1S38] 



F A R M E R S ' R i: G I S T E R . 



— arc all duly and exactly proportioned to each 



other, surely the naliir.il tastes nml abilities of all 

 human individuals, are as justly and equally pro- 

 poriioiu'il to eiicl) other, so as to iluly, Hilly, exact- 

 ly, and pro|)orti()nately, supplyerich other's wants. 

 Whether a certain piece or Uind of timber, or a 

 certain other piece or kind, is made into a table, a 

 chair, a box. or a coffin, or somethiii<r else, or any 

 thing else, may be of no sort of consequence; but 

 not so whether a man is made a ditcher cr an idle 

 lacquey, whom nature intended to have been a 

 blacksniith or a carpenter; or is maile a liirmer, 

 who ouixht to have been a cotton-spiniier; or is 

 made a clerirvman, who ouirht to have been a 

 butcher; or a lawyer or physician, who ouoht to 

 have been a drayman; or is w,adp and forced to be 

 a lord, whom nature iniendi'd lor a staije-coacii- 

 man or ostier; or who is mnde a beyirar and con- 

 vif.t, who ouirht to have been a secretary of state; 

 and so on with all others out of their places, and 

 in no places. 



No man can ever be truly happy, virtuous, in- 

 dustrious, healthy in body and mind, and in all 

 thinirs truly riirht and securely and fully success- 

 ful in lite, who is out of the place or prolt'ssion as- 

 signed him by his natural tastes, capacity, and 

 powers. How wroiiij, then, are all artificial dis- 

 tinctions, privilcifes and power?:, slavery, &c. ! It 

 is this which causes excess of population, keeps 

 wanes below the power of the ol)serv;mce of the 

 law of subsistence, consequently depresses airri- 

 cultuie to the lowest jjossible condition. Slaverj' 

 makes nations poor, stationary and retrotyrade, be- 

 cause it makes the different classes to supply each 

 other's, wants so untluly disproportioned to each 

 other. Jt is this disproportion, which is the re-d 

 source and immediate cause of all the poverty, 

 idleness, and consc(jaent misery, and crime of Ire- 

 land. 



Were all placed in their natural and lejritimate 

 stations, violent revulsions in trade could never oc- 

 cur, and bankruptcies very rarely; "competition" 

 in trade, the curse of society and the destruction 

 of honesty, inteijrity and fair dealiiia", could have 

 no existence. Trade, commerce, the law, medi- 

 cine, and the church, &c. are called very uncer- 

 tain and precarious professions; and why? They 

 are not inherentlv so; hut because the fiilly of i<fno- 

 rance, pride, prejudice, caste; &c. are ever unduly 

 filling their ranks. No wonder then the endless 

 and periodical f^iiliires in them, from two such 

 causes as undue numbers, consequent undue and 

 ruinous competition and speculation in some, and 

 the unfitness of iiulividuals in all. 



It is the due projjortions of the population in the 

 different professions which is Mie cause of the 

 prosperity and higii wages in nations and colonies 

 in their inlimcy. It is the infraction of this great 

 law, (the law of occupation.) produced by evil 

 laws, institutions, opinions, and habits, which cre- 

 ates excess of unemployed population, consequent 

 low wages; these causing the destruction of agri- 

 Iculture, manufactures, and comnterce, and conse- 

 quent national old age, decrepitude, and decay. 

 Prosperity ought to be the greatest, and wages 

 the highest, in the oldest countries; and would be 

 so were the law of occupation duly and fully ob- 

 served, and the observance duly proportioned. 

 Politic^ economists may, yet awhile lonaer, tell us 

 this cam\ot be. When I see the ocean filled with 

 nothing but putrid herrings at one time, and at 

 Vol. VI— 2 



another, with nothing but sharks devouring each 



other — and the buffalo chasiiigthe lion — the vulture 

 skimming the air in |)ursuii of insects — and the 

 swallows flying away with Uimbsaiid kids — when 

 I see the orange and the pine a[)ple perish in the 

 south, and more plentiful in the north than grass 

 and wheat. — I, for one, will believe them. 



All national prosperity, stability and perma- 

 nence, as well as all individual wel'-being, are de- 

 pendent upon the different branches of productive 

 industry being duly proportioned to each other. 

 As this happy state of society is becoming more 

 and more established, nations will become more 

 and more prosperous, industrious, civilized, happy, 

 stable aiui permanent: and as they go on, more 

 and more so. and interlocked ana identified with 

 each other in the interchiinge of the various pro- 

 ductions of the different latitudes, by means of 

 commerce, (the great civilizing power,) promot- 

 inir each other's prosperity, wealth ami happiness 

 —wars, (idleness, poverty, misdirection of occu- 

 pation and non-intercourse, being the cause of 

 them,) poverty, deficiency of food, excess of" 

 po[)uIafion, &c." &c. will gradually cease, and be 

 no more. 



Could we but ascertain merely the proportions 

 of the different professions of the populations of 

 the once vast and powerful, but now wholly ex- 

 tinct, em[)ire.s of the east, fi'om their rising to their 

 seftiiifx, we should at once see the real cause of 

 their "decline and fidl." In all ancient empires, 

 neither national nor individual ley'itiraate industry, 

 powers and means, were called into action; they 

 had no legitimate existence or direction whatever. 

 All and every thin^ were ropes of sand; there were 

 no bonds ol' union, domestic or foreign, none were 

 dependent upon each other's industry; all was 

 consequently brute force, violence, fi-aud, oppres- 

 sion and aggression; iind consequently, they fell, 

 not bv the acts of any indivitluals, for individuala 

 have no such power, but Iiy the radical and inhe- 

 rent defects of their whole national and individual 

 relations. They had only five classes; soldiers — the 

 idle unproductive rich--slaves — whatmay be term- 

 ed the idle productives— the builders of temples, 

 pyramids, pillars, tombs, mausoleums, theatres, 

 &c. — and the miserable cultivators oj the soil. Their 

 liite was inevitable. How entirely diflerent are 

 the conditions and relations of modern nations, 

 both internally and with regard to each other! 

 Yet how far from what they ought to he ! 



In the immense mass of public buildings in an- 

 cient times, there are none which, after their erec- 

 tion, added any thinsr to the national wealth, or 

 'opened, in anv degree, the channels of productive 

 industry. This was an immense and incalculable 

 evil. An ancient em[)eror. or patrician, fed hun- 

 dreds of wild beasts; hundreds of modern agricul- 

 I turists and manufacturers consume the same quan- 

 tity of food. The former left nothing but their 

 skins; the latter add millions to the national 

 wealth, and create means lor tlie support of thou- 

 sand4 in perpetuity. 



What a wretched political ecvonon.ist is he who 

 says, that he who builds palaces, keeps dogs, 

 huriters, race-horses, gives expensive entertain- 

 ments, &c. eujploys the poor, and benefits hun- 

 dreds ! and that every man has a right to spend 

 his income as he likes 1 Is there any error so 

 crreat and mischievous as this doctrine? The 

 Duke of Bridgewater laid out his fortune in mak- 



