Book II. ECONOMY OF AGRICULTURISTS. 1231 



7963. The Northumlxrland ploughman is tlip hapiuest of labourers, and never feels a bad season. His 

 wages are certain ; and with frugality and cfre, his wife may bring up a large family upon this income. 

 The reverse is sometimes the case ; but this is attributed to a bad wife, who wastes the protluce of the 

 cow. The small stock of the hind being always his own, and the cow generally so, makes him prudejit and 

 careful during single service to save as much of his wages as will set him up for himself. To this, and 

 the fact that the wages of labour are never paid out of the poor's rate, the enviable state of the Northum- 

 brian labourer is to be attributed. It appears to operate as a preventive check upon population, and beau- 

 tifully illustrates Mr. Malthus's theory ; or, in the words of Burns, it teaches them to " know that pru- 

 dent cautious self-control is wisdom's root." They are all anxious to give their children such education 

 as they can command. When they are within the reach of a charity-school they thankfully avail them, 

 selves of it, and we find in every hamlet some person who teaches the younger children the rudiments ; 

 and several of these, when they get older, work and save the wages of summer to pay for putting them- 

 selves to schools in winter. (J. C. in Gard. Mag. vol. vi. p. 591. See also Denson's Peasant's Voice.) 



7964'. The day labourer tcho has no particular employer, and probably no fixed residence, is much 

 less comfortable than the yearly servant; in England more especially, under the present system of poor 

 laws and parish management, which is calculated to degrade him, and effectually to prevent any attempt 

 at improving his condition. If, as Slaney observes, " by unremitted industry, he has been enabled to do 

 without parochial relief, and bring up his children decently, it is as much as could be expected ; for an 

 attack of illness, or the temporary loss of employment, he is in general totally unprepared ; he thinks not 

 much of the morrow, and, as it stands, it is perhaps well for him that he does not anticipate evils which 

 he cannot prevent. Every one knows how beneficial to the community, how advantageous to the indi- 

 vidual, the hope of bettering his condition in life is : it cheers him in adversity, encourages his industry, 

 promotes his content, yet from this hope the major part of the agricultural labourers of England are 

 excluded ; they toil indeed, but it is to continue, not to better their existence." {Essay on the bene- 

 ficial Direction of Rural Expenditure, p. 170. j see also the succeeding chapters of these judicious and 

 intelligent essays.) 



7965. The condition of the labouring classes has lately been considered by the editor of the Scotsman, in 

 an article in his xivth volume (Nos. 1131, and 1132.), which is also published separately in a tract entitled 

 The Scotsman's Advice to the Labouring Classes. The condition of the labouring classes, it is observed 

 in this tract, may \ye deteriorated in two ways ; " by increasing their numbers too rapidly, and by 

 diminishing the capital which provides them with employment. Now capital is either diminished, or 

 its natural growth is impeded, by the enormous sums paid to the government, by the tax on corn imposed 

 for the benefit of the aristocracy, and by the many absurd restrictions on industry, which have arisen 

 from the ignorance or misconceptions of our legislators. To repeal or reduce taxes, and relieve industry 

 from the restrictions which fetter it, benefits the working classes by enlarging the fund which creates a 

 demand for their labour. The sufferings of these classes are therefore, in no small extent, imputable to 

 the exactions and misconduct of the government. Culpable and injurious, however, as the extravagance 

 of the government has been, I am convinced that were all the public burdens annihilated, and all the 

 obstacles to freedom of industry removed, the relief given would be but temporary. The misery of the 

 working classes might be mitigated by such means, but it cannot be eradicated by legislation, nor by any 

 human means except such as shall put some check on the increase of their numbers. Scientific thinkers 

 regard this conclusion as established on the clearest evidence ; how then is the principle of increase to be 

 checked ? Only in one way : by enlightening the minds of the working classes ; by inspiring them with 

 feelings of self-respect ; by teaching them the immense importance of habits of prudence, forethought, 

 and self-control to their own happiness ; by giving them true notions of their situation as moral agents, 

 responsible for the consequences of their acts, and endowed with powers which, if rightly used, would make 

 them to a great extent masters of their own destiny." 



