TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 203 
blots on the Act, but appear not to have been contemplated by it. Their removal 
by a declaratory Act would do much to complete the great and beneficent measure 
of justice to the Irish tenants—the Irish Land Act. 
On a New Method for promoting the Sanificxtion of our Cities. 
By Cuarxes Excock. 
On Political Economy and the Laws affecting the Prices of Commodities and 
Labour, and on Strikes and Lock-outs. By Frank P. Fetrows, F.S.S. 
A better knowledge of the principles of political economy which regulate the 
prices of commodities and labour, which cause trade to be good or bad, by both 
employers and employed, would do much to prevent the unfortunate lock-outs and 
strikes that waste so much of our national resources. In this paper the author 
endeavoured to show clearly what are the causes which make wages rise and fall, 
and which cause trade to increase and decrease. 
It unfortunately happens that political economy is too often spoken of asa hard, 
harsh, unfeeling science, and that it is considered to be inimical to the best interests 
of the wage-receiving classes ; whereas, properly understood, it is a light anda 
beacon to guide these and all other classes; by which individuals, communities, and 
nations may discover that by which they may earn the most, and which will be 
best for themselves and the world at large. 
The author asked first, What is it that makes trade good or bad ? and this was 
answered by an illustrative argument. 
“TJ will suppose first that by the fiat of my will I could at once double the num- 
ber of people living on this earth, doubling the houses, mills, &c., at the same time 
keeping the proportional numbers occupied in each class of trade, agriculture (the in- 
creased agriculturists cultivating new land), &c., the same. What would be the result 
to the various trades and occupations of men, and to the amount of wages earned by 
workmen, and to the profits of the employers? It will be at once seen from my ques- 
tion that if I double the number of each class of iron-workers, weavers, carpenters, 
food-producers, and of every other class of occupation, I double the number of each 
article made, of each sort of food produced, and that I double at the same time 
the number of consumers for the said articles or food, the wages of each class 
would remain unaltered ; for if double the quantity of shoes are made, double the 
quantity are wanted ; if double the quantity of food is produced, double the quantity 
is wanted, &c. But suppose (instead of the above case) that I were to double the 
goods’-producers and goods produced, but that at the same time the food-producers 
and the food produced remained stationary—What then would be the result ? 
“Simply this, that there would be a glut of goods’-producers and of goods pro- 
duced, and a great scarcity of food-producers and of food produced. Consequently 
the merchants and manufacturers would find great difficulty in selling their goods, 
and the prices thereof would fall ; the wages of the goods’-producers would fall also, 
At the same time the price of food would rise, there being a scarcity of it in pro- 
en to the demand for it, and the wages of the food-producers would rise also, 
f course this is on the assumption that there is no transfer of labour from the 
goods’-producing class to the food-producing class,” 
This latter process has in times past been going on with us; for the United 
Kingdom, the author continued, is the workshop of the world, ¢.e. the goods’~ 
roducing country and people. We have increased in times past our popu- 
ation and goods produced faster than the food-producing countries. is 
has induced the emigration to America, Canada, and Australia to keep up the 
equilibrium. Individual trades, he said, are affected in like manner. Limitation 
of production is, he continued, an evil, and the wages of men must be considered 
with reference to what those wages will purchase. He next referred to the boon 
of machinery, of cheap production, ¢.e. of abundant production, ¢.e. of not limiting 
production in order to raise prices. It does not necessarily follow that this means 
the lowering of the money amount of wages; indeed facts show the fee to be 
