Acquisitiveness and Self-Esteem; of the more intelligent class of gentlemen, to gratify Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation, by attaining political, literary or philosophical eminence, and of another portion, to gratify Love of Approbation by supremacy in fashion- and these gratifications are sought by means not in accordance with the dictates of the higher sentiments, but by the joint aid o. the intellect and animal powers. If the supremacy of the inoral sentiments and intellect be the natural law, then, as often observed, every circumstance connected with human life must be in harmony with it: that is to say, first, After rational restraint on population, and proper use made of machinery, such moderate labor as will leave ample time for the systematic exercise of the higher powers will suffice o provide for human wants; and, secondly, If this exercise be neglected, and the time which ought to be dedicated to it be employed in labor to gratify the propensities, direct evil will ensue - and this accordingly appears to me to be really the result.

By means of machinery, and the aids derived from science, the ground can be cultivated, and every imaginable necessary and luxury produced in ample abundance, at a moderate expenditure of labor by any population not in itself superabundant. If men were to stop whenever they had reached this point, and to dedicate the residue of each day to moral and intellectual pursuits, the consequence would be the existence of ready and steady, because not overstocked, markets. Labor, pursued till it provided abundance, but not superfluity, would meet with a certain and just reward, and would also yield a vast increase of happiness; for no joy equals hat which springs from the moral sentiments and intellect excited by the contemplation, pursuit, and observance, of the Creator's laws. Farther, morality would be improved; for men, being happy, would become less vicious: and, lastly, there would be im provement in the organic, moral, and intellectual capabili ties of the race for the active moral and intellectual organs

of the parents would tend to increase the volume of these in their offspring-so that each generation would start not only with greater stores of acquired knowledge than those which its predecessors possessed, but with higher natural capabilities of turning them to account.

Before merchants and manufacturers can be expected to act in this manner, a great change must be effected in their sentiments and perceptions; but so was a striking revolution effected in the ideas and practices of the tenantry west of Edinburgh, when they removed the stagnant pools between each ridge of land, and banished ague from their district. If any reader will compare the state of Scotland during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, correctly and spiritedly represented in Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, with its present condition in regard to knowledge, morality, religion, and the comparative ascendency of the rational over the animal part of our nature, he will perceive so great an improvement in later times, that the commencement of the miennium itself, five or six hundred years hence, would scarcely be a greater advance beyond the present, than the present is beyond the past. If the laws of the Creator be really what are here represented, it is obvious that, were they taught as elementary truths to every class of the community, and were the sentiment of Veneration called in to enforce obedience to them, a set of new motives and principles would be brought into play, calculated to accelerate the change; especially if it were seen—what, ir. the next place, I proceed to show-that the consequences of neglecting these laws are the most serious visitat ons of Auffering that can well be imagined. If the views advocated in this work be correct, the system on which the manufactures of Britain are at present conducted, is as great an aberration from the laws of Nature as any recorded in the history of the world. It implies not only that the vast body of the people shall for ever remain in a condition ittle superior to that of mere working animals, in order

that, by means of cheap labor, our traders may、nderse!! the merchants of all other nations; but also that ou manufactures and commerce shall enjoy an indefinite extension-this being essential to their prosperity as they are now conducted, although in the nature of things impossible. On the 13th of May 1830, Mr. Slaney, M. P., called the attention of the House of Commons to the increase which had taken place in the number of those employed in manufacturing and mechanical occupations, as compared with the agricultural class He stated, that in England, the former, as compared with the latter, were 6 to 5 in 1801; they were as 8 to 5 in 1821; and, taking the increase of population to have proceeded in the same ratio, they were now as 2 to 1 In Scotland the increase had been still more extraordinary. In that country they were as 5 to 6 in 1301; as 9 to 6 in 1821; and now they were as 2 to 1. The increase in the general population during the last twenty years had been 30 per cent.; in the manufacturing population it had been 40 per cent.; in Manchester, Coventry, Liverpool, and Birmingham, the increase had been 50 per cent.; in Leeds it had been 54 per cent.; in Glasgow, it had been 100 per cent.' Here we perceive that a vast population has been called into existence and trained to manufacturing industry. I do not doubt that the skill and labor of this portion of the people have greatly contributed to the wealth of the nation; but I fear that the happiness of the laborious individuals who have conferred this boon, has not kept pace with the riches which they have created. The causes of this cir cumstance appear to be the following:

Several millions of human beings have been trained to manufactures, and are unfit for any other occupation. In consequence of the rapid increase of their numbers, and of vast improvements in machinery, the supply of labor has for many years outstripped the demand for it, and wages have fallen ruinously low. By a coincidence which at first sight appears unfortunate much of the machinery of mod

ern invention may be managed by children. The parent, who, by his own labor for twelve hours a-day, is able to earn only seven shillings a-week, adds to his income one shilling and sixpence or two shillings a-week, for each child whom he can send to the manufactory; and by the united wages of the family a moderate subsistence may be eked out. Both parents and children, however, are reduced to a hopeless condition of toil; for their periods of labor are so long, and their remuneration is so small, that starvation stares each of them in the face when they either relax from exertion or cease to live in combination. Men tal culture and moral and intellectual enjoyment are excluded, and their place is supplied by penury and labor Dr. Chalmers reports, that in our great towns, whole masses of this class of the people are living in profound ignorance and practical heathenism. The system tends constantly to increase the evils of which it is the source Young persons, when they arrive at manhood, find themselves scarcely able to subsist by their individual exertions; whereas, if they can add the scanty income of three or four children to their own, their condition is in some degree improved. House-rent, and the expenses of furniture and fuel, are not increased by the wants, in proportion to the contributions, of the young. Adults are thus temptednay, almost driven by necessity-to contract early marriages, to rear a numerous offspring, devoted to the same employments with themselves, and in this way to add to he supply of labor, already in excess. The children grow ap, and in their turn follow the same course; and thus, however widely the manufactures of Britain may have extended, a stil farther and indeed an indefinite extension of them seems to be demanded; for the system produces a constantly increasing, yet ignorant, starving, and miserabie population, more than adequate to supply all the labor that can be profitably expended. The consequence is, that markets are overstocked with produce; prices first fai ruinously low; the operatives are ther thrown idle, and

left in destitution, till the surplus produce of their formerly excessive labor, and perhaps something more, are consumed: after this, prices rise too high in consequence of the supply falling rather below the demand; the laborers then resume their toil, on heir former system of excessivo exertion; they again overstock the market, and are again thrown idle and suffer dreadful misery.

In 1825-6-7, this operation of the natural laws was strikingly exhibited; large bodies of starving and unemployed laborers were supported on charity. How many hours did they not stand idle, and how much of excessive toil would not these hours have relieved, if distributed over the periods when they were overworked! The results of that excessive exertion were seen in the form of untenanted houses and of shapeless piles of goods decaying in warehouses-in short, in every form in which misapplied industry could go to ruin. These observations are strikingly illustrated by the following official report.

State of the Unemployed Operatives resident in Edinburgh, who are supplied with work by a Committee constituted for that purpose, according to a list made up on Wednesday the 14th March 1827.

The number of unemployed operatives who have bees. remitted by the Committee for work, up to the 14th of March, are

And the number of cases they have rejected, after having been particularly investigated, for being bad characters, giving in false statements, or being only a short time out of work, &c. &c. are

Making together,

1481

446

1927

'Besides these, several hundreds have been rejected by the Committee, as, from the applicants' own statements, hey were not considered as cases entitled to receive relief, and were not, therefore remitted for investigation.

'The wages allowed is 5s. per week, with a peck of meal to those who have families. Some youths are only allowed 3s. of wages