NOTES ON ECONOMICAL SCIENCE. 107 



therefore, goes out of the country from any cause which could be 

 counteracted by the existence of another kind of enterprise. The 

 increase of capital of individuals and of the country is the difference 

 between the whole produce of industry and the portion expended in 

 the supply of pressing wants, depending, therefore, on the union -of 

 frugality with successful industry. The portion of our produce which 

 we consume is no part of capital. Our reasonable object is to make 

 it give us as much comfort and enjoyment as possible, by buying all 

 we want in the cheapest market, and whether this be found in or out 

 of the country is perfectly unimportant, I fear that the existing tariff 



on mere strength, and the number working in those of our existing manufactories 

 which require their services, with the large demand always existing, and at presen* 

 badly supplied for domestic assistance, we may perceive that every well brought 

 up, respectably conducted female may, if necessary, creditably support herself, and 

 the more there are who are supported by husbands and parents — not in idleness 

 or silly pretensions to gentility, but in conti'ibuting to the happiness of those 

 around them by active industry, the better it is for the community. We must by 

 no means confound that want of employment which proceeds from neglected edu- 

 cation, evil dispositions, and vicious habits, with that which arises from the state 

 of the labour market in the country. The poorer classes in every country must 

 begin a life of active labour earlier than is in itself desirable, but unquestionably 

 it is the duty of parents to sapport their children until they are fit to support 

 themselves. It seems reasonable and even necessary to enforce by compulsion, a 

 certain amount of school education, which is with difficulty reconciled with very 

 early employment, and where children are employed in numbers at an early age, 

 we may observe that their wages are very low, and such as they are, going to the 

 parents, are too often seen to encourage the latter in comparative idleness instead 

 of really improving the condition of the family. No medical man will consider in 

 any more favourable light than as an unavoidable evil, the laborious employment 

 ©f women and children — especially inclose factories; and I must think that an 

 increased demand for such labour would be far from beneficial to our country. 

 Nothing can be more opposed to fact than the notion that the moral condition of 

 our people would be benefitted by such a change. As to the remaining class of 

 unemployed men now living by beggary or theft, there is no doubt that our 

 country is subject to remarkable fluctuations in the amount of employment which 

 at times cause much distress, and which often oblige labourers and artizans to 

 change their residence in order to obtain employment; but the class whicb lives 

 in idleness and profligacy by improper means, is not to any extent formed by 

 these fluctuations. Its existence indicates deficiency in moral training, early neg- 

 lect, or bad example on the part of parents ; want of compulsory education, which 

 is the only chance of making the blessings of education general, and that predom- 

 inance of low propensities and absence of moral restraint, which no abundance of 

 well remunerated labour would prevent in bad and corrupt men, but which must 

 be attacked by means not within the range of economical science. 



