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



unless they are actually starving ; and altogether 

 the assistance which the manufacturing classes 

 obtain for the support of their families, in aid of 

 their lowered wages, is perfectly inconsiderable. 



To remedy the effects of this competition from 

 the country, the artificers and manufacturers in 

 towns have been apt to combine, with a view to 

 keep up the price of labour, and to prevent per- 

 sons from working below a certain rate. But 

 such combinations are not only illegal,* but irra- 

 tional and ineffectual ; and if the supply of work- 

 men in any particular branch of trade be such as 

 would naturally lower wages, the keeping them 

 up forcibly must have the effect of throwing so 

 many out of employment, as to make the expense 

 of their support fully equal to the gain acquired 

 by the higher wages, and thus render these higher 

 wages in reference to the whole body perfectly 

 futile. 



It may be distinctly stated to be an absolute im- 

 possibility that all the different classes of society 

 should be both well paid and fully employed, if 

 the supply of labour on the whole exceed the de- 

 mand ; and as the poor-laws tend in the most 

 marked manner to make the supply of labour ex- 

 ceed the demand for it, their effect must be, either 

 to lower universally all wages, or, if some are 



* This bas since been altered ; but the subsequent part of the 

 passage is particularly applicable to the present time — the end of 

 the year 1825. The workmen are beginning to find that, if they conld 

 raise their wages above what the state of the demand and the 

 prices of goods will warrant, it is absolutely impossible that all, 

 or nearly all, should be employed. The masters could not employ 

 the same number as before, without inevitable ruin. 