7966. A radical evil in human conduct, is that *' in the article of marriage men consider life as a lottery, 

 and they rush into the most important of all ties, without making any provision for discharging the 

 obligations it lays upon them. This applies to the middle ranks as well as to the lower." Thousands 

 and tens of thousands marry every year whose earnings hardly suffice for their own subsistence; and 

 multitudes throw their offspring on the world " with as little rational consideration about its future 

 well-being, as the crocodile shows when she drops her egg in the sand, and leaves it to the sun and the 

 winds to hatch her young into life." Such persons shelter their thoughtless conduct under the plea of 

 trusting to Providence : but what is trusting to Providence but trusting to chance ? Nature has endowed 

 us with reason to regulate our conduct, and in most of the common concerns of life has enabled us to 

 foresee the consequences of our acts. After making all the use of our reason that we can, enough will 

 still be left for chances, which may turn out, as every day shows, as much against us as for us. " To 

 neglect the admonitions of reason, and then trust to Providence to free us from the evils induced by our 

 own thoughtlessness, is to call upon the Deity to work a miracle in our favour ; and this, instead of pro- 

 moting our improvement, is only to harden us in our folly." 



7967. There are two truths of vast importance to the well-being of the labouring classes ; the first is, 

 that as no effbrts of legislation can lift them out of their misery, their happiness must always depend 

 on their own habits of prudence, forethought, and self-control. The second is, that no man has a right to 

 bring human beings into the world, who.is not able to provide for their support and education. The law 

 punishes severely the act of exposing a child ; but the man who marries and becomes the father of 

 children, without having any reasonable prospect of being able to keep them from beggary with all ite 

 attendant miseries, is guilty of the same crime in a lower degree. 



7968. To convert the burthens which maniage brings with it info money, the Scotsman suggests the 

 following scheme : he takes the case of an industrious mechanic beginning to earn 16s. per week at the 

 age of eighteen, and he shows what he could accomplish by living economically, and deferring marriage 

 till he was twenty-eight :t he supposes him able to live upon 12s. 6d. per week, and to place 3s. 6d. pec 

 week in a savings' bank, by which hi.s stock, including interest, will amount in ten years to about 100/. 

 At his marriage he is supposed to spend SO/, of this 100/. in furnishing a house, &c. and to dispose of the 

 remaining 70/. to provide against the foUowingcasualties. 



7969. The first casualty after marriage which he has to provide against is sickness, which may be done 

 by a weekly contribution of 4d. for himself and his wife. 



7970. The second casualty is the infirmity of old age. This is to be provided against by an annuity 

 from government, or a benefit society ; and 17/. Is. M. paid at once, or an annual payment of 9s. Qd. by a 

 man at the age of twenty-eight, will obtain an annuity for him of 20/. per annum for whatever number of 

 years he may live beyond the age of sixty-eight. 



7971. The third casualty to be provided for is the possible widowhood of his wife : this he may do by 

 paying down 32/. 12s., for which a man of twenty-eight may secure for his wife, supposing hr age to be 

 the same, an annuity of 10/. for Jife, in the event of her being left a widow, at whatever jieriod it may 

 happen. On this subject the benevolent and philosophic author of the scheme observes, " When society 

 is more enlightened, it appears to me that a provision against the chance of widowhood will be con- 

 sidered as indispensable at marriage as a suit of wedding clothes. 



7972. The fourth casualty is the chance of the death of the father before his child is able to shift for 

 itself; that is, before it is fifteen or sixteen years of age. To ensure each child against this casualty, it is 

 proposed to secure a small annuity to it in the event of his death, of say Ss. per week, up to its fifteenth 

 year. This, the father being aged thirty, he calculates may be purchased for 5/. paid down the first year 

 of the child's life. " A similar deposit of 5/. would be requisite at each addition made to the family ; and 

 as a marriage is assumed to produce on an average four children, the whole sum expended under this head 

 would be 20/." Those who have more than four children must make extraordinary exertions. 



