labour was much beyond the demand for it, absorb- 

 ed a great part of this redundant labour ; and as 

 the roads are now, generally, in a much better 

 state of repair than formerly, a part of that labour 

 which has of late years heen occupied upon them, 

 will be set at liberty ; and unless the circum- 

 stances of the tenants enable them to employ this 

 labour, or it can be made use of in other directions, 

 the labourers must be supported by a compulsory 

 provision, and the poor rate be thereby augmented. 

 Writers on political economy, and speculative rea- 

 soners, seem to see and admit no difficulty in the 

 balance between the demand and supply of labour 

 in a country being soon regulated, that if there 

 be an excess of labourers in one branch of industry 

 and a deficiency in another, the balance would be 

 soon adjusted. They reason, indeed they assert, 

 that if there be a redundancy of agricultural 

 labourers, with a flourishing trade, they would be 

 speedily employed in handicraft work but this 

 is a doctrine of theory. They are not aware of, at 

 least they forget to estimate, the difficulty of the 

 transmission of labourers from dissimilar employ- 

 ments. In parts of the kingdom where at present 

 the poor rate is moderate, the best management 

 and most vigilant superintendence will be neces- 

 sary to prevent its increase ; and nothing but a 

 more extended field of employment which will 

 raise wages, or at all events keep them from fall- 

 ing, and give the labourer a greater command 

 over the necessaries and comforts of life, united 



