See Note M. at the end of the volume.

conclusive judgments upon this subject could have no weight, except from a medical person, whose attention had been long and earnestly directed to it; but no such specific knowledge is required for the present purpose; it is sufficient that disease and ill health exist to a great degree, that much is remediable, and that ills which cannot be wholly averted may be very much palliated. These are positions which I believe cannot be denied; and they who reside within reach of the manufacturing districts— but they above all, who are connected with this form of industry, and draw their prosperity from its labours-are called on by every feeling of humanity, and every duty a Christian acknowledges, to direct their utmost attention and effort to this subject. Our first consideration will relate to the ill health that is owing to poverty and vice, which have nearly the same effects everywhere, in order to separate it from that which arises from the nature of manufacturing employments: we may next endeavour to clear real evils, from those exaggerations and prejudices, which only substitute declamation in place of practical conviction.

The most general causes of ill health, says Dr. Arnott, are bad ventilation, cold, deficient or bad food, excess, want of exercise mental or bodily, and overwork. Peculiar diseases are produced by the poisonous quality of many substances used in the arts, and which are inhaled, or taken in through the skin; by the flue or dust arising from cotton, flax, and other materials; by the bent or constrained postures which some occupations require; and by close and

long-continued mental application, sometimes to minute objects, by which the sight (as well as the general health) is endangered. It is so much the nature of the human constitution to adapt itself to a great variety of circumstances, that health is not always injured by things which at first view would generally be fixed on as dangerous; others again are invariably hurtful. There is scarcely a trade or manufacture to be named which, in some of its processes, has not its peculiar and attendant disease, or its impending accidents. Dreadful as this sounds, it is, however, no more than may be said of every other profession, every mode of life, every climate, and as certainly of idleness as of any form of labour. As the shadow follows the body, so do the footsteps of death follow man through every winding that he takes in pursuit of life and prosperity; and yet after all, health is the rule, and sickness the exception; for neither is disease always mortal, nor always continuous, nor always acutely painful; nor does it always leave infirmities that impair the powers of enjoyment and action, when the attack has subsided; and it is only in such extreme cases that imperfect health is a source of much misery. In estimating the condition of the people, health is the first thing to consider; it is the first requisite of happiness; and where it is generally good, it implies the possession of nearly every other essential to physical well-being. But it is important not to mislead our judgment, by supposing that every avocation, said not to be healthy, is habitually and incurably miserable. The injury to the health of the soldier from damps and marshes, bad barracks, and