129 



All labour ought to be paid by an invariable standard. We 

 pay the good or bad Prime Minister, Bishop, Clergyman, Doctof, 

 Lawyer, Civil Servant, and Domestic Servant all alike. Nay, 

 say you, if I want any of the above I choose them. Very well, 

 then by all means choose your Weaver, Joiner, Ironworker, 

 Bricklayer and Labourer. To be chosen is the proper reward of 

 a good workman. 



The false, unnatural, and destructive system is, when the bad 

 workman is allowed to offer his work at half price, and either 

 takes the place of the good, or force him by his competition to 

 work for an inadequate sum. 



Why is not the profession of the Merchant, Manufacturer and 

 Tradesman esteemed as honourable as that of the Soldier, the 

 Pastor, the Physician, and the Lawyer ? It is because the public 

 beUeve that it is the first object of these men connected with 

 trade in their dealings, to get as much for themselves as they can 

 and leave as little to their customer as possible ; they go about 

 proclaiming vociferously for a law of the universe that the buyer's 

 function is to cheapen, and a seller's to cheat. The public 

 nevertheless involuntarily condemn the man of commerce for his 

 own compliance with their own statement and stamp him as 

 belonging to an inferior grade of human personality. 



The great want of manufacturing commerce and trade is men 

 Cf a heroic temper, and honest courage. Then the market wiU 

 have its martyrdoms as well as the pulpit, and trade its heroisms 

 as well as war. 



The condition of things at present is that while many a zealous 

 person loses his life in trying to teach the form of a gospel, very 

 few will lose a hundred pounds in showing the practice of one. 

 The only reasons why a man should be raised above his fellow- 

 man ought to be, that in his dealings he is more honourable ; in 

 danger more noble and brave, in adversity the most enduring and 

 self-denying; and along with these, capable of giving to his 

 feUow-men virtuous counsel, fuU of good sense and wisdom. A 

 man who holds fast to these things is rooted in honour. 



Justice consists in absolute exchange, and with a true Ruskin 

 home-thrust he goes on to say — or, " if there be any, respect to the 

 stations of the parties it will not be in favour of the employer. 

 There is certainly no equitable reason in a man's being poor ; 

 that if he gave me a pound of bread to-day I should return him 

 less than a pound of bread to-morrow." The abstract, idea, then, 

 of just and due wages as respects the labourer is that they will 

 consist of a sum of money which will at any time procure for him 

 at least as much labour as he has given, rather more than less. 

 The wealth of the work may not be easily known ; but it has a 

 wealth just as fixed and real as the specific gravity of a substance, 

 though such specific gravity may not be easUy ascertainable when 



