PREFACE. XV11 



mize, when he has a definite object to gain, to an 

 extent which he will not do when he has only the 

 general motive of living at ease within his income ; 

 and it is the same with the public. If a direct tax, 

 no matter how unpopular under other circum- 

 stances, such as the income-tax, had been imposed, 

 the produce of which had been devoted to the li- 

 quidation of the national debt, that most import- 

 ant end might have been attained ; and in like 

 manner, if the produce of a tax on raw silk and 

 cotton had been devoted to a provision for silk and 

 cotton spinners, such as defraying the expenses of 

 their emigration to our colonies, the wisdom and 

 justice and humanity of such a measure being ob- 

 vious, would have made it palatable to all. 



The best provision for silk and cotton spinners 

 is emigration to our colonies, and this seems to be 

 one of the principal uses of a colony to the mother- 

 country. The colonies of modern Europe have 

 been greatly mismanaged in comparison to those of 

 the Greek cities and of Rome ; but the causes of 

 this mismanagement and remedies for it would not 

 be within the bounds of this preface ; and whether 

 ill or well managed, New South Wales and India 

 furnish inexhaustible means of relief both to the 

 poor people and to the mother-country, which is in 

 continual danger from masses of her starving chil- 

 dren. One of the best criterions of good govern- 



b 



