1 



DIVISION OF EMPLOYMENTS. 



DIVORCE. 



desire some little variety. Ulrth4ciranns*aace it is very natural 

 tht th*y nhould effect exchanges with Melt other not for the mere 



lore of barter but for the lore" of food. Bat inch in exchange could 

 not be nude between two men who both lived by fishing nor between 

 two other, who both lived by hunting ; for under such circumstance* 

 neither party would have anything to offer but th*t of which the other 

 already had enough. It u perfectly true that without l*rter no ex- 

 tensive division of employment* can exist ; but it in clear that barter 

 b the immediaU effect rather than the cauae of such divUion. of the 

 influence of commerce upon the division of employment* we ahall have 

 to speak presently ; Init in this place it is sufficient to show that the 

 production of different commodities beyond the immediate wants of 

 thoae who produce them enable* men to barter, by giving them 

 something to offer in exchange ; and that afterwards the advantages 

 derived from barter are an encouragement to further production of 

 the aune kind. 



When this state of things has been once established, men avail them- 

 ialnM of all the natural advantages of their several positions, and apply 

 themselves to the production of those commodities for which they 

 have peculiar facilities. In one country minerals can be drawn from 

 the bowels of the earth in unlimited abundance; in another the fruit* 

 of the earth teem upon its surface fostered by a genial climate and a 

 fertile i~'il. The inhabitants of these countries naturally seek to 

 develope the resources of the earth which ore'within their reach. They 

 labour effectively and produce abundance of their particular commo- 

 dities, which they give in exchange for other things which they cannot 

 produce themselves, but which they desire to enjoy : and thug a 

 ilivi-i.'ii of employment*, by the aid of an extended commerce, distri- 

 butes over the whole world the advantages of soil, climate, situation, 

 and mineral productions, obtained by the experience and skill of men 

 who have adapted their talents to the circumstances of each country. 



Having thus hastily enumerated the several way* in which a division 

 of employments adds to the efficacy of human labour, and increases 

 the enjoyments of men, let us inquire in what manner it is restrained 

 and limited. It may be collected from several of the preceding re- 

 marks, that the power of distributing men' into particular employ- 

 ments must be limited by the extent of the market in which the 

 produce of their labour may be exchanged. When there ore no means of 

 exchanging, men must provide everything for themselves that they 

 require ; and there is no further division of employments than that 

 which necessarily takes place in families, and in the most simple forms 

 of industry. So in every degree in which the situation and circum- 

 stances of men give facilities of exchange, do particular employments 

 become assigned to individuals. A village draper sells all kinds of 

 drapery, together with hats, shoes, coats, smock-frocks ; nay, in gome 

 villages there is but one shop, in which nearly every kind of trade is 

 carried on. In a populous city, on the other hand, trades are almost 

 indefinitely subdivided. And why is this ? Solely because of the 

 extent of the market. In the one case, if a man sold nothing but 

 hats, he could not gain a livelihood, and therefore he sells coats, smock- 

 frock*, shoes, and all kinds of drapery everything, in fact, which the 

 people round about him are likely to buy. In the other case, there is 

 so large a demand for hats, that a man can gain a better livelihood by 

 the exclusive sale of them, than by a heterogeneous trade like that 

 of the village shopkeeper. 



But while, by means of exchange, employments are thus subdivided, 

 the labour of many men is most efficiently combined in producing 

 particular results. The combinations of industry for one object are 

 often truly wonderful, while the employments of those who are really 

 co-operating with one another are so distinct that they are wholly 

 unconscious of any combination at all ; nor is their combination at 

 once perceptible to others. If you ask a man " who made his coat ? " 

 he will naturally answer " his tailor." But ask him to enumerate 

 the persons who had contributed to its production, and he will pause 

 long before he attempts any answer, however incomplete. He will l>o 

 reminded of the grazier, the shepherd, the wool-salesman, the various 

 woikmen in the cloth factory the button-makers, the manufacturers 

 of silk, and thread, and needles : but still the catalogue will be im- 

 perfect. In producing the raw materials, and in conveying, selling, 

 and manufacturing them, the diversity of occupations is extraor- 

 dinarily great. Each man attends to his own business, and scarcely 

 thinks of its relations to the business of other people ; and yet all are 

 co-operating in the most effectual manner, for the most perfect and 

 economical manufacture of this finished work of varied art. 



The general operation of the principles of a combination of labour 

 and division of employment* has now been sufficiently explained so far 

 as it relate* to the efficiency of human industry. Of its effects upon 

 the distribution of wealth (another important branch of i 

 economy) no more need be said, than that by multiplying the modes in 

 which industry is made productive, it is the main cause of the various 

 grades of society which exist in all civilised countries. The dim-rent 

 employments of men determine their social position as labourers or 

 employers of labour ; and the wealth arising from the effective employ- 

 ment of labour is distributed, through the several classes, a* rent, 

 profits, and wage*. 



