170 REPOKT — 1877. 



sufferer himself, hut draws upon the resources of those whose own power is thus 

 directed to unproductive uses. It is not too much to hope that an improvement 

 in this respect is taking place, by which a considerable gain may ensue, the whole 

 of which will be that of surplus power. 



Beyond this, the constant increase of mechanical power, and of economy in its 

 uses, largely adds to the producing capacity of those who call it to their aid. What- 

 ever is thus applied to the actual forcing of a greater yield from the soil, or to the 

 manufacture of the necessaries for home use, must be a clear gain ; but so much as 

 increases the product of manufactures for exchange with other nations may not 

 really be any gain, if thereby, through competition or other causes, the value of the 

 articles produced sustains an equivalent diminution. To make this plain, the reap- 

 ing-machine will set free so many reapers to reclaim and plant other land ; but an 

 improved steam-engine may only increase the produce of the loom without ensuring 

 its value in exchange for food being any greater. The whole tendency, however, of 

 growing intelligence, knowledge, and wealth is to render the employment of power 

 more productive, and thus to increase the available surplus. If, therefore, there 

 be any surplus at all at present, and we have seen that there is a considerable one, 

 increase of population should cause it to become still greater. 



V. Two objections, however, may arise, which it is important to meet. It may 

 be asserted that there must be a limit to the numbers which our country can hold 

 and maintain, and that the time when this limitation makes itself felt has arrived, 

 or is soon to come. Again, many will maintain that we have even now no true 

 surplus of productive power, because the producers and their dependents are both 

 straightened in their consumption, and overstraightened by the amount of labour 

 which is necessary to procure even that they have, whilst a proper supply of neces- 

 saries and a just limitation of labour would consume or lessen the surplus now 

 produced. 



To deal first with this latter argument in both its branches. If we look at the 

 so-called working classes, it is impossible not to see that in both the quality and 

 quantity of the food they consume, in the sufficiency and finery of the clothes 

 they wear, and in the comfort and size of the houses they inhabit, they are better 

 off at this time than at any previous period. There may be much of squalid 

 poverty, many ill-filled stomachs and ill-clad backs, uncomfortable houses and 

 miserable homes, but there is still more of lavish expenditure in drink and 

 tobacco, of wasted food and unsuitable clothing, of ill-kept habitations and mis- 

 managed homes. The relief from want is to be obtaiued by the repression of 

 extravagances, and comfort is to be procured by the economic use of time and 

 money; for there can be little doubt that the wages earned, if properly employed 

 and fairly distributed, are amply sufficient to purchase food and necessaries for a 

 larger population than they now support. With the middle class the strain and 

 privation, not perhaps of the absolute necessaries, but in those which habit and 

 education have made such, is probably much greater than in the lower strata. 

 There is more difficulty in finding profitable employment for sons and fitting 

 homes for daughters ; but here, too, the cause is to be found in the improvident 

 expenditure of money and time, ill-regulated desires, and undue aspirations — not, 

 indeed, here or in the lower classes always on the part of those who suffer ; for the 

 misery-maker is too often not the one who endures the suffering. With the 

 higher classes there can be no question as to the actual means of subsistence 

 or of comfortable existence; it is one of maintaining their present position, or of 

 failure in attaining a higher one, should the numbers amongst whom existing or 

 prospective means are to be divided greatly increase. Looking to the rapid 

 growth and concentration of wealth on the one hand, and the equally rapid in- 

 crease of luxurious expenditure on the other, it cannot be for a moment main- 

 tained that, even supposing this accession of means not to keep pace as it has 

 hitherto done with the growth of population, there is not ample for division 

 amongst greater numbers. Besides this there seems to be some natural cause or 

 effect whereby the accretion, possession, or expenditure of wealth is generally at- 

 tended with a stationary or decreasing family. 



As regards the supposed undue amount of labour exacted from those who pro- 

 duce for themselves or work for others, almost the same course of reasoning may 



