126 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



some cases by law, and in other cases by justices, who 

 were often themselves employers of labour. Their 

 wages were determined chiefly by the price of pro- 

 visions, and in order to prevent migration with a 

 view to the bettering of their wages, they were con- 

 fined to the place of their birth by the imposition of 

 very serious punishment, if they left their native 

 places to work elsewhere. It is not sought in any 

 way in these pages to adduce these instances of what 

 we should now call unfair dealing with a view to 

 bringing discredit upon the holders of wealth. We 

 have no reason to suppose that our forefathers were 

 consciously unfair, and there is little doubt that 

 many usages current at the present day will be 

 viewed by our descendants as gross outrages upon 

 the principles of justice as understood by them. 



Each generation acts according to its own lights, 

 and if our public conscience is sharpening, and our 

 ideas of right and wrong are becoming clearer and 

 are ruling our actions more emphatically, we must 

 remember that this moral advance is a heritage 

 which, like our intellectual and material possessions, 

 we owe to our ancestors, and we may humbly en- 

 deavour that this, the most worthy of all possessions, 

 shall not be lessened as it passes through our 

 hands. 



The point that is desired to be emphasised is the 

 want, in civilised communities, of advantages equally 



