94 Of Poor -Laws, continued. Bk. iii. 



litable manufacture, what he would have employed 

 on his land with infinitely more advantage to his 

 country. In the one case, the funds for the main- 

 tenance of labour are daily diminished ; in the 

 other, daily increased. And this obvious tendency 

 of assessments for the employment of the poor, 

 to decrease the real funds for the maintenance of 

 labour in any country, aggravates the absurdity 

 of supposing that it is in the power of a govern- 

 ment to find employment for all its subjects, how- 

 ever fast they may increase. 



It is not intended that these reasonings should 

 be applied against every mode of employing the 

 poor on a limited scale, and with such restrictions 

 as may not encourage at the same time their in- 

 crease. I would never wish to push general prin- 

 ciples too far; though I think that they ought 

 always to be kept in view. In particular cases 

 the individual good to ' be obtained may be so 

 great, and the general evil so slight, that the former 

 may clearly overbalance the latter. 



My intention is merely to shew that the poor- 

 laws as a general system are founded on a gross 

 error : and that the common declamation on the 

 subject of the poor, which we see so often in print, 

 and hear continually in conversation, namely, that 

 the market price of labour ought always to be 

 sufficient decently to support a family, and that 

 employment ought to be found for all those who 

 are willing to work, is in effect to say, that the 

 funds for the maintenance of labour in this country 

 are not only infinite, but not subject to variation; 



