POLITICAL ECONOMY. 103 



where food is plentiful compared with capital and 

 manufactured commodities. On the other hand, if 

 the main part of the labourer's time be occupied in 

 procuring food, habits of industry are generated, and 

 the remaining time, which is inconsiderable compared 

 with the commodities it will purchase, is seldom 

 grudged. 



The mere Labourer. 



The mere labourer is a competitor with the beast 

 of burthen, and with inanimate mechanic power, his 

 hire being the minimum in the scale of human em- 

 ployment ; and thus circumstanced, he is liable to be 

 supplanted by the beast or the machine. 



The Seventh Day. 



The wages of the labouring classes during the 

 other six days, must necessarily be such as to afford 

 them bread for Sunday. As their wages are inva- 

 riably reduced to the smallest possible sum that can 

 enable them to subsist, they would get no more were 

 they to work every day. In the latter case the gain 

 would exclusively be their employers', while the 

 labour would be their own. 



Average Prices of Grain.* 



Wheat, per qr. Barlev, per qr. Oats, per. qr. 



1st Jan. 1792, 42s. 4>d. 27s. 2d. 17 s. Od. 



1st Jan. 1801, 139 80 11 43 11 



1st Jan. 1804, 52 3 23 11 21 7 



1st July, 1810, 113 4 49 9 30 6 



1st July, 1812, 140 9 77 50 , 8 



1st Jan. 1816, 53 7 25 11 19 9 



1st July, 1817, 109 1 55 6 39 



1st Jan. 1819, 78 10 63 6 35 1 

 2d Nov. 1822, 38 1 



* These are selected to exhibit the highest and lowest averages 

 of the last thirty years. 