It has been urged as an objection to an extended division of employ. 

 menu, that it unfit* men for any change of business which altered 

 circumnUncru may require ; and that, on that account, great misery is 



caused when the demand for any particular kind of labour U reduced. 

 Of this position the hand-loom weavers of England and Scotland are a 

 familiar example, who are said to have been thrown out of employment 

 by the extension of machinery. That they have been reduced to great 

 distress is certain ; but in their employment there was nothing to 

 unfit them from engagjng in power-loom weaving. On the contrary, 

 the transition from one employment to the other would have beea 

 perfectly natural ; but they preferred their independent life to the 

 ne of a factory, and for that and other reasons persisted in 

 i oiitintiiiiK in their old trade. In the mean time thousands of agri- 

 cultural labourers and their families, whoee occupations had been 

 totally dissimilar, flocked into the manufacturing districts, and readily 

 learned their new business. This example, therefore, instead of 

 sustaining the objection, proves that a division of employment* does 

 not disable men, so much as might be expected, from transferring 

 their labour to other departments of industry whenever n ml 



ment attracts them. But any interruption or change in tbr 

 ordinary course of industry is necessarily productive of temporary 

 suffering to the working classes, from whatever cause it may arise ; and 

 an alteration in the forms of applying labour is but one out of many 

 such causes. Yet much as this evil must be deplored, it is a satis- 

 faction to know that it is only occasional, temporary, and partial in its 

 operation, while the permanent welfare of mankind is promoted by all 

 those means which render industry most productive and multiply the 

 sources of human enjoyment. 



Another objection to a minute subdivision of employment* is, that 

 it reduces vast masses of men to the condition of organised machines, 

 uses them like took, and uses them as such merely because machine* 

 have not yet been invented to do their work. From these fact*, which 

 are, to a certain extent, undeniable, it is inferred that the moral and 

 intellectual character of men is degraded. This inference, how. 

 not supported by experience. Agricultural employments are less sub- 

 divided than trades and manufactures ; but no one will contend that 

 the farm labourer is ordinarily more intelligent than the opcrat 

 that his morals are decidedly superior. In comparing their > 

 condition, we shall be led into error if we confine our attention to the 

 influence of a division of employments. In the lower departments of 

 labour the work is rarely of a kind to enlarge the understanding, 

 whether it consist of a combination of several occupations or of one 

 only ; and in either case the greater part of a man's time is engaged in 

 his daily work. It is therefore to the circumstances by which he is 

 surrounded, rather than to the nature of his work itself, that we must 

 iv refer his condition. In thinly peopled countries there can be 

 comparatively little division of employments, and in populous cities 

 the principle of division, for reasons already explained, is carri. 

 far. In the one case the intercourse of persons with each otho! 

 confined, and is enlivened with scarcely any variety ; in the other case 

 persons are crowded together, and brought into continvial intercourse. 

 These opposite circumstances produce different results for good and for 

 evil. The intelligence of mankind is unquestionably increased by 

 extended intercourse with one another : their morals, at the same 

 time, are more liable to corruption. In large cities they are exposed 

 to more temptations they arc under less restraint ; and above all, 

 they have, almost universally, higher wages, which enable them to 

 indulge their propensities more freely. Much of the intellectual 

 disparity of rural and town populations might be removed by an 

 efficient cyirtem of education, 1-y which men would be better qualified 

 to observe and reflect upon the objects by wluch they may be sur- 

 rounded ; and great would be the moral influence of education in 

 rendering high wages innocuous, by offering liberal sources of re- 

 cN.-ition to the operative, more attractive than the temptations of 

 vice. 



But to all objections it may be answered, that a division of employ- 

 ments is an imperative law of civilisation. Where land is abundant, 

 families naturally scatter themselves over it, and provide for them- 

 selves nearly all that they want. More than they want they do not 

 produce, as there is no market ; and the growth of capital, under such 

 circumstances, is impossible. But where land becomes scarce and 

 dear, men are forced into other employment* distinct from agricul- 

 ture ; capital grows, wages are offered as an inducement to work, and 

 the more wealthy and populous a country becomes, the more extensive 

 must be the distribution of separate employment*. To object to a 

 division of employment*, therefore, is no lees than to object to 

 civilisation altogether; for the two conditions are inseparable. It is 

 deeply to be lamented that many evils have hitherto clung t 

 progress of civilisation, which are not its necessary accon 

 Many of them may be referred to the slow growth of polii 

 and might be corrected by the n\ md princi| 



pivcrnment; many maybe attributed to the i ligious 



..in! moral culture of on inrreating population : but ahoit indeed must 

 be the sight of any man who would seek to correct tin m !;, -^plying 

 to a civilised state the rude expedients of barbarism. 



DIVORCE (ilirtrlium, a dirertendo, from diverting or separating) 

 the legal separation of husband and wife. The question of the legal 

 dissolution of marriage has, after several commissions and much dis- 

 cussion, been settled by the British legislature by the 20 & 2 i 

 c. 85. It was enacted, that a court should be constituted in the name 

 of the sovereign, to be called "The Court for Divorce and Matrimonial 



