XV111 PREFACE. 



ment is the quantity of food which is enjoyed by 

 the labourers, and this is a point which no statisti- 

 cal tables can prove on one side or the other. No 

 information worthy of being trusted is to be ob- 

 tained on the subject except by living amongst the 

 people, by searching into their wants, and by 

 seeing the way in which they provide for them. 

 They who will not take this trouble fall into conti- 

 nual errors respecting the relative happiness of the 

 poor of England and the poor of other countries, 

 the poor of manufacturing and of agricultural 

 classes, and of the same classes at different pe- 

 riods. 



The numbers of a people constitute the power of 

 a state only in so far as the people are happy and 

 contented. A term in common use now is cc the 

 greatest happiness principle," which expresses the 

 truth of what should be aimed at, although they 

 who make most frequent use of it labour under 

 great mistakes as to the means by which the largest 

 amount of happiness is to be attained. In speak- 

 ing of the poor, the political economists make their 

 calculations on insufficient data ; for example, 

 they set down 10s. a week as the rate of wages, 

 and multiply these by the 52 weeks in the year ; 

 they conclude that a poor man has 520 shillings, 

 or 261. per annum, to spend. From such a case, 

 however, so many deductions are to be made, and 



