JOHN STUART MILL. 383 



something more than this : in the case of all above the worst-paid class 

 it is decidedly more. The minimum is, in truth, not a physical, but a 

 moral minimum, and, as such, is capable of being altered with the 

 changes in the moral character of those whom it affects. In a word, 

 each class has a certain standard of comfort below which it will not 

 consent to live, or, at least to multiply a standard, however, not 

 fixed, but liable to modification with the changing circumstances of 

 society, and which in the case of a progressive community is, in point 

 of fact, constantly rising, as moral and intellectual influences are 

 brought more and more effectually to bear on the masses of the people. 

 This was the new premiss brought by Mill to the elucidation of the 

 wages question, and it sufficed to change the entire aspect of human 

 life regarded from the point of view of Political Economy. The prac- 

 tical deductions made from it were set forth in the celebrated chapter 

 on " The Future of the Industrial Classes " a chapter which, it is no 

 exaggeration to say, places a gulf between Mill and all who preceded 

 him, and opens an entirely new vista to economic speculation. 



The doctrine of the science with which Mill's name has been most 

 prominently associated, within the last few years, is that which relates 

 to the economic nature of land, and the consequences to which this 

 should lead in practical legislation. It is very commonly believed that 

 on this point Mill has started aside from the beaten highway of eco- 

 nomic thought, and propounded views wholly at variance with those 

 generally entertained by orthodox economists. No economist need be 

 told that this is an entire mistake. In truth there is no portion of the 

 economic field in which Mill's originality is less conspicuous than in 

 that which deals with the land. His assertion of the peculiar nature 

 of landed property, and again his doctrine as to the " unearned incre- 

 ment " of value arising from land with the growth of society, are sim- 

 ply direct deductions from Ricardo's theory of rent, and cannot be 

 consistently denied by any one who accepts that theory. AH that 

 Mill has done here has been to point the application of principles, all 

 but universally accepted, to the practical affairs of life. This is not 

 the place to consider how far the plan proposed by him for this pur- 

 pose is susceptible of practical realization ; but it may at least be con- 

 fidently stated that the scientific basis on which his proposal rests is 

 no strange novelty invented by him, but simply a principle as funda- 

 mental and widely recognized as any within the range of the science 

 of which it forms a part. 



There is one more point which ought not to be omitted from even 

 the most meagre summary. Mill was not the first to treat political 

 economy as a science, but he was the first, if not to perceive, at least 

 to enforce the lesson, that, just because it is a science, its conclusions 

 carried with them no obligatory force with reference to human con- 

 duct. As a science it tells us that certain modes of action lead to cer- 

 tain results ; but it remains for each man to judge of the value of the 



